Library Instruction West 2020

Harm reduction and threat modeling are helpful ideas to explore library work and teaching. In the Library Freedom Institute, a six month digital privacy training program for library workers, we learned that harm reduction is a concept from the public health field that destigmatizes risky behaviors, while working to give people safer options. Threat modeling is a framework for identifying safety risks and the changes that can be taken to minimize those. Rather than shaming people for their behavior, harm reduction recognizes that we make decisions out of the complexity of our lives, and we can seek change while also meeting people where they are. A harm reduction approach aims to make choices less stark: even small changes with students or in your organization make you safer, and your community potentially more just.

These concepts can frame discussions around the parts of libraries we and students engage with on a daily basis, encouraging us to consider the strata of information privilege and the interplay of limits and realities. For example, how can you best work within systems that are built to hurt you (such as digital tracking embedded in our online research tools)? Historically, US libraries have been called to “educate the masses” and assimilate others into White culture. This extends into the standard one-shot in an academic library, as we reinforce ideas of what counts as scholarly or authoritative, often without questioning underlying power structures. We will use harm reduction to frame a reflective conversation about these and other concerns that participants bring.

Attendees will participate in demonstration versions of in-class activities that the presenters frequently teach, including a threat model focusing on the instructional technologies they use in the classroom and a digital privacy spectrum activity, and will leave with tools they can practice with students in the classroom and with colleagues.

This lesson plan demonstration models best practices relating to the use of queer archives in information literacy instruction for first-year students and the unique learning opportunities provided by this approach. Using primary source materials from the Archives of Sexuality & Gender, students interrogate the politics of inclusion within social movements to inform justice-oriented actions. Particular care is taken to make the activities accessible for students who may lack contextual knowledge of queer history, hands-on experience with primary sources, and who are developing their understanding of the research process.

After a brief introduction to the lesson, attendees will participate in a hands-on activity examining a selection of primary source documents related to the Lavender Menace and the National Organization for Women. This exploration asks participants if and how lesbian activists influenced the women’s movement and uncovers differing goals, tactics, stereotypes and perspectives regarding the women’s movement and lesbian liberation, disrupting the notion of movements as monoliths. By interrogating the rich narratives contained in the queer archive, students understand such collections not as neutral repositories of facts, but as organizations that collect and fashion histories of a particular time and place, shared communal settings, and distinct cultural moments. Whole group discussion will conclude the session.

Although this lesson plan originates from a small liberal arts institution, the ideas and structure can be adapted for many purposes and for use in a wide variety of academic environments. Attendees should be willing to actively participate. Samples of instructional materials, as well as copies of the lesson plan and activities will be available.