tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/libraries-2848/articlesLibraries – The Conversation2024-02-29T13:38:58Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2235332024-02-29T13:38:58Z2024-02-29T13:38:58ZHow teens benefit from being able to read ‘disturbing’ books that some want to ban<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578696/original/file-20240228-24-s5xddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C59%2C7892%2C5190&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young readers report becoming more thoughtful after reading stories that feature characters who face complex challenges.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/student-choosing-a-book-on-library-royalty-free-image/959761242?phrase=teens+books&adppopup=true">FG Trade via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Should we worry, as <a href="https://pen.org/report/book-bans-pressure-to-censor/">massive book-banning efforts</a> imply, that young people will be harmed by certain kinds of books? For over a decade and through hundreds of interviews, my colleague, literacy professor <a href="https://www.albany.edu/education/faculty/peter-johnston">Peter Johnston</a>, and I have <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/teens-choosing-to-read-9780807768686">studied</a> how adolescents experience reading when they have unfettered access to young adult literature. Our findings suggest that many are helped rather than harmed by such reading.</p>
<p>For one study, we spent a year in a public middle school in a small, mid-Atlantic town, observing and talking to eighth grade students whose teachers, rather than assigning the “classics” or traditional academic texts, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.46">let students choose what to read</a> and gave them time to read daily in class. To support student engagement, they made available hundreds of contemporary books that are relevant to the students’ lives. The books included many of the <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a6v7R7pidO7TIwRZTIh9T6c0--QNNVufcUUrDcz2GJM/edit#gid=9827573720">titles currently being challenged</a>, according to PEN America, which is a nonprofit that advocates against censorship, among other things. The titles include Ellen Hopkins’ “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.net/books/Identical/Ellen-Hopkins/9781416950066">Identical</a>,” Jay Asher’s “<a href="https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780451478290">Thirteen Reasons Why</a>,” Patricia McCormick’s “<a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/sold">Sold</a>,” and others that were banned because of themes of sex and violence.</p>
<p>We were interested in what the students perceived to be the consequences of reading young adult literature. They tended to read books they described <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2024.2317944">as “disturbing</a>.” At the end of the school year, we interviewed 71 of the students about changes in their reading and relationships with peers and family. </p>
<p>We also asked open-ended questions about how, if at all, they had changed as people since the beginning of the year. Beyond reading substantially more than they had previously, they reported positive changes in their social, emotional and intellectual lives that they attributed to reading, the kinds of books they read and the conversations those books provoked.</p>
<p>Here are six ways students told us they had been changed by reading and talking about edgy young adult books. </p>
<h2>1. They became more empathetic</h2>
<p>The students chose mostly fiction, with characters whose life circumstances in many cases differed from their own, including those associated with race, gender, sexuality, culture, language, mental health and household income. Because fiction <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.06.002">provides windows into the minds of others</a>, it has the <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1239918">potential to improve empathy</a>, which becomes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055341">more probable when readers get emotionally involved in stories</a>.</p>
<p>This is consistent with what the students reported. As one student explained after reading a book about a bullied character, “Like when you see people … you think, well, they don’t have problems or whatever, but then some of the ones I’ve read, you can just understand people better.”</p>
<h2>2. They improved relationships</h2>
<p>The books contained stark realities about humanity. For instance, some books dealt with how children and teens might be exploited by adults or how mental illness might radically affect a person’s behavior.</p>
<p>Students shared that as they read, they were encountering some of this information for the first time. Their initial instinct, they said, was to find someone else who had read the book and talk about it. </p>
<p>Consequently, students who rarely talked to each other came together over books. In the process, they learned about each other, became friends or at least developed greater appreciation for each other. They also talked to family members, including parents, some of whom they convinced to read the books. </p>
<p>Relationships in books made teens rethink their own relationships. “Her mom was all rude to her,” one student recalled about a character. “It kind of had me feeling bad, ‘cause I was rude to my aunt, and my situation could have been worse.” </p>
<p>Students shared that reading about characters in dire circumstances changed how they thought about their own families. For instance, several admitted that reading a book about a girl their age who was abducted and abused by an adult male made them more likely to listen to their parents’ advice about safety. Others reading that same book reported becoming more protective of siblings.</p>
<h2>3. They became more thoughtful</h2>
<p>Reading about the decisions characters made gave the teens a chance to see the potential consequences of their own future choices.</p>
<p>Some described positive characters as role models. Others described using characters who made questionable decisions as cautionary tales and tools of self-reflection. </p>
<p>Statements such as one student’s comment that “I have changed because I think more about things before I do them” were common and were related to problems teens were already facing or could see on the horizon. These problems included toxic relationships, substance abuse, gang-related activity and risky sexual behaviors. </p>
<h2>4. They were happier</h2>
<p>Despite the fact that many students chose books with serious and unsettling content, students claimed reading made them feel better.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A girl lies on her back on a bench reading a book that she is holding." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578709/original/file-20240228-26-6snxit.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Teens say reading books can boost their mood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teenage-girl-reading-book-outdoors-royalty-free-image/1223187399?phrase=teens+books&adppopup=true">Westend61 via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some explicitly attested to the pleasure of reading. “It’s the happiest I’ll get,” one student stated about the time she spent with the books.</p>
<p>More frequently, students described how mental trips through books helped them reconsider their own worries compared with characters with much harder lives.</p>
<p>“You do get an appreciation for what you do have, and, like, for being thankful for the happiness and joy in your life,” one explained. “Some of those books, it’s crazy what’s in there.”</p>
<h2>5. Books helped students heal</h2>
<p>Some students reported that books helped them heal from depression and grief.</p>
<p>“When I was younger, I lost my best friend,” one student shared after reading about a character whose mother died. “It was really hard for me, but books like that really take me back and help me remember her but without getting really upset.” </p>
<p>Many pointed to good feelings they got from meaningful book conversations with peers. That is not surprising given the link between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-007-9083-0">positive social relationships and young people’s happiness</a>.</p>
<h2>6. They became better readers</h2>
<p>Some of the books were difficult for students to read, but they persisted even though they had to work harder to understand them. Other research has found that this persistence is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2010.481503">related to the interest</a> that students had in the subjects of the books.</p>
<p>Students reported rereading large chunks of books or even entire books to clear up confusion about storylines, and asking teachers and peers for help with problems such as unfamiliar vocabulary. Their scores on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.46">end-of-year reading tests improved</a>, whereas scores for other students remained flat. That is not surprising, since the students in our study <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.404">read so much</a>. Also, they read mainly fiction, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3498">which is correlated with better reading skills</a> compared with other genres.</p>
<p>Students said they started visiting public libraries and bookstores. Declarations like “I’m a bookworm now” suggested they began viewing themselves as readers. They also reported larger changes. “I think I got smarter,” one student remarked. </p>
<p>The positive transformations reported by students we interviewed cannot be generalized, but experimentally controlled studies yield related findings. For instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2019.101216">adolescents who read and talk to each other</a> about stories with social themes report greater motivation to read, greater use of reading strategies, such as rereading what they don’t understand, and insight into human nature than those who do not.</p>
<p>Our research left us reflecting on why we want young people to read in the first place. Do we want them to reap the social, emotional, moral and academic benefits that reading confers? If so, preserving their access to relevant books – even the “disturbing” ones – matters a lot.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223533/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gay Ivey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Amid calls to ban certain books from libraries and schools, research shows that students benefit when they have the ability to choose which materials they want to read.Gay Ivey, Professor of Literacy, University of North Carolina – GreensboroLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210822024-02-23T13:49:28Z2024-02-23T13:49:28ZThe Russia-Ukraine War has caused a staggering amount of cultural destruction – both seen and unseen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577441/original/file-20240222-24-fymjst.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3988%2C2652&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The ruins of a church in Bohorodychne, Donetsk district, Ukraine, on Jan. 27, 2024.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-a-church-destroyed-by-the-war-in-bohorodychne-news-photo/1958547329?adppopup=true">Ignacio Marin/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>War doesn’t just destroy lives. It also tears at the fabric of culture. </p>
<p>And in the case of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now about to enter its third year, the remarkable destruction of Ukrainian history and heritage since 2022 hasn’t been a matter of collateral damage. Rather, the Russian military has deliberately targeted <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7424472">museums, churches and libraries</a> that are important to the Ukrainian people. </p>
<p>It’s impossible to document the full extent of the destruction, particularly in the active military zones in eastern and southern Ukraine. However, as archaeologists and filmmakers, we wanted to do what we could. This meant traveling to liberated villages, museums and churches in northern and eastern Ukraine adjacent to regions with ongoing fighting. </p>
<p>Working closely with Ukrainian colleagues, we ended up making two nine-day trips – one in March 2023 and another in October 2023.</p>
<p>Here is some of what we found:</p>
<h2>Sifting through the ruins</h2>
<p>In liberated parts of Ukraine, the bodies of the dead have long been carried away and, for the most part, buried in local cemeteries. But enter any formerly occupied city or town, and you’ll immediately notice that the scars from battles that took place from March 2022 to July 2022 remain starkly visible. </p>
<p>Driving around Chernihiv, a city in northern Ukraine, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/19/russian-strike-on-chernihiv-ukraine">we witnessed hundreds of burned-out buildings</a>, and many more that are riddled with bullet holes and damaged by shrapnel. </p>
<p>As we wound through small farming villages, we were struck by the ferocity and randomness of modern military firepower: One part of a village could be completely flattened, while a block down the road, the houses were untouched.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman in red coat walking along sidewalk as a destroyed building looms over her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577367/original/file-20240222-30-6vn3xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577367/original/file-20240222-30-6vn3xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577367/original/file-20240222-30-6vn3xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577367/original/file-20240222-30-6vn3xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577367/original/file-20240222-30-6vn3xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577367/original/file-20240222-30-6vn3xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577367/original/file-20240222-30-6vn3xl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Ukraine Hotel in Chernihiv, pictured in March 2023 after it had been bombed.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Kuijt</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During a wet day in the middle of October 2023, we drove through small tree-lined roads to see the remains of <a href="https://war.city/tours/chernihiv-region/">the Church of the Ascension</a> in Lukashivka, a small village about 8 miles from Chernihiv.</p>
<p>Previously home to about 300 people, Lukashivka was occupied by the Russians in March 2022 and later recaptured by the Ukrainian military. </p>
<p>Built in 1913 with a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belfry_(architecture)">two-tiered belfry</a> that can be seen for miles, this large white-brick church is now a shell of what it once was: Its wood flooring has been scorched and its brick roof blown open. In a few sections of the wall, the original plaster and paintings are still preserved.</p>
<p>Inside the place of worship, we traversed the detritus of war, hearing the crunch of spent cartridges, rocket cases, broken bottles and heaps of burned cans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman rides a bike on a wet, cloudy day, past a damaged white church with gold dome." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577368/original/file-20240222-20-wj5qe3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577368/original/file-20240222-20-wj5qe3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577368/original/file-20240222-20-wj5qe3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577368/original/file-20240222-20-wj5qe3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577368/original/file-20240222-20-wj5qe3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577368/original/file-20240222-20-wj5qe3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577368/original/file-20240222-20-wj5qe3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Church of the Ascension in Lukashivka, a small village near the city of Chernihiv, in October 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Kuijt</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We’ll never really know how many soldiers and civilians died fighting over Lukashivka and the church. </p>
<p>We do know, however, that cultural heritage has few friends during war.</p>
<p>The partially preserved church at Lukashivka is one of hundreds of cultural and religious buildings that have been damaged or destroyed over the last two years. This includes <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/russian-air-strike-damages-transfiguration-cathedral-odesa-180982616/">the Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Odesa</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-mariupol-theater-c321a196fbd568899841b506afcac7a1">the Mariupol Drama Theater</a> and the <a href="https://chytomo.com/en/the-bombing-of-kharkiv-damaged-one-of-europe-s-largest-libraries/">Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library</a>, one of the largest libraries in Europe.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tYeLRyce-P0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The authors explore the Church of the Ascension in Lukashivka, where intense fighting had taken place.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More than meets the eye</h2>
<p>If traveling in Ukraine has taught us one important lesson, it’s that the digging of trenches can erase history. </p>
<p>While the destruction of churches, libraries and museums viscerally evokes a sense of loss, there’s an entire unseen world below the ground surface – filled with untold numbers of artifacts, bones and buried buildings – that are exposed when trenches are created. </p>
<p>In fact, it’s likely that this war has destroyed more history and archaeology buried below the ground than above it. </p>
<p>As armies did during <a href="https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/about-wwi/trench-warfare">World War I</a>, the Ukrainian military built deep trenches and bunkers along rivers and high ground in the early months of the war. Two years later, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/nov/07/21st-century-trench-warfare-ukrainian-frontline-in-pictures">these defensive trench systems are a central element of the ground war</a> and demarcate the front lines.</p>
<p>In many cases, the trenches were dug into the remains of buried archaeology sites, most of which were previously unknown and untouched. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in military fatigues peers over the top of a muddy trench." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576221/original/file-20240216-26-cxs6t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576221/original/file-20240216-26-cxs6t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576221/original/file-20240216-26-cxs6t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576221/original/file-20240216-26-cxs6t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576221/original/file-20240216-26-cxs6t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576221/original/file-20240216-26-cxs6t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576221/original/file-20240216-26-cxs6t9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Ukrainian officer steps out of a trench network near the city of Kupiansk in eastern Ukraine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ukrainian-officer-steps-out-of-a-muddy-trench-network-as-news-photo/2008690272?adppopup=true">Scott Peterson/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In March 2023, for example, we visited sites around Iripin and Bucha, two villages on the northern edge of Kyiv, to document how medieval and Bronze age sites buried below the surface had been destroyed by trenches or, in other cases, were now blanketed by minefields to stop Russian military units. </p>
<p>We also went to <a href="https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.159">the 11th century archaeology site of Oster</a>. Perched on a small hill southeast of Chernihiv, Oster was an important regional center in the medieval period. It had a brick-and-stone church and a large settlement nearby. As part of the siege of Chernihiv in March 2022, Ukrainian troops built deep trenches and bunkers around the edges of Oster, since the site overlooks rivers and crossing points.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2023.159">When we visited Oster a year after the invasion</a>, we noticed that the trench system around the church was dug into a large, 11th century settlement and burial ground. Laying exposed on the dirt piles along the trenches we found medieval human skeletal remains. The more we studied the system of trenches and bunkers, which encircles an area of about 650 feet (198 meters), the more human bones we saw.</p>
<p>A crew of archaeologists has returned to photograph the destruction of these burial grounds. But given the ongoing war, it isn’t possible to fully document the destruction, let alone fill in the trenches, which still may be needed by soldiers. </p>
<p>The previously unknown burial ground at Oster is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of similar sites that have been damaged or destroyed in central and northeastern Ukraine.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wl_22GzjUHM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The authors explore a system of trenches that had been built at Oster, an important medieval archaeological site.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>War and the fabric of culture</h2>
<p>Even after the fighting ends, large areas of Ukraine will remain inaccessible for years, given the widespread <a href="https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2023/11/30/23979758/ukraine-war-russia-land-mines-artillery-humantarian-crisis">use of mines</a> and <a href="https://occup-med.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12995-023-00398-y">environmental contaminants</a>. </p>
<p>Surviving collections and museum exhibits <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_museums_in_Ukraine">inside and outside of Ukraine</a> have assumed greater importance: They may represent the sole evidence of ancient cultures originating from these damaged territories.</p>
<p>We can confidently say that Europe has not experienced destruction of this magnitude, let alone this quickly, since World War II. </p>
<p>The bombings of churches, libraries and residences have destroyed major areas of Ukraine. As with the Nazis’ pilfering of paintings, bronze sculptures and art <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/world-war-ii-looted-art-turning-history-into-justice-u-s-national-archives/PQXxtIcpKuJmJw?hl=en">in the last few years of World War II</a>, in the first months after the invasion <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/catastrophic-putin-war-wiping-out-ukraine-recent-history-1771314">the Russian army looted museums, stole art and destroyed churches</a> with missiles and tank shells. </p>
<p>Make no mistake: At its core, the Russian full-scale invasion is a military attempt to erase Ukraine’s history, culture and heritage.</p>
<p>Seemingly entrenched in a 1950s geopolitical framework, President Vladimir Putin and other representatives of the Russian state <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/opinion/ukraine-war-national-identity.html">dispute that Ukraine is a sovereign nation</a>. Ukraine’s churches, museums and libraries are a threat to Russia, for they are the material and symbolic fabric that holds together Ukrainian identity and resistance. </p>
<p>That’s why this war is as much about culture as it is about land.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man looks through rubble near a destroyed pink building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577373/original/file-20240222-24-rkxmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577373/original/file-20240222-24-rkxmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577373/original/file-20240222-24-rkxmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577373/original/file-20240222-24-rkxmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577373/original/file-20240222-24-rkxmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577373/original/file-20240222-24-rkxmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577373/original/file-20240222-24-rkxmni.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=508&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A children’s library destroyed by a missile attack in the city of Chernihiv.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Viacheslav Skorokhod</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221082/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pavlo Shydlovskyi has received funding from Goethe-Institut. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ian Kuijt and William Donaruma do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In addition to destroyed buildings, there’s an entire underground world – filled with untold numbers of artifacts, bones and ruins – that are exposed and damaged by the digging of trenches.Ian Kuijt, Professor of Anthropology, University of Notre DamePavlo Shydlovskyi, Associate Professor of Archaeology, Taras Shevchenko National University of KievWilliam Donaruma, Professor of the Practice in Filmmaking, University of Notre DameLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2218692024-02-08T19:17:04Z2024-02-08T19:17:04ZDigital technologies have made the wonders of ancient manuscripts more accessible than ever, but there are risks and losses too<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571367/original/file-20240125-23-736sf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C1%2C1311%2C841&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Detail from a 14th-century miniature Greek manuscript depicting scenes from the life of Alexander the Great. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jews_Byzantine_Greek_Alexander_Manuscript_(cropped).JPG">Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Near the end of the 18th century, a Greek monk named Nikodemos was putting together a massive anthology of Byzantine texts on prayer and spirituality, which he would call <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/284248/the-philokalia-by-anonymous/9780241201374">The Philokalia</a>. </p>
<p>He lamented the state of learning among his fellow monks, because they did not have access to the texts of their tradition:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Because of their great antiquity and their scarcity – not to mention the fact that they have never yet been printed – they have all but vanished. And even if some few have somehow survived, they are moth-eaten and in a state of decay, and remembered about as well as if they had never existed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Nikodemos hoped to correct this by collecting and printing texts that would otherwise fall to dust. By making the manuscripts into a book, he would preserve the knowledge they contained – but not the manuscript, not the artefact itself. </p>
<p>He does not mention how difficult his Byzantine manuscripts were to read and transcribe, even for someone familiar with the language. Copying by hand takes dozens, even hundreds of hours of intensive labour. Reading them means learning to decode scribes’ handwriting, abbreviations and shorthand. </p>
<p>Every manuscript, with its errors, notes and doodles – not to mention its artistry, images, and ornamentation – remains a unique artefact. The evanescent beauty of manuscripts is lost in their printed analogue. Every manuscript is its own text, its own space of knowledge, and an irreplaceable part of our shared cultural histories. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572356/original/file-20240131-29-3ehnmj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572356/original/file-20240131-29-3ehnmj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572356/original/file-20240131-29-3ehnmj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572356/original/file-20240131-29-3ehnmj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572356/original/file-20240131-29-3ehnmj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572356/original/file-20240131-29-3ehnmj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572356/original/file-20240131-29-3ehnmj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572356/original/file-20240131-29-3ehnmj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nicodemos (1818).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%CE%86%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82_%CE%9D%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%8C%CE%B4%CE%B7%CE%BC%CE%BF%CF%82_%CE%BF_%CE%91%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%81%CE%B5%CE%AF%CF%84%CE%B7%CF%82.jpg">Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Preserving the Past</h2>
<p>Nikodemos was struggling with the perennial dilemma faced by historians and archivists. Our knowledge of the past, and the wisdom we can gain from it, is bound in material objects – whether manuscripts, paintings, ruined buildings or clay pots – that are <em>decaying</em>. </p>
<p>Decay presents three challenges. What will we preserve of the past? How should we preserve it? And how do we ensure its accessibility?</p>
<p>The scarcity and obscurity of ancient and medieval manuscripts are among the biggest obstacles to understanding both the texts they contain and the lives of those who wrote them. </p>
<p>Few copies might ever have been made of a given text. We are lucky if we can now read a text in 50 manuscripts. Some survive in only one. </p>
<p>But the biggest problems are time and the elements. <a href="https://artsandculture.google.com/story/how-to-make-a-manuscript/zgJCWOBXaPIaJw">Medieval manuscripts</a> are usually made of parchment and bound in leather-covered boards. The ink is usually iron gall. These are amazingly durable materials, but they have their limits.</p>
<p>Ink fades with exposure to light. Pages are torn or damaged by water, smoke and skin oils. The same activities that give us access to the manuscript will also slowly destroy it.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/uncovering-the-mysteries-of-the-book-of-kells-from-myopic-monks-on-magic-mushrooms-to-superhuman-detail-221147">Uncovering the mysteries of The Book of Kells – from myopic monks on magic mushrooms to superhuman detail</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573935/original/file-20240206-18-stfd34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573935/original/file-20240206-18-stfd34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573935/original/file-20240206-18-stfd34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573935/original/file-20240206-18-stfd34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573935/original/file-20240206-18-stfd34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573935/original/file-20240206-18-stfd34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573935/original/file-20240206-18-stfd34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573935/original/file-20240206-18-stfd34.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1014&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Manuscript depicting scenes from the life of Alexander the Great, late Byzantine period (1204-1453).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Byzantine_Greek_Alexander_Manuscript.JPG">Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the early modern period, antiquarians and collectors began acquiring manuscripts from monasteries and churches and putting them into libraries. Manuscript tourism became a popular activity for wealthy scholars like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sir-Robert-Bruce-Cotton-1st-Baronet">Sir Robert Cotton</a> (1571-1631), whose collection became the core of the British Museum’s collection. </p>
<p>Of course, many of these collectors simply stole or smuggled what they wanted from struggling monasteries in what are now Greece, Sinai and Israel. Their achievements must be balanced against their participation in colonial piracy. </p>
<p>But their work made possible the rise of printed editions of classical and medieval works. The printing revolution promised a solution to preservation and accessibility. It accelerated distribution and made the task of reading easier by standardising printing conventions. Books could proliferate where manuscripts could not, and anyone who could read them could access that knowledge. </p>
<p>But the printed version rarely resembles its parchment parent. Hand-copying always introduces errors, whether accidental or intentional, and so each manuscript copy differs from the next. Printed editions must choose one form. Usually, this means choosing between readings, combining them, or correcting as the editor deems best. </p>
<p>Our modern editions of the Bible and the Iliad, for example, do not exactly match their underlying manuscripts. The texts represent editors’ best judgement of the originals.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573937/original/file-20240207-30-7xcw2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573937/original/file-20240207-30-7xcw2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573937/original/file-20240207-30-7xcw2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573937/original/file-20240207-30-7xcw2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573937/original/file-20240207-30-7xcw2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573937/original/file-20240207-30-7xcw2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573937/original/file-20240207-30-7xcw2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573937/original/file-20240207-30-7xcw2k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bear baiting, marginal illustration from a 14th century manuscript.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:British_Library_Additional_MS_42130_F161r_(Bear_baiting).jpg">British Library, via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dogs-in-the-middle-ages-what-medieval-writing-tells-us-about-our-ancestors-pets-221454">Dogs in the middle ages: what medieval writing tells us about our ancestors’ pets</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Digital decay</h2>
<p>Even if we prefer the edited versions, printed books decay faster than manuscripts, and take up just as much space. Print does not solve the problem of preservation; it only postpones it.</p>
<p>In the 20th century, digital scanning tools and computer-based storage seemed to offer a new kind of solution. Manuscripts could be scanned into high-resolution images and stored digitally. Computers promised no more deterioration and no more shelf space.</p>
