Institutionalization of progressist and critical librarianship

Abstract

“Other Librarianship” has been practiced and produced with different characteristics. The designations of these Librarianships, which oppose a conservative approach, are mainly known as: Progressive and Critical Librarianship. This exploratory research, regarding approach, bibliographic, we will seek to shed light on the institutional frameworks, which are associated with the ‘social institutionalization’ processes of Progressive and Critical Librarianship. The general objective is to identify the processes of social institutionalization of Progressive and Critical Librarianship in the Anglo-Saxon context. We found a textual diversity, starting in the 20th century, coming from several authors who sought to discuss the practices and knowledge of Librarianship. We perceive that Progressive and Critical Librarianship, has been assuming, in the last decades, an increasing force of action and reflection, vigorously questioning neutrality, impartiality, the oppressive social structure, the capitalist system and the commodification of information. We consider that the systematization of the various events are important for outline the epistemology of Contemporary Librarianship.