The