<p>European and American libraries have invested millions in digitising their manuscript holdings. The <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/manuscript">Library of Congress</a>, the British Library, and the <a href="https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/">Bibliothèque Nationale de France</a>, among others, offer access to thousands of manuscripts free of charge on their websites.</p>
<p>The move online seems so perfect to some that the UK Ministry of Justice plans to digitise 100 million wills, and then <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/dec/18/ministry-of-justice-plan-to-destroy-historical-wills-is-insane-say-experts">destroy the paper originals</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573936/original/file-20240207-28-yg1w5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573936/original/file-20240207-28-yg1w5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573936/original/file-20240207-28-yg1w5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573936/original/file-20240207-28-yg1w5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573936/original/file-20240207-28-yg1w5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573936/original/file-20240207-28-yg1w5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573936/original/file-20240207-28-yg1w5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573936/original/file-20240207-28-yg1w5t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Armenian manuscript, 15th century.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Armenian_Manuscript_Bifolium_MET_DP342091.jpg">Metropolitan Museum of Art, via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This proposed move ignores the inherent problems and vulnerabilities of digital solutions, which amount to “digital decay”.</p>
<p>First, the digital image is not the same as the material original. Even the finest colour images do not let a reader change the lighting to bring out different colours, or look from different angles to see faded letters more clearly. You just can’t see as much in the scan as you can on the page.</p>
<p>Second, digital images are often in proprietary formats, meaning that without the library’s viewing software you cannot actually examine the manuscript. Sometimes lower quality scans are available in formats like PDF and JPEG, but these are generally blurry, and even unreadable. </p>
<p>In some cases, images cease to be accessible because they are contained in obsolete file formats. The digital format is still chained to its digital shelves in a private space. </p>
<p>Third, as a recent cyber-attack on the British Library demonstrates, the digital space seems not to be safer than the physical one. On October 28, 2023, a criminal group called Rhysida unleashed ransomware in the British Library’s computer systems, stealing <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-uk/the-disturbing-impact-of-the-cyberattack-at-the-british-library">nearly 500,000 files</a>. </p>
<p>The most worrisome thefts were of personal information that could be used for identity theft and other frauds. But the British Library website has been down since that day. Its <a href="https://www.bl.uk/cyber-incident/">incident report page</a> says that it may take up to a year to restore all online operations. </p>
<p>That includes all of the library’s carefully digitised manuscripts, which are now unavailable. There is no sense of when we will see them again. The digital library space, with its proprietary viewing software and its specialised file formats, is now shuttered.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/disquiet-in-the-archives-archivists-make-tough-calls-with-far-reaching-consequences-they-deserve-our-support-197013">Disquiet in the archives: archivists make tough calls with far-reaching consequences – they deserve our support</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Conservation and accessibility</h2>
<p>Digitising manuscripts may promise preservation and accessibility, but it does not future-proof our access to the past. Scans and websites cannot make up for losing the real thing. Yet physical conservation comes at the expense of accessibility. </p>
<p>We can, however, use advances in AI and computer technology to improve approaches to digital conservation and enable wider access to the uniqueness of individual manuscripts.</p>
<p>To avoid digital decay, we need to devote the same attention to digital conservation as to material conservation. Long term investment is needed to regularly migrate file formats to keep up with changing technologies. Ideally, these formats should be “inter-operable” – which is to say, usable across a wide range of platforms. </p>
<p>This would uncouple the digital objects from the proprietary viewers used by libraries now, so they can be stored and viewed anywhere, rather than only on library websites. Until that happens, each digital library space remains vulnerable to decay and even loss since, if the website is down, the viewer is down.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573938/original/file-20240207-26-1no8gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573938/original/file-20240207-26-1no8gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573938/original/file-20240207-26-1no8gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573938/original/file-20240207-26-1no8gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573938/original/file-20240207-26-1no8gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573938/original/file-20240207-26-1no8gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573938/original/file-20240207-26-1no8gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573938/original/file-20240207-26-1no8gw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1006&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Abraham’s sacrifice, 14th century manuscript.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abraham%27s_sacrifice_from_a_manuscript_from_the_14th_century.jpg">Árni Magnússon Institute. Szilas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It has become possible to train AI to “read” manuscripts, transcribe them, and assist in translating them into English, Chinese, Spanish, and so on. Images of manuscripts would then have a readable text <em>and</em> all the unique elements of the material original – its decorations and artistry, its errors and doodles. </p>
<p>The underlying combination of inter-operable file formats and relatively simple software would mean museum visitors could use tablets and touch screens to read and interact with manuscripts, not just as artistic objects, but as readable texts. In this enhanced digital form, manuscripts could come to local museums, libraries and galleries, where they would be accessible to everyday visitors as well as specialists. </p>
<p>This approach would require careful care for the material originals, as well as continuing investment in digital formats and technologies to ensure access for future readers. </p>
<p>At the end of his introduction to the Philokalia, Nikodemos congratulates himself on what he offers readers: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>For behold, writings never ever published in earlier times! Behold, works which lay about in corners and holes and darkness, unknown and moth-eaten, and here and there cast aside and in a state of decay!</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The challenges of preserving and accessing our past, contained in objects like manuscripts, are not really that different from those Nikodemos faced in his day. But unlike him, we can now offer the experience of the manuscript as well as the text, and to a much wider audience.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan L. Zecher receives funding from the Templeton Religion Trust.</span></em></p>Digitising manuscripts may promise preservation and accessibility, but technology does not future-proof our access to the past.Jonathan L. Zecher, Research fellow, Australian Catholic UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2206322024-01-12T13:28:57Z2024-01-12T13:28:57ZGen Z and millennials have an unlikely love affair with their local libraries<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568487/original/file-20240109-27-hil6q2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Libraries can be an oasis from doomscrolling and information overload.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/NYC_Public_Library_Research_Room_Jan_2006-1-_3.jpg">Diliff/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568935/original/file-20240111-27-544ldb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A phone fixation may seem at odds with an attraction to books. But the latter may offer a much-needed reprieve from the former.</p>
<p><a href="https://shorturl.at/FQS26">In our recent study of American Gen Z and millennials</a>, we discovered that 92% of them check social media daily; 25% of them check multiple times per hour.</p>
<p>Yet in that same nationally representative study, we also found that Gen Z and millennials are still visiting libraries at a healthy clip, with 54% of Gen Zers and millennials trekking to their local library in 2022. </p>
<p>Our findings reinforce 2017 data from the <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2017/06/21/millennials-are-the-most-likely-generation-of-americans-to-use-public-libraries/">Pew Research Center</a>, which showed that 53% of millennials had gone to their local library over the previous 12 months. By comparison, that same study found that 45% of Gen Xers and 43% of baby boomers visited public libraries.</p>
<p>So why might Gen Z and millennials – sometimes characterized as <a href="https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/gen-z-has-1-second-attention-span-work-marketers-advantage">attention-addled</a> <a href="https://qz.com/quartzy/1748191/how-millennials-became-a-generation-of-homebodies">homebodies</a> – still see value in trips to the public library?</p>
<h2>A preference for print</h2>
<p>We found that Gen Zers and millennials prefer books in print over e-books and audiobooks, even though their other favorite reading formats are decidedly digital, such as video game chats and <a href="https://medium.com/fiction-friends/whats-a-web-novel-and-why-should-you-be-excited-about-them-1181ae02be3b">web novels</a>. American Gen Zers and millennials read an average of two print books per month – nearly double the average for e-books or audiobooks, according to our data.</p>
<p>The preference for print also manifests itself in the types of books Gen Z and millennials are borrowing and buying: 59% said they prefer the same story in graphical or manga format than in text only. </p>
<p>And while some graphic novels, comics and manga can be read on a screen, print is where these intricately illustrated books truly shine. </p>
<h2>Beyond reading</h2>
<p>We were most surprised by our finding that 23% of Gen Zers and millennials who don’t identify as readers nonetheless visited a physical library in the past 12 months. </p>
<p>It’s a reminder that libraries <a href="https://ischool.syr.edu/12-things-you-can-get-at-libraries-other-than-books/">don’t just serve as a repository for books</a>. Patrons can record podcasts, make music, craft with friends or play video games. There are also quiet spaces with free Wi-Fi, perfect for students or people who work remotely. </p>
<p>Younger generations tend to be more <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/insights/topics/talent/recruiting-gen-z-and-millennials.html">values driven</a> than older ones, and libraries’ ethos of sharing seems to resonate with Gen Zers and millennials – as does a space that’s free from the insipid creep of commercialism. At the library, there are no ads and no fees – well, provided you return your books on time – and no cookies tracking and selling your behavior.</p>
<p>U.S. census data also shows that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/new-2020-census-data-shows-an-aging-america-and-wide-racial-gaps-between-generations">younger generations are more racially diverse</a> than older generations. </p>
<p>Our survey found that 64% of Black Gen Zers and millennials visited physical libraries in 2022, a rate that’s 10 percentage points higher than the general population. Meanwhile, Asian and Latino Gen Zers and millennials were more likely than the general population to say that browsing library shelves was a preferred way to discover new books.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two young Black women work from a desk at a library." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568490/original/file-20240109-27-ra0uc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Libraries are chock-full of resources – including free Wi-Fi.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-wearing-turban-using-laptop-while-sitting-royalty-free-image/1439945442?phrase=young+people+at+library&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">Maskot/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A crucial moment for libraries</h2>
<p>Though libraries have been forced to <a href="https://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2023/09/american-library-association-releases-preliminary-data-2023-book-challenges">reckon with book bans</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/tennessees-drag-ban-rehashes-old-culture-war-narratives-201623">politicization of public spaces</a>, Gen Zers and millennials still see libraries as a kind of oasis – a place where doomscrolling and information overload can be quieted, if temporarily. </p>
<p>Perhaps Gen Zers’ and millennials’ library visits, like their <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/29/dumb-phones-are-on-the-rise-in-the-us-as-gen-z-limits-screen-time.html">embrace of flip phones</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-so-many-gen-z-ers-drawn-to-old-digital-cameras-198854">board games</a>, are another life hack for slowing down.</p>
<p>Printed books won’t ping you or ghost you. And when young people eventually log back on to their devices, books <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/BookTok">make excellent props for #BookTok</a>, the community on TikTok where readers review their favorite books.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220632/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathi Inman Berens receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Delmas Foundation, the Panorama Project and the American Library Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Noorda receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Delmas Foundation, the Panorama Project and the American Library Association.</span></em></p>Though they’re sometimes characterized as attention-addled homebodies, younger people see a real value in libraries − one that goes beyond books.Kathi Inman Berens, Associate Professor of Book Publishing and Digital Humanities, Portland State UniversityRachel Noorda, Associate Professor of Publishing, Portland State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2185082023-12-12T23:58:25Z2023-12-12T23:58:25ZProgram at Hamilton Public Library shows how libraries can expand the social services they provide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565206/original/file-20231212-29-g6jmfe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C44%2C2500%2C1613&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new program at the Hamilton Public Library is making on-site social workers available to the public.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Hamilton Public Library)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/program-at-hamilton-public-library-shows-how-libraries-can-expand-the-social-services-they-provide" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>When we need help or advice, it’s not always clear where to go, what resources are available to us, or who to turn to when we need support. Public libraries are often easily accessible and free to the public. That means the <a href="https://thewalrus.ca/future-of-libraries/">local public library is often the first port of call</a> for people looking for help or advice.</p>
<p>This is changing how community members engage with their library and how staff engage with community members entering their doors. While libraries often act as an informational resource for folks looking to access community and social services, the public’s intensifying needs necessitate an expansion of the library’s role in our communities.</p>
<p>Staff at <a href="https://hpl.ca/">Hamilton Public Library</a>’s (HPL) 23 branches and two bookmobiles increasingly encounter people with a range of complex health and social issues in their library spaces. They include individuals with housing and food insecurity, newcomers to Canada, those dealing with mental-health challenges, substance use and addiction, and individuals who struggle with technology, face language barriers, and income pressures, among other challenges. </p>
<p>Given these growing and varied needs, having social workers in libraries is vital. Library staff often do not have the knowledge or expertise to effectively offer crisis and mental-health support people need. </p>
<h2>What’s happening at Hamilton Public Library</h2>
<p>In November 2022, HPL responded to this challenge. In partnership with Hamilton Public Health Services’ <a href="https://www.hamilton.ca/people-programs/public-health/mental-health-services/mental-health-street-outreach-program">Mental Health and Street Outreach Program</a>, HPL developed a program to provide <a href="https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/hamilton-public-library-to-hire-a-social-worker-at-its-downtown-branch/article_ec6348b6-22bb-5b31-8911-a98ab38bf12b.html">on-site social work services</a> at its downtown central library, with two part-time social workers being present, visible and accessible on the first floor. </p>
<p>In partnership with Hamilton Public Health Services, HPL staff and social workers working at HPL voiced a need to document and study their social work program. the aim is to identify short- and long-term outcomes, engage with different library members to explore how the social work program is understood and to make these findings available to other public libraries who may be considering their own social work program. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564559/original/file-20231208-23-8jod9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man gives advice to a woman in a library." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564559/original/file-20231208-23-8jod9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564559/original/file-20231208-23-8jod9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564559/original/file-20231208-23-8jod9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564559/original/file-20231208-23-8jod9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564559/original/file-20231208-23-8jod9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564559/original/file-20231208-23-8jod9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564559/original/file-20231208-23-8jod9n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The public library is increasingly the first place people go when they need support or advice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With colleagues, I partnered with HPL and Hamilton Public Health Services to take a deeper look at the program from multiple stakeholders’ perspectives. Over the next year, interviews with different community stakeholders (library members, library workers, and social workers) will help make visible how these different stakeholders understand and use social work activities and services at HPL. </p>
<p>Social workers working in public libraries is a recent but growing partnership practice across North America. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/library-social-worker-helps-homeless-seeking-quiet-refuge">The first social worker in a public library</a> was in San Francisco in 2009. <a href="https://publiclibrariesonline.org/2019/01/providing-social-service-resources-in-a-library-setting/#.XDtQqGtmscY.wordpress">In that case</a>, library members experiencing homelessness were accessing the library to seek refuge and meet their basic needs.</p>
<p>Since this first program, there have been many variations of social services offered in public libraries across North America. Taken together, this is signalling a shift in how we think about and use public libraries — from book repositories to community anchors and social infrastructures. </p>
<h2>Expanding the library’s role</h2>
<p>Social workers in libraries take on multiple roles, including helping people access resources, offering supportive listening and brief counselling and providing training to library staff on how best to deal with crises when they arise.</p>
<p>Social workers also support access to services like housing, harm reduction, employment counselling and food security, and they provide crisis intervention and the de-escalation of disruptive behaviours on-site. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564562/original/file-20231208-27-wxkgs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The glass entrance of a library building." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564562/original/file-20231208-27-wxkgs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564562/original/file-20231208-27-wxkgs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564562/original/file-20231208-27-wxkgs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564562/original/file-20231208-27-wxkgs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564562/original/file-20231208-27-wxkgs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564562/original/file-20231208-27-wxkgs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/564562/original/file-20231208-27-wxkgs2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More public libraries are hiring in-house social workers to provide the kinds of help and advice members of the public are searching for.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Library social workers aim to remove systemic barriers to make their services more accessible. They can do this by offering preventative support in their role as community collaborators and advocates, and by helping people access services that offer longer-term solutions to their problems. </p>
<p>Social workers in the library are also crucial; they are trained and able to support trauma, mental-health issues, challenges and complex needs in a way that meets the person where they are at emotionally, physically and/or cognitively.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this project at HPL will help ensure the social work program meets its intended outcomes and will inform decision-making about the program’s future design and sustainability. This work is especially important as HPL is piloting a <a href="https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilton-region/library-expands-use-of-social-workers-to-barton-branch/article_47e845d3-9267-5e45-a0e2-ca09c18333ee.html">second social work program at its Barton branch</a>.</p>
<p><em>Sarah Gauthier, a Manager of Central Information Services with HPL, and Kianosh Keyvani, a Clinical Resource Co-ordinator with the City of Hamilton’s Mental Health and Street Outreach Program, co-authored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218508/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Dalmer receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bridget Marsdin and Leora Sas van der Linden do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The public’s intensifying needs necessitate an expansion of the library’s role in our communities.Nicole Dalmer, Assistant Professor in the Department of Health, Aging and Society, McMaster UniversityBridget Marsdin, PhD student, School of Social Work, McMaster UniversityLeora Sas van der Linden, Program Manager, Community Research Platform, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2097612023-07-25T21:04:08Z2023-07-25T21:04:08ZSecondary publishing rights can improve public access to academic research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538372/original/file-20230719-23-7iw20z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C71%2C3952%2C2559&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Making publicly-funded research immediately available for free would mean we all have access to information that could help us understand the world around us.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/secondary-publishing-rights-can-improve-public-access-to-academic-research" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Canada’s federal research granting agencies recently announced <a href="https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/interagency-research-funding/policies-and-guidelines/open-access/presidents-canadas-federal-research-granting-agencies-announce-review-tri-agency-open-access-policy">a review</a> of the <a href="https://science.gc.ca/site/science/en/interagency-research-funding/policies-and-guidelines/open-access/tri-agency-open-access-policy-publications">Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications</a>, with the goal of requiring immediate open and free access to all academic publications generated through <a href="https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/interagency-interorganismes/TAFA-AFTO/guide-guide_eng.asp">Tri-Agency</a> supported research by 2025. </p>
<p>To meet this requirement, the Canadian government should empower academic authors through the adoption of <a href="https://www.knowledgerights21.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Secondary-Publishing-Rights-Position-Paper.pdf">secondary publishing rights</a>. These rights would ensure that authors can immediately “<a href="https://www.knowledgerights21.org/statement/secondary-publishing-rights-new-position-statement-from-knowledge-rights-21/">republish publicly funded research after its first publication in an open access repository or elsewhere</a>,” even in cases where this is forbidden by publishers.</p>
<p>Tweaking the <em><a href="https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-42/Index.html">Copyright Act</a></em> to include such rights would give academic authors the ability to make taxpayer-funded journal articles available to the public through open access upon publication.</p>
<p>Enabling Canada’s research to be openly accessible without barriers will contribute to the public good, helping to foster innovation and discovery.</p>
<h2>Open access policy review</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/research-public-funding-academic-journal-subscriptions-elsevier-librarians-university-of-california-1.5049597">Research locked behind paywalls</a> is an impediment to science, innovation and cultural progress. In the past, most research papers would only be accessible to individuals who pay to access research papers or who work or study at universities willing to pay for access. This model is changing, and many publications are now openly available to the public. However, <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2022/08/11/article-processing-charges-apcs-and-the-new-enclosure-of-research/">authors are increasingly required to pay publishers</a> in order to be published open access.</p>
<p>The current Tri-Agency Open Access Policy on Publications does require that authors make copies of funded journal articles freely available online, but allows for a 12-month embargo period where publishers get exclusive rights to the content and can keep it locked behind a paywall. That can mean significant delays in free access to <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/covid-19-underlines-need-full-open-access">vital research</a>. </p>
<p>The policy review is overdue in Canada. In the <a href="https://www.coalition-s.org/">European Union</a> and the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08-2022-OSTP-Public-Access-Memo.pdf">United States</a>, governments have committed to immediate open access for publicly funded research. </p>
<p>Canada can learn from the experiences of these other jurisdictions, and create a framework that ensures equitable open access to publicly funded Canadian research.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538381/original/file-20230719-23-zpvc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person inputting payment card details into a laptop." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538381/original/file-20230719-23-zpvc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538381/original/file-20230719-23-zpvc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538381/original/file-20230719-23-zpvc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538381/original/file-20230719-23-zpvc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538381/original/file-20230719-23-zpvc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538381/original/file-20230719-23-zpvc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538381/original/file-20230719-23-zpvc0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Locking research behind paywalls impedes scientific innovation and cultural progress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Article processing charges</h2>
<p>In addition to allowing embargo periods, Canada’s current open access policy has fallen short of delivering in key areas and needs to adapt to changes in academic publishing. </p>
<p>For example, the Tri-Agency suffers from <a href="https://ojs.lib.uwo.ca/index.php/cjils/article/view/14149">low rates</a> of compliance with their open access policy when compared to other jurisdictions. OA.Report data shows publications funded by the <a href="https://oa.report/04j5jqy92/">Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada</a> as having only 52 per cent compliance with the policy in 2023 so far. </p>
<p>It is unclear why authors do not comply with the policy. It might be that they misunderstand their obligations or that they simply cannot afford the high <a href="https://guides.library.unlv.edu/c.php?g=901395&p=6486147">article processing charges (APCs)</a> that they might need to pay to publish in their journal of choice. The result is that much publicly funded research remains unavailable to the public.</p>
<p>APCs are fees academic authors pay to be published in open access journals. Authors can be charged fees of <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/critic-at-large/opinion-is-open-access-worth-the-cost-70049">$1,000 up to $13,000</a>. Journals increasingly rely on APCs, making the cost of open access publishing prohibitively expensive for many authors. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.acsi2022.ca/talk/12.butler/">Estimates indicate</a> Canadian academic authors spent at least US$27.6 million on processing charges from 2015 to 2018, <a href="https://theconversation.com/removing-author-fees-can-help-open-access-journals-make-research-available-to-everyone-189675">despite the preponderance of free-to-publish open access journals</a>.</p>
<p>Authors don’t always have funds to cover these fees, and offloading them to university libraries through <a href="https://www.carl-abrc.ca/doc/CARLOAWGLibraryOAFundsFinalReport-Jan%202016.pdf">open access funds</a> or <a href="https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2019/04/23/transformative-agreements/">transformative agreements</a> is not sustainable and leads to inequitable publishing opportunities between large and small institutions. </p>
<p>In addition, scholars from the Global South have <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2020/05/20/the-commercial-model-of-academic-publishing-underscoring-plan-s-weakens-the-existing-open-access-ecosystem-in-latin-america/">drawn attention</a> to the inequitable nature of APC-based-publishing, while other models of funding open access journals are being extinguished.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538373/original/file-20230719-28-b6hqk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people sit at a table with books and laptops." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538373/original/file-20230719-28-b6hqk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/538373/original/file-20230719-28-b6hqk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538373/original/file-20230719-28-b6hqk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538373/original/file-20230719-28-b6hqk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538373/original/file-20230719-28-b6hqk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538373/original/file-20230719-28-b6hqk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/538373/original/file-20230719-28-b6hqk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There must be a framework that ensures equitable open access to publicly funded Canadian research.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Secondary publishing rights</h2>
<p>There are clear paths forward that enable more open access. While academic journal publishing is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science">extremely profitable for publishing companies</a>, the authors, editors and reviewers that form the backbone of the system are <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/6/3/18271538/open-access-elsevier-california-sci-hub-academic-paywalls">rarely compensated</a> for their labour and <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3981756">face challenges negotiating fair publication agreements</a>. </p>
<p>The Canadian Federation of Library Associations has recently proposed one partial solution: to provide <a href="http://cfla-fcab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CFLA-Secondary-Publishing-Rights-and-Open-Access-Position-Statement.docx-1.pdf">secondary publishing rights</a> to academic authors in Canada. The proposal is also endorsed by the Canadian Association of Research Libraries. </p>
<p>Secondary publishing rights have already been implemented in multiple European countries, with perhaps the most notable example being the <a href="https://liberquarterly.eu/article/view/10915/12075#toc">Taverne Amendment</a> in the Netherlands, which has seen the rate of <a href="https://www.tue.nl/en/news-and-events/news-overview/16-11-2022-the-netherlands-takes-another-big-step-towards-100-open-access">open access top 80 per cent</a>. </p>
<p>European countries’ implementations of these rights currently include embargo periods. However, the Association of European Research Libraries has released draft language for secondary rights without an embargo period that would allow for “<a href="https://libereurope.eu/draft-law-for-the-use-of-publicly-funded-scholarly-publications/">lawful self-archiving on open, public, non-for-profit repositories</a>.” </p>
<p>If Canada were to adopt a similar law in conjunction with revising the Tri-Agency policy, we could become a worldwide leader in open access scholarly publications.</p>
