A Critique of the Postmodernist Project in Libraries

There is a concerning development occurring in today’s libraries stemming from a complex intellectual history and fed by contemporary identity culture and politics. This is the increasing hold that a class of ideas is having on the underpinnings of librarianship: namely, those ideas commonly styled ‘postmodern.’ The effect that postmodernist thinking has had on libraries is threefold: It gives the profession a theoretical stance about knowledge that is unfit for accomplishing the emancipatory aims of the library; undermines the pursuance of libraries as a public good; indulges an unreasonable skepticism about authority in general.