Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color are frequently subject to forms of institutional oppression that shape their lives. Institutional forces are rarely mentioned in ...research on library services to youth. This project examines one possibility for creating more meaningful library services that acknowledge how state power and publishing trends limit access to meaningful representation for LGBTQ and gender non-conforming youth of color. It begins with the synthesis of ongoing campaigns for greater diversity in young adult literature; critical theoretical approaches to race, gender, and sexuality; and the needs identified by adults working for a critically situated community drop-in youth center for LGBTQ youth. Using a case study set in Oakland, California, the research focuses on how representative library materials might be positioned in culturally sensitive community spaces as one way to address the histories of exclusion and invisibility that have informed public library practice in the U.S.
Efforts to address algorithmic harms have gathered particular steam over the last few years. One area of proposed opportunity is the notion of an “algorithmic audit,” specifically an “internal ...audit,” a process in which a system’s developers evaluate its construction and likely consequences. These processes are broadly endorsed in theory—but how do they work in practice? In this paper, we conduct not only an audit but an autoethnography of our experiences doing so. Exploring the history and legacy of a facial recognition dataset, we find paradigmatic examples of algorithmic injustices. But we also find that the process of discovery is interwoven with questions of affect and infrastructural brittleness that internal audit processes fail to articulate. For auditing to not only address existing harms but avoid producing new ones in turn, we argue that these processes must attend to the “mess” of engaging with algorithmic systems in practice. Doing so not only reduces the risks of audit processes but—through a more nuanced consideration of the emotive parts of that mess—may enhance the benefits of a form of governance premised entirely on altering future practices.
Abstract
Library and information science (LIS), as a whole, has not prioritized the information access of people inside of jails and prisons as a central tenet of library practice At the moment, ...there is growing attention given to states’ attempts to curtail book access for people inside of jails and prisons. Groups that provide free books to incarcerated people -- such as the numerous Books to Prisoners programs across the United States -- have been central to the discussions around access to information and resistance to censorship. These groups have drawn particular attention to the ways that Black, Indigenous, and people of color, as well as LGBTQ people, in prison experience ongoing oppression during incarceration because of limited access to materials relevant to their experiences. By identifying the types of information that are banned or limited, the difficulties people who are incarcerated face in seeking to access information, and the impact that access to information has in the lives of people who are incarcerated, this article explains prison censorship as a form of state-sponsored oppression, which is largely being combated by Books to Prisoners rather than LIS. The article ends by explaining LIS’ lack of attention to information access for people who are incarcerated.
Materials in this issue detail the active curtailment of access through book bans and content-neutral censorship, as well as censorship practices of Correctional Officers working in mail rooms and of ...carcéral administrators. To underline this point: prison librarians may be dependent on donations of approved materials to stock their libraries . . . some are hoping for donations of books published within the last twenty years to create more current library collections. Despite dire conditions and the overarching power that carcéral institutions have to control information access, recent campaigns highlight that resisting censorship and advocating alongside incarcerated people is an effective strategy for creating change.
Policing and incarceration are feminist issues that stand to be interrogated through examinations of carceral practices. This essay positions the management and withholding of information and the ...observation of communications as instances of carceral specific practices that shape possibilities for incarcerated people and their communities. The author draws from their experience as a librarian in carceral facilities to outline how State-enacted violence occurs through the regulation and management of information access. As carceral facilities utilize third-party ICT providers, it is difficult to ascertain what information is or is not available. The introduction of new and evolving ICTs has led to increased opportunities for the State to monitor people who are incarcerated and their communities, positioning incarcerated people and their networks not only as sources of information but as data to train technologies of policing and surveillance. Instances of resistance to these practices reveal some ways that people who are not incarcerated can act in solidarity with people who are incarcerated and people who are subject to State surveillance.
The communication practices of people inside of United States carceral institutions has long been of interest to individuals with the power to police, surveil, and punish. Communications policies in ...jails and prisons reflect this impetus. Previous research on communications policies in carceral institutions approached the topic from an ideology that embraced the supposed normative functioning of the carceral institution and did not incorporate the role of ICTs as surveillance technologies implanted in carceral settings. Using the Wayback Machine as a means to review changes in formal and informal publicly available policies related to communication, this research examines three carceral sites to illustrate how increasing use of ICTs may shape policies for physical communications. The research reveals that the increasing use of ICTs is shared across the local, state, and federal levels, that physical correspondence may be more limited in high ICT carceral environments, that ICTs for communication often market themselves as an extension of surveillance, and that the incorporation of ICTs into communication policies blurs the line between private and public carceral practices.
Disciplinary practices utilized in public libraries in the United States carry echoes of the ways in which youth of color and/or LGBTQ and gender non- conforming youth are policed and incarcerated. ...This research includes interviews with librarians and staff engaging in relational disciplinary practices, namely restorative justice, to gain understanding of how altering approaches to discipline may create cultural shifts that lead to more culturally conscious services to youth made vulnerable by the state. Individual, open-ended interviews with librarians and staff at an urban library system in California addressed the implementation of restorative justice practices, individuals’ approaches and understandings of restorative justice, and the process of institutionalizing restorative justice throughout the library system. This research reveals that restorative justice offers one approach to creating social change through increased access to library services and resources.
LIS research on youth incarceration frequently highlights literacy and education as means by which youth may escape or evade systems of incarceration These adult-structured positions often fail to ...take into account the perspectives and experiences of youth who are actively experiencing incarceration. Through an analysis of youth contributions to
, this research includes the perspectives of youth who are incarcerated in order to build an understanding of how literacy, representational materials and education factor into how they navigate the systems of surveillance, policing and incarceration that shape their lives.
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