<p>Ultimately, more immediate open access at lower costs would mean we all have better access to information that could help us better understand the world around us, whether it is medical information, engineering innovations or new explorations of culture and history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209761/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brianne Selman is on the Canadian Federation of Library Associations Copyright Committee.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Swartz does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Secondary publishing rights could facilitate immediate open access to publicly funded research and foster global innovation and discovery.Brianne Selman, Scholarly Communications & Copyright Librarian, University of WinnipegMark Swartz, Scholarly Publishing Librarian, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2057432023-07-20T12:29:26Z2023-07-20T12:29:26ZHow book-banning campaigns have changed the lives and education of librarians – they now need to learn how to plan for safety and legally protect themselves<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537930/original/file-20230718-21-p9vveg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C7%2C4966%2C3514&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Librarian Sharice Towles checks in books at the main branch of the Reading Public Library circulation desk in Reading, Penn. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/librarian-sharice-towles-checks-in-books-at-the-circulation-news-photo/1322393868?adppopup=true">Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite misconceptions and <a href="https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2015/10/30/the-stereotype-stereotype/">stereotypes</a> – ranging from what librarians Gretchen Keer and Andrew Carlos have described as the “middle-aged, bun-wearing, comfortably shod, shushing librarian” to the “sexy librarian … and the hipster or tattooed librarian” – library professionals are more than book jockeys, and they do more than read at story time. </p>
<p>They are experts in classification, pedagogy, data science, social media, disinformation, health sciences, music, art, media literacy and, yes, storytelling.</p>
<p>And right now, librarians are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/books/book-ban-librarians.html">taking on an old role</a>. <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport">They are defending the rights</a> of readers and writers in the battles raging across the U.S. over censorship, book challenges and book bans. </p>
<p>Book challenges are an <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/banned-books-qa">attempt to remove a title from circulation</a>, and <a href="https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/986/book-banning">bans mean the actual removal of a book</a> from library shelves. The current spate of bans and challenges is the most notable and intense since the <a href="https://libraryleadershippodcast.com/103-dealing-with-book-banning-with-tracie-d-hall/">McCarthy era</a>, when censorship campaigns during that Cold War period of political repression <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/119516/report-book-burning-under-huac-and-eisenhower">included public book burnings</a>. </p>
<p>But these battles are not new; book banning can be <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/history-of-book-bans-in-the-united-states">traced back to 1637</a> in the U.S., when the <a href="https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/in-1650-william-pynchon-tweaks-the-puritans/">Puritans banned a book</a> by Massachusetts Bay colonist William Pynchon they saw as heretical. </p>
<p>As long as there have been book challenges, there have been those <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/history-of-book-bans-in-the-united-states">who defend intellectual freedom and the right to read freely</a>. Librarians and library workers have long been <a href="https://www.alastore.ala.org/content/intellectual-freedom-manual-tenth-edition">crucial players in the defense of books and ideas</a>. At the 2023 annual American Library Association Conference, <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/92618-freedom-fighters-ibram-x-kendi-kicks-off-ala-2023-with-a-powerful-message-to-librarians.html">scholar Ibram X. Kendi</a> praised library professionals and reminded them that “if you’re fighting book bans, if you’re fighting against censorship, then you are a freedom fighter.”</p>
<p>Library professionals maintain that books are what education scholar Rudine Sims Bishop called the “<a href="https://www.greatschoolspartnership.org/mirrors-windows-and-sliding-glass-doors-a-metaphor-for-reading-and-life/">mirrors</a>, windows and sliding glass doors” that allow readers to learn about themselves and others and gain empathy for those who are different from them. </p>
<p>The drive to challenge, ban or censor books has not only changed the lives of librarians across the nation. It’s also changing the way librarians are now educated to enter the profession. As a <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/cic/faculty-staff/cooke_nicole.php">library school educator</a>, I hear the anecdotes, questions and concerns from library workers who are on the front lines of the current fight and are not sure how to react or respond. </p>
<p>What once, and still is, a curriculum that includes book selection, program planning and serving diverse communities in the classroom, my faculty colleagues and I are now expanding to include discussions and resources on how students, once they become professional librarians, can physically, legally and financially protect themselves and their organizations. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of protesters standing outside a library; one carries a sign that says 'Quit grooming students, you sexually perverted animals'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537886/original/file-20230717-200504-fmml5o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Demonstrators who support banning books gather during a protest outside of the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Mich., on Sept. 25, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-who-support-banning-books-gather-during-a-news-photo/1243508520?adppopup=true">JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>More than shelving books</h2>
<p>Degreed librarians are professionals with master’s degrees from nationally <a href="https://www.ala.org/educationcareers/accreditedprograms">accredited</a> academic programs. I have personally gone through such a program and now teach in one. </p>
<p>In fact, many librarians who work on college and university campuses have subject masters and doctorates, and K-12 librarians must have a valid teaching license or a state endorsement to <a href="https://www.everylibraryinstitute.org/requirements_to_become_a_school_librarian_by_state">work in a school library or media center</a>. They know how to select appropriate materials for communities. </p>
<p><a href="https://uniteagainstbookbans.org/">Librarians</a> adhere to <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues">core values</a>, standards and <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/ethics">professional ethics</a>. They see it as their duty to create and maintain a collection that reflects the diverse needs and interests of the entire community, not just for a select, vocal part of the community. The <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicytoolkit/coredocuments">Freedom to Read statement</a> of the American Library Association tells us: “It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians, as guardians of the people’s freedom to read, to contest encroachments upon that freedom by individuals or groups seeking to impose their own standards or tastes upon the community at large; and by the government whenever it seeks to reduce or deny public access to public information.”</p>
<p>Books are challenged and banned for many <a href="https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10">reasons</a>, including profanity, depictions of sex, LGBTQIA+ content, depictions of sexual abuse, equity, diversity and inclusion content, depictions of drug use and alcoholism, anti-police rhetoric and providing sex education. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/09/rise-book-bans-explained/">Reasons for challenges</a> can be personally subjective, and claims that books present divisive topics that should be excluded from collections are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/30/books/book-ban-us-schools.html">increasing</a>.</p>
<p>George Johnson, author of the frequently banned book <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/25/1130433140/banned-books-all-boys-arent-blue-george-johnson-lgbtq-ya">“All Boys aren’t Blue,</a>” has said that he believes books are challenged to eliminate <a href="https://time.com/6261238/george-m-johnson-book-bans-censorship-interview/">narratives</a> that elucidate the truths of marginalized groups and depict the everyday diversity of their lives. Johnson believes the stories of the LGBTQIA+ and minoritized communities are specifically under attack. </p>
<p>Johnson is a complainant in a recently filed <a href="https://pen.org/press-release/pen-america-files-lawsuit-against-florida-school-district-over-unconstitutional-book-bans/">federal lawsuit</a> against Florida’s Escambia County School District and School Board, which <a href="https://www.wuwf.org/local-news/2023-02-21/escambia-school-board-removes-three-books-from-libraries">unanimously voted</a> to remove Johnson’s book from their school libraries because of passages that describe a sexual experience.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman stands next to a book car and touches some of the books." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537897/original/file-20230717-239230-6vny6g.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">St. Tammany Parish Library Director Kelly LaRocca shows off a cart of books that were removed from the shelves at the Peter L. ‘Pete’ Gitz Library on Feb. 13, 2023, in Madisonville, La.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/st-tammany-parish-library-director-kelly-larocca-shows-off-news-photo/1247658403?adppopup=true">Joshua Lott/The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The new librarians’ education</h2>
<p>To balance the needs of everyone in the community, <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/atoz/Collection%20Development/collectiondevelopment">libraries have collection development policies</a> as well as <a href="https://www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicytoolkit/statement">reconsideration and withdrawal policies</a> that guide librarians in selecting new books and materials and removing those that are outdated. These policies are key when facing potential bans and challenges. </p>
<p>But with the current controversies about racially diverse and LGBTQIA+ books, policies are no longer enough to demonstrate the integrity of professionally curated library collections. </p>
<p>Neither policies nor book reviews nor professional expertise are keeping library workers from being called <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/books/book-ban-librarians.html">pedophiles, groomers, indoctrinators and pornographers</a>. They are <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2023-01-27/school-librarians-vilified-as-the-arm-of-satan-in-book-banning-wars">being harassed</a>, <a href="https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/a-school-librarian-pushes-back-on-censorship-and-gets-death-threats-and-online-harassment/2022/09">receiving death threats</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/books/book-ban-librarians.html">being fired</a>. <a href="https://www.5newsonline.com/article/news/politics/crawford-county-parents-sue-library-lgbtq-books/527-6d8b5d95-b541-4ba2-bf5a-ef6d97bc9e33">Libraries have been sued</a> and library workers are so threatened and harassed that <a href="https://www.slj.com/story/from-the-breaking-point-to-fighting-anew-school-librarian-martha-hickson-shares-her-story-of-battling-book-banning-censorship">they are getting sick</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/06/books/book-ban-librarians.html#:%7E:text=Many%20librarians%20have%20quit%20%E2%80%94%20or,demanded%2C%20according%20to%20a%20lawsuit">and leaving their careers</a>.</p>
<p>The current threats to librarians and the books they circulate are necessitating a shift in the content of graduate library education. Librarians obviously need to know the content of books. But educators like me now know we need to provide graduate students with information about how to physically and legally protect themselves and their organizations. </p>
<p>When we teach intellectual freedom, we also teach students how to prepare for protesters and contentious board meetings. When we teach information professionals how to select materials for their libraries, we emphasize their need to know how to articulate, in writing, the reasons for having a particular book, film or material item in their collection. </p>
<p>I believe that our students now need to consider getting professional liability insurance in case they are sued for buying a contested book. And when we teach story-time planning, we can pair that with strategies to devise a <a href="https://www.courierpress.com/story/news/2019/02/02/heres-lowdown-so-far-drag-queen-story-hour-evansville/2740490002/">safety plan</a> in case they are threatened or receive a bomb threat because of their work. </p>
<p>Librarians and the future librarians we teach have always loved books and reading. While our work has changed in this era of increasing censorship, in one sense it has not: We’re still devoted to the idea that we serve our communities by providing them with books that open the world to them and give them the opportunity to learn about themselves and others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205743/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Cooke receives funding from The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).</span></em></p>Librarians are defending the rights of readers and writers in the battle raging across the US over censorship, book challenges and book bans. That conflict has even changed how librarians are trained.Nicole A. Cooke, Baker Endowed Chair and Professor of Library and Information Science, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2083502023-07-13T17:11:35Z2023-07-13T17:11:35ZJoys of summer reading: the books we’re devouring are likely influenced by someone we know and trust<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537310/original/file-20230713-21-6sry09.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C134%2C2991%2C1598&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People’s ways of choosing books are significantly influenced by our offline relationships and book browsing habits.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If your bag is packed for your summer holiday, does it contain books that you’ve been meaning to read for ages, or titles that you very recently bought or borrowed? </p>
<p>Perhaps you grabbed a bestselling mystery or romance in an airport bookstore, or chose an intriguing-looking celebrity memoir from a <a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org">little free library</a> in your neighbourhood. </p>
<p>Maybe you loaded up your e-reader a few weeks ago with titles that were recommended to you on the basis of your most frequently read genres, or that you saw featured in a “summer reads” list <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/jun/24/summer-reading-50-brilliant-books-to-discover?utm_term=6497e5f9b107ea901e2df2b89e14c811&utm_campaign=Bookmarks&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=bookmarks_email">in a newspaper</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/books/40-canadian-books-to-read-this-summer-1.6888528">website</a> or <a href="https://lithub.com/50-of-the-greatest-summer-novels-of-all-time/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Weekly:%20June%2020-23%2C%202023&utm_term=lithub_weekly_master_list">book blog</a>. </p>
<p>If you’re a reader, at least one of these scenarios will be familiar to you. But the chances are that your summer reading choices have been influenced by someone you know and trust, whether that person is an influencer on Bookstagram, a colleague or your best friend. </p>
<p>We may have online access to a recommendation culture that supplies us with reviews, star ratings and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108933377">book promotion buzz</a>, but how we choose books is significantly influenced by our offline relationships and book-browsing habits. </p>
<p>Even for those of us who regularly use social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Goodreads or TikTok to find out what other readers recommend, suggestions offered by friends, family members or colleagues remain the main way of picking our next book to read, according to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108891042">our recent research</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1678449000066809857"}"></div></p>
<h2>Longer hours of daylight … to read</h2>
<p>For many Canadians who enjoy reading books for pleasure, the summer season brings with it some extra reading time. Longer hours of daylight and, if we are lucky, a summer vacation allows us to tackle the TBR (to be read) pile, or to reach for a lighter “beach read.” </p>
<p>As a practice, <a href="https://www.umasspress.com/9781625343833/books-for-idle-hours/">summer reading</a> in North America has a history stretching back into the 19th century, when an increase in literacy, the mass production of more affordable books, the provision of electricity to many towns and the proliferation of <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/libraries#:%7E:text=The%20earliest%20libraries%20in%20Canada,belonging%20to%20immigrants%20from%20Europe">public libraries</a> all combined to create the conditions for leisure reading for those with access to these resources. </p>
<p>Fast forward about 150 years and we find ourselves in a <a href="https://publishing.monash.edu/product/post-digital-book-cultures/">post-digital age</a>: as noted by scholars like Alexandra Dane and Millicent Weber, digital technologies and platforms have changed and complicated how books are produced, and how they circulate and are consumed.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/v9Nx9lgLNQU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Video from BookNet Canada on what makes #BookTokers tick.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A trip to the library now consists of a few mouse clicks <a href="https://www.booknetcanada.ca/press-room/2023/5/30/comics-and-graphic-novels-rise-in-popularity-for-canadians-in-2022">to borrow an audiobook or comic</a>, while a browse through a bricks-and-mortar bookstore may include skimming through paperbacks on the <a href="https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/research/2022/9/29/the-real-impact-of-booktok-on-book-sales">“BookTok Books”</a> display table that curates notable books promoted by TikTok influencers. </p>
<h2>Opinions on ‘bestsellers’</h2>
<p>Our research involved an online questionnaire with more than 3,000 readers, interviews with social media influencers and a two-month asynchronous conversation with international Gen Z readers in a private Instagram chat space.</p>
<p>The readers we surveyed frequently combine traditional methods of book selection such as consulting reviews in newspapers, and browsing in libraries and bookstores, with the use of online recommendation sources. </p>
<p>We learned the label of <a href="https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2018/11/12/what-makes-a-book-a-bestseller">“bestseller”</a> is a further resource for choosing books. </p>
<p>This is the case regardless of whether “bestseller” is signalled by a sticker on a book’s cover, by a publisher’s advertisement or by a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCd3MWT6Jbc">BookTuber’s roundup of #summerreading</a>. And, it’s true even when readers view “bestseller” as a term that screams “not for me,” “trashy” or “poor-quality writing” — as many of our surveyed readers did. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man reading while lying on bench." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537330/original/file-20230713-27-jcarbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537330/original/file-20230713-27-jcarbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537330/original/file-20230713-27-jcarbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537330/original/file-20230713-27-jcarbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537330/original/file-20230713-27-jcarbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537330/original/file-20230713-27-jcarbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537330/original/file-20230713-27-jcarbi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Do bestsellers draw you in or turn you off? A man reads on a bench in Madrid, Spain, in April 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Paul White)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Trusted influencers</h2>
<p>But for every reader who dismissed bestsellers, there was a reader for whom the word bestseller was an invitation to research that title further. Add in a recommendation from a friend or a trusted <a href="https://www.makerandmoxie.com/blog/ariel-bissett">online influencer like</a> Canadian <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ArielBissett">Ariel Bissett</a>, and a reader is highly likely to at least try out the book.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/">Gen Z readers</a> are especially likely to use a range of sources and media when choosing a book, including finding their way to the next read via a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108589604">film adaptation, TV show or videogame tie-in</a>. </p>
<p>Among the people we surveyed who responded to our survey question about the various — and combined — ways that they choose books, “favourite author” (73 per cent) and “friend’s recommendations” (72 per cent) were the top two means of selecting a book. </p>
<p>“Prize winners” and “family member’s recommendations” were also significant, with 40 per cent of respondents indicating both of these as their go-to methods. Thirty-five per cent of readers identified “work colleague’s recommendations” as trustworthy.</p>
<h2>Young adult readers</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A person seen reading in a bookstore." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537332/original/file-20230713-21-wme9t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537332/original/file-20230713-21-wme9t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537332/original/file-20230713-21-wme9t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537332/original/file-20230713-21-wme9t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=929&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537332/original/file-20230713-21-wme9t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537332/original/file-20230713-21-wme9t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537332/original/file-20230713-21-wme9t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1167&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Young adults said making ethical choices about reading was based not only on who or what is represented, but also about where and how to buy or borrow books.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Another aspect of <a href="https://www.booknetcanada.ca/blog/2023/5/30/podcast-reading-bestsellers">our research</a> highlighted how readers engage with reading recommendation cultures online and offline. This research involved a two-month conversation with an international group of young adults from 13 countries living on five continents. </p>
<p>These readers look for books that reflect their concerns about climate change, mental health issues and the experiences of their own communities, especially if their communities are racialized and/or discriminated against in terms of gender, language and abilities. </p>
<p>For this generation of readers, making ethical choices not only based on who or what is represented within the pages of books, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437221099615">but also about where and how to buy or borrow books, are important</a>.</p>
<h2>A book to engage us</h2>
<p>Summer in Canada affords readers the opportunity to pick a new book to read. Some will be guided by their favourite authors or genres. Others will make choices inspired by their ethics or political commitments. As readers, we all want to invest our time in a book that will engage us, whether for entertainment or education. </p>
<p>If we’ve made a successful selection, we are very likely to tell friends about it, or to go online and share our reading experience with other readers through social media posts <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/bookreviewers/">or Reddit reviews</a>.</p>
<p>In these post-digital times, we are perhaps more likely to judge a book by its readers than by its cover.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208350/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Even for people who regularly look to social media platforms for book recommendations, recommendations from friends, family members or colleagues are a main way of choosing what to read.Danielle Fuller, Professor, Department of English and Film Studies, University of AlbertaDeNel Rehberg Sedo, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2075592023-07-04T22:33:25Z2023-07-04T22:33:25ZCopyright exceptions in Canadian education aren’t a loophole, they’re essential<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534361/original/file-20230627-29-hl1r78.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C301%2C4436%2C2565&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The shift towards digital access has changed the way libraries buy materials. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent op-eds about Canadian copyright law call on <a href="https://www.hilltimes.com/story/2023/05/18/canadas-writers-need-a-functioning-market-not-endless-promises/387222">the Canadian government to</a> stop allowing uncompensated copying in education.</p>
<p>At the end of May, an op-ed in <em>The Globe and Mail</em> described the current state of affairs regarding copyright and education as “<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/article-copyright-loophole-for-education-should-be-plugged/">the legalized robbery of Canadian authors by the education sector</a>.”</p>
<p>This follows the ongoing “<a href="https://ivaluecanadianstories.ca/">I Value Canadian Stories</a>” campaign, by a coalition of more than 20 <a href="https://ivaluecanadianstories.ca/about-us.php">publishing, writerly and creative associations</a>, which calls on the federal government to “restore fair compensation to creators and publishers for the use of their works by the education sector.” </p>
<p>As researchers with expertise <a href="https://doi.org/10.17161/jcel.v5i1.15513">in copyright and universities</a>, we think the tone of this discourse is misleading. It’s also potentially harmful to a broader discussion of the important role that copyright exceptions serve within education and society at large. </p>
<h2>Decline in author incomes</h2>
<p>Authors and publishers <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/INDU/Brief/BR9990266/br-external/TheWritersUnionOfCanada-e.pdf">trace the decline</a> in author incomes back to a specific addition to the Copyright Act in 2012 that added “education” as a purpose <a href="https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/academic-integrity/copyright/fair-dealing">under the fair dealing exception</a>.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-fair-dealing-in-copyright-heres-why-it-matters-when-moving-classes-online-due-to-coronavirus-134510">What is fair dealing in copyright? Here's why it matters when moving classes online due to coronavirus</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Fair dealing protects the right to research, private study, education, parody, satire, criticism, review and news reporting. Fair dealing is not illegal — <a href="https://fair-dealing.ca/">the ability for users to make copies for specific purposes is an integral part of the Canadian Copyright Act</a>.</p>
<p>When universities do use fair dealing in a small number of situations to supplement purchased, licensed and freely available resources, they are working <a href="https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/restricting-copyright-exceptions-detrimental-to-education-says-student-group-1.3901077">within guidelines developed across the post-secondary</a> and kindergarten to Grade 12 sectors.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People seen walking across a campus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534877/original/file-20230629-12801-krliiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534877/original/file-20230629-12801-krliiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534877/original/file-20230629-12801-krliiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534877/original/file-20230629-12801-krliiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534877/original/file-20230629-12801-krliiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534877/original/file-20230629-12801-krliiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534877/original/file-20230629-12801-krliiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A changing landscape of digital disruption affected universities’ decisions not to renew licences with Access Copyright.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Shifting licensing relationships</h2>
<p>Prior to 2012, most post-secondary institutions paid Access Copyright for the right to copy and distribute articles and chapters to students. Access Copyright is an organization that collects copying fees from institutions, like schools and governments, on behalf of authors. </p>
<p>It’s true that during the <a href="https://www.canadianlawyermag.com/news/general/access-copyrights-next-chapter/269495">early part of the 2010s</a> many post-secondary institutions decided not to renew their annual licences with Access Copyright. This certainly had an impact on the royalties higher education institutions passed along to authors. </p>
<p>For <a href="https://excesscopyright.blogspot.com/2011/08/more-update-on-opt-outs-from-access.html">many institutions, including the University of British Columbia, the University of Alberta and Dalhousie University</a>, the initial decision to step away from the Access Copyright licence preceded any changes to the Copyright Act. It was informed by the diminishing value of the licence and the technological changes happening in the publishing sector.</p>
<p>For a long time, the Access Copyright licence served the needs of the university community. However, in a changing landscape of digital disruption and acquisition models, it became less valuable. Libraries make decisions all the time about how they purchase and license materials, responding to the value of different products and services on the market. </p>
<h2>Digital disruption</h2>
<p>The Access Copyright licence, which only covered <a href="https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/05/canadian-copyright-fair-dealing-and-education-part-two-the-declining-value-of-the-access-copyright-licence/">physical photocopies of up to 20 per cent of a work</a> in 2011, no longer made sense given the growing impacts of digital disruption. A shift from print to digital materials was happening in many sectors at this time. </p>
<p>University libraries were increasingly paying publishers for online access to materials. These licence agreements included unlimited digital access to many articles and books universities had already been paying Access Copyright for the right to use. This access reduced the need to make copies of materials for teaching and learning.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People seen on computers in a library." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534879/original/file-20230629-17-r0c2bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534879/original/file-20230629-17-r0c2bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534879/original/file-20230629-17-r0c2bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534879/original/file-20230629-17-r0c2bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534879/original/file-20230629-17-r0c2bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534879/original/file-20230629-17-r0c2bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534879/original/file-20230629-17-r0c2bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A shift to digital purchasing and access impacted how instructors assigned university readings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This shift to digital purchasing and access also impacted how instructors assigned readings. Instead of each student being asked to purchase a textbook or course pack of photocopied and bundled readings, instructors could share a digital syllabus with links to library-licensed readings. </p>
<p>Students would only have to enter in their library password and could have immediate access to assigned readings from any location. </p>
<h2>How libraries buy materials</h2>
<p>The shift towards digital access has increased the ability of universities to meet the needs of students and instructors, but has also changed the way libraries buy materials. </p>
<p>Universities now gain access and copying rights primarily through these digital licences. This significantly reduces the need to pay additional fees for copying, such as Access Copyright licence fees. </p>
<p>To supplement library materials, universities also pay publishers directly for use of specific materials that aren’t included in the licences. Increasingly, <a href="https://www.ecampusontario.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/eCampusOntario_September2018_ResearchReport.pdf">educators are also using freely available online materials such as YouTube videos</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the variety of sources available for educational content today, universities continue to <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/INDU/Brief/BR10002433/br-external/UniversitiesCanada-e.pdf">pay large amounts for library materials</a>.</p>
<h2>Creative writers affected</h2>
<p>The types of authors that Access Copyright represents and those discussed in the opinion pieces above are primarily creative writers. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.carl-abrc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Library_Expenditures_Memo.pdf">Only about two per cent of post-secondary library holdings are Canadian literature</a> of the type that would be covered under an Access Copyright licence. </p>
<p>The vast majority of university courses do not assign work by creative writers.
