The Cyber Capitalist Academic Library and its Discontents — 2025

The Cyber Capitalist Academic Library and its Discontents

Lightning Talk | Thursday, June 12th, 2025 | 12:30pm – 1:00pm EST

Library science, and by implication the library itself as a social institution, has often been said to be in crisis because it lacks a theory of itself. This paper critiques this sense of an ending by arguing that the cause of the crisis lies neither in the lack of a coherent theory of library science, as “critical librarianship” (CL) argues, nor in how its classification of “others” undermines the egalitarian values of the library, as “radical librarianship” (RL) claims. Instead, the paper contends, its cause lies in the library’s determination by the capitalist mode of production, as Marxist librarianship (ML) argues. While advocating for a “radical” library theory that gets to the “roots” of the ideological conflicts in library studies in class relations, the paper concludes that the production of class consciousness is necessary to transform the library from its current reformist orientation into becoming a vanguard of revolutionary change.

[This discussion will not be recorded.]

Presenter: Stephen Tumino

Stephen Tumino is the author of Thinking Blue/Writing Red: Marxism and the (Post)Human (Open Book Publishers). He is currently working on a new book on critique-al librarianship titled, The New Militant: Materialism and Librarianship.