Ann Light

Explanation Points, 2019

Reference and User Services Quarterly, 2008

Whose Book is it Anyway?, 2019

A series of accidents brought me to this place today where I get to address those who've become an important part of my life about what my life's work means and adds up to. Many people don't get such an opportunity, but the academic community believes in the values of history and reflection, so such an opportunity is afforded to me, and I count myself fortunate (and a little bit terrified) to have it. Those accidents (which I will talk about a little more) have meant that I have had a whole career (as a journalist) before I became an academic and so I am a little older perhaps than most professors standing in the same spot. I am close-ish to the ending of this career and I intend to have another one (as a fully-fledged writer) before I finish altogether. What I want to talk about are the deep preoccupations of my life which are: the personal and the political, talk and listening, and of course, writing.

Against the Grain

Originally in PKn , letnik 35, st 1, published by the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia ,June 2012 in print pp.3-19

This article juxtaposes the idea of the book in the traditional academic context to the book’s latest technological manifestation as e-reader that uses E-Ink technology, mimes the clarity of a printed book, and offers wireless connectivity. It considers the implications of connectivity for a new network readership, for the publishing industry, for the author-reader relationship, and for the very idea of authorship. The premise is that bound up with the changes that the object-book undergoes are our deeply held conceptions of subjectivity and agency