A Genealogy of Refusal : Walking away from crisis and scarcity narratives

When Expectations Cross the line

Library professionals can be  so inculcated in the service side of their role that when someone says "Jump" they just start jumping, they don't even stop to ask "how high?"  The COVID-19 pandemic exposed how slippery the slope can get when expectations cross the line. But the tensions librarians navigate have a long history told through stories of sacrifice, heroism, rescue and savior behavior that downplay the insidious domino effect of  constructed scarcity and how it shapes expectations related to  librarianship.

[Flaherty, Spector, Olivia Solon goes here? ]


 
Explicate more from Anonymous. 2020. “Librarians of the World Unite!” The Nib. June 17, 2020. https://thenib.com/librarians-of-the-world-unite/.
 
  1. Colleen Flaherty. 2020. “Librarians Advocate Closing Campus Libraries during Coronavirus Pandemic.” Inside Higher Ed. March 19, 2020. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/03/19/librarians-advocate-closing-campus-libraries-during-coronavirus-pandemic.
  2. Moynihan, Colin. 2020. “Most Libraries Are Closed. Some Librarians Still Have to Go In.” The New York Times, April 14, 2020, sec. Arts. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/14/arts/library-workers-us-coronavirus.html.
  3. Solon, Olivia. 2020. “Library Workers Fight for Safer Working Conditions amid Coronavirus Pandemic.” NBC News. April 8, 2020. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/library-workers-fight-safer-working-conditions-amid-coronavirus-pandemic-n1179346.
  4. Spector, Bert. 2019. Constructing Crisis: Leaders, Crises and Claims of Urgency. http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1125096372.

But this was already underway before the pandemic, see opiod crisis and library response.  Librarians training in and administering NARCAN/Naloxone during the opiod epidemic exemplify the librarian as hero, her place in the savior /caretaker role and how she can't turn away from saving lives if she is part of the community, if  her job is to care for the community. 


But at two doses a library we're staring the constructed scarcity in the face again - the librarian wouldn't be the one with the keys to the cabinet with two doses of naloxone if there were enough for the recovery community and the recovering to have their own.



She wouldn't have to be the savior if the drugs weren't locked up. Do we keep the fire extinguishers behind the reference desk?  Librarians are thrust into the role of savior in the opiod overdose wars because of constructed scarcity . A good Samaritan ethos can't manifest itself in an under-resourced community that is itself battling an overwhelming constructed scarcity the one that challenges availability of evidence based  recovery and treatment options for the addicted. Scarcity is our fallback position but there's a domino effect everytime we go there in the face of need
  1.  
 
  1. ALA. 2018. “Company to Supply Free Narcan to Libraries.” American Libraries Magazine. 2018. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/narcan-company-supply-free-narcan-to-libraries/. 2 does a library ?! WTF.
  2. Annie Correal. 2018. “Once It Was Overdue Books. Now Librarians Fight Overdoses. - The New York Times,” February 28, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/nyregion/librarians-opioid-heroin-overdoses.html.
  3. Barton, Mary Ann. 2017. “Beyond Books: Librarians on Front Line of Opioid Crisis.” NACo. July 19, 2017. https://www.naco.org/articles/beyond-books-librarians-front-line-opioid-crisis.
  4. “Call to Action: Public Libraries and the Opioid Crisis.” 2020. WebJunction. December 4, 2020. https://www.webjunction.org/events/webjunction/call-to-action-public-libraries-and-the-opioid-crisis.html.
  5. CNN, Darran Simon, CNN Photographs by Michelle Gustafson for. 2017. “The Opioid Epidemic Is so Bad That Librarians Are Learning How to Treat Overdoses.” CNN. June 24, 2017. https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/23/health/opioid-overdose-library-narcan/index.html.
  6. Rosales, Romeo. 2018. “The Opioid Crisis and Administering Narcan in Libraries.” Public Libraries Online, September 17, 2018. http://publiclibrariesonline.org/2018/09/the-opioid-crisis-and-administering-narcan-in-libraries/.
  7. TEDMED Foundation. 2017. The Critical Role Librarians Play in the Opioid Crisis. TEDMED. https://www.tedmed.com/talks/show?id=691192.
  8. TEDMED Staff. 2018. “Q&A with Chera Kowalski of the Free Library of Philadelphia.” TEDMED Blog (blog). June 5, 2018. https://blog.tedmed.com/qa-with-chera-kowalski-of-the-free-library-of-philadelphia/.

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