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Abstract: The Public Library Routines Project: Problematizing Routine Library Work
Consistent with other occupations, the work of library staff centers around routines. These routines organize work, helping staff get things done more efficiently and avoid endless discussions about how everything should be done. Yet, while work routines help organizations produce goods and services, they also “(re)produce the social order in which those goods and services have value” (Feldman & Pentland, 2022, p. 849). This reproduction occurs through the patterning of routine work. According to the study of Routine Dynamics (Feldman et al., 2021), routines have two elements. The ostensive elements establish the blueprints or recipes for how the work should be completed, while the performative elements include what workers do to apply a routine’s ostensive elements to practice. The Public Library Routines Project (PLRP), funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, considers the identity standards and standpoints that are encoded within a library routine’s ostensive elements, i.e., how the patterning of routine work suggests who library staff ideally are, should be, and actually are.
Because the patterning within libraries typically centers around Whiteness norms (Hathcock, 2015), routine work is more likely to introduce barriers for staff with non-White identities. However, while routine work has typically been seen as something that protects the status quo, routines can also be a tremendous source of change (Feldman & Pentland, 2003). Because workers have agency, and the ostensive blueprints can never fully prescribe how work should be done, workers always introduce some variation through their performance of routine work. These variations in performance can lead to changes in a routine’s ostensive elements. So, while routine library work may introduce barriers for staff with non-White identities, a recognition of problematic routines can support attempts at emergent change.
Over the past year, PLRP researchers have talked with public library staff across the country who consider some component of their identity to be underrepresented in the profession, e.g., BIPOC staff, staff with disabilities or mental health challenges, LGBTQIA+ staff. Participants record a series of audio diaries about their routine work and sit for a 45-minute interview. To date, the project has collected 162 diaries, each 5-7 minutes in length, from 33 participants.
Through text and visualizations, the proposed poster will:
• describe initial findings, including the identity standards that are encoded into routine library work, how these standards introduce barriers for library staff, and what library staff do to work around them;
• offer a series of practical implications for the profession and LIS educational institutions; and
• outline a long-term research agenda for uncovering and responding to problematic library routines.
This research fits the conference theme of Library Research Seminar VIII by centering the stories of staff in the mundane work of librarianship. Because of the standardization and repetition inherent to routine work, any discriminatory elements within them can easily become normalized and hidden. This research aims to problematize these routines and consider revisions to them that better support staff.
Because the patterning within libraries typically centers around Whiteness norms (Hathcock, 2015), routine work is more likely to introduce barriers for staff with non-White identities. However, while routine work has typically been seen as something that protects the status quo, routines can also be a tremendous source of change (Feldman & Pentland, 2003). Because workers have agency, and the ostensive blueprints can never fully prescribe how work should be done, workers always introduce some variation through their performance of routine work. These variations in performance can lead to changes in a routine’s ostensive elements. So, while routine library work may introduce barriers for staff with non-White identities, a recognition of problematic routines can support attempts at emergent change.
Over the past year, PLRP researchers have talked with public library staff across the country who consider some component of their identity to be underrepresented in the profession, e.g., BIPOC staff, staff with disabilities or mental health challenges, LGBTQIA+ staff. Participants record a series of audio diaries about their routine work and sit for a 45-minute interview. To date, the project has collected 162 diaries, each 5-7 minutes in length, from 33 participants.
Through text and visualizations, the proposed poster will:
• describe initial findings, including the identity standards that are encoded into routine library work, how these standards introduce barriers for library staff, and what library staff do to work around them;
• offer a series of practical implications for the profession and LIS educational institutions; and
• outline a long-term research agenda for uncovering and responding to problematic library routines.
This research fits the conference theme of Library Research Seminar VIII by centering the stories of staff in the mundane work of librarianship. Because of the standardization and repetition inherent to routine work, any discriminatory elements within them can easily become normalized and hidden. This research aims to problematize these routines and consider revisions to them that better support staff.