When Oliver began work as a school librarian she felt qualified for the job. What she learned was that librarians are expected to serve as mediators and mental-health-crisis-support professionals, customer service reps and administrators of overdose treatment, fierce loyalists to institutionalized mythology and enforced silence, and arms of state surveillance. Here she highlights the national problems that have existed in libraries since they were founded: racism, segregation, and economic oppression. Libraries may not save us, but Oliver helps us imaging what might be possible if we stop expecting them to.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-201) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:
Becoming. Northwest one ; Omnium lux civium ; So, what do you do? ; The library from "l" -- Empathy. Can you help me? ; Cold mercy ; For whom ; Burning out -- Reckoning. An education ; Libraries will (not) save us ; Multiphrenia ; The future of the American public library.
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