Infophilia, A Positive Psychology of Information | February 7, 2025 - Vol. 4, Issue 9 | February 12, 2:25 pm Added the final delegate bio
Intellectual Freedom | Civic Infophilia | Technophilia | Toolbox | Wellbeing
✨Welcome to Infophilia, a weekly letter exploring how our love of information and connections can help us all thrive, individually and collectively. Avant-garde research.
📌Access & Attribution: This serial offers free previews always and occasional open access essays to keep scholarship accessible. Students and those facing financial barriers can request complimentary access. If you find value here, please cite the original work and consider supporting the public scholarship through subscription. Proper attribution sustains this work and models healthy information engagement.
📚 Book Club: Join Tim Blackwell and me Feb. 11 Wed. 12 noon Pacific Time for a discussion of The Privatization of Everything by Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian (The New Press, 2021). Free for all readers. Contact me for the zoom invite.
Cite as: Coleman, A. S. (2026). Meet California’s 2026 NLLD delegation: Advocating for libraries on Capitol Hill. Infophilia: A Positive Psychology of Information, 4(9).
There’s a lot of good news to share: we highlight the perspectives of two of our readers, embrace the “granny core” movement, and dip into the legal profession’s insights on generative AI. Our main story brings it back home: in California, thirteen librarians are mobilizing—turning libraries into democracy’s shield. They’re part of the ALA, American Library Association’s 235 librarians from across the USA converging on Capitol Hill later this month. This issue is open access in their honor.
Signal & Noise
Katharine Phenix’s Insight
“Your essay on paid platforms helped me understand why ALA is failing.” Katharine Phenix
I’m delighted to welcome a new reader: library history scholar Katharine Phenix.
Though I don’t know Katharine personally, I’m aware of her extensive scholarly output. Colleagues describe her as a “veteran librarian” and a “brilliant scholar” focused on library history, particularly the role and status of women in librarianship.
Katharine’s words—sharp, honest, and deeply resonant—shed light on a critical conversation that we, as lovers of knowledge and democracy, are all a part of.
Thank you for trusting us with your powerful take and for allowing me to share it. This is why I keep writing.
Tim Blackwell & Infophilia Book Club
“Cohen and Mikaelian’s book is on my desk daily—opening up my mind and stirring up conversations with a practical lens for federal contractors like me.” Tim Blackwell, Director of Contracts Administration
I’m thrilled to invite you to our next Infophilia Book Club discussion—not just about privatization, but about how it reshapes trust, power, and public life—with a unique perspective: Tim Blackwell’s experience and expertise as a federal contractor now.
At our online book club this week, Tim, a retired Army officer with 27 years of service, provided memorable examples of how privatization reshapes public services from a contracts perspective including the government ADA program, Boeing, NASA, Space X, Nvidia, and Government AI. (video clip is 41 sec of Tim.)
Why you’ll want to join:
Tim’s stories connect theory to the real-world erosion of public trust—one of the themes we explore using Cohen and Mikaelian’s The privatization of everything.
He’s a faithful Infophilia reader, since our beginning, whose perspective aligns perfectly with our mission: exploring ideas through lived experience, infophilic curiosity, and professional expertise.
Join us to discuss how privatization impacts you—a slow and thoughtful journey through the book’s urgent questions.
Next Wednesday: Our discussion will be framed by Chapter 2, ‘The Roots and Reasons of Privatization: A Very Brief History’ (no need to have read it).
Granny Core
“Grandma hobbies” are having a moment—and this isn’t just nostalgia. Book reading clubs are part of a broader generational awakening as younger people (and older folks, too) intentionally step away from digital screens to embrace slower, analog rituals. They turn to reading, gardening, crocheting, knitting, and puzzling—acts of reclaimed agency that speak to a deep and urgent need for wellbeing in our hyperconnected age.
The shift also crystallizes adaptive infophilia theory: our evolutionary drive, an innate love of information and meaningful connection can thrive, despite extractive data practices and surveillance capitalism. These hobbies are quiet resistance—reclaiming attention, artisanal craft, and authentic community on our own terms. They underscore an important truth: libraries are democracy’s indispensable shield.
While platforms commodify attention, libraries fortify knowledge as a public good:
Knowledge without surveillance
Community without commodification
Information as a commons
In a world where data extraction erodes trust, these analog practices and library-led commons are not just hobbies; they’re a quiet revolution reclaiming our humanity.
From the American Bar Association
Recently, we engaged with the American Bar Association’s writings on generative AI, and highlight two fascinating developments:
Law librarians as AI concierges: Law librarians aren’t being replaced by AI. Instead, they’re becoming the legal world’s AI concierges. They provide ethical cheat sheets while sitting at every table. And yes, they’re present at every AI meeting. Law librarians at the forefront by Amanda Robert (2026).
“Curiosity prompt” as ethical junior associate: A former BigLaw attorney says stop treating AI like a search bar! Ditch the guesswork and ask it what else you need to know. Your ethical junior associate is already waiting to help you think smarter, not replace you. The curiosity prompt by Brooke Loesby (2026).
While law librarians are serving as ‘AI concierges’ at every table, the ALA is channeling the expertise of diverse library voices into action. The Office of Public Policy and Advocacy has announced the state delegations heading to Washington D.C. to advocate for libraries as democracy’s shield.