Universities overwhelmingly purchase and use research and other non-creative materials created by scholars and students who receive no financial compensation for their writing.</p>
<p>Universities Canada’s submission to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology’s statutory <a href="https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/INDU/Brief/BR10002433/br-external/UniversitiesCanada-e.pdf">review of Canada’s Copyright Act acknowledged changes</a> in copyright and publishing industries. These shifts have happened while <a href="https://theconversation.com/low-funding-for-universities-puts-students-at-risk-for-cycles-of-poverty-especially-in-the-wake-of-covid-19-131363">university funding models are also changing</a>.</p>
<p>The submission to the standing committee proposed two solutions for remunerating writers affected by a loss of royalties: increased funding in <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/funding/book-fund.html">the Canada Book Fund</a> and including university libraries’ Canadian literature in <a href="https://publiclendingright.ca/">Canada’s Public Lending Right program</a>. This program issues annual payments to authors according to the frequency with which their books appear in Canadian public libraries.</p>
<h2>Fair dealing’s value to society</h2>
<p>Fair dealing exists for all Canadians and empowers individuals to access information, critique institutions, educate themselves, create new cultural products, innovate on technology and more. </p>
<p>Education can include any kind of instruction, formal or otherwise — the impact of removing education from fair dealing would go far beyond universities. For example, a community organization might share an article about a key issue with its staff and volunteers in a training session.</p>
<p>Fair dealing is not a copyright loophole that facilitates robbery, it is an essential part of the Copyright Act and has been <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2125/index.do">defended in Canada by the courts at the highest level</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer Zerkee receives funding from an SFU/SSHRC Small Explore Grant. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Savage does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When universities do use fair dealing to supplement purchased, licensed and freely available resources, they work within guidelines developed across the education sector.Stephanie Savage, Scholarly Communications and Copyright Services Librarian, University of British ColumbiaJennifer Zerkee, Copyright Specialist, Simon Fraser UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2065472023-06-01T19:39:42Z2023-06-01T19:39:42Z5 things to know about Drag Queen Story Time<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529441/original/file-20230531-8916-x5y0rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5355%2C3570&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Contrary to misconceptions, exposing children to diverse expressions of gender identity supports their natural development and fosters inclusivity. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/five-things-to-know-about-drag-queen-story-time" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Recent news reports have described the public controversy involving topics of sexual orientation and gender identity, and how these are presented to children, especially in schools and libraries. Protests at <a href="https://london.ctvnews.ca/female-biker-group-steps-in-to-protect-drag-queen-story-time-in-parkhill-ont-1.6377062">Ontario</a>, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9411397/drag-queen-story-time-protest-coquitlam-bc/">British Columbia</a>, <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-anti-gay-activists-target-childrens-libraries-and-drag-queen-story">Alberta</a> and <a href="https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/drag-queen-book-reading-sparks-duelling-protests-in-moncton-1.6309496">New Brunswick</a> libraries and public centres have targeted Drag Queen Story Time events.</p>
<p>These are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1864621">educational events</a> where drag performers read books to children. The aim is to present the diversity of gender expression and identity, build acceptance and develop creativity in personal expression. </p>
<p>Recently, however, these events have been met with backlash. School leaders have <a href="https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/saskatoon-catholic-students-to-avoid-childrens-fest-rainbow-tent-superintendent">prevented children from attending events that discuss sexual and gender identity</a>. In New Brunswick, where the provincial government is <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-education-gender-policy-1.6836059">reviewing gender identity policy in schools due to public pressure</a>, Premier Blaine Higgs <a href="https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/n-b-premier-holds-firm-on-sexual-orientation-policy-review-1.6403193">put the question plainly</a>: “Should [there] be drag story time for young kindergarten, grade 1, grade 2?” </p>
<p>Through our research and clinical practice working with children, parents and schools, we believe parents and kids deserve a better understanding of what events like drag story times are about. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529440/original/file-20230531-23-ekz9p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man with a megaphone in the middle of a chaotic crowd of people. Rainbow flags are seen in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529440/original/file-20230531-23-ekz9p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529440/original/file-20230531-23-ekz9p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529440/original/file-20230531-23-ekz9p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529440/original/file-20230531-23-ekz9p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529440/original/file-20230531-23-ekz9p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529440/original/file-20230531-23-ekz9p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529440/original/file-20230531-23-ekz9p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People protesting against a drag story time event clash with counter-protesters outside the National Arts Centre in Ottawa on Feb. 8, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Contrary to misconceptions, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5860/cal.19.2.14">exposing children to diverse gender identities and expressions supports their natural development</a>. Further, it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2021.1892557">fosters inclusive and accepting communities and school environments</a>, which is fundamental for developing well-adjusted adults. </p>
<p>Parents play a critical role in providing nurturing environments for their children. This can be best accomplished when parents are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00405841.2018.1536914">well-informed on topics that dominate mainstream media</a>.</p>
<h2>What is drag?</h2>
<p>Drag is an art form that has been <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/comedy/the-history-of-drag-on-screen-strutting-from-ancient-times-to-cbc-s-queens-1.5699542">around for centuries</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/arts/drag-queens-in-world-war-one-ross-hamilton-marjorie-1.6802140">including during the First World War</a>. Drag has evolved within gay culture, can be performed by all genders and is generally an <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00918369.2015.1116345">exaggeration of gender expression</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://glbtqarchive.com/arts/drag_queens_A.pdf">drag performance</a> combines elements of fashion, makeup, dance, lip-syncing, music and comedy. It is important to remember that, like other forms of art, it is available on a wide spectrum: from mature themes at a night club, to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2020.1864621">child-friendly performances that would be appropriate for schools</a>, libraries and community centres.</p>
<h2>What happens at a Drag Queen Story Time?</h2>
<p>Drag Queen Story Time began in <a href="https://www.dragstoryhour.org/">San Francisco in 2015</a>. The events generally <a href="https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v15i2.6219">occur in public spaces</a> like libraries, schools or community centres, with a drag queen host. Children most often attend with their families, parents and teachers. While the host adheres to the flamboyant art form in terms of colours and fashion, it is not a mature performance with sexualized overtones. Neither is it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00220183221086455">an opportunity for the host to groom children</a>. </p>
<p>The host will read a story book to the children, <a href="https://www.journals.ala.org/index.php/cal/article/view/6589/8789">often one promoting themes of acceptance</a>, diversity and self-expression, presenting characters and families from diverse backgrounds. The host will also often interact with the participants, answering questions the children may have, playing games, making crafts or posing for photographs with the children. The overall aim of the event is to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5860/cal.16.4.12">provide a positive message to children about the diversity of gender expression</a>.</p>
<h2>How do children develop their gender identities?</h2>
<p>The development of gender identities in children is a complex process. It is influenced by a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025418811129">combination of factors</a>, including biological, social, cognitive, environment and personal exploration. Children eventually develop a relative clarity of their gender and feel a sense of harmony between the complex factors that contribute to gender identity development. </p>
<p>In some children, these factors may conflict, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2018-314992">most commonly when children do not conform to societal expectations of their assigned sex at birth</a>. This can result in negative emotions and lead to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3109/09540261.2015.1115753">behavioural or mental health issues</a>. These issues are often remediated when <a href="https://theconversation.com/cuts-to-telehealth-in-ontario-mean-fewer-trans-and-non-binary-people-will-have-access-to-life-saving-health-care-198502">gender-affirming care</a> is provided. </p>
<p>Introducing children to diverse gender expressions <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15295192.2020.1792194">does not encourage gender dysphoria or confusion</a>. On the contrary, diverse experiences throughout life have been shown to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00110000221124274">foster self and collective understandings of gender and gender differences</a>. Furthermore, it’s important for a child’s development that parents, schools and communities <a href="https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2018-2162">support children in their exploration and expression of gender identity in a safe and affirming environment</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529442/original/file-20230531-21-t64zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A drag queen in a multi-coloured dress with bright yellow hair reads from a children's book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529442/original/file-20230531-21-t64zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529442/original/file-20230531-21-t64zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529442/original/file-20230531-21-t64zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529442/original/file-20230531-21-t64zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529442/original/file-20230531-21-t64zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529442/original/file-20230531-21-t64zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529442/original/file-20230531-21-t64zjg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A drag queen reading children’s stories during an event in Saint John, N.B.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The importance of positive role models</h2>
<p>Children and youth who identify as 2SLGBTQI+ usually have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.08.006">little-to-no access to positive role models that can relate to their own experiences</a>. Having access to positive role models and having positive experiences with people who have diverse gender identities can foster a better sense of belonging and promote self-acceptance. </p>
<p>People who are successful and positive role models are characterized as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12517">being competent and easily relatable</a>. Such role models provide context for children to gain a better understanding of themselves and others. Further, adolescents whose gender or sexual identity is accepted by their parents <a href="http://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12404">experience fewer psychological problems</a> compared to those whose parents are less accepting.</p>
<h2>How can parents engage with Drag Queen Story Time?</h2>
<p>Engaging with drag performers is an opportunity for parents to show their children that diversity is beautiful and worthy of celebration. Parents can foster engagement through communication and understanding of their own emotions and their child’s emotions. Being in tune with these emotional components helps ensure children are in an environment that supports <a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/0193945911411494">positive development and growth</a>. </p>
<p>Attending family-friendly drag events with children creates opportunities for discussion and reflection. Parents can think about and reflect on their own development of gender identity and expression, what influenced the choices they’ve made, and how this may impact the choices that their children may make. After Drag Queen Story Time, parents are sure to have important conversations with their children that will not only increase their understanding of self-identity, but of identities of others as well.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206547/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Drag Queen Story Time events have faced backlash and protests recently. But contrary to misconceptions, these events can support child development and promote acceptance.Conor Barker, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology & Faculty of Education, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityDaniel G. Seguin, Full Professor, Department of Psychology, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2016882023-03-17T15:54:30Z2023-03-17T15:54:30ZWales Broadcast Archive: UK’s first national archive shows importance of preserving our audiovisual history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516021/original/file-20230317-2393-28331k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C0%2C5000%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hundreds of thousands of hours of broadcasting history are available for the first time. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Wales</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month’s launch of the <a href="https://www.library.wales/national-broadcast-archive">Wales Broadcast Archive</a> marks a major step forward in the curation of our collective audiovisual heritage. Housed at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, the archive features a cornucopia of material dating back to the early days of broadcasting in Wales, including film, radio and video. That it is the first of its kind in the UK, however, raises important questions about access to our audiovisual history. </p>
<p>As Unesco <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/days/audiovisual-heritage?TSPD_101_R0=080713870fab2000502fe465bc04f6b27c52c9a0193e80a672ab1f5e21b1a4c85415302e3aabbd9b0810cf430e143000feeb184c026bc21a1537bc94124a8c96ed03ccb6d0f06a7ece1443260cacbf0531925b304c6ee161f47d82620e01e8ca">remarked</a> on the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage last October:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Audiovisual archives tell us stories about people’s lives and cultures from all over the world. They represent a priceless heritage which is an affirmation of our collective memory and a valuable source of knowledge, since they reflect the cultural, social and linguistic diversity of our communities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>More often than not, access to broadcast archives has been restricted to those working within the industry or academic researchers. Last year, though, the <a href="https://bbcrewind.co.uk/">BBC opened up</a> part of its digitised archive online, allowing the public to access some of its hidden gems.</p>
<p>However, the new Wales archive is unique in that it brings together the archives of its three major broadcasters - BBC, ITV and S4C. It contains material reflecting all aspects of life in both the English and Welsh languages. It is a unique source of information which will give historians and others an insight into the history of the nation.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1636005548112871427"}"></div></p>
<p>As well as preserving our broadcast heritage in its original and digitised form in Aberystwyth, people around Wales will be able to access around 500,000 hours of archive footage in dedicated “clip centres” housed across the nation. For the first time, members of the public will be able to see historical footage of their local areas and hear voices from years gone by.</p>
<p>Although the Wales Broadcast Archive is unique within the UK, there are similar institutions further afield. One such organisation is the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, <a href="https://www.beeldengeluid.nl/en">Beeld en Geluid</a>, which opened in 1997. It provided a useful model for the establishment of the Welsh archive. As a heritage institute, it preserves the audiovisual material of the Netherlands, with material from the country’s various broadcasters under one roof.</p>
<h2>Technology and storage challenges</h2>
<p>Of course, archives are not without their problems or their gaps. Very early television programmes, for example, are now lost forever. The technology simply didn’t exist to record in the pre-war and immediate post-war period. Nothing survives from the BBC’s pre-war television service at <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/ally-pally/">Alexandra Palace</a> – apart, that is, from some fascinating film shot on a home movie camera by one of the corporation’s engineers, Desmond Campbell, which is held by the <a href="http://bufvc.ac.uk/archives/index.php/collection/857">Alexandra Palace Television Society</a>.</p>
<p>As Dick Fiddy, a consultant at the British Film Institute, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/m6AMngEACAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3q4GL5t79AhWFRkEAHY32DVMQre8FegQIDRAD">noted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The early technical difficulties associated with the recording of live television programmes, and the later injudicious wiping and junking policies of the major British broadcasters, has meant that hundreds of thousands of hours of precious television material is missing from the official UK television archives.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Over the years, many broadcasters have had to dispense with their audiovisual material simply for storage reasons. Film and videotape can take up a lot of floor space, let alone audio recordings. When one considers the huge amount of broadcasting hours that are chewed up every week, it is easy to see how physical material can mount up over time.</p>
<p>So, broadcasters have had to adopt selection policies, making decisions on what material or programmes might be historically important in the future. As you can imagine, this has not been an easy task. Often, entertainment programmes such as quiz shows, variety or local chat shows were deemed to have no intrinsic value and were overlooked for archival purposes. </p>
<p>Archivists are also faced with an ongoing dilemma. They need to be preserving material for future generations while also ensuring that the producers of current programmes have the necessary audiovisual archives at their disposal. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a wheelchair and a man standing wear sets of headphones. Both are in a large room and are looking at a screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The public can also access the new archive in dedicated ‘clip centres’ throughout Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Wales</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The question now is whether the other UK nations should follow suit. While a similar model could be adopted in Scotland, in England the issue of whether the archives should house an English or British archive would need to be overcome.</p>
<p>Our collective audiovisual heritage provides a key to understanding ourselves as a society. It provides an additional access route into our past which complements that provided by the written record. </p>
<p>After all, archives are witnesses to history. They allow us to see how we lived, how we dressed, how we talked, how we were entertained, and how and when we watched or listened together. They also allow us to reflect and to learn. The Wales Broadcast Archive will do this and I, for one, am celebrating its arrival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Medhurst has received funding from the AHRC, The Leverhulme Trust, and the British Academy in the past</span></em></p>The Wales Broadcast Archive in Aberystwyth brings together the archives of the BBC, ITV and S4C under one roof.Jamie Medhurst, Professor of Media and Communication, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1970132023-01-12T19:16:27Z2023-01-12T19:16:27ZDisquiet in the archives: archivists make tough calls with far-reaching consequences – they deserve our support<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503568/original/file-20230109-25-rfx9wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=72%2C18%2C5923%2C4000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Niklas Ohlrogge/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Right now, for technological, ethical and political reasons, the world’s archivists are suddenly very busy.</p>
<p>Advances in digital imaging and communications are feeding an already intense interest in provenance, authorship and material culture. Two recent discoveries – <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63809584">a woman’s name</a> scratched in the margins of an 8th-century manuscript, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/19/theater/milton-shakespeare-notes-first-folio.html">John Milton’s annotations</a> in a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio held in the Free Library of Philadelphia – are examples of how new tools are revealing new evidence, and how distant scholars are making fascinating connections.</p>
<p>At the same time, and even more importantly, the holdings of archives, libraries and museums – “memory institutions” – are being scrutinised as the world grapples with legacies of racism, imperialism, slavery and oppression. Some of the holdings speak to heinous episodes and indefensible values. And some of them were flat-out stolen.</p>
<p>The so called “post-truth” era is a third cause of the burst of archival activity. Politicians and activists, mostly from the political right, have attacked facts and science. Archives have come under pressure to rewrite history, or have done so on their own initiative. The decision of the US National Archives to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/18/national-archives-sign-womens-march-photo">obscure anti-Trump slogans</a> in a 2017 image of the Women’s March is a case in point. </p>
<p>Post-truth narratives pose all sorts of archival conundrums. In Australia, for example, people raised eyebrows when the National Library began collecting the posts of <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/11/16/covid-misinformation-conspiracies-collected-national-library/">anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists</a>, as part of its effort to document the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>Buffeted by strong and competing forces, archivists are in a tough spot. Their ability to navigate a path forward, moreover, is made more difficult by non-archivists’ foggy and unrealistic expectations of what archivists actually do, and what they might do in the future.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503944/original/file-20230111-4890-2g8vzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503944/original/file-20230111-4890-2g8vzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503944/original/file-20230111-4890-2g8vzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503944/original/file-20230111-4890-2g8vzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503944/original/file-20230111-4890-2g8vzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503944/original/file-20230111-4890-2g8vzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503944/original/file-20230111-4890-2g8vzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503944/original/file-20230111-4890-2g8vzy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Copy of the First Folio held at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daderot/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What to save?</h2>
<p>In principle, every detail of every kind of object is useful and valid as historical evidence. Two recent examples of this fractal property: the field of <a href="https://heritagesciencejournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40494-019-0278-6">biocodicology</a> – the study of biological traces in books and manuscripts – is turning library dust into valuable data, while the field of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fragmentology_(manuscripts)">fragmentology</a> is looking inside old book-bindings for hidden pieces of even older texts.</p>
<p>But this is not enough to justify keeping everything. And even if we wanted to, we couldn’t. In his story The Library of Babel, Jorge Luis Borges imagined an infinite library, but here on earth there are limits.</p>
<p>Despite the rise of e-books and online periodicals, publishers still produce millions of physical books, journals, magazines and newspapers every year. Then there are amateur publications, along with personal, official and commercial documents, multitudes of flyers, catalogues, posters and other ephemera. We can’t keep everything in this bulging pile of paper.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503525/original/file-20230109-25-xdnc3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503525/original/file-20230109-25-xdnc3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503525/original/file-20230109-25-xdnc3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503525/original/file-20230109-25-xdnc3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503525/original/file-20230109-25-xdnc3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=886&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503525/original/file-20230109-25-xdnc3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503525/original/file-20230109-25-xdnc3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503525/original/file-20230109-25-xdnc3q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1113&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jorge Luis Borges imagined an infinite library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Non-textual objects are also part of the story of humanity, but we can’t keep all of them, either. Not only do we lack the room and money and curators to keep it all, for reasons of civilisational self-preservation we need to recycle as much of it as we can. And for reasons of civilisational sanity, we shouldn’t even attempt universal preservation, which – the moral of Borges’s story – is a sure-fire path to madness.</p>
<p>The physics of digital storage are different to those of physical archives, but ultimately the same rule applies: we can’t keep all the corporate and news sites, social media posts, blog posts, computer games, AI mash-ups, YouTube videos, messages, comments, selfies, porn – all of it growing by the second.</p>
<p>Keeping a single, static copy of the internet at any given moment is a Google-scale task. Now imagine what would be involved in preserving all the previous copies simultaneously, not just as static versions but dynamic ones, meaningfully accessible and covering every corner of the internet. That task is beyond even the imagination of Borges.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-the-record-digitizing-archives-can-increase-access-to-information-but-compromise-privacy-155364">For the record: Digitizing archives can increase access to information but compromise privacy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The minefield of decision-making</h2>
<p>The work of archivists, therefore, necessarily involves decisions about what to preserve and for how long.</p>
<p>Those decisions are a minefield. Libraries, for example, are regularly criticised when they refuse donated books. “Why won’t you take our nineteenth-century bible,” the donors ask indignantly, “or our set of old racing guides, or Encyclopedia Britannica, or Funk and Wagnalls?” </p>
<p>Libraries and museums are criticised even more loudly when they are caught removing items from their collections. Every good curator knows the value of a regular cull, but patrons and funders have romantic conceptions of collection practices. Senior librarians get into trouble when people see, round the back of the library, the skips full of “deaccessioned” books. </p>
<p>In the global shift towards digital resources, libraries have been so trigger-happy in retiring physical holdings of newspapers and magazines, that some mastheads may no longer exist at all in physical form, their non-digital properties forever lost to research. Physical newspapers are not the only ones in trouble. Late in 2022, the National Library of Australia <a href="https://www.nla.gov.au/about-us/corporate-documents/corporate-strategies/trove-strategy">announced</a> that funding for its hugely popular online newspaper archive Trove would likely run out in mid-2023.</p>
<p>Just as dangerous for librarians is the offloading – sometimes sheepishly, sometimes flagrantly – of valuable items via suave, big-city book dealers and auction houses, such as Christies and Sotheby’s. </p>
<p>In the 1980s, for example, at a time of tight budgets and financial austerity, the John Rylands Library in Manchester auctioned 98 of its best books on the grounds that they were “duplicates”. But a closer look revealed many of the books were unique in important ways. The sale sparked an outcry; author Nicolas Barker likened the disposals to the sale of a trilith from Stonehenge.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/troves-funding-runs-out-in-july-2023-and-the-national-library-is-threatening-to-pull-the-plug-its-time-for-a-radical-overhaul-197025">Trove's funding runs out in July 2023 – and the National Library is threatening to pull the plug. It's time for a radical overhaul</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The benefits of hindsight</h2>
<p>Librarians get in trouble when books leave – and when books arrive.</p>
<p>At the start of the 17th century, Sir Thomas Bodley revived one of the great Oxford libraries. He had firm ideas about what constituted “worthy books” for the revitalised collection. They certainly did not include “such books as almanacks, plays and an infinite number, that are daily printed, of very unworthy matters”. When Dr Thomas James, Bodley’s librarian, allowed such volumes into the collection, he earned a sharp rebuke. After Bodley’s death, James collected them with gusto.</p>
<p>With 400 years of hindsight, we can see Bodley’s definition of a worthy book was biased and fallible. His definition left out the first published works of Shakespeare, as well as many other early modern works of exceptional cultural and literary interest. </p>
<p>With our super-powered hindsight, we can also see that his 17th-century value judgements reflected explicit and implicit prejudices about class, gender, nationality, ethnicity, religion, high and low culture, and politics.</p>
<p>Of course, the same is true about curatorial judgements today. There is no such thing as an apolitical archive. Even an archive that is assiduously bipartisan or multi-partisan will still reflect choices about the scope and balance of the represented perspectives.</p>
