Resisting Neoliberalism: Information Literacy Instruction as a Political Act

Abstract

Much scholarship, especially in the field of critical university studies1, has been written
concerning the trend toward neoliberalism in higher education. Less of this work
focuses specifically on academic libraries; however, librarianship has, to some extent, internalized
neoliberal values. This internalization appears in the language we use. We “market”
our services to faculty members, even making “elevator pitches.” Students ask to “rent”
books from the library, and some libraries even intentionally call patrons “customers.” In
our instruction, we teach students that information has value, but we rarely engage with
how that value is determined or how a view of information as capital affects the ways in
which students use the information they seek. In doing so, we reduce librarianship to
another cog in a capitalist machine which exists to create laborers, rather than to educate
citizens prepared to engage in society.