Curriculum Vitae

Shannon Crawford Barniskis is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Science, at the University of Kentucky.

My mission is to help libraries be convivial tools--tools that forward power to the people to use them interdependently, to meet the aims they choose for themselves.

How can libraries help?

I am interested in how public libraries impact the communities and people they serve. My research interests include public library art and other non-book programs, makerspaces, leadership, children and teens, power and ethics, social trust, access, and intellectual freedom.

A main thrust of my work centers on what I call IDEAL: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (for the purposes of) Liberation (and Love).

Some questions I ask:

  • How can public libraries help communities prosper, join together, and understand the world and each other?

  • (Why) Do libraries matter?

  • How can people best learn, make, play, connect or otherwise flourish in ways meaningful to them, when using public libraries?

  • How can people have agency in sharing governance, using, or benefiting from, public libraries?

I use practice theory and community-centered methodologies that focus on the deployment of power in public libraries in programs, spaces, and processes, to ensure libraries are convivial tools for their communities.