Slow Librarianship and Life During an Endemic

Meredith Farkas is an academic librarian, writer, teacher, speaker, columnist, and mover and shaker. She has spent the last few years reflecting on her once driven professional life and aspirations for herself. Finding time for work, home life and family and professional obligations tugged at her and left little time for self-care or slowing down. 

Image by Oldiefan from Pixabay

In her most recent blog post on her Information Wants to Be Free blog, she thoughtfully explores how this re-examination of her commitment and priorities has only become more stark during the pandemic. She is discovering answers that suggest a new organizational philosophy that shows a way forward to many of who feel stressed and overworked.

She writes: "For the past couple of years, I’ve been thinking about something I call slow librarianship. It was in response to the realizations I had about my workaholism and the ideas I explored around ambition, striving, productivity, self-optimization, and achievement culture on this blog two years ago. It felt like the answer to all this was to slow down, to notice and reflect, to focus more on being true to our values than innovating, to build relationships, to really listen (to our communities our colleagues, and ourselves), and to be in solidarity with others."

Farkas goes on: "Slow librarianship is an antiracist, responsive, and values-driven practice that stands in opposition to neoliberal values. Workers in slow libraries are focused on relationship-building, deeply understanding and meeting patron needs, and providing equitable services to their communities. Internally, slow library culture is focused on learning and reflection, collaboration and solidarity, valuing all kinds of contributions, and supporting staff as whole people. Slow librarianship is a process, not a destination; it is an orientation towards our work, ourselves, and others that creates positive change. It is an organizational philosophy that supports workers and builds stronger relationships with our communities."

To read this thoughtful article that speaks to many of us in librarianship who are feeling burned out, please stop here.