Person:

Seiter, Alessandra

Mutual aid - including and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic - is a case study in how social movements can facilitate transformative community development through grassroots knowledge production, reliant on information management. Their approach aligns with participatory action research (PAR), which can provide a framework for librarians and other knowledge professionals to support the social movements in their communities by leveraging relevant expertise in solidarity-minded ways.

This paper critically examines the concept of intellectual freedom (IF) and the central role it plays in the U.S. library and information science (LIS) profession, challenging the concept’s assumed basis in neutrality and demonstrating the active barrier it presents in its current implementation to existing and future social justice efforts. Thee paper argues that if LIS is to move from making ineffective calls for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) to actively working for justice within and beyond the field, then it must adopt an understanding of IF that fundamentally considers the sociohistorical context of power in LIS, the United States, and the world.