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 and 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 saviour behaviour that downplay the insidious domino effect of constructed scarcity and how it shapes expectations related to librarianship.


During the COVID-19 pandemic, librarians across college campus advocated for closing the libraries, recognizing that libraries have been growing online presences for more than two decades (Flaherty 2020). Despite the fact that the risk to library employees was great due to how frequently they interact with patrons, how long patrons tend to remain in one space, and the necessity of handling and cleaning used services and materials, many libraries remained open. In some situations, even when the physical library building was closed to the public, individuals were expected to show up for their position, with minimal safety measures in place to provide access to library materials (Moynihan 2020).

But this was already underway before the pandemic. In public libraries, library employees often serve as social workers, daycare providers, and even paramedics. Librarians training in and administering NARCAN/naloxone during the opioid epidemic (Barton 2017, Correal 2018, King et al. 2020, Kowalski 2017, Rosales 2018, Simon 2017, TEDMED Staff 2018) exemplify the librarian as hero, her place in the saviour/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 (Inklebarger 2018) 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 saviour if the drugs weren't locked up. Do we keep the fire extinguishers behind the reference desk? Librarians are thrust into the role of saviour in the opioid 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 that challenges availability of evidence-based recovery and treatment options for the addicted. Scarcity is our fallback position but there is a domino effect every time we go there in the face of need.

This page has paths:

This page references: