At this year’s DLF Forum, Chris Bourg, Cecily Walker, and Safiya Noble powerfully drove home the responsibility that the digital library community has to reflect critically as it shapes the contours of the digital environment. We must be vigilantly aware of how our decisions accrete toward a constellation of world views that simultaneously foreclose and expand conditions of interpretation and possibility.
We are never neutral.
But what do we do with that admission? We build with our hearts on our sleeves. We build toward a vision of the world that spins openly on the axes of our convictions.
Soon after Chris and Cecily’s talk I circulated an open document for gathering examples of never neutral digital library work. If this approach resonates with you I hope you will consider contributing.