Title: Sovereign Consumers Aren’t Yet Free Readers 

Abstract: The dominant conception of the freedom to read in US librarianship is one of non-interference, wherein free readers are sovereign consumers who face no intentional outside intervention in their choice of materials. I argue that this account fails to capture systemic threats that (a) limit and distort the options available to us and (b) do so absent any paternalistic or elitist intent to interfere in our choices. We can see an example of this in comparative titles or “comps,” a decision-making convention that reproduces racial inequality in trade publishing. Comp-based acquisitions corrode the freedom to read by setting background conditions against which certain literature becomes systematically inaccessible, unimaginable, or undesirable to us as readers. My critique suggests that securing readers’ freedom will require changes to the power relations that enable and constrain our choices in the first place. 

Speaker Bio: Lawrence (he/him) works on issues arising at the intersection of library and information ethics, readers and reading, and aesthetics (especially as these pertain to recommendation and structural inequities in book culture). His current research intervenes on standard conceptions of readerly freedom and autonomy and aims to develop alternative accounts of these. Lawrence holds a PhD in library and information science from the University of Illinois and a master’s degree in library science from the University of Maryland.