{"id":387,"date":"2022-06-03T10:00:23","date_gmt":"2022-06-03T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/?p=387"},"modified":"2022-06-02T14:28:56","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T14:28:56","slug":"lilac-2022-power-structures-in-library-and-information-services","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2022\/06\/03\/lilac-2022-power-structures-in-library-and-information-services\/","title":{"rendered":"LILAC 2022: Power structures in library and information services"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Geese

Geese and goslings on Rochdale canal<\/p><\/div>\n

Last month, three of our Academic Support Librarians team attended the LILAC conference. LILAC is a conference for librarians and information professionals who teach information literacy skills, are interested in digital literacies and who want to improve the information seeking and evaluation skills of library users. You may have seen our previous post about LILAC 22 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Much of the conference covered issues of critical information literacy, including long and slightly intimidating words such as critical pedagogy and decolonisation, and it was great to have the space to explore what these mean.<\/p>\n

Keynote speaker Marilyn Clarke, Director of Library Services at Goldsmiths, University of London, spoke on Decolonisation as a means to creating an equitable future<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Keynote

Marilyn Clarke with discussion chair Elizabeth Brookbank at LILAC 2022.<\/p><\/div>\n

Marilyn clarified succinctly the difference between decolonising and diversifying library collections; diversifying \u2260 decolonising, we need to ask the question why<\/em> are these voices underrepresented?<\/p>\n

She highlighted fantastic work at Goldsmiths to dismantle Eurocentric structures in the library and university, including funds for the \u2018Liberate My Degree\u2019 collection set aside for student book purchase suggestions to address gaps in the library collection. At the University of Edinburgh we have the Student Request a Book service<\/a> which empowers students to request purchase of books and other resources to be added to the Library collections.<\/p>\n

When cataloguing their Zines collection, librarians gather suggestions for keywords (used as a finding aid in the catalogue) from the authors themselves, to ensure the language used is representative. This is not just about addressing race, but also other systemic oppression such as LGBTQ+ and class.<\/p>\n

In the final keynote of the conference, Emily Drabinski, Critical Pedagogy Librarian at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, explored how information literacy can<\/strong> reveal and challenge structures of power<\/strong>, and equip our students with tools to recognise and understand power dynamics.<\/p>\n

By power, this mean the ability to change things, do things, influence things \u2013 we all have power in different ways and different situations. As librarians who help people find, use and understand information, we need to take societal values and power structures into account.<\/p>\n

For example, who designed this database? With whom in mind? What is included in the database and what isn\u2019t, and who makes those decisions? <\/strong>That feeling, where you get no results from a search, or too many, or their wrong \u2013 that\u2019s not you, that\u2019s the way the system is constructed with power.<\/p>\n

Myself, I will be doing more to incorporate discussions of power into my teaching. It\u2019s something I do when teaching literature searching for Systematic Reviews in medicine and biomedical sciences (these aim to find and synthesise all clinical evidence on a topic), where comprehensive searches and minimising bias are a core foundation of the review methodology \u2013 and as such, knowing what is included in a database, and crucially what is excluded, is crucial. But we can introduce this criticality earlier in students\u2019 academic careers. I am not sure yet what that will look like exactly, but it\u2019s exciting to consider.<\/p>\n

Ruth Jenkins, Academic Support Librarian<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.ed.ac.uk\/information-services\/help-consultancy\/rm-and-consultancy\/academic-support-librarians<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, three of our Academic Support Librarians team attended the LILAC conference. LILAC is a conference for librarians and information professionals who teach information literacy skills, are interested in digital literacies and who want to improve the information seeking … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[35],"tags":[47,33,45,26,31,42,28,41,17,25,7,114,98,24,40,34],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcUES5-6f","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":801,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2024\/05\/14\/report-from-the-annual-lilac-information-literacy-conference\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":0},"title":"Report from the annual LILAC information literacy conference","date":"May 14, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Between 25-27 March a host of librarians from across the globe descended on Leeds Beckett University for the annual LILAC information literacy conference. Information literacy is a key concept in the work of the Academic Support Librarians, covering all the skills that we teach, from referencing through to critical thinking.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":367,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2022\/05\/06\/lilac-2022-student-transitions-in-information-literacy-from-school-to-he-from-learners-to-researchers\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":1},"title":"LILAC 2022 : Student transitions in information literacy : \u00a0from school to HE, from learners to researchers","date":"May 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The LILAC 2022 conference in Manchester this April was a challenge and a pleasure to attend : \u00a0my first real life, in person conference for two years! I put aside my laptop with the distraction of its constant stream of email to concentrate on being present in the conference and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"Manchester Metropolitan University","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2022\/05\/MMU2-e1651485094503.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1112,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2025\/08\/22\/what-we-learned-from-our-conferences-academic-support-librarians-and-professional-engagement\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":2},"title":"What we learned from our conferences : Academic Support Librarians and professional engagement","date":"August 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"The Academic Support Librarians are a learning team, who have attended professional development events in line with the prioritised themes in our team workplan. Ishbel Leggat attended the RLUK conference in Liverpool in March, where she learned\u00a0 \u201chow colleagues at other institutions are embedding AI skills into the curriculum, how\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "ASL stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2025\/08\/Picture1-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":110,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2021\/07\/16\/decoloniality-and-the-library-cilips-conference-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":3},"title":"Decoloniality and the library (CILIPS Conference 2021)","date":"July 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"On 7 June I attended a CILIPS conference session on Decoloniality and the library: the case at Goldsmiths, University of London, by\u00a0Marilyn Clarke, Director of Library Services at Goldsmiths, University of London. Marilyn started off with a quote from Desmond Tutu \u201cIf you are neutral in situations of injustice, you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2021\/06\/Liberate_bookplate-CLP-Chapter_MC.PNG-217x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":839,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2024\/07\/26\/ai-vs-the-imago-dei-views-from-us-theological-libraries\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":4},"title":"AI vs the Imago Dei : views from US theological libraries","date":"July 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"On Tuesday 18 June, I flew half way around the world to attend the Atla conference in Long Beach, California. There were two questions that Atla delegates asked me that I had to pause and think about to answer. The first was \u2018Why did you come such a long way\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/files\/2024\/04\/Artificial_intelligence.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":541,"url":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/2023\/06\/21\/critical-approaches-to-libraries-calc-2023\/","url_meta":{"origin":387,"position":5},"title":"Critical Approaches to Libraries (CALC) 2023","date":"June 21, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I attended the CALC Conference on 24th and 25th May and can thoroughly recommend this annual event to other professionals interested in critical librarianship. The gathering was welcoming and introduced the day by stating \u201cwe will operate within a spirit of liberation at this conference\u201d. If you have not heard\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Conference reports"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":390,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraryblogs.is.ed.ac.uk\/asl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}