#library ben

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Up to my old tricks again...

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I've been asked to do an "Academic Integrity in Context" kind of talk…. Not sure they knew what they were getting themselves into.

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Giving another conference talk using almost nothing but autism creatures as visuals.

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Is Your Evidence Really Based? Behaviourist Capture, Autistic Self-Advocacy, and Librarianship

In the history of science and medicine there are numerous examples of how the “best available evidence” promoted by professional societies was profoundly, destructively wrong. This can be seen in the widespread support of scientific racism and eugenics as well as the pathologization of “sexual inversion” and gender variance. When, as librarians, we talk about the nature of authority and hold up peer review as an example of a methodological gold standard in academic and medical research, we must always ask ourselves: whose peers are we talking about? For that matter, whose interests are we talking about? It is becoming increasingly evident even to those outside the autistic community that despite claims of being grounded in evidence-based practices, most studies on the effectiveness of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) are poorly designed, do not disclose conflicts of interest, display a strategic disregard of the harmful outcomes of interventions, and do not reflect the interests of the majority of autistic people. At best, ABA is expensive, intensive, and ineffective at improving life outcomes. At worst, it is actively traumatic and makes us more susceptible to further victimization.

This discussion will examine recent challenges to the evidence-based nature of ABA and how ABA practitioners have historically taken advantage of the internalist nature of the peer-review system. These challenges reinforce what autistic activists have been saying for over twenty years and have consequences for how librarians deliver information literacy instruction. Information literacy and librarianship are not neutral activities and must include a place for own voice narratives, patient, and survivor accounts if we are to avoid perpetuating harmful industry standards with a shrug and a gesture to how “well, everyone’s doing it.”

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Fig. 897. -- Fox. Fig. 898. -- Foxy

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Made a LibGuide. Still a work in progress.

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Questions I Have Asked at Academic Integrity Talks That Have Never Been Answered

“Thank you kindly for your talk. It’s really refreshing to hear discussions of the core relationality of teaching and the role of decolonization in academic integrity. I’ve often struggled with the way academic integrity is framed as punitive, indeed carceral, and not just framed but enacted that way at academic integrity offices.

I have a question about the way we frame the question of academic integrity itself, how it precludes certain kinds of discussions, especially those that ask the most questions of those with the most power in an institution. Why don’t we think about the cost of tuition as an academic integrity issue, why don’t we think about the racism you mentioned as an academic integrity issue in higher education more so than students cheating?

Across several institutions, I still have students crying in my office over the fear of plagiarism after academic integrity offices have given “reefer madness” like presentations about how easy it is to do, and how it will ruin their lives. I don’t want to harm my students that way. As an educator I feel students only harm their own education by plagiarizing. Doesn’t the intensity of the institutional response to academic integrity reflect a neoliberal institution’s attempts to preserve the perceived dollar value of a degree from that institution rather than a commitment to education itself?”

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Weekly Botslop Evangels

The new botslop evangel at my institution (who has been brought in at about 200 000 a year when everyone else is being laid off) sends these weekly "feel good" emails that seem precision designed to become my villain arc. Talking about how beautiful the environment is, how lovely the day is, how everything is great. And you know what else is great? AI! Everyone loves it, and everyone wants to be involved. Don't you want to be involved?

Just as an example of this "values-based gas-lighting":

"[Husband] and I installed solar lights at home this week - a small, satisfying Earth Day project. I'm also joining the Trash Bash on May 14 if anyone wants to come along. Having spent my last two roles in sustainability tech, Earth Day carries real meaning for me. Small steps, compounded, make a big difference - and I believe that as much about innovation as I do about the environment. It also reminds me that technology and sustainability aren't in tension - they're most powerful when they're designed together. That's a belief [ill conceived and badly named AI initiative] holds too, and one I hope we keep building on."

... every week, as the layoffs, early retirements, cancelled contracts, and general infrastructural decline continues.

It's serving real Margaret Bourke-White's Depression Era Food Line energy.