Within recent years, growing attention has
been paid to “alternative libraries” as sites that collect materials not often
acquired (comprehensively) in academic, public, or special libraries. These
spaces are typically independent or operate as a part of a larger institution
with a specific mission in mind. Alternative libraries range from functioning
out of a garage or warehouse space with friends, in the park, or as part of an
independent organization (for instance a gallery, political group, or personal
archive). Whatever the case may be, it seems that the common thread is to
provide access to materials that are under represented in the larger schema of
conventional libraries. Multiple blogs have been created in an attempt to
document the contemporary phenomenon, as many of these alternative libraries
are not readily visible to the greater community though they serve as great
resources for specific areas of knowledge. In
this post, I would like to explore how conventional notions of the library as
housing collections of objective accounts and authoritative knowledge are
challenged by the existence of alternative libraries and contextual these
spaces within Donna Haraway’s theory of situated
knowledges.
Perhaps a definition of alternative libraries is
called for here. In my research, I have found that alternative libraries often
develop in conversation with, or in resistance to, conventional library
structures. Rather than being in direct opposition with one another,
alternative libraries represent the space and functions of conventional
libraries while simultaneously challenging their approaches. Alternative
libraries and librarians instead provide information in different contexts,
facilitating multiple ways of knowing for different communities and areas of
interest. In response to traditional library settings, alternative spaces
developed as a means to provide access to materials that have cultural
significance but are not heavily collected in academic or public libraries. People
were in search for content that reflected their information interests and a
shared space with a community of individuals with similar ideas. Essentially,
the development of alternative libraries draw attention to the limits of
conventional libraries and focus on collecting content that provide counter-narratives
and represent varied and specific interests.
I feel that Haraway’s situated knowledges theory is
useful here as she aims to deconstruct binaries and monolithic truth claims
that have governed how knowledge is produced and organized. Haraway employs a
metaphor of vision to unpack the ways in which a myth has been perpetuated
about knower and known. She claims, “The eyes have been used to signify a
perverse capacity...to distance the knowing subject from everybody and
everything in the interests of unfettered power”. In
this sense, academic and public libraries can be identified as the eyes of the
knower. Alternative libraries are located in dialogue with such conventional
libraries whose collections have traditionally been constructed as
authoritative and objective ways of knowing. Haraway goes on to interrogate
objectivity and argues, “...objectivity turns out to be about particular and
specific embodiment and definitely not about the false vision promising
transcendence of all limits and responsibility. The moral is simple: only
partial perspective promises objective vision.” I
find that the partiality and specific perspectives presented in alternative
library collections align with Haraway’s form of objectivity.
Collections such
as the LGBT history materials at the ONE Archives at USC; the homoerotic art
and literature at Tom of Finland Foundation library, archives, and gallery; and
the personal histories collected at People’s Library are contemporary examples
of libraries and archives whose collections reflect the situated, embodied
knowledges of their users. The
collections are reflective of the lived experiences of individuals whose “view
from a body” is not comprehensively represented in conventional public and
academic library collections.
Sources:
Donna Haraway, “Situated Knowledges: The
Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” Feminist Studies 14:3 (Fall 1998): 581.
Alana Kumbier, “Inventing History: The Watermelon Woman and Archive Activism,” in Make Your Own History: Documenting Feminist and Queer Activism ed. Lyz Bly and Kelly Wooten (Los Angeles: Litwin Books, LLC, 2012): 98.
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