Advocacy Defines the Future - Vol 4, Issue 1 of The Political Librarian

We are proud to announce the release of Volume 4, Issue 1 of "The Political Librarian", our journal of public policy and tax policy for libraries.

This issue includes cutting-edge thinking on issues affecting the future of the common good, and how funding for libraries follows the values espoused by a community. As series editor Dustin Fife says in his introduction: Advocacy Defines the Future

"Libraries have entered financially perilous times as the merits of public services, once described as “common goods,” are under attack. Institutions that have been unassailable for over a century are being undercut nationally and locally. Public schools are being stretched financially by for-profit charters, prisons are being privatized, and libraries and museums are being asked to quantify the unquantifiable. Asking questions is a good thing, and services can be justified through both quantitative and qualitative research, and should be. Questions about the inequitable distribution and implementation of public services are essential. But what do we do when the idea of a “common good” existing at all is under attack? How do libraries, as one indispensable aspect of the public square, help protect the entire public square? The answer is politics and policies."

Fife goes on to say "All of these articles implore each of us to wake up and do more than retweet ideas, policies, and services that we believe in. We must be policy advocates and build a better and brighter public square." The Issue is available open access and for free via our hosts at the Open Scholarship platform at Washington University in St. Louis.

Vol 4, Issue 1 (2018) Table of Contents

Editorial Note: Advocacy Defines the Future by Dustin Fife