“Introduction: Here’s what each essay you’re about to read is about.
Essay 1: Short, but mostly based on the idea “Libraries haven’t been truly neutral historically.” Which isn’t invalid, but…well, here’s the thing: the lack of neutrality presented in libraries of the past is depicted as a pretty big negative. So, we fucked up the past, and in the future…we should continue doing it wrong?
Essay 2: This is where I mostly quit. The writer used the word “hegemony” THREE TIMES in the first two pages. That’s well over the allotted number of hegemonies permitted.
Then I flipped to the author bios. About a third of the authors have EVER worked in a public library, and maybe 2 or 3 currently do(?)
This one kind of killed me: “Currently, Sandy is unemployed by choice and is wandering the world with her 13 year old daughter.”
This book is SO academic-y, which is not my thing as academic writers seem like they have to show you how much research they did, any fact that’s potentially relevant MUST be included!
And it’s weirdly dated (there’s a lot of hand-wringing over libraries adopting more business-oriented models, which seemed like all the rage in 2008, when this was published).
I didn’t read much of this, so it wouldn’t be fair to rate it. But unless you’re reading this for a class, I’d probably pass on it. “