<p>Right now, at our strange social moment, in which “woke” – a synonym for (racial) respect – is wielded as a politicised insult, archival work is even more political than usual.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503948/original/file-20230111-4937-2w4dwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503948/original/file-20230111-4937-2w4dwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503948/original/file-20230111-4937-2w4dwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503948/original/file-20230111-4937-2w4dwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503948/original/file-20230111-4937-2w4dwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503948/original/file-20230111-4937-2w4dwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503948/original/file-20230111-4937-2w4dwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503948/original/file-20230111-4937-2w4dwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sir Thomas Bodley revived the Bodleian Library at Oxford in 1602.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Remi Mathis/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Danger areas</h2>
<p>How things leave and how they arrive are just two of the danger areas for archivists. Archives are full of hazards, including light, air conditioners, thieves and careless handling.</p>
<p>Fakes are another danger. Bogus Socratic scrolls famously infiltrated the ancient Library of Alexandria. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Wrenn Library (subsequently in the University of Texas) and the British Library accumulated large holdings of Thomas Wise editions in the years before he was exposed as an audacious forger.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503934/original/file-20230111-17-2myde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503934/original/file-20230111-17-2myde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503934/original/file-20230111-17-2myde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503934/original/file-20230111-17-2myde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503934/original/file-20230111-17-2myde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=792&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503934/original/file-20230111-17-2myde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503934/original/file-20230111-17-2myde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503934/original/file-20230111-17-2myde9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=995&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thomas Wise (1859-1937).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>How should today’s archivists chart a course through this perilous terrain?</p>
<p>Most archival mistakes are the result of a failure to do something that is right but difficult, or doing something that is wrong but easy.</p>
<p>In the “easy but wrong” category, simple mistakes have led to the preventable damage of art, artefacts and books. The photo modification at the US National Archives was a grave dereliction of archival duty, but it was an easy path to follow, and technically a simple thing to do.</p>
<p>For an example of “difficult but right”, we need only consider that for much of the 20th century, Western “memory institutions” largely reflected a white and chauvinistic view of worthy items. It was hard for archivists to retain evidence from the cultural fringes. But many forward-looking archivists and institutions swam against the official and political tide, assembling collections focused on women, civil rights, banned books, queer literature and “low” literature, such as the cheap magazines known as “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine">pulps</a>”.</p>
<p>With hindsight, we can see that retaining and conserving those collections was emphatically the right choice. Banned and marginal texts are essential to several grand human projects, including filling in silences and erasures, and building foundations for a fairer and more inclusive society.</p>
<p>There are still obstacles to representation and inclusion, but the argument has largely been won. Recovering women’s history, decolonising the archive, queering the archive – these have all rightly become mainstream endeavours.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/as-libraries-go-digital-paper-books-still-have-a-lot-to-offer-us-133741">As libraries go digital, paper books still have a lot to offer us</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Contentious material</h2>
<p>One of the most difficult frontiers for archivists today is whether and how to record social and political phenomena that progressive people would rather did not exist. </p>
<p>We have just come through the Trump era (or phase one of the Trump era) and we are still going through the COVID era. Both eras have spawned populist, sometimes militant and incendiary literatures and discourses.</p>
<p>In Melbourne, the State Library of Victoria is collecting pandemic-era imagery, including photos of anti-vax graffiti and anti-government protests. With the help of that library and other institutions, the National Library of Australia is keeping anti-vax, “pro-freedom” websites and social media posts.</p>
<p>Holding this kind of material is a challenge and a paradox for archives. The anti-vax sites are symptoms of anti-truth forces that are anathema to archives’ truth-telling goals. In the 19th century, the forger Thomas Wise relished the credibility that came from the British Library holding his publications. Now, the anti-vaxxers celebrate the official preservation of their material as a similar badge of legitimacy.</p>
<p>But no matter how obnoxious or fantastical, these records are historically relevant. They are part of the full story of politics and activism in Australia. For future scholars looking to understand the COVID era, the records will be invaluable.</p>
<p>Archivists cannot and should not blind humanity to its own mistakes. But the best archivists also know the importance of context when conserving and presenting difficult material. The records from the COVID fringe need proper and honest framing.</p>
<p>Such framing would acknowledge that the anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists did not represent a majority view, or even a significant minority one. It would also acknowledge the influence of misinformation and conspiracy theories beyond the fringe: on vaccine hesitancy, for example, and on the tactics of mainstream political parties that flirted with and even courted the anti-vax vote.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503936/original/file-20230111-14-988uir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503936/original/file-20230111-14-988uir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503936/original/file-20230111-14-988uir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503936/original/file-20230111-14-988uir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503936/original/file-20230111-14-988uir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503936/original/file-20230111-14-988uir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503936/original/file-20230111-14-988uir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503936/original/file-20230111-14-988uir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anti-vaccination rally, Brisbane, March 15, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darren England/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-war-in-ukraine-shows-how-libraries-play-a-vital-role-in-challenging-disinformation-190514">The war in Ukraine shows how libraries play a vital role in challenging disinformation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The value of archives</h2>
<p>Preserving the story of humankind: that is the noble goal of archives, libraries and museums. It can sometimes seem like an abstract luxury, but it is actually very tangible, and essential. Without evidence, there can be no history. And without history, we can’t understand ourselves or chart a good course into the future.</p>
<p>The clichéd image of archival work as dusty, dull and benign is a long way from the truth. Archivists are continually making hard decisions at the sharp edges of politics and social change.</p>
<p>What can society do to help? We need a wide conversation to better understand the nature and value of archival work, and the limits of what archivists can do. We need to give archivists an explicit licence and the necessary resources to continue to make difficult decisions.</p>
<p>For that to work, the community needs to protect archivists from politicians and narrow interests. Only then will archivists feel safe to be transparent about what they are keeping, why they are keeping it, and the judgements they are applying in order to put the holdings in their proper context.</p>
<p>Looking back over the past two millennia, archivists have made every kind of curatorial mistake. They have rejected worthy items, let in unworthy ones, mishandled objects in their care, and fallen prey to fakers and frauds. But only rarely have they lost sight of their core purpose.</p>
<p>On the big issues of our time, we should trust archivists to make the right calls. And we should give them our understanding and protection so they can do their work in peace.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-library-humanist-ideal-social-glue-and-now-tourism-hotspot-116432">Friday essay: the library – humanist ideal, social glue and now, tourism hotspot</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197013/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Kells does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In a post-truth era, with limited resources, archivists face difficult decisions about what should be preserved, but the problem is not new.Stuart Kells, Adjunct Professor, College of Arts, Social Sciences and Commerce, La Trobe UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1970252022-12-23T00:16:35Z2022-12-23T00:16:35ZTrove’s funding runs out in July 2023 – and the National Library is threatening to pull the plug. It’s time for a radical overhaul<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502523/original/file-20221222-19-gfc61n.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C3%2C2029%2C1124&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">National Library of Australia</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The National Library is threatening to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/national-library-s-treasure-trove-under-threat-from-budget-cuts-20221212-p5c5m6.html">pull the plug</a> on Trove, its free online service that provides public access to collections from Australian libraries, universities, museums, galleries and archives.</p>
<p>In its recent <a href="https://www.nla.gov.au/about-us/corporate-documents/corporate-strategies/trove-strategy">Trove Strategy</a>, the library has indicated that without additional government support, it will shut the service down by July next year:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The future of Trove beyond July 2023 will be dependent upon available funds […] In a limited funding environment, Trove may reduce to a service focused on the National Library of Australia’s collections. Without any additional funds, the Library will need to cease offering the Trove service entirely.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s been nearly seven years since <a href="https://theconversation.com/treasure-trove-why-defunding-trove-leaves-australia-poorer-55217">the #fundTrove campaign</a>, a response to budget cuts to the National Library of Australia in 2016. (These were part of the Turnbull government’s “efficiency dividend”, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/budget-cuts-will-have-a-grave-impact-on-the-national-library-staff-told-20160222-gn0co2.html">which cut</a> $20 million from the budgets of six Canberra-based cultural institutions over four years.)</p>
<p>That campaign resulted in a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-20/national-library-of-australia-gets-funding-for-trove-in-myefo/8136738">government funding package</a> for Trove intended to rescue the popular service, which was topped up with more cash <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7535719/national-film-and-sound-archive-to-get-419m-boost-to-save-at-risk-items/">last year</a>.</p>
<p>But in recent months it has become increasingly clear the National Library of Australia was never cured of its funding ills, and Trove was just on life support. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1606050661451251712"}"></div></p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/treasure-trove-why-defunding-trove-leaves-australia-poorer-55217">Treasure Trove: why defunding Trove leaves Australia poorer</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Threats to public access</h2>
<p>Launched more than a decade ago, Trove now contains more than <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/about/what-trove">6 billion digital items</a>. Users can find information about books, journals, maps and archives without incurring any charges. There are digitised newspapers and magazines, photographs, web archives, parliamentary papers, reports, theses and more. </p>
<p>The content comes not just from the National Library’s collections, but from almost 1,000 contributing organisations around the country. Many of these organisations also provide funding to Trove, subsidising more than 40% of its current operating costs.</p>
<p>For many people – and not just academic researchers – Trove is now part of their daily lives. The service boasts more than 22 million visits per year: around 63,000 a day on average. Trove is one of only two Australian government websites in Australia’s top 15 global internet domains – the other is the ABC. </p>
<p>The repeated threats to the public’s access to nationally significant collections are part of a broader malaise. Australia’s national collecting institutions have been hobbled by funding cuts and debilitating <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/submissions/ncp0283-community-and-public-sector-union-cpsu.pdf">efficiency dividends</a> for decades, with the some of the deepest cuts occurring in the years since Trove was launched. </p>
<p>Reduced access to these publicly funded resources is more than an inconvenience: it is an <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-real-history-war-is-the-attack-on-our-archives-and-libraries-20220907-p5bg1z.html">attack</a> on democratic accountability.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-good-is-a-new-national-cultural-policy-without-history-188741">What good is a new national cultural policy without history?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Trove needs a radical overhaul</h2>
<p>We believe Trove and the National Library deserve better than ad hoc injections of cash – there’s little value in a one-shot dose of vitamins if you are suffering from malnutrition. We’ll just all be back in the emergency room again in another few years.</p>
<p>Trove itself needs a radical overhaul. What is currently a Frankenstein’s monster of dead and mouldering technologies and systems needs more than just cosmetic surgery. It needs to be rebuilt from the ground up as an essential component of national library services.</p>
<p>On this note, we might ask why Trove is yet again the part of the library that ends up terminal. There is no suggestion that without additional funding the library’s catalogue will be shut down, or the shelves sold and the books kept on the floor, or the oral history collection deleted to save on server space. Such things would be unthinkable.</p>
<p>The fact that the demise of Trove remains thinkable means it is still seen (by some at least) as an optional extra rather than a vital organ. Public access should not be the first sacrificial offering every time there is a budget crisis. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1605493525876944897"}"></div></p>
<h2>All our cultural institutions need sustainable funding</h2>
<p>We also know the impact of chronic underfunding runs far deeper than Trove. After years of neglect, the roof of the National Library’s heritage building is currently being repaired, restricting public access to significant collections material for months. It shouldn’t be this way.</p>
<p>Other peak cultural institutions are faring no better. The National Archives of Australia was left <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/archive-passes-the-hat-in-desperate-bid-to-save-australia-s-history-20210516-p57sb3.html">begging for public donations</a> to save parts of its collections before a one-off dose of funding. The National Gallery of Australia has a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-12/nga-chair-sends-letter-to-arts-minister/101761416">$265 million budget shortfall</a> that could lead to extensive job losses and reduced opening hours. The National Film and Sound Archive is losing the battle to preserve thousands of hours of film, television and audio stored on obsolete and deteriorating media. </p>
<p>Only the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/16/former-war-memorial-heads-join-call-to-redirect-500m-for-grandiose-expansion-to-veterans">Australian War Memorial</a> seems in rude health.</p>
<p>Yet here we are, sitting at Trove’s bedside, begging the government for another injection – when far more sustained and holistic treatment is required.</p>
<p>We need a comprehensive health strategy for all our national cultural institutions. We need sustainable, recurrent funding, rather than just a series of booster shots. And we need government investment that recognises that access to our national and state collections – including via digital platforms like Trove – is essential for researchers and writers, family historians, school students, and the incurably curious.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197025/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Seven years after the #fundtrove campaign, the National Library’s Trove is once again under threat – and it’s part of a broader neglect of Australia’s cultural institutions.Mike Jones, Postdoctoral research fellow, Australian National UniversityDeb Verhoeven, Visiting Fellow, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1908172022-11-21T13:15:09Z2022-11-21T13:15:09ZThis course teaches how to judge a book by its cover - and its pages, print and other elements of its design<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486605/original/file-20220926-17-5lozzg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C0%2C3894%2C1991&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Books have shaped societies throughout the ages.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/old-books?assettype=image&license=rf&alloweduse=availableforalluses&agreements=pa%3A144323&family=creative&page=5&phrase=old%20books&sort=best">normallens via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Course Title:</h2>
<p>“For the Love of Books”</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>The idea for the class came from seeing University of Richmond students interact with the rare books and archival collections. Their curiosity about historic texts was not just with how the materials were made and used, but also with how these particular volumes survived and became a part of the university’s collection. </p>
<p>The course is offered as a <a href="https://fys.richmond.edu/">first-year seminar</a>. It is designed to focus on a specific topic while deepening students’ understanding of the world and of themselves as they build stronger research and communication skills. </p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>The many ways the word <a href="https://lithub.com/what-exactly-do-we-mean-by-a-book/">“book”</a> can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-018-9622-z">defined</a>
in the digital age. For most students, books are for homework or reading for pleasure, but I ask them to look deeper into the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/what-is-a-book/361876/">concept of a book</a> by analyzing books through four themes: object, content, technology and art.</p>
<p>For books as objects, we look at books through their <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/video-dept/anatomy-of-a-book">anatomy</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/02/19/books/how-a-book-is-made.html">structure</a>, including <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/papermaking/Natural-fibres-other-than-wood">paper</a> and material form. Students then explore books as content, including how books are written, sold, read, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/07/style/rare-used-book-collectors.html">collected</a> and, sometimes, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220921-the-dangerous-books-too-powerful-to-read">banned</a>. </p>
<p>Changes in the technology of book production – the printing press in Europe after 1450 and <a href="https://historycooperative.org/the-history-of-e-books/">the evolution of the digital book</a> going into the new millennium – brought new ways to access information. Technology like <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2019/02/dna-books-artifacts/582814/">DNA sampling</a> of older books has helped scholars explore where they were made by studying samples from the parchment skins. New <a href="https://thedebrief.org/could-augmented-reality-change-how-we-read-paper-books/">virtual and augmented reality</a> technologies allow readers to experience books in new ways.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>When students focus on how the transmission of information has <a href="https://informationmatters.org/2022/01/the-history-of-information-science-in-30-seconds/">changed over time</a>, they use <a href="https://archaeologyofreading.org/historiography/">books</a> as a lens for social and cultural analysis. Exploring books as a communications technology, students develop a stronger understanding of how books have long influenced literacy, economics, <a href="https://uxdesign.cc/how-the-oldest-form-of-written-technology-became-the-basis-of-the-internet-27f1c23f955d">technology</a>, art and culture. In so doing, they also learn the histories, traditions and labor involved in the creation and distribution of information.</p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>By choosing to focus on the history of books, the lesson is hopefully that what might appear to be something simple can often be deeply complex, far more meaningful and have more of an impact than students might expect. For instance, there has been a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/organized-groups-fuel-rapid-rise-us-book-banning-report-says-2022-09-19/">recent rise in requests</a> to ban books in schools and libraries. By exploring the long history of <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/history-of-book-bans-in-the-united-states">book censorship</a>, students can better understand the context of current events within that larger history.</p>
<p>Students also get firsthand experience with historical forms of printing. For example, students have the opportunity to hand-set type, letterpress print, and make different types of books as part of the hands-on work in class.</p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>• Tom Mole, “<a href="https://tommole.org/the-secret-life-of-books/">The Secret Life of Books</a>” </p>
<p>• Amaranth Borsuk, “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262535410/the-book/">The Book</a>” </p>
<p>• Melissa M. Bender & Karma Waltonen, “<a href="https://broadviewpress.com/product/whos-your-source/#tab-description">Who’s Your Source? A Writer’s Guide to Effectively Evaluating and Ethically Using Resources</a>”</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>Books are physical artifacts that connect today’s students with people from long ago and from faraway places, but books are also agents of change that have influenced societies and cultures for centuries. Students will be able to trace the history of the book and the exchange of information and ideas over time in a way that helps them understand both the historical context and how that continues to shape their world today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190817/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lynda Kachurek does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Books are one of the oldest forms of communication ‘technology,’ a scholar writes, and understanding how they’ve evolved over time provides insights into their role in society.Lynda Kachurek, Head of Book Arts, Archives, & Rare Books, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1905142022-09-26T18:12:55Z2022-09-26T18:12:55ZThe war in Ukraine shows how libraries play a vital role in challenging disinformation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485393/original/file-20220919-2934-5tzrx6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4904%2C2511&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The library at the Barockhaus Museum in Görlitz, Germany. Libraries play a vital role in preserving texts and challenging disinformation. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Libraries have always been places of knowledge. For many of us, they offer insight into the socio-cultural and political changes happening around the world. I see this regularly as a librarian developing collections in Slavic and East European studies for the <a href="https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/">University of Toronto Libraries</a>.</p>
<p>The content on library shelves reflects the culture around us. It may mirror changes in ideologies, popular culture and political leadership. Consider the many <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/books/trump-books.html">White House memoirs and exposés</a> that were published during Donald Trump’s presidency. And think about all the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/learning/books-about-covid-19-pandemic#a-stunning-novel-spanning-six-months-in-the-pandemic-3">fiction, poetry and graphic novels</a> inspired by COVID-19. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Book cover" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485156/original/file-20220917-30193-hxe2mm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485156/original/file-20220917-30193-hxe2mm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485156/original/file-20220917-30193-hxe2mm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485156/original/file-20220917-30193-hxe2mm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=862&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485156/original/file-20220917-30193-hxe2mm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485156/original/file-20220917-30193-hxe2mm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485156/original/file-20220917-30193-hxe2mm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1083&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Crimea Forever with Russia by Sergey Baburin is one of the books on Ukraine’s list of banned Russian texts. (Kmbook)</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Literature also plays a significant role in times of war. It can be used to justify or oppose conflict. Such content can take the form of scholarly analysis, journalistic investigation, fictional musing and even propaganda. </p>
<h2>Information as weapon</h2>
<p>I became acutely aware of propaganda beginning in 2014. Russian books shipped to Toronto brought the faraway politics of Moscow to my desk in a very real way. The university library received works titled <em>Crimea Forever with Russia</em>, <em>Ukraine: Chaos and Revolution as Weapons of the Dollar</em> and <em>The Battlefield is Ukraine: The Broken Trident</em>. </p>
<p>The authors of these books made historical and legal arguments for the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Ukraine/The-crisis-in-Crimea-and-eastern-Ukraine">reintegration of Crimea with Russian</a>. These publications deny or ridicule the existence of a Ukrainian state and nation with its own distinct language and customs. They blamed the U.S. and NATO for backing the <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CO%5CR%5COrangeRevolution.htm">Orange Revolution</a> and <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CE%5CU%5CEuromaidanRevolution.htm">Maidan Uprising</a> to break up the “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/putin-approves-new-foreign-policy-doctrine-based-russian-world-2022-09-05/">Russian World</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Blue book cover with text in Ukranian and the dates 1932 and 1933." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485158/original/file-20220917-32364-9oryx9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485158/original/file-20220917-32364-9oryx9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485158/original/file-20220917-32364-9oryx9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485158/original/file-20220917-32364-9oryx9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=834&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485158/original/file-20220917-32364-9oryx9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485158/original/file-20220917-32364-9oryx9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/485158/original/file-20220917-32364-9oryx9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1048&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Holodomor 1932-1933 by Vasily Marochko is one of the books on Russia’s list of extremist material.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://archive.org/details/marochko2007/mode/2up">(Internet Archive)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ukraine’s State Committee of Television and Radio Broadcasting reviews and restricts content deemed “anti-Ukrainian.” There are currently 300 titles on the committee’s list of publications aimed at “<a href="http://comin.kmu.gov.ua/control/uk/publish/printable_article?art_id=181891">eliminating the independence of Ukraine</a>.” </p>
<p>Chytomo, an online media outlet that covers publishing in Ukraine, has compiled and published a subset of the <a href="https://chytomo.com/en/fifty-propaganda-books-against-ukraine-and-incitement-to-hatred-against-ukrainians-from-russian-publishers/">fifty most egregious examples</a>.</p>
<p>Ukraine is not alone in censoring literature. Russia’s Ministry of Justice maintains <a href="http://pravo.minjust.ru/extremist-materials">a federal list of extremist materials</a>. It includes over 5300 articles, books, songs and other online content. Works considered extremist include texts critical of Russian authorities, publications by Muslim theologians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientologists and content related to Ukraine. Banned Ukrainian books cover topics such as the <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CF%5CA%5CFamine6Genocideof1932hD73.htm">Holodomor</a> and 20th century Ukrainian liberation movements.</p>
<h2>Propaganda in university libraries</h2>
<p>The University of Toronto Libraries are not alone in holding copies of books banned by Ukraine or Russia. According to <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/about">WorldCat</a>, 44 out of 50 titles on Chytomo’s list are held by more than one library in North America. These titles are in the most prestigious academic libraries in the United States, such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, the University of Chicago and Duke.</p>
<p>Additionally, members of the <a href="https://www.eccslavic.org/projects">East Coast Consortium of Slavic Library Collections</a> acquire and preserve materials that have been banned in Ukraine and Russia.</p>
<p>Libraries emphasize free and equitable access to information and strive to build balanced collections. The <a href="https://repository.ifla.org/bitstream/123456789/1850/1/IFLA%20Code%20of%20Ethics%20for%20Librarians%20and%20Other%20Information%20Workers%20%28Long%20Version%29.pdf">professional code of ethics</a> requires librarians to respect intellectual freedom, which is the right of every individual to seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction. We reject restrictions on access to material based on partisan or doctrinal disapproval, whether by individuals, governments or religious and civic institutions.</p>
<p>Hitler’s Mein Kampf or the collected works of Stalin can serve as primary sources to study society at a particular moment. Inflammatory material of the present serves the same function. </p>
<p><a href="https://europeancollections.wordpress.com/2022/08/20/russian-publications-provocateurs-and-the-war-against-ukraine/">Mel Bach, a librarian at the University of Cambridge, writes</a> that libraries “buy material that is distasteful and worse, from around the world, giving readers present and future the chance to study the extremes that are, devastatingly, part of reality.” </p>
