Making Space for the ‘Irrational’ Practice of Anthropology in Libraries

Abstract

In this article, I extend the argument for open-ended exploratory, anthropologically informed, qualitative work in libraries that Andrew Asher and I began with “Ethnographish” (2016) and further explore and explain the paucity of open-ended exploration in library assessment and engagement work with the frame of rationality. I argue here that open-ended, exploratory anthropological work could be the kind of irrational work that can help library workers escape the neoliberal cage of rationality. If libraries are to be institutions that do not just mitigate but actively fight marginalization and inequality, we need to deeply interrogate the structures that insist on rational approaches to libraries and library work.

Ethnographic Methods in Libraries Revisited

“…They label much of the ethnographic research in libraries to date as 'ethnographish'. Lanclos (2020) expands on this theme in a subsequent paper, advocating for an 'irrational' application of ethnography in libraries that challenges the current managerialist agenda based on superficial quantitative performance measures that reinforce existing power structures rather than identify issues of marginalisation and inequality. A more basic, open-ended form of ethnography, not constrained by the 'neoliberal cage of rationality', could assist with a more transformative approach to library management.…”