Refusal as Instruction

Equipping Patrons to Resist AI, Data Brokers, Big Tech, & More

Abstract

Abstract This column explores the ways in which library workers can better align technology use and instruction in library settings with library values, through championing the refusal of technologies that conflict with values like privacy and intellectual freedom. Drawing on experiences with individual patron instruction, class design, and passive programming, the author shares practical steps for helping patrons to understand and fight back against exploitation by digital technologies. Rejecting the myth that any technology is “neutral,” the column argues that libraries as values-driven organizations have a role to play in facilitating patrons’ rejection of technology, just as much as in their adoption of it.

Note from Shanna Hollich, column editor: I am particularly excited to share this issue's column for a number of reasons. First, it's from a public library perspective, which is one that is generally underrepresented in the LIS literature as a whole, and which I'm proud to say that ITAL makes a concerted effort to address. Second, it's about library instruction, a topic of relevance to all types of libraries - and where much of the literature specifically discusses formal library instruction, this column also addresses passive programming, informal instruction, and casual patron interaction, which are also vitally important and under-studied aspects of the library worker's role in education. And finally, it's yet another column about AI, and even more specifically, about taking a critical approach to AI tools, AI education, and AI literacy. Close readers may have noticed this topic tends to be a special interest of mine, but Hannah Cyrus takes a measured and reasoned approach here that acknowledges the potential harms of AI without falling into the trap of simply ignoring or denying AI and the very real impacts it is having on our libraries and the communities we serve.