<p>Purchasing such material does not mean that libraries approve of the contents.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486166/original/file-20220922-30324-1yfirt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman wearing a yellow shirt reaches out for a book on a shelf." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486166/original/file-20220922-30324-1yfirt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486166/original/file-20220922-30324-1yfirt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486166/original/file-20220922-30324-1yfirt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486166/original/file-20220922-30324-1yfirt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486166/original/file-20220922-30324-1yfirt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486166/original/file-20220922-30324-1yfirt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486166/original/file-20220922-30324-1yfirt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Libraries have a responsibility to allow people to access information without restrictions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Dealing with disinformation</h2>
<p>Dealing with propaganda in its most injurious form — disinformation — requires that students and researchers possess information literacy skills. These skills include the ability to locate, critically evaluate and effectively use information to create new understandings of the world around us. Mastering these competencies will help people distinguish valid or trustworthy facts from ones that intend harm or spur violence. </p>
<p>The Russian government’s use of anti-Ukrainian disinformation to justify its war has led to <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/news/2022/08/ukraine-civilian-casualty-update-15-august-2022">civilian deaths</a>, massive destruction and the threat of <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-signs-decree-mobilisation-says-west-wants-destroy-russia-2022-09-21/">nuclear devastation</a>. <a href="https://mkip.gov.ua/news/7647.html">Numerous libraries, book collections</a> and other <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/damaged-cultural-sites-ukraine-verified-unesco">cultural sites</a> have been damaged or lost.</p>
<p>Placing propagandist works on bookshelves next to scholarship on similar topics can lend legitimacy to disinformation and war propaganda. People may develop beliefs based on what information is available to them and eventually accept that information as fact.</p>
<p>Laura Saunders of Simmons University <a href="https://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/2013/papers/Saunders_Information.pdf">succinctly sums up the ethical question of libraries and weaponized information</a>. She asks “whether there are better or more responsible ways of collecting, organizing and making accessible information that is known to be inaccurate or discredited so that it is not being censored but also is not being promoted as a legitimate or authoritative source.”</p>
<p>Librarians have a responsibility to teach their users to evaluate the credibility and validity of information. We should verify that the information added to our library shelves is trustworthy and help introduce healthy scepticism into their critical thinking to uncover the biases and motivations behind the content we offer them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190514/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ksenya Kiebuzinski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Libraries play a crucial role in preserving texts, even controversial ones. They are responsible for teaching people how to evaluate the credibility and validity of information.Ksenya Kiebuzinski, Slavic Resources Coordinator, and Head, Petro Jacyk Resource Centre, University of Toronto Libraries, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1903252022-09-21T12:36:32Z2022-09-21T12:36:32ZBeing a librarian isn’t just about books – it’s about helping everyone get access to information and resources<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485146/original/file-20220916-8328-ng9k84.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6019%2C4000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As the pandemic continues to pose new challenges, libraries are finding ways to better meet the needs of their communities.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/schoolgirls-reading-books-in-school-library-royalty-free-image/1049277458">Klaus Vedfelt/DigitalVision via GettyImages</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://ischool.uw.edu/people/faculty/profile/mhmarti">Michelle Martin</a> is the Beverly Cleary Professor for Children and Youth Services in the Information School at the University of Washington. She primarily teaches students who will be youth services librarians who work with children and young adults in libraries or other information science spaces. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation U.S. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.</em> </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ufquQqIoAfc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Conversation speaks with Michelle Martin, a professor at the University of Washington, about the role of libraries today and how they’re adapting to our modern lives.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>How did you get to where you are today?</strong></p>
<p>I have a doctorate in English, specializing in children’s and young adult literature. I spent the first half of my 25-year career in English departments, teaching education and English majors. And then I shifted to social science when I joined the University of South Carolina’s library school in 2011. Since 2016, I have taught future librarians at University of Washington in the Information School (which began as the Library School).</p>
<p><strong>What would surprise someone about the work you do if they don’t know about what you study?</strong></p>
<p>Some of <a href="https://sophia.stkate.edu/rdyl/vol1/iss1/4/">my publications</a> have more to do with children in books than with real children who read books. Those who study children’s literature from an English studies perspective look at children’s books as literary and artistic artifacts and attend to aspects like the art, character development and applying different theoretical readings to texts for young people rather than focusing on what children and young adults do with books. But I care deeply about children and how they interact with books, which is often more of a focus of those who teach children’s literature in library science and education departments. My teaching, research and service cross all three disciplines. </p>
<p>A lot of the work that I do now really <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/01/why-generations-children-love-snowy-day/605044/">helps adults</a> understand the <a href="https://www.hbook.com/story/black-kids-camp-too">importance of exposing children</a> to diverse perspectives in books and for children to be able to see their own experiences in the books that they read. The books that you grew up on might not necessarily be good for or the most entertaining to children you’re working with now. </p>
<p>I need to really do my homework and read widely to be able to teach and recommend books that represent kids’ life experiences and families who come from different backgrounds.</p>
<p><strong>How has the role of libraries shifted as a result of the pandemic?</strong></p>
<p>Libraries have been under a lot of the same stresses that everyone else has. But even though many libraries closed physically, they continued to <a href="https://www.spl.org/about-us/library-impact/2020-impact-report/a-look-back">serve their communities</a>. Libraries have worked hard to to meet their communities where they are, especially those that have been hardest hit by the pandemic – from providing virtual storytimes to career assistance. For instance, many libraries extended their Wi-Fi into the parking lot so that parents could drive their kids to the library, download their homework and go home and do it. Even though many students had a laptop provided by the school, if they lived in rural areas where there’s no internet, they did not have what they needed to succeed in school. Libraries helped to support many of these families. </p>
<p>I’ve heard so many stories of ways libraries met the needs of the community during the pandemic, such as providing clothing or <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-more-public-libraries-are-doubling-as-food-distribution-hubs-160674">food</a> or enhancing information access by offering no-contact, curbside pickup, or turning personal vehicles into a bookmobiles to deliver books to those who could not get to the library.</p>
<p><strong>Some readers might think of libraries as institutions that don’t change. And maybe the pandemic has proved that libraries can adapt and change with the times as we need them to.</strong></p>
<p>I’m working on a research project right now called <a href="https://ischool.uw.edu/news/2019/11/project-voice-promises-social-justice-oriented-approach-library-outreach">Project VOICE</a> that seeks to help libraries plan outreach with, not for, their communities with a social justice lens and with participatory design. We recommend that librarians work closely with the community and community partner organizations to discern what the community’s assets and values are and take a strengths-based approach to creating outreach programs rather than the deficit model that focuses on weaknesses and needs.</p>
<p>We’re encouraging libraries to depart from the approach that says, “Hey, we’re the library, here’s what we do well. Can you use it?” and instead ask, “As members of this community, you know best what the community’s values and assets are. How can we, as the library, partner with you to support your goals and aspirations?”</p>
<p>Because communities across the country are more diverse than ever, and becoming more so, it’s really important for librarians to spend time and effort building relationships with those in the community. This will ensure that libraries continue to understand the nuances of how to best serve their community, especially as the face of that community changes rapidly.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190325/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Three research grants from Institute of Museum and Library Services</span></em></p>A scholar of literature for children and young adults shares her insights on how to better connect children with literature and libraries with their communities.Michelle H. Martin, Beverly Cleary Professor for Children & Youth Services, University of WashingtonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1887412022-08-18T01:26:02Z2022-08-18T01:26:02ZWhat good is a new national cultural policy without history?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479267/original/file-20220816-18-quy9wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C0%2C2580%2C1564&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">National Library of Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Alongside much else that is being revised, reimagined or recast by the Albanese government, Australia is to have a new <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/documents/creative-australia-national-cultural-policy">cultural policy</a>. Consultation has involved town hall meetings and a call for submissions. The arts minister, Tony Burke, has established five review panels to consider feedback. </p>
<p>First Nations artists and culture are at the centre of Burke’s invitation. The emphasis on the artist not just as creator but as worker responds to the pandemic’s devastating impact on the already-parlous circumstances in which artists and writers often live and work. </p>
<p>The other pillars of this cultural-policy-in-the-making highlight the diversity of stories and artists, building audiences and the strengthening of cultural institutions. </p>
<p>The review panels are brimming with respected and innovative <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/national-cultural-policy-review-panels">creators and producers</a>, with decades of collective experience. </p>
<p>But their coverage of the sector is patchy. Our concern as historians is with history, publishers and the “GLAM” sector – galleries, libraries, archives and museums. </p>
<p>While there is representation from galleries and collecting institutions on the panels, there is not a single historian, publisher or archivist whose feedback will help shape Australia’s cultural policy.</p>
<p>Given the importance of history in defining our sense of national selfhood, and the role publishers, libraries, archives and museums play in preserving, collecting and presenting Australian histories and stories, these fields being absent from the national cultural policy panels is a disappointing oversight. </p>
<h2>A sense of belonging</h2>
<p>History and historians play a crucial role in Australian culture. They are foundational to other fields in the arts, with historical research often underpinning film, theatre, literature and even, <a href="https://theconversation.com/bangarras-dark-emu-is-beautiful-but-lacks-the-punch-of-its-source-material-98628">on occasion</a>, dance. </p>
<p>A government serious about implementing a cultural policy for the future must make space for history and historians in the formulation of that policy.</p>
<p>History is both a scholarly pursuit and a widely shared leisure activity. Millions of Australians visit museums, archives, libraries and galleries each year, both <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/museums-libraries-and-galleries/impact-our-national-cultural-institutions">in person and online</a>. </p>
<p>Family history has become much more than just a popular hobby. It is integral to people’s sense of self and belonging, with First Nations people and migrant communities increasingly active. </p>
<p>Australians are involved in history and heritage in their communities. These activities are integral to identities of people and places, and especially regional places. They keep people active and connected with one another. </p>
<p>Community history and heritage needs to be at the heart of a democratic and inclusive cultural policy. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-it-comes-to-heritage-family-history-trumps-museums-144507">When it comes to heritage, family history trumps museums</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The place of history</h2>
<p>Historians feature in our media as expert commentators. They speak at writers’ festivals and in documentaries. </p>
<p>They publish histories and biographies that attract readers outside the circle of their colleagues and students. Some make podcasts and television programs. </p>
<p>Historians provide policy advice to government. They judge literary prizes and contribute to the making of the school curriculum. Historians work with community groups, including with Indigenous communities in native title cases, and they advise on cultural heritage. </p>
<p>The Prime Minister’s Literary Awards include a dedicated prize for Australian history. History is one of five subjects mandated in the national curriculum. Days of national commemoration, from Sorry Day to Anzac Day, mark significant events in Australia’s collective national memory. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479271/original/file-20220816-22-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Morning at the Australian National Maritime Museum, overlooking Pyrmont Bay. Features lighthouse, moored boats and modern high-rise buildings. Some visitors around." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479271/original/file-20220816-22-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479271/original/file-20220816-22-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479271/original/file-20220816-22-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479271/original/file-20220816-22-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479271/original/file-20220816-22-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479271/original/file-20220816-22-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479271/original/file-20220816-22-bojg8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Collecting institutions, like the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney, represent a priceless possession of the nation.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Both state and Commonwealth governments fund institutions which collect and preserve Australian history. At the federal level, the <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/what-we-do/museums-libraries-and-galleries/impact-our-national-cultural-institutions">national cultural institutions</a> perform this work. Together with the public broadcasters the ABC and SBS, they represent a priceless possession of the nation. </p>
<p>Writing and knowing Australian history would be impossible without them, and we would be a different – and lesser – people without such places. </p>
<h2>Struggling institutions</h2>
<p>Governments from both sides of politics have subjected these institutions to humiliating funding cuts. Labor first created “efficiency dividends” to reduce expenditure on our national cultural institutions in the late 1980s. </p>
<p>This initiative meant that every year, they received less funding, which a 2019 parliamentary business committee found had a “<a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/National_Capital_and_External_Territories/NationalInstitutions/Report">significant and compounding effect</a>”. </p>
<p>It got worse in 2015-16, when the Turnbull government disastrously imposed an additional 3% “<a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/National_Capital_and_External_Territories/NationalInstitutions/Report">efficiency target</a>” on these cultural institutions. </p>
<p>Such funding cuts no longer drive “efficiencies”. They diminish the quality of the user experience. Researchers at the National Archives report <a href="https://insidestory.org.au/the-wait-of-history/">long delays</a> – sometimes years – in gaining access to records that under the law of the land are supposed to be made available within 90 business days. </p>
<p>Our national cultural institutions no longer have sufficient funds to preserve the collections they maintain on our behalf. </p>
<p>The Archives only received an urgent injection of funds to preserve unique audio-visual records after a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/national-archives-need-support-to-preserve-our-unique-history-20220112-p59nl1.html">public campaign</a> in 2021. </p>
<p>In June, it was reported the maintenance backlog at the National Gallery of Australia is estimated to be <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7768966/nga-needs-67m-for-urgent-building-repairs/">A$67 million</a>. The ABC recently announced plans to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jun/08/abc-to-abolish-58-librarian-and-archivist-jobs-with-journalists-to-do-archival-work">slash</a> specialist archives and librarians. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479277/original/file-20220816-26-3peekd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A James Turrell work at the gallery." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479277/original/file-20220816-26-3peekd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479277/original/file-20220816-26-3peekd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479277/original/file-20220816-26-3peekd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479277/original/file-20220816-26-3peekd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479277/original/file-20220816-26-3peekd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479277/original/file-20220816-26-3peekd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/479277/original/file-20220816-26-3peekd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The maintenance backlog at the National Gallery of Australia is estimated to be A$67 million.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Cuts to funding came with the leaching of historical expertise from the boards and councils established to advise the national cultural institutions. </p>
<p>In the past, many distinguished historians have served on these bodies. Today, they are more likely to be defined by political appointees.</p>
<p>As Tony Burke commented <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/culture-in-crisis-arts-minister-tony-burke-slams-decade-of-neglect-20220630-p5ay3z.html">recently</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t see how you have a national museum with a board that does not include a single historian. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Neither do we. We further urge a stronger presence for history in cultural policy generally – and right now for the presence of historians in the constructing of a new policy document. </p>
<p>History is the very kind of creative and democratic practice that must be central to any reimagining of Australia in an age of anxiety and of promise.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/our-history-up-in-flames-why-the-crisis-at-the-national-archives-must-be-urgently-addressed-159804">Our history up in flames? Why the crisis at the National Archives must be urgently addressed</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Arrow receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is the Vice-President of the Australian Historical Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Bongiorno is President of the Australian Historical Association.</span></em></p>There is not a single historian, publisher or archivist on the review panels whose feedback will help shape Australia’s new cultural policyMichelle Arrow, Professor of History, Macquarie UniversityFrank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1881832022-08-08T15:47:01Z2022-08-08T15:47:01ZWas Philip Larkin stifled by his job as a librarian? New research suggests he was rather dedicated<p>Named Britain’s <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-50-greatest-british-writers-since-1945-ws3g69xrf90">greatest postwar writer</a> by the Times in 2008, Philip Larkin remains justly celebrated as a wry observer of life’s routines, banalities and quiet poignancies. He was a writer who once spoke of poetry as “enhancing the everyday”.</p>
<p>Yet much of Larkin’s reputation as a great British poet rests on the widely-held assumption that Larkin would have been greater still were it not for the demands of his day job as a librarian at the <a href="http://www.hull.ac.uk">University of Hull</a> between 1955 and 1985. In truth, there is much in Larkin’s poems and letters to support the view that Larkin was a reluctant librarian. </p>
<p>Now, as we celebrate the centenary of Philip Larkin’s birth in 1922, new research at the University of Hull’s <a href="https://www.hull.ac.uk/work-with-us/research/groups/larkin-centre-for-poetry-and-creative-writing">Larkin Centre for Poetry and Creative Writing</a> reveals Larkin’s dedication for his day job as a librarian at the University of Hull. </p>
<h2>The reluctant librarian?</h2>
<p>“Work is a kind of vacuum, an emptiness,” Larkin writes in a <a href="https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571239108-philip-larkin-letters-to-monica/">published letter</a> to his long-term companion, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2001/mar/15/guardianobituaries.books">Monica Jones</a>, soon after he arrives in Hull. “God, the people are awful,” (May 9 1955). Nine years later, in the poem <a href="http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/philip_larkin/poems/14541">Toads Revisited</a>, Larkin finds solace in the soothing routines of his day job. However, he continues to moan to Monica in the early 60s about the “woundy dull” work dinners he is forced to attend (28 November 1963).</p>
<p>Larkin’s reputation as a reluctant librarian is today cast in bronze, by Martin Jennings’ in his <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/item/DP174323">statue of Larkin</a> at Hull Paragon Railway Station. In it, the poet is seen dashing for a train to London and fretting, in lines from the <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48411/the-whitsun-weddings">The Whitsun Weddings</a>, about being “late getting away” from work.</p>
<p>Yet, while there is evidence to suggest Larkin found his work as a librarian distracting and dull, we must guard against taking what he says in his poems and published letters at face value.</p>
<p>Larkin confesses, in an unpublished letter to Monica Jones, which now resides in Hull’s <a href="https://www.hullhistorycentre.org.uk/home.aspx">university archives</a>, that “my remarks about myself are not very trustworthy”, and “are invariably designed to conceal rather than reveal” (June 1 1951).</p>
<p>This suggestion that Larkin’s private letters are not always reliable finds echoes in the words of Larkin’s contemporary, the Hull academic <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Saville">John Saville</a>, whose correspondence with and about Larkin survives in the university archives. Writing to the Guardian in a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/oct/20/guardianletters2">letter</a> published on October 20 1999, Saville notes the disjunction between the views Larkin expresses in “private letters” and his “courteous and helpful” demeanour as a librarian. </p>
<p>Saville draws on his working relationship with Larkin for three decades to argue that Andrew Motion, in his 1993 biography <a href="https://www.faber.co.uk/product/9780571346677-philip-larkin-a-writers-life/">Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life</a>, “pays too little attention to Philip’s working life as a serious and conscientious librarian”.</p>
<h2>New light on Larkin’s ‘day job’</h2>
<p>New research at Hull’s Larkin Centre is beginning to corroborate this picture of Larkin as a dedicated librarian, drawing on little-known records in Hull’s university archives of Larkin at work. These include minutes of library committees, records of Larkin’s correspondence as a librarian, and interviews with Larkin for the University of Hull student newspaper, The Torchlight.</p>
<p>The Larkin we encounter in these archives is instead an energetic figure, posing for staff photos and even contributing a self-portrait for a library staff Christmas party in 1963. He was so proud of the library and its collections that he expresses genuine surprise at student criticism of the library in a November 1969 issue of The Torchlight. </p>
<p>“I was under the impression,” Larkin writes to the editor of Torchlight, “that the Library is the one thing in the University of Hull which its students can claim is better than in any other university of our age and size.”</p>
<p>It would seem Larkin was quite proud of the library at Hull and in his poetry, he expressed the importance and value of such institutions for everyone, particularly in the poem <a href="https://allpoetry.com/Library-Ode">Library Ode</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>New eyes each year<br>
Find old books here,<br>
And new books, too,<br>
Old eyes renew;<br>
So youth and age<br>
Like ink and page<br>
In this house join,<br>
Minting new coin. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The views Larkin expresses in one poem or collection of letters, therefore, are not always consistent with the views he expresses in other contexts. No one poem, archive or collection of letters can give us direct access to Larkin “the man”.</p>
<p>In an interview for Torchlight in February 1961, Larkin was asked directly, “Do you feel you are two people?” “Reading your poetry,” the interviewer continues, “I get the impression that the poet thinks the librarian is in a rut: does the librarian want to get out of the rut?” </p>
<p>Larkin had written to Monica Jones just four years beforehand, on January 29 1957, to confess he was “playing the fool” as a librarian with “nothing to show for it” as a poet. But to the student reporter, Larkin’s reply was far more positive about his dual role as poet and librarian: “I’m not two people for tax purposes. And in fact the poet feels very grateful to the librarian. He keeps them both.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/188183/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Mottram receives funding from Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The research for this article was undertaken with colleagues from the University of Hull's Larkin Centre for Poetry and Creative Writing. Special thanks to Laura Birkinshaw and Dr Catherine Wynne, and thanks also to archivist Claire Weatherall at Hull University Archives. </span></em></p>He was the poet who asked, ‘Why should I let the toad work Squat on my life?’ but new evidence suggests Larkin was proud of his library job.Stewart Mottram, Reader in English, University of HullLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1851062022-08-04T19:13:13Z2022-08-04T19:13:13ZLibraries in the U.S. and Canada are changing how they refer to Indigenous Peoples<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476754/original/file-20220729-13615-c92z10.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C134%2C6000%2C3781&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Changes to search terms, through guidance from Indigenous communities and library experts, can align systems with everyday language, but can't invalidate the terms people use to refer to themselves.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The two largest agencies responsible for the language we use to discover books in libraries in North America — the Library of Congress in the United States, and Library and Archives Canada — are changing how they refer to Indigenous Peoples. </p>
<p>Recently, <a href="https://connect.ala.org/core/discussion/sac-2022-annual-meeting-lc-ptcp-report">the Library of Congress announced</a> that by September 2022 a project would be underway to revise terms that refer to Indigenous Peoples. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/transparency/briefing/2019-transition-material/Pages/ph-canadian-subject-headings-indigenous-peoples.aspx">Beginning in 2019</a>, Library and Archives Canada made changes within Canadian subject headings, starting with replacing outdated terminology with “Indigenous peoples” and “First Nations,” and adding terms that specify Métis and other specific nations and peoples. </p>
<p>It is important to acknowledge what these library changes can and cannot do, and the need for consultation with and guidance from Indigenous communities and Indigenous library workers. This is a departure from business as usual for maintaining these systems. </p>
<h2>Library indexing</h2>
<p>Both Library of Congress and Library and Archives Canada manage the term lists used in public and academic libraries throughout both countries. </p>
<p>When a book is published, library workers use lists of approved terms to indicate the subject or topic of the book. These terms determine how the book can be found in a library search and may even be printed on the copyright page of the book itself. The catalogue record then gets copied to each library that holds a copy of the book.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/libraries-can-have-3-d-printers-but-they-are-still-about-books-120728">Libraries can have 3-D printers but they are still about books</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Outdated terminology such as “Indians of North America” has remained in these term lists despite changing use in society and no longer matches the language used in the books themselves. The management of these terms lists last made international news when politicians interfered in a change from <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-bias-hiding-in-your-library-111951">“illegal aliens” to “undocumented immigrants</a>.”</p>
<h2>Revisions to systems</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476761/original/file-20220729-13352-1i30jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A poster is seen on a door of a man that says READ." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476761/original/file-20220729-13352-1i30jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476761/original/file-20220729-13352-1i30jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476761/original/file-20220729-13352-1i30jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476761/original/file-20220729-13352-1i30jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476761/original/file-20220729-13352-1i30jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476761/original/file-20220729-13352-1i30jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476761/original/file-20220729-13352-1i30jd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Older language to refer to Indigenous Peoples is being updated by libraries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(htomren/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The heading “Indians of North America” has been part of these lists since the Library of Congress Subject Headings were first standardized and shared with libraries <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Library-of-Congress">more than a century ago</a>. </p>
<p>Library researchers and librarians hope revisions to existing systems will reduce some of the friction of using the library for Indigenous and decolonizing research.
