Libraries as Dysfunctional Organizations and Workplaces. Spencer Acadia, ed. New York: Routledge University Press, 2023, 316 p. Paper, $35.96 ISBN: 978-0-3677-4709-1.

Libraries as Dysfunctional Organizations and Workplaces documents the widespread evidence that library workers in North America are unhappy with the libraries where they work. Although the term dysfunction can make the book appear to be geared toward managers with an interest in alleviating those elements of the workplace, the book will appeal to anyone working in or adjacent to the LIS field.

This book, edited by Spencer Acadia at the University of Denver, has three major goals: to critically look at the internal problems of libraries as dysfunctional workplaces, to examine the socio-organizational level as it relates to existing literature, and to provide practical suggestions on how to address dysfunction. The book is easy to read. Chapters are written with clarity, and efforts are taken to ensure that readers are working with shared definitions. For example, authors use the 1999 Statt definition of dysfunctional to mean “[…] anything that disturbs the normal functional operations of an organization. It is also used more widely to mean a way of doing things that doesn’t work” (3).

The authors explore the factors that lead to dysfunctional workplaces as well as the four types of dysfunction an organization can face. The authors offer four types: low morale/burnout, problematic recruitment and retention, discrimination, and bullying. Although much has been written on the topic of individuals dealing with burnout, the book looks squarely at what the employer can change to stop it. Chapters also examine workplace bullying. Using a survey method, Carol Ann Geary and Spencer Acadia explore the impact of COVID-19 and at-home work on rates of bullying, arguing that bullying is one of the factors of high turnover for academic librarians. Kate Dohe, Celia Emmelhainz, Maura Seale, and Erin Pappas offer a surprising take in their chapter “The Saboteur in the Academic Library.” They assess both the positive and negative outcomes of sabotage. Sabotage can keep work manageable and protect employees from patrons, but it can also create a toxic work environment for BIPOC employees and scare off new hires. Silvia Vong’s chapter, “Bamboo Ceiling Reframed: Exclusion through Social Practices and Structures in Libraries,” sheds new light on dysfunction through an analysis of AAPI interest in management in libraries. Vong’s research demonstrates that 43 percent of the respondents had no interest in management.

Recruitment and retention are key to any organization, so we need to take into consideration a whole-person approach, as Erica Lopez describes in chapter 3: “A whole person approach appreciates humans as complex individuals that interact to form relationships with others and their environments” (73). This approach can also improve the interview process and help demystify the processes of promotion and tenure(83) Adena Brons, Chloe Riley, Ean Henninger, and Crystal Yin address the dysfunction caused by a reliance on precarious labor. As they describe it, precarity is a problem that differs across institutions. This means that “the causes, manifestations, and effects of precarity are multiple and complex; no individual library or library system experiences precarity in precisely the same way” (101). While this means that precarity cannot be solved in one swoop, the chapter offers multiple solutions for the problems discussed.

In total, the authors in this volume examine and discuss the various layers of dysfunction. The library is not the in a void. Libraries exist within higher education structures. Hierarchies in higher education and within the library need to be taken into consideration (288). By discussing this we can look past our institution and at the larger institution and see the same problems. The book has many strengths but a few notable weaknesses. The strongest chapters discuss academic libraries, but only a single chapter focuses on public libraries. Public libraries have different factors to consider, such as library boards and trustees. These are interesting topics that should be covered in a different book. In some cases, chapter titles feel like a shell game with no ball. Tim Ribaric’s “Put the Fucking Salary in the Job Ad!”: An Analysis of an Anonymous Corpus of Tweets” does not discuss salary or job postings but tweets by the account LIS Grievances on Twitter. Although not every chapter will pique the reader’s interest, readers interested in the concept of dysfunction or who want to discover how to improve the library workplace will value this book. — Kaia MacLeod, University of Calgary