The Digital Is Critical: Creating and Maintaining Radical Library Systems

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2019-07-24

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Abstract

Digital libraries should be one of the most powerful tools available to libraries to reduce economic, geographic, ableist, and political barriers to global open access for scholarly and cultural materials. But how well are digital library systems delivering on these social justice aspirations? The application landscape has dwindled to a handful of commercial applications owned by businesses with long histories in commodifying content, and an array of open source products with high technological barriers to entry. Inequalities between institutions, communities, and valuation of labor are increasingly apparent within the open source digital library space. This interactive discussion will explore the impacts of stratification on library technologies, and consider critical approaches to create and maintain radical digital projects.

Notes

Part of the "Webinar on Algorithmic Bias" organized by the ACRL Digital Collections Discussion Group and Open Research Discussion Group.

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