This friction relates both to materials being categorized strangely, and how the use of older terms like “Indians of North America” could negatively affect some members of Indigenous communities, even while there <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/1185964">are a diversity of views that exist in Indigenous communities about identity labels</a>. </p>
<h2>1,000 terms under review</h2>
<p>Since 2015, the Manitoba Archival Information Network has <a href="https://main.lib.umanitoba.ca/indigenous-subject-headings">shared a list of more than 1,000 terms relating to Indigenous Peoples</a> with suggestions for more accurate and respectful language. Many of the recommended changes use the term “Indigenous peoples,” which exists in the term lists already. </p>
<p>Right now, adding a geographic term to the end, as in “Indigenous peoples — Asia” is a permitted heading, except in the case of the Americas. At present, terms like “Indigenous peoples — United States” and “First Nations (North America)” redirect to <a href="https://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85065184.html">“Indians of North America</a>.” </p>
<p>The same is the case for terms that redirect to <a href="https://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85065540.html">“Indians of South America.”</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.marc21.ca/CSH/index-e.html">Library and Archives Canada continues to roll out changes</a> like a shift from “Canadian poetry (English)–Inuit authors” to “Inuit poetry (English).”</p>
<h2>Indigenous knowledge organization</h2>
<p>Beyond revamping misleading terminology, library science scholars and Indigenous knowledge holders (like <a href="https://digital.lib.washington.edu/researchworks/handle/1773/46601">Sandy Littletree, with colleagues</a>) are examining how to advance Indigenous knowledge organization <a href="https://twitter.com/sljournal/status/1504856430825910273">practices in library systems</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2429/81795">Research conducted by my team of librarians and students</a> shows that authors prefer their books to be labelled in Indigenous-centered approaches or reconciliation approaches. For example, <a href="https://xwi7xwa.library.ubc.ca/collections/indigenous-knowledge-organization/">Xwi7xwa Library</a>
is a branch of University of British Columbia’s academic library entirely dedicated to Indigenous materials. Indexing is adapted from a system developed by Kahnawake librarian Brian Deer in the ‘70s for the National Indian Brotherhood, now the Assembly of First Nations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A row of books with Indigenous and related themes on a shelf is seen with their indexing numbers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476759/original/file-20220729-18-jfj12d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476759/original/file-20220729-18-jfj12d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476759/original/file-20220729-18-jfj12d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476759/original/file-20220729-18-jfj12d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476759/original/file-20220729-18-jfj12d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476759/original/file-20220729-18-jfj12d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476759/original/file-20220729-18-jfj12d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Books seen in the Xwi7xwa Library.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(htomren/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The the Greater Victoria Public Library has introduced locally <a href="https://govinfoday.ca/index.php/dcid/dcid2019/paper/viewFile/45/29">developed interim Indigenous subject headings</a> that use more current terminology.</p>
<h2>Interviews with authors</h2>
<p>Over the past two years, <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82196">my team and I interviewed</a> 38 authors whose books were labelled in libraries with terms like “Indians of North America.” </p>
<p>Those authors told us these terms didn’t match the language in their books, nor what is acceptable in their professional communities. They shared how these terms created difficulty in findings works by or about Indigenous Peoples. </p>
<p>They explained how people using library search functions would have to use terms they disagreed with and wouldn’t use in their classes and writing. Ambiguous terms like “Indian cooking” and “Indian activism” create confusion as to whether an item pertains to Indigenous Peoples in North America or India.</p>
<p>As authors in our study suggested, the continued use of these terms imposes a colonial worldview on books that are often resisting, challenging or exposing the harms of colonialism.</p>
<h2>Slow to change</h2>
<p>Library systems tend to be slow to change because they prioritize consistency. Yet the Canadian and American systems undergo constant revision to add new terms and, less often, to replace old terms. </p>
<p>Since there are more than 1,000 terms relating to Indigenous Peoples in library lists, revisions to this topic will be monumental. <a href="https://www.loc.gov/aba/pcc/saco/cpsoed/cpsoeditorial.html">In a typical month</a>, around 200 new headings are added to the Library of Congress Subject Headings, across all topics. </p>
<p>Terminology for Indigenous Peoples from this continent varies as communities themselves are numerous and diverse. At the same time, terms like “Indians” <a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-act">persist in law in Canada</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Indian-Reorganization-Act">the United States</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People seen on chairs in front of a teepee and Parliament Hill." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476763/original/file-20220729-15-7m69ws.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476763/original/file-20220729-15-7m69ws.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476763/original/file-20220729-15-7m69ws.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476763/original/file-20220729-15-7m69ws.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476763/original/file-20220729-15-7m69ws.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476763/original/file-20220729-15-7m69ws.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476763/original/file-20220729-15-7m69ws.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People seen in August 2021 on Parliament Hill were part of a protest calling for changes to the ‘Indian Act’ in Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Colonial borders</h2>
<p>Changes of these terms, through consultation with and guidance from Indigenous communities and Indigenous library workers, can bring our library systems into alignment with <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-19-is-changing-the-english-language-146171">language used in common conversation</a> and academic research. </p>
<p>They cannot invalidate the terms that people use to refer to themselves. A library term list is for shared, government-supported systems to enable discovery and access and does not determine self-expression. </p>
<p>Even in that context, changing terms for Indigenous Peoples is unlikely to change the awkwardness of how these lists currently use Canadian and American colonial borders. For the time being, works about Coast Salish botany or art, for example, may still end up labelled redundantly with “Indigenous peoples — British Columbia” and “Indigenous peoples — Washington (State).”</p>
<p>Continued research will be needed as libraries consider how to update their practices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julia Bullard receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. </span></em></p>Beyond revamping misleading terminology, some library science scholars and Indigenous knowledge holders are looking at how to index library materials in ways that reflect Indigenous knowledge.Julia Bullard, Assistant Professor in Information Studies, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1871662022-07-20T05:14:55Z2022-07-20T05:14:55ZPublishers vs the Internet Archive: why the world’s biggest online library is in court over digital book lending<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475010/original/file-20220720-22-rebqz8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5918%2C3915&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/december-29-2018-la-trobe-reading-1919650016">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Earlier this month, the Internet Archive asked a US court to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/book-publishers-internet-archive-ask-court-decide-ebook-lending-fight-2022-07-08/">end a lawsuit</a> filed against it by four large book publishers.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://archive.org/">Internet Archive</a> is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 1996 that lends digital copies of books, music, movies and other digitised content to the public. It <a href="https://archive.org/about/">aims</a> to support people with print disabilities, preserve digital content for future generations and democratise access to knowledge.</p>
<p>The publishers say the Internet Archive’s digital lending practices amount to wilful copyright infringement. Authors have also <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/culture/theatre/the-future-of-libraries-or-haven-for-piracy-the-case-of-the-internet-archive-20220717-p5b27d.html">complained</a> the site hosts pirated content. </p>
<p>The Internet Archive says it is <a href="https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/jnpwedgrdpw/IP%20ARCHIVE%20COPYRIGHT%20archivesj.pdf">behaving like an ordinary library</a>, as it only loans digital copies of physical books it owns. Its supporters at the Electronic Frontiers Foundation say the publishers simply want “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/book-publishers-internet-archive-ask-court-decide-ebook-lending-fight-2022-07-08/">to control how libraries may lend the books they own</a>”.</p>
<h2>The National Emergency Library</h2>
<p>Publishers were particularly concerned about the “<a href="https://blog.archive.org/national-emergency-library/">National Emergency Library</a>” set up by the Internet Archive <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-national-emergency-library-is-a-gift-to-readers-everywhere">in March 2020</a>. This temporary project aimed to <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/10baTITJbFRh7D6dHVVvfgiGP2zqaMvm0EHHZYf2cBRk/mobilebasic">give teachers access</a> to digital teaching materials in the face of widespread library closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>In June 2020, the publishers Hachette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins and John Wiley & Sons <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/copyright/article/83584-internet-archive-to-end-national-emergency-library-initiative.html">filed a copyright infringement action</a>. The publishers appear to want to shut down not just the National Emergency Library, but all of the Internet Archive’s book-lending practices. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1242477219227693057"}"></div></p>
<p>The publishers claim the Internet Archive is engaging in <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.537900/gov.uscourts.nysd.537900.1.0_1.pdf">wilful mass copyright infringement</a> by lending digital books without permission from and payment to publishers.</p>
<p>The Internet Archive argues that, because it allows only one person at a time to borrow a digital book, it is simply replicating regular library lending. However, this restriction was temporarily relaxed for the National Emergency Library. </p>
<p>Ordinary library lending does not require a payment to publishers. Once a library purchases a book, the library is free to lend it out to its members. </p>
<p>The publishers are arguing that digital books are not equivalent to physical books and should be treated differently under the law.</p>
<h2>Copyright déjà vu?</h2>
<p>Didn’t Google already win the argument about digital books years ago? Yes and no.</p>
<p>Google began digitising library books in 2002. In 2005, book publishers and authors brought <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authors_Guild,_Inc._v._Google,_Inc.">a high-profile lawsuit</a> against Google for copyright infringement, which took a decade to resolve.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-protect-authors-after-google-books-wins-its-fair-use-case-again-49363">How to protect authors after Google Books wins its 'fair use' case, again</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In the case against Google, US courts decided that making full copies of books and displaying snippets of those books to the public in the Google Books database is a “fair use”.</p>
<p>When deciding for Google, the courts paid particular attention to the historical purpose of copyright, which is to serve the <a href="https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar_case?case=2220742578695593916&q=Google+Books+2015&hl=en&as_sdt=2006">public interest in access to knowledge</a>.</p>
<h2>A question of markets</h2>
<p>But the Google Books decision does not mean book publishers will lose again against the Internet Archive.</p>
<p>In the United States, when deciding whether a use is fair or not, courts need to consider the extent to which the copyright owner’s markets are harmed.</p>
<p>Because book publishers often lend e-books commercially (including to libraries), the Internet Archive could be seen as harming that aspect of publishers’ market.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5982%2C4500&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475009/original/file-20220720-12-nqmrpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Internet Archive argues it is simply acting as a library, but the court may rule differently.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/bridport-dorset-uk-november-17-2019-1562470024">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It could be said that, by providing online access to books in full, the Internet Archive is doing for free what the publishers do for payment.</p>
<p>This is different to the Google Books decision, in which providing access to snippets of books in Google’s database was considered to potentially enhance the market for books.</p>
<h2>What counts as fair use?</h2>
<p>The flexibility of fair use is one thing the Internet Archive has on its side, however.</p>
<p>There is room for the court to assess the public benefit of the Internet Archive’s lending practices which, as the <a href="https://blog.archive.org/2020/03/24/announcing-a-national-emergency-library-to-provide-digitized-books-to-students-and-the-public/">National Emergency Library</a> exemplifies, are undeniably strong.</p>
<p>Assessing whether the public interest arguments are strong enough to overcome the weight of the market harm may be key to deciding who wins this case.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/selling-mp3s-you-should-have-stuck-with-cds-13219"> Selling MP3s? You should have stuck with CDs
</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The Internet Archive may also have difficulty establishing that its practices are simply an extension of the traditional role of libraries, and beyond the boundaries of publisher’s legitimate markets.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/selling-mp3s-you-should-have-stuck-with-cds-13219">In a case in 2013</a> involving a “second-hand” market for digital copies of music, US courts decided that emulating analogue models of dissemination was not enough to evade copyright infringement.</p>
<h2>Access matters in the digital age</h2>
<p>Underlying this recent dispute is a now decades-old tension between media industries born before and after the advent of the internet. </p>
<p>Prior to the internet, media and entertainment businesses made money by selling individual copies of content (think books, CDs, DVDS).</p>
<p>But individual copies have lost value in the internet era. Online, we seek access to content rather than ownership of copies of content.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/475040/original/file-20220720-24-2h1f3u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Streaming platforms make it easy to access music or video online without owning it, but the situation for books is less clear.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/penang-malaysia-29-aug-2018-close-1773091049">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the music and video industries, subscription or ad-supported streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix have largely prevailed.</p>
<p>However, the lawsuit against the Internet Archive shows we have not yet, in 2022, found the right legal and economic settings for access-based book-publishing models to thrive.</p>
<h2>Finding a way forward</h2>
<p>Entities like Internet Archive have been trying to operate in the grey area between old and new by, for example, limiting access to match the number of print books in storage.</p>
<p>Rather than aiming to eliminate these grey areas, publishers should look to these activities as evidence of unmet demand and a failure to be agile in times of crisis.</p>
<p>Publishers should adapt their dissemination models to the needs of society.</p>
<p>Rather than institute restrictive terms and conditions for access, they should work with libraries to build sustainable models for dissemination that ensure books are available to people who need access to our shared knowledge and culture.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-book-in-the-digital-age-19071">What is a book in the digital age?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187166/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After 20 years of copyright battles, publishers have still not found a way to make the most of the potential of digital books.Joanne Gray, Lecturer in Digital Cultures at The University of Sydney, University of SydneyCheryl Foong, Senior Lecturer in Law, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1845592022-06-16T01:27:03Z2022-06-16T01:27:03ZThe teal independents want to hold government to account. That starts with high-quality information<p>The election of a record number of independents to the House of Representatives will undoubtedly increase pressure on parliament to change how it operates. Already the newly elected independent member for Goldstein, Zoe Daniel, has <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/independents-could-bring-end-to-oversight-captured-by-bureaucracy-20220527-p5ap13">called</a> for more resources for two key institutions, the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) and the Parliamentary Library.</p>
<p>The younger of the two, the PBO, was <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Budget_Office/About_the_PBO">created</a> in 2012 to provide “independent and non-partisan analysis of the budget cycle, fiscal policy and the financial implications of proposals”. In practice, it focuses heavily on the last of those tasks – assessing the financial implications of new plans. And it won’t have escaped the independents’ attention that its findings are rarely out of step with the views of Treasury.</p>
<p>What this means, says Daniel, is that “backbenchers of all shades struggle to get the quality of information and objective advice they need to make decisions based on their merits and on the evidence”. She wants to see a broader, US-style body producing forecasts and other economic research independent of Treasury and the government.</p>
<p>This isn’t just a federal problem. Australia’s two other PBOs – in Victoria and New South Wales – also have a much narrower focus than their overseas counterparts.</p>
<p>Federally, two of three items on the PBO’s “<a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Budget_Office/About_the_PBO">about</a>” page concern costings (the first explicitly; the second via a post-election compilation of election commitments) and the third relates to public education. In Victoria, <a href="https://www.parliament.vic.gov.au/images/stories/committees/paec/Inquiry_into_the_Parliamentary_Budget_Officer_/Report/PAEC_59-11_Inquiry_into_Parliamentary_Budget_Officer.pdf">according</a> to a parliamentary committee, “policy costings are a key legislative function of the office” despite being “not widespread” in other OECD countries.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/were-about-to-have-australias-most-diverse-parliament-yet-but-theres-still-a-long-way-to-go-183620">We're about to have Australia's most diverse parliament yet – but there's still a long way to go</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The NSW PBO is even more tightly focused: parliament’s website <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/pbo/Pages/Parliamentary-Budget-Office.aspx">describes</a> its work as providing “costings of election policies in the lead-up to NSW general elections”. Reflecting successive NSW governments’ belief that costings only matter before elections, it operates only one year in four. (The NSW system’s pluses and minuses are discussed in the PBO’s <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/pbo/Documents/PBOdocumentlibrary/Post-election%20Report%20-%20Final.pdf">2015 post-election report</a>.)</p>
<h2>Best practice?</h2>
<p>Many of the PBOs’ counterparts overseas have much broader mandates and more influence on public policy. The most important by far, as Daniel implies, is the US <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/">Congressional Budget Office</a>, whose reports and advice to Congress have had a major impact on budgetary policy in the United States. The CBO produces economic forecasts, research papers and fiscal analysis across all <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/topics">areas of government</a>.</p>
<p>The Netherlands has an even older institution, the Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis. Dating back to 1945, its <a href="https://www.jvi.org/special-events/2019/the-role-of-independent-fiscal-institutions-in-fiscal-frameworks-the-dutch-case.html">role</a> takes in budget projections and forecasting. Across the North Sea in Britain, the independent <a href="https://obr.uk/about-the-obr/what-we-do/#:%7E:text=The%20Office%20for%20Budget%20Responsibility,fiscal%20watchdogs%20around%20the%20world.">Office for Budget Responsibility</a> prepares the economic forecasts that accompany the government’s budget, evaluates the government’s performance against fiscal targets, analyses fiscal sustainability and risks, and – yes – provides costings of tax and welfare measures.</p>
<p>The most striking contrast is with the Canadian PBO, which had a habit of criticising government, especially when led by the independently minded economist <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/careers-leadership/kevin-page-bean-counter-with-a-backbone/article595848/">Kevin Page</a>. That came at some peril – the government slashed its budget and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/kevin-page-slams-liberal-governments-proposed-changes-to-pbo/article34686195/">changed</a> its reporting lines – but the body was always supported by parliament.</p>
<p>Australia’s federal PBO has a narrow focus primarily because the public service convinced parliament to keep it that way. Treasury resisted any notion that another body should have a role in economic forecasting, and so the legislation expressly prohibits the PBO from preparing economic projections or budget estimates.</p>
<p>The Business Council of Australia was an early advocate for a more powerful PBO. In its <a href="https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/bca/pages/3205/attachments/original/1531289994/bca_budget_submission_2011%E2%80%9312_final_14-2-2011.pdf?1531289994">2011–12 budget submission</a>, based on a research report I wrote that included a <a href="https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/ladocs/submissions/49104/Sub%2013%20Stephen%20Bartos.pdf">survey</a> of international practice, it argued unsuccessfully for a broader remit.</p>
<p>Since then, the PBO has largely been captured by the bureaucracy. Headed by a career public servant, it is part of the “official family”. Its research and statements don’t come even close to challenging official orthodoxies.</p>
<p>If parliament wants a more independent federal PBO it has power to act. The PBO reports to the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Public_Accounts_and_Audit">Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit</a>, which also approves its work plan. The JCPAA has traditionally been a staunch defender of the legislature’s right to question ministers and public servants. But it has retreated from that position as parliament has become more polarised. The arrival of a record number of independents could reverse the trend and strengthen parliament’s role.</p>
<h2>And the Parliamentary Library?</h2>
<p>Judged by its independence from government, the Parliamentary Library is a much better performer. <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/About_the_Parliamentary_Library">Established in 1901</a>, it has been part of the Commonwealth’s institutional furniture from the first parliament. Its long history of rigour and independence gives it a solid basis on which to keep offering MPs information that doesn’t necessarily follow the government line.</p>
<p>The library’s record is a good illustration of what is known as path dependence: the way an institution is established and works in its early days has a huge influence on how it continues to operate. Having set out on a path of impartiality and rigour, the library has maintained it. But that doesn’t mean it would knock back that extra funding Daniel has called for.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Bartos does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Parliamentary Library would certainly benefit from more funding, but the Parliamentary Budget Office urgently needs a wider brief and greater independenceStephen Bartos, Professor of Economics, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1847332022-06-09T06:17:01Z2022-06-09T06:17:01ZThe ABC’s plan to axe its librarians will damage its journalism. Here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467941/original/file-20220609-15-3b1r0l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When the war broke out in the Ukraine early this year, journalists scrambled to gather stories and images from the archives to supplement information and images gathered on the ground. A similar scramble occurred when floods struck Queensland, as it often does when big stories break. </p>
<p>We saw the results on our screens, but what we didn’t see was the invisible yet critical work of librarians and archivists – the people who design, manage and facilitate access to the archival systems that house vital news resources. </p>
<p>This makes all the more surprising the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jun/08/abc-to-abolish-58-librarian-and-archivist-jobs-with-journalists-to-do-archival-work">news</a> that the ABC plans to eliminate librarian and archivist positions and require its journalists to fill the gap. Journalists are expert investigators and storytellers, but their success in reporting stories rests on their ability to find source material quickly and effortlessly – a process in which librarians and archivists play a key role. </p>
<p>Timely access to source material is critical. Extra time spent looking for resources – not to mention uploading and describing new material – is time taken away from journalists’ other work. </p>
<p>The ABC’s information professionals are trained according to the requirements of the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). They are experienced in helping journalists access resources easily and quickly. They digitise and store resources methodically and apply the “metadata” – the detailed descriptive tags – necessary for efficient retrieval. This archival work is especially important at the ABC, a vital repository of Australian history and culture.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1534719760834777089"}"></div></p>
<p>When information professionals do their jobs well, journalists and other researchers can readily find what they need and download material seamlessly.</p>
<h2>Why does this matter?</h2>
<p>Relying on untrained journalists to do the work of qualified information professionals – asking them to archive their own materials and apply metadata – means valuable material will be mislabelled, or not labelled at all. As ALIA and the Australian Society of Archivists put it in their <a href="https://www.alia.org.au/Web/News/Articles/2022/June-2022/ASA_ALIA_Joint_Statement.aspx">joint response</a> to the planned staff cuts: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The ability to find archival footage and reports which underpin everything from TV drama to news radio is deeply valued by other ABC professional staff, who do not have the professional skills to undertake this work themselves.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Without the librarians’ and archivists’ expertise to draw on, journalists will be hampered by less reliable and efficient metadata, wasting critical time for those working to deadline. Key resources needed to verify facts will be overlooked, undermining the trustworthiness of reporting. </p>
<p>Metadata are critical for finding materials in an ever-growing sea of new information. Although some metadata tags (the name of the creator of a work, for example, or the date the work was created) may be easy to assign, other tags require expert, trained judgement. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-abcs-budget-hasnt-been-restored-its-still-facing-1-2-billion-in-accumulated-losses-over-a-decade-176532">The ABC's budget hasn't been restored – it's still facing $1.2 billion in accumulated losses over a decade</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Consider a journalist who takes a photo of a building. When she archives this resource she must take care to note date, location and specifications. She will need to decide, for example, whether the location tag should be Australia, Victoria, Melbourne or Collingwood – or some combination of these terms. Librarians and archivists make these decisions to suit the needs of journalists and editors who might search for that image months, years or decades later. </p>
<p>More importantly, though, archivists and librarians need to assign these terms consistently. If all buildings are assigned generic city locations (such as “Melbourne”), future journalists will find it hard to locate images for stories about specific suburbs. Worse still, if journalists make different choices about how specific to be – with some assigning “Collingwood” while others assign “Australia” – future users of the system won’t easily be able to retrieve all images of buildings in the same location. If a busy journalist chooses not to identify the location at all – understandable in the midst of a busy newsroom – the image becomes lost in the system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Photos from ABC archive" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=384&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467945/original/file-20220609-12-7pmyhv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">You must remember this: part of a Powerhouse Museum display of photos from the ABC archive to mark the broadcaster’s 75th anniversary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/exhibitions/broadcasting-sydney-images-abc-archives">Jenni Carter for Sydney Living Museums</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Over time, the problem compounds. As thousands of images, articles, recordings and other materials are added, people searching for material will be forced to search using multiple keywords, eating into their time for other journalistic work.</p>
<p>Research in information science demonstrates that people often take the simplest route, particularly when facing deadlines. So they may search for “Collingwood buildings” and – finding nothing – presume that no relevant images exist, without realising that only a “Melbourne” tag was assigned.</p>
<h2>A vital part of our history</h2>
<p>Journalists will also lose access to specialist advice to help them find the information they need for credible, reliable reporting. Although some journalists may turn elsewhere for this advice – staff in public or government libraries, for instance – <a href="https://books.emeraldinsight.com/page/detail/looking-for-information/?k=9781785609688">research</a> demonstrates that reporters and editors trained in digital searching practices are less likely to seek the advice of librarians and colleagues overall. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1534703103705985024"}"></div></p>
<p>Information science researchers and practitioners across the GLAM sector – galleries, libraries, archives and museums – developed this expertise over many centuries. </p>
<p>Following the second world war, they spearheaded the development of complex automated systems designed to gather, catalogue, index, and present information to the public. This work underpins everyday practices, from searching Google to finding movies on Netflix. </p>
<p>Although the stereotypes of librarians and archivists remain (inappropriately) grounded in a presumption of work happening in dusty bookshelves and basement collections, these professionals are taking the lead in ensuring digital materials are accessible. As ALIA and ASA note, the ABC’s collections are “of national significance,” the value of which goes well beyond the work of just one news organisation.</p>
<p>Without complete, easily findable records, journalists can’t tell the whole story; their ability to quickly retrieve historic source material, to complete background work and conduct fact-checking, will be eroded, as will their ability to tell Australia’s stories with integrity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184733/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa M. Given receives funding from the Australian Research Council, including projects in partnership with the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) and the National State Libraries Association. She is a former President of the Association for Information Science and Technology.</span></em></p>The national broadcaster has a special role in preserving audio and visual materials, not least to underpin its own reportuingLisa M. Given, Director, Social Change Enabling Capability Platform & Professor of Information Sciences, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1822902022-05-09T19:59:39Z2022-05-09T19:59:39ZWhat is BookTok, and how is it influencing what Australian teenagers read?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461876/original/file-20220509-16-etes5s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C11%2C3988%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">@hibas.library, @luzlovesbooks, @kelibrary, @londonapples/TikTok</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Video-sharing app TikTok has been credited with <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/subbed-but-holding-for-next-sunday-the-reading-renaissance-could-the-booktok-bump-save-publishing-20220302-p5a109.html">making reading</a> “cool again” among teenagers, through the hashtag #BookTok. </p>
<p>Most BookTok posts are playful short videos, no longer than a minute, that match book images to popular soundtracks. </p>
<p>For example, in the ten-second video <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@londonapples/video/7078638410717465858?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&q=ya%20whoops&t=1651468259854">“YA whoops”</a>, prolific Australian BookTokker <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@londonapples">@londonapples</a>, wearing her trademark teddy-bear beanie, appears guiltily surprised when interrupted from her reading.</p>
<h2>What are TikTok and BookTok?</h2>
<p>TikTok is the fastest growing social media platform <a href="https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-tiktok/">in history</a>. It’s most popular among young people. </p>
<p>In 2020, <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-02/The%20digital%20lives%20of%20Aussie%20teens.pdf">38% of Australian teens</a> aged 12 to 17 reported spending time on TikTok. Last year, the hours spent by Australian users <a href="https://wearesocial.com/au/blog/2022/02/digital-2022-australia-online-like-never-before/">increased by 40%</a> to 23.4 hours per month. </p>
<p>BookTok is a community of TikTok creators who post videos celebrating their love of books and reading. The hashtag <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/search?q=booktok&t=1651476500840">#BookTok</a> now has more than 46 billion views worldwide.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-689" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/689/315fb8340a99ae588ac96ae1e198197688863c46/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Who watches and creates BookTok videos?</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://teenreading.net/research/">Teen Reading survey</a> investigates how Australian teenagers use book-related social media, and who they are. </p>
<p>Preliminary results reveal that while more than half of Australian teenagers use TikTok (56%), a much smaller number engage with “book talk” on social media, including BookTok (16%). </p>
