Derrida and digital libraries: exploring the (im)possibility of virtual hospitality

Abstract

Derridean hospitality provides a way to complicate and elevate service models of librarianship, yet its implications in a virtual environment are unclear, clouded by debate within Derrida’s scholarship and surrounding literature. Applying his theory to digital libraries raises questions involving responsibility, labour, and ethics. I review a selection of theoretical and topical literature, exploring the (im)possibility of virtual Derridean hospitality in relation to digital libraries before establishing contact points for this discussion in existent library and information science literature. Articles are selected and analysed based off relevance. Some hold philosophical relevance, representing contributions to conversations surrounding Derridean and Levinasean conceptions of hospitality. Others hold field relevance, representing pieces of literature that relate to questions of hospitality from within library and information science. In addition to relevance, they have all been assessed for quality and timeliness with the goal of capturing a sample indicative of current conversations surrounding this topic. Derridean hospitality provides a novel and productive theoretical foundation for working through ethical tension unique to digital libraries. Though the theory is new to library and information science, there are existent scholarly conversations surrounding library hospitality and digital civics that provide a basis for theoretical integration.