Editors' note

Abstract

Welcome to this special issue of the Art libraries journal, dedicated to critical art librarianship. For more than a decade, librarians in North America and elsewhere have increasingly engaged in the use of theory as a tool to question and redefine existing professional discourses and practices. In parallel, these critical approaches have also repositioned social justice as a core responsibility and goal of librarianship. The concepts of critical librarianship generally, and critical art librarianship in particular, are explored in this issue through multiple perspectives: theorisations, case studies and reflections, as well as accounts of activism.Many of the articles included here follow on from two recent conferences, 'Towards a critical (art) librarianship: theories and practices' held at

Towards an activist research: Is Wikipedia the problem or the solution?

“…18 Critical librarianship acknowledges this and understands social justice as a core responsibility of the profession. 19 Emily Drabinski has outlined five principles of critical librarianship, the fifth one stating 'critical librarianship knows that the world could be different'. 20 How then, do we change the world?…”