<p>This supports <a href="https://wordpress-ms.deakin.edu.au/teenreading/wp-content/uploads/sites/175/2017/04/teen-reading-folio-report_email.pdf">our earlier research</a>, which found that regular book talk on social media is the domain of a small yet passionate group of readers. Despite being a small proportion of teenagers, BookTokkers are building sizable social media followings, encouraging other teenagers to read and influencing what they read.</p>
<p>Anecdotal reports by <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/subbed-but-holding-for-next-sunday-the-reading-renaissance-could-the-booktok-bump-save-publishing-20220302-p5a109.html">booksellers</a> credit BookTok with sparking a resurgence in reading among young people. </p>
<p>Avid BookTokker Mireille Lee (<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@alifeofliterature">@alifeofliterature</a>) describes how “I started reading again after six years when I came across BookTok for the first time”. </p>
<p>Until the pandemic, reading rates among teenagers were falling, but the pandemic and the rising popularity of BookTok meant that by 2021, <a href="https://literacytrust.org.uk/news/our-new-research-shows-over-half-of-children-and-young-people-enjoy-reading/#:%7E:text=We%20were%20pleased%20to%20see,30.8%25%2C%20from%20early%202020">among UK teenagers</a>, a third reported reading more often. </p>
<p>Many booksellers now feature a #BookTok table, or publish “trending on #booktok” <a href="https://www.dymocks.com.au/featured/booktok">lists</a> and boxed #booktok <a href="https://www.booktopia.com.au/booktok-bestsellers-boxed-set-erin-a-craig/book/9780593568781.html?source=pla&gclid=CjwKCAjwrfCRBhAXEiwAnkmKmZ8vecG3p2-0PLJ-uJBPUaQ6FqAh5z0DcqYLm48crxsOWvDQYLepWhoC4_cQAvD_BwE">sets</a>.</p>
<h2>The magic of BookTok, in 5 parts</h2>
<p>So, how does BookTok work? We’ve identified five key elements.</p>
<p><strong>1. Playful and creative</strong></p>
<p>First, TikTok is a very playful medium. <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17439884.2022.2068575">Users can</a> embed, re-use, replicate and imitate other posts in creative ways. </p>
<p>A “stitch” post, for example, allows a user to embed another post within their own, to mimic, critique or add humour. In one example, @penguin_teen uses her <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@penguin_teen/video/6941502599384288517">“stitch” post</a> to co-opt another user’s advice on not blaming yourself, playfully blaming author Krystal Sutherland for her sleepless night reading her book.</p>
<p>A “duet” similarly embeds another post, but plays it in parallel to their own. For instance, in one post, @hellohardbacks <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hellohardbacks/video/6981615954824318214?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&q=booktok%20duet&t=1652068733042">compares</a> @kaitlin.tracy’s pace in reading Samantha Shannon’s doorstopper The Priory of the Orange Tree to her own, in disbelief.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-688" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/688/fd3f6fce360043de42415757fe413ffe8d7c07fd/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>2. Algorithm creates unexpected recommendations</strong></p>
<p>Second, while other platforms recommend content to viewers from the creators they follow, TikTok privileges recommendations based on <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-finally-explains-for-you-algorithm-works/">its algorithm</a>, which draws on posts users have viewed, liked and reposted. This can provide unexpected recommendations tailored to a viewer’s individual tastes. </p>
<p><strong>3. Popularity of posts, not creators</strong></p>
<p>Third, TikTok fame is based on the popularity of individual posts, not of creators. Australian BookTokker <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hibas.library">@hibas.library</a> generally receives views in the low thousands, but one post on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@hibas.library/video/6998138869770112258?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&q=biggest%20book%20related%20peeves&t=1651465836180">“Biggest book related pet peeves”</a> reached over 150k. BookTokker <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@kelibrary">@kelibrary</a>’s account was less than two weeks old when <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@kelibrary/video/7061487284062850305?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1">their book bargain post</a> received 393k views. </p>
<p><strong>4. Connects book lovers</strong></p>
<p>Fourth, BookTok creators connect with other book lovers – the platform’s key attraction. <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@luzlovesbooks">@luzlovesbooks</a> explains: “I created my book account because I was longing to find a connection with people about something I am super passionate about.”</p>
<p>This provides a rare opportunity outside school to learn from each other about books, reading and book culture. We explore this sharing as “peer pedagogy”: a process in which young people teach their peers about something that they are passionate about. </p>
<p><strong>5. Emotion is currency</strong></p>
<p>Finally, TikTok’s currency is emotion and it is video-heavy, which together make it a much loved, performative medium among young readers. </p>
<p>This is why books like They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera (2017) have experienced a <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com.au/p/booktok101">spike in sales</a> – because they lend themselves to emotional expression and hyper-visceral performances. It’s common for BookTok videos to feature <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@tessmaylo/video/6936868960495226117?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&q=crying%20they%20both%20die%20at%20the%20end&t=1651466754454">readers crying</a>.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-690" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/690/d4f0399a6d67e0a420199a9265e27045985bf9e3/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>But how is BookTok influencing what young people are reading?</h2>
<p>Surprisingly, BookTokkers have been profiling many books that were published several years ago. Publishers are used to most books having a short shelf life, but BookTok is driving unexpected new demand among young readers for older books. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461893/original/file-20220509-13-6c98d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461893/original/file-20220509-13-6c98d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461893/original/file-20220509-13-6c98d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461893/original/file-20220509-13-6c98d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461893/original/file-20220509-13-6c98d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=914&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461893/original/file-20220509-13-6c98d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461893/original/file-20220509-13-6c98d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461893/original/file-20220509-13-6c98d8.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1148&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These books include <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27362503-it-ends-with-us">It Ends With Us</a> by Colleen Hoover, published in 2016, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32620332-the-seven-husbands-of-evelyn-hugo">The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo</a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2017), and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33385229-they-both-die-at-the-end">They Both Die at the End</a> by Adam Silvera (2017). Dan Ruffino is managing director for Simon & Schuster, distributor of these titles in Australia. He says that in the midst of Covid-19 and paper shortages, “we’ve had to put in massive orders for reprints of books that were published years ago”. </p>
<p>BookTok is sometimes criticised for featuring only <a href="https://bookriot.com/most-popular-books-on-tiktok/">a small number of titles</a> by white authors: mostly young adult, romance or fantasy titles. But books trending on BookTok often show teenagers looking for <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09548963.2022.2045864">real-world diversity</a> and complex themes. </p>
<p>For example, Booktok sensation <a href="http://madelinemiller.com/the-song-of-achilles/">The Song of Achilles</a> by Madeleine Miller is a Greek myth retelling featuring a queer romantic relationship. Another BookTok favourite – Helen Hoang’s own-voices romance <a href="https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/fiction/popular-fiction/The-Kiss-Quotient-Helen-Hoang-9781760876005">The Kiss Quotient</a> – is about an autistic woman who hires a male escort to teach her how to date. Olivie Blake’s dark academic fantasy novel, <a href="https://www.olivieblake.com/the-atlas-six">The Atlas Six</a>, explores philosophical and moral questions through a dystopian lens. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461894/original/file-20220509-12-bv5j45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461894/original/file-20220509-12-bv5j45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461894/original/file-20220509-12-bv5j45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461894/original/file-20220509-12-bv5j45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461894/original/file-20220509-12-bv5j45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=948&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461894/original/file-20220509-12-bv5j45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1191&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461894/original/file-20220509-12-bv5j45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1191&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461894/original/file-20220509-12-bv5j45.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1191&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As an international community of book lovers, BookTok does not do much to encourage teenagers to read Australian books. However, a few Australian books, such as Canberra author Sally Thorne’s <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/sally-thorne/the-hating-game-tiktok-made-me-buy-it-the-perfect-enemies-to-lovers-romcom">The Hating Game?</a>, do have a <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@katsxlibrary/video/6986400315264224518?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&q=the%20hating%20game%20book&t=1651629021005">BookTok following</a>. </p>
<p>Libraries and booksellers are becoming adept at using BookTok as a conversation starter and will recommend Australian books to teenage readers based on titles they liked from the BookTok stable. </p>
<p>BookTok’s popularity reflects the zeitgeist of the pandemic. It offers a digital space for teenagers to connect with their peers and share <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/cyber.2022.29240.editorial">authentic</a> responses to books in a <a href="https://www.charleston-hub.com/2022/04/booktok-part-3-covid-reading-and-the-future-of-apps/">“youth friendly”</a> way. </p>
<p>By showcasing teenagers who love books and are proud of their reading habits, BookTok inspires other young people to enjoy reading. And it creates trends that influence the types of books they read, sometimes in unexpected ways.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182290/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katya Johanson receives funding receives funding the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the Australian Research Council (Project LP180100258).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Schoonens receives funding from the Australian Research Council (Project LP 180100258).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bronwyn Reddan receives funding the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the Australian Research Council (Project LP180100258). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leonie Rutherford receives funding from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the Australian Research Council (Project LP180100258). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Dezuanni receives receives funding from the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and the Australian Research Council (Project LP180100258).</span></em></p>Pre-pandemic, reading rates among teenagers were falling. But BookTok, a subculture of social media platform TikTok, has made teens read more often – and influences what they read. Here’s how it works.Katya Johanson, Professor of Audience Research, Deakin UniversityAmy Schoonens, Phd Candidate, Research Assistant, Queensland University of TechnologyBronwyn Reddan, Research Fellow, Deakin UniversityLeonie Rutherford, Associate professor, Deakin UniversityMichael Dezuanni, Professor, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1795252022-04-10T13:09:40Z2022-04-10T13:09:40ZLibraries around the world are helping safeguard Ukrainian books and culture<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456187/original/file-20220404-24-27fu4o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C4699%2C3208&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Illustration by O. Sudomora for the children's story 'Bim-bom, dzelen-bom!'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(O. Sudomora)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/libraries-around-the-world-are-helping-safeguard-ukrainian-books-and-culture" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>My mother was born in Sambir, Ukraine, and my father in Przemyśl, Poland. They both spent their childhoods as refugees. </p>
<p>They lived among displaced Ukrainians who fled to Austria and Germany as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II/The-Eastern-Front-June-December-1944">the Red Army advanced</a> in July 1944. My grandparents’ decision to abandon their homes and leave everything behind saved my parents from the tyranny of Soviet occupation.</p>
<p>They were some of the 200,000 Ukrainians who chose to live in exile rather than be repatriated to the Soviet Union. They organized themselves around <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CD%5CI%5CDisplacedpersonscamps.htm">civic, education, cultural and political interests</a>. Within these circles, Ukrainians produced newsletters, pamphlets and books to connect themselves with one another and to inform the world about the country’s history. </p>
<p>This publishing effort was in addition to work done by Ukrainians who immigrated for economic reasons to North America <a href="https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-ukraine-1891-1930/Pages/introduction.aspx">beginning in the 1890s</a>, and those who lived abroad for political reasons during the revolutionary era in <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CE%5CM%5CEmigration.htm">the early 1920s</a>.</p>
<p>I am the custodian of these publications in my role as a librarian developing, making accessible and researching Ukrainian — and other Slavic-language collections at the <a href="https://onesearch.library.utoronto.ca/about">University of Toronto Libraries</a>. </p>
<p>Our library’s <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40866438%22%22">Ukrainian holdings</a> — whether they were published in Ukraine under Austrian, Polish or Russian rule, in independence, or in refugee centres and diaspora communities — offer a perspective on Ukraine’s distinct history that sets it apart from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s belief that Ukraine was “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/23/world/europe/putin-speech-russia-ukraine.html">entirely created by Russia</a>.”</p>
<h2>Ukrainian culture and history in libraries</h2>
<p>Librarians and libraries across the world play a role in preserving and sharing Ukraine’s cultural history. They acquire western observations about Ukraine or material printed on its territories. And people can learn a lot from these resources.</p>
<p>French architect and military engineer, Guillaume le Vasseur de Beauplan’s map, <a href="https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY%7E8%7E1%7E326566%7E90095123:Carte-d-Ukranie"><em>Carte d’Ukranie</em></a>, first represented the country as a discrete territory with delineated borders in 1660. It was commissioned by King Ladislaus IV of Poland to help him better understand the land and its people to protect the territory from enemies (particularly Russia).</p>
<p>In <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL16826120M/Histoire_de_Charles_XII"><em>Histoire de Charles XII</em> (1731)</a>, Voltaire similarly describes and textually maps Ukraine as <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CC%5CO%5CCossacks.htm">the country of the Cossacks</a>, situated between lesser Tartary, Poland and Muscovy. He said: “Ukraine has always wanted to be free.”</p>
<p>Other material in our libraries bears physical traces testifying to the horrors of Soviet rule. At the <a href="https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca">Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library</a>, a <a href="https://pjrc.library.utoronto.ca/sites/default/public/millennium.pdf">Gospel Book printed in Pochaiv, Ukraine</a>, between 1735 and 1758, and written in Church Slavic, bears a notation that it was given to the <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CS%5CA%5CSaintMichaelsGolden6DomedMonastery.htm">St. Michael’s Golden-domed Monastery</a> in Kyiv, “to remain forever irremovable from the church.” However, this monastery was destroyed on Stalin’s orders in the mid-1930s and volumes from the library were sold by the Soviet government.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="One of the first drawings of Ukraine" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456191/original/file-20220404-17-yuez6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456191/original/file-20220404-17-yuez6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456191/original/file-20220404-17-yuez6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456191/original/file-20220404-17-yuez6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=457&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456191/original/file-20220404-17-yuez6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456191/original/file-20220404-17-yuez6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456191/original/file-20220404-17-yuez6j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=575&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Carte d’Ukranie’ by Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan, published with his Description d’Ukranie (Rouen, 1660) The map is oriented from south to north to highlight the military importance of the Black Sea Basin for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But books also enter library collections through more honest means — refugees sometimes donate their personal libraries to universities. At the University of Toronto, we have a hand-written, water-coloured issue of a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war periodical entitled <a href="https://pjrc.library.utoronto.ca/sites/default/public/pages_from_halcyon_dec_2013-2.pdf"><em>Liazaroni</em> (Vagabond) (1920)</a>. It was produced in an internment camp near Cassino, Italy, where tens of thousands of Ukrainians were held captive after fighting in the <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CF%5CI%5CFirstWorldWar.htm">Austro-Hungarian army</a>.</p>
<p>Among the close to <a href="http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?linkpath=pages%5CD%5CI%5CDisplacedpersonscamps.htm">1,000 books and pamphlets</a> that were published by Ukrainian people displaced after the Second World War, is a children’s story I remember reading from my youth, housed at the University of Toronto. The book, <a href="http://archive.cym.org/US/mo/vykhovnyky/vr2011/kazka_2011_6-9_20101227.pdf"><em>Bim-bom, dzelenʹ-bom!</em> (1949)</a>, tells the story of how a group of chickens and cats help put out a house fire. A passage from the book can be applied to Russia’s war against Ukraine: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Roosters, chickens, and chicks, and cats and kittens know how to work together to save their home. So, you, little ones, learn how to live in the world, and how in every danger to defend your native home!”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Ukrainian print and digital knowledge at risk</h2>
<p>Today, <a href="https://coseelis.wordpress.com/libraries-helping-ukraine/">teams of archivists and librarians are heeding a similar call and are working to save</a> Ukrainian library and museum collections. Their efforts echo the work of <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/true-story-monuments-men-180949569/">the Monuments Men</a> who, during the Second World War, gave “<a href="https://doi.org/10.17723/0360-9081-79.2.320">first aid to art and books</a>” and engaged in the recovery of cultural materials.</p>
<p>The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine says Russian military police are <a href="https://euromaidanpress.com/2022/04/02/russian-occupiers-launch-war-on-ukrainian-history-burning-books-and-destroying-archives/">destroying Ukrainian literature and history textbooks</a> — Russian forces <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraines-cultural-heritage-faces-destruction-as-russian-bombing-continues-178563">have also bombed archives, libraries and museums</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-should-all-be-concerned-that-putin-is-trying-to-destroy-ukrainian-culture-179351">We should all be concerned that Putin is trying to destroy Ukrainian culture</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>They have destroyed <a href="https://interfax.com.ua/news/general/817822.html">the archives of the Security Service in Chernihiv</a> which documented Soviet repression of Ukrainians, they also damaged the <a href="https://chytomo.com/en/the-bombing-of-kharkiv-damaged-one-of-europe-s-largest-libraries/">Korolenko State Scientific Library in Kharkiv</a>, Ukraine’s second largest library collection.</p>
<p>Archival staff in Ukraine work day and night <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/15/ukrainian-heritage-under-threat-truth-soviet-era-russia">to scan paper documents and move digitized content to servers abroad</a>. Librarians and volunteers also pack and make plans to evacuate books. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1503071648181891080"}"></div></p>
<p>Maintaining and preserving online archives or digital objects during wartime is difficult. They are as precarious as print material because they rely on <a href="https://www.cimam.org/news-archive/how-tech-experts-in-the-west-are-rushing-to-save-the-digital-archives-of-ukraines-museums/">infrastructure in the physical world</a>. Computer equipment attached to cables and servers needs power to work. Power outages or downed servers can mean temporary or permanent loss of data.</p>
<p>Over 1,000 volunteers, in partnership with universities in Canada and the United States, are participating in the crowd-sourced project called <a href="https://www.sucho.org/">Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO)</a> to preserve and secure digitized manuscripts, music, photographs, 3D architectural models and other publications. So far, the team has captured 15,000 files, which are accessible via the <a href="https://archive.org/details/sucho">Internet Archive</a>.</p>
<p>Just as libraries have collected, preserved and shared knowledge held by their own institutions over the past century, they are now sharing this knowledge globally so that when the war is over, Ukraine can see its cultural treasures rescued and restored.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179525/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ksenya Kiebuzinski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Libraries are sharing knowledge so that when the war is over, Ukraine can see its cultural treasures rescued and restored.Ksenya Kiebuzinski, Slavic Resources Coordinator, and Head, Petro Jacyk Resource Centre, University of Toronto Libraries, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1794762022-04-03T19:57:55Z2022-04-03T19:57:55ZAustralian writing and publishing faces ‘grinding austerity’ as funding continues to decline<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455717/original/file-20220401-25-kfap6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Hermans/Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It was a grim federal budget for arts and culture on Tuesday night.</p>
<p>With the end of the Morrison government’s pandemic stimulus program for culture, <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/funding-and-support/rise-fund">the RISE fund</a>, there will be a rapid withdrawal of federal support for cultural production.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-arts-and-culture-appear-to-be-the-big-losers-in-this-budget-180127">Why arts and culture appear to be the big losers in this budget</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The arts portfolio budget line will contract by 19%, or around A$190 million, this year. A number of funding programs and cultural institutions also have their funding cut in the budget’s forward projections. There are cuts to programs for regional arts, community broadcasting, contemporary music, Screen Australia and the National Library of Australia. </p>
<h2>No love for literature</h2>
<p>In such an austere environment, it should be no surprise there was no love for publishing or literature in the budget. There were no new announcements to support writing. Funding is slightly increasing for the Australia Council for the Arts and the crucial <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/funding-and-support/lending-rights">public lending right subsidy</a>, which supports authors and publishers whose work is borrowed in libraries and schools. However, these small increases are well below inflation, forecast to run at 4.25% this year, so they amount to cuts in real terms. </p>
<p>The cuts to the National Library of Australia in the 2022 budget are quite significant. The Library goes from $61 million funding this year to just $47 million in 2025-26. The National Library is a critical foundation stone of Australia’s public sphere. It holds priceless artefacts, letters and records. It is required by law to collect every book published in Australia. It also supports valuable research infrastructure, such as its award-winning <a href="https://theconversation.com/treasure-trove-why-defunding-trove-leaves-australia-poorer-55217">Trove</a> database, which served 18 million browsers in 2021. These cuts will inevitably erode the Library’s capacity, and will probably result in job losses for librarians in future years. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A light projection across the National Library walls at night, with people looking on" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455689/original/file-20220331-12-17497o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455689/original/file-20220331-12-17497o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455689/original/file-20220331-12-17497o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455689/original/file-20220331-12-17497o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455689/original/file-20220331-12-17497o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455689/original/file-20220331-12-17497o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455689/original/file-20220331-12-17497o.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">National Library of Australia at Enlighten, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Graemec/Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the treatment of the National Library is consistent with a history of ongoing neglect for written culture in Australia. When it comes to public funding, literature has long been the poor cousin of the arts. </p>
<p>Unlike the performing arts, which benefit from a dedicated funding stream inside the Australia Council, literature enjoys very little federal support. In 2020-21, the Australia Council gave out <a href="https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/australia-council/reporting-year/2020-21-9">just $4.7 million</a> in grant funding to literature – 2.4% of the total funding pool last year. In contrast, the major performing arts organisations received $120 million. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-why-libraries-can-and-must-change-83496">Friday essay: why libraries can and must change</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Declining funds for writing and publishing</h2>
<p>Funding for writing and publishing is not just low: it’s also declining. In 2014, Australia Council funding for literature was $8.9 million, nearly double what it is this year. In that year, <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/news/media-releases/more-reasons-to-get-reading-in-2010/">Get Reading!</a>, a $1.6 million program (originally named Books Alive!) dedicated to promoting reading, especially among children, was abandoned. Industry observers point to the demise of the artform boards of the Australia Council after Gillard government reforms in 2013, which saw the agency’s specialist Literature Board wound up. There was no dedicated funding program for literature to replace it. </p>
<p>The federal lending rights schemes are important. They will distribute $23 million this year, a valuable subsidy for authors and publishers. But the program is slowly losing relevance as – astonishingly – it doesn’t cover electronic lending or e-book borrowing. The Australian Society of Authors and publishers <a href="https://www.asauthors.org/news/why-we-need-digital-lending-rights-now">want the scheme expanded</a> to digital lending. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455718/original/file-20220401-23-h591a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455718/original/file-20220401-23-h591a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455718/original/file-20220401-23-h591a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455718/original/file-20220401-23-h591a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455718/original/file-20220401-23-h591a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455718/original/file-20220401-23-h591a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455718/original/file-20220401-23-h591a2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While federal lending rights subsidies are important, astonishingly, they don’t cover electronic lending or e-book borrowing. Pictured: State Library of Victoria, La Trobe Reading Room.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Gawthrop/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Policy neglect like this is a long-running problem for the literature sector. During the Coalition’s first term of government, then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott promised to set up a special body to support and fund Australian publishing, to be called the <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/news/ozco-cuts-will-fund-book-council-246752-2345635/">Book Council of Australia</a> and given an initial budget of $6 million annually. </p>
<p>But the new agency was never created. With the Book Council killed off in proposal stage, the promised funding for publishing never eventuated either, vanishing in a puff of smoke in the 2015 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.</p>
<p>In 2018, as part of the Turnbull government’s media reforms, Senate cross-benchers struck a deal to secure $60 million funding for regional publishers and media organisations. Of this, $16 million went to small regional media organisations under the <a href="https://www.acma.gov.au/regional-and-small-publishers-innovation-fund">Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund</a>. Just like Get Reading, that fund has also finished up, and there has been no analogous program for Australian literary and non-fiction publishers.</p>
<h2>Writers in dire difficulty</h2>
<p>Arts Minister Paul Fletcher’s RISE fund has provided some assistance. There was some funding to publishers and booksellers, such as an innovative voucher scheme for Australian books. But RISE too will be wound up at the end of this financial year. </p>
<p>The result is a writing sector that faces grinding austerity. A recent <a href="https://www.asauthors.org/news/asa-survey-results-author-earnings-in-australia">survey of authors</a> by the Australian Society of Authors found understandable pessimism among its members, which include some of Australia’s best known novelists, poets and non-fiction writers. “Our members feel very flat about funding,” ASA’s Olivia Lanchester told me in a message. “We are the lowest funded of the major art forms through the Australia Council despite high participation rates in reading.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455709/original/file-20220401-22-v0sa4b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455709/original/file-20220401-22-v0sa4b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/455709/original/file-20220401-22-v0sa4b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455709/original/file-20220401-22-v0sa4b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455709/original/file-20220401-22-v0sa4b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455709/original/file-20220401-22-v0sa4b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455709/original/file-20220401-22-v0sa4b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/455709/original/file-20220401-22-v0sa4b.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Christos Tsiolkas says writers face ‘real life desperate situations’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo: John Tsiavis</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The penurious circumstances of Australian writers was graphically highlighted in late 2020, in testimony to the House of Representatives from prominent Australian novelists Charlotte Wood and Christos Tsiolkas. </p>
<p>Wood told a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/Arts">House of Representatives inquiry</a> into Australia’s cultural sector that “writers themselves are in absolutely dire economic difficulty”. She cited figures that literary writers’ annual income from their books was just $4,000 a year. “That work is piecemeal, freelance, poorly paid and very unstable.” Wood pointed out that “COVID is destroying the livelihoods of writers in many ways” and explained that the pandemic was “eviscerating three major income streams for writers outside their books, which are public speaking, university teaching and freelance writing.”</p>
<p>Tsiolkas told the inquiry that younger writers he had recently spent time with faced “real life desperate situations – how they’ll pay their rent and how they’re going to look after their young children”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gail-jones-australian-literature-is-chronically-underfunded-heres-how-to-help-it-flourish-148906">Gail Jones: Australian literature is chronically underfunded — here's how to help it flourish</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Australia doesn’t need to treat its readers and writers like this. We are a rich nation with a half-trillion dollar federal budget. Even a dramatic increase in funding, for all aspects of Australian culture, would be a rounding error in the context of other budget priorities, like <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-nuclear-powered-submarines-work-a-nuclear-scientist-explains-168067">nuclear submarines</a> or the <a href="https://theconversation.com/stages-1-and-2-of-the-tax-cuts-should-pass-stage-3-would-return-us-to-the-1950s-119637">“stage 3” income tax cuts</a> coming in 2024. </p>
<p>Australian writing is tremendously popular. Australian stories are central to the way we understand ourselves as citizens and a nation. Books by Australian authors sell well, as anyone who has been to a Trent Dalton bookstore event can attest. Australia Council data tells us that <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/advocacy-and-research/creating-our-future/">72% of the population reads regularly for pleasure</a>. More than four million Australians visited a writers festival or literary event in 2019. </p>
<p>Like other artforms in this country, literature has struggled to make itself heard among the cacophony of special interests in Canberra. But literature is not a special interest: it is a constituent component of our national identity, and a deep source of enjoyment for millions of citizens. Storytelling is a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human. If anyone should be able to understand that, it is our politicians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179476/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Eltham has previously received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts. He is affiliated with the Centre for Future Work at The Australia Institute, where he has previously co-written a report about federal cultural policy. He is a member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), a union that represents workers in the cultural sector. </span></em></p>Funding for writing and publishing is not just low: it’s also declining. Ben Eltham looks at a grim federal budget for literature, in the context of ongoing neglect for written culture in Australia.Ben Eltham, Lecturer, School of Media, Film and Journalism, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.