Heterodoxy in the Stacks
HxL Substack, Sarah Hartman-Caverly, Craig Gibson, Michael Dudley, Robert, Jim Gibson, Matthew Jockers, Jonathan Lawler, Mark Lenker, Kyle Breneman, Robert JensenIntellectual freedom, library neutrality, and libraries in democracy
| Platform |  | Pricing | Only free issues | Publishes | Twice weekly |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues | 266 | Founded | 4 years ago | Last Issue | 10 days ago |
| Active | |||||
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hxlibraries.substack.comLatest Issues
The Illiberal Politics of "The Astral Library"
Twenty-six year old Bostonian Alix Watson is facing multiple hardships: having grown up in the foster system, she is now a member of the working poor with less than $40 in her bank account. Her only solace is fantasy novels, the reading roo...
From Gramsci to Marcuse
Photo by Fabien Lebre on Unsplash
Editorial correction 20 May 2026: Generative AI was used in the preparation of this essay. Please see the post-script for details.
Antonio Gramsci, writing from prison in the early twentieth century, argu...
Does DEI Strengthen or Harm Intellectual Freedom?
[Image: Figma AI]
On December 22nd, 2025, the ALA’s Intellectual Freedom Blog ran a guest post by Dr. Judi Moreillon entitled, “Intellectual Freedom Concepts: Toward a Shared Understanding for Taking Action.” Despite its title, ra...
Required to Recite the Mainstream Narrative to Graduate
Photo by QingYu on Unsplash
By an anonymous recent MLIS graduate.
I waited until I had my degree not only in hand but framed before I submitted this. In a previous world, my working assumption was that institutions follow the rules of fai...
The “Reimagining” of Libraries
Note: This post was originally published on February 12, 2026 in Hell in a Handbasket. It is being republished here with the author’s permission.
Public libraries were originally intended to improve the lives of ordinary citizens who lacke...
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
Members of the Heterodox Libraries Community.
Information ethicist, intellectual freedom scholar, librarian. BA Anthropology, MS Library and Information Science, MS Information Systems.
Canadian academic librarian at the University of Winnipeg; Master's degrees in Library and Information Studies and in City Planning.
Reflecting on culture, politics, and uninformed activism from Portland. \ud83d\ude2c
Sesquicentennial Professor of Law, University of Richmond. Bloviates about intellectual property, consumer contracts, sports, and the occasional bird sighting.
Senior Research Manager at Apple | Former Professor and Dean | Startup Founder | Author
Jonathan Lawler an archivist and author passionate about political liberty, viewpoint diversity, and classical liberalism. Soli Deo gloria.
Mark Lenker is a Teaching and Learning Librarian and Associate Professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries and author of the essay collection The Human Relationship with Information (Routledge, 2026).
I'm an academic librarian in Baltimore with another degree in cybersecurity. Deeply interested in the humanities, and still haven't decided what to focus on for a doctorate. Inept at distilling my individuality into a few sentences!
Emeritus Professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin and a founding board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center.
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