We argue that Winnipeg’s downtown Millennium Library’s aggressive and invasive security screening practices represent a threat to libraries across North America. Drawing on critical librarianship literatures, as well as anti-racist and criminological scholarship, we argue that moves to implement security screening in libraries flies in the face of best practices for public libraries, creates opportunities for racial bias and harm, and does not make patrons or staff safer. We trace the multiple ways that securitization creates harm for different marginalized communities. We then argue that Millennium Library is not alone in facing this risk, and that solidarity and mobilization by other librarians will be necessary to stem the tide on securitization.
In response to the airport-style security measures implemented at the downtown Millennium Branch of the Winnipeg Public Library, concerned library users, academics, and library workers came together to prepare a report assessing the negative impact of the measures as well as to explore alternatives. Focusing on how securitization disproportionately affects already marginalized communities and is part of a larger trend of social exclusion in Winnipeg's public spaces, the report also covers existing community-led alternatives in Canadian libraries.
Using research on the political economy of the music industries, interviews with independent musicians about their lived experiences, and the authors' experience participating in government copyright consultations in Canada, this article discusses how the market power of major music companies, and their capture of the policy-making process through lobbying, has made copyright reform an extremely limited avenue for remedying the variety of hardships facing musicians in the streaming media era. Against the continued consolidation and concentration of power within the music industries, we explore a case study of Edmonton Public Library’s Capital City Records as an alternative model that may inspire further initiatives that advocate for artists and users. We conclude by discussing a commons-based, public infrastructure and governance model that could serve as a tool to circumvent uneven power dynamics in the music industries, facilitate stronger music communities, and provide sustainable livelihoods for working musicians in Canada.
This special issue of the Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship was guest-edited by members of the CAPAL Research and Scholarship Committee. It is intended to foster a greater understanding of the research environment of academic librarians in Canada, as well as to continue to articulate a scholarly foundation to inform the committee's own work and the work of others. To this end, this issue contains diverse theoretical, qualitative, and quantitative works from Canadian academic librarians that address how, why, where, and when research is taking place within academic librarianship. They critically consider the relationship between our research and scholarly work, and the broader political and historical entities of our work as academic librarians.
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