The Feminist Reference Desk

<p>Feminist pedagogy employs strategies such as collaborative learning valuing experiential knowledge employing consciousness-raising about sexism and other forms of oppression and destabilizing the power hierarchies of the traditional classroom. Ultimately feminist library instruction seeks to empower learners to be both critical thinkers and critical actors who are motivated and prepared to bring about social change. The concept of feminist pedagogy has recently energized current conversations on library instruction so it is fitting and timely to consider how feminism might intersect with another vital student-centered service the academic library provides: the reference desk. Inspired by the ideas possibilities and discussions set in motion by Maria T. Accardi’s Feminist Pedagogy for Library Instruction (2013) this edited collection continues these conversations by considering how feminist strategies and philosophies might reshape invigorate and critique approaches to reference services. In short this collection will provide critical and thought-provoking explorations of how academic librarians might rethink central reference concepts and services from the reference interview to the reference collection to the staffing of the reference desk itself from a feminist perspective.</p>