Decolonization
Decolonization is a powerful and contentious word. What does it mean exactly? Is it feasible? Is it desirable? And what does it mean for…
From pilot to perfect: Improving RA skills by investing in training
Practice makes perfect—or at least staff can benefit from targeted readers’ advisory training, particularly when they have time to practice and reflect on their…
The Great October Socialist Revolution
October 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the Russian revolution which began a new stage in the development of librarianship by creating the objective…
Listeners’ advisory: When audiobook title recommendations are not enough
Imagine this . . . you’re getting ready for a long road trip, you have just downloaded an audiobook from the library and are…
Cultural appropriation
“No man is an island entire of itself.” ~ John Donne Cultural appropriation is a “hot button” and deeply polarising issue that is being…
Fake news and manufacturing consent
"Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance" – George Bernard Shaw Given all the fuss that has been made about fake…
Read more and prosper
Science fiction. It’s a genre that is loved by many, but largely misunderstood. The question “Can you recommend a good science fiction book?” has…
To defend the revolution is to defend culture
Having considered the cultural policies of Ontario and the U.K., I would now like to turn my attention to Cuba, where culture has been…
Interview skills: Avoid the RA nightmare
Has anyone else had this recurring dream? A patron comes up to you and asks for something good to read and your only response…
Culture, Goebbels and 1984
The timing of the UK’s first white paper for culture in more than 50 years, and only the second ever published, is curious to…
My five-month mission: To boldly go where …
I have not gone before. Mission background: To make a “Best Bets” list of titles for this year’s RA in a Day, an annual…
Ontario’s culture strategy
Whenever I travel around the world I always visit the local public library because I think that this is an indicator of how progressive…
Class and librarianship
The current crisis of capitalism has led to the renewed interest in Marxism and its core categories of analysis such as class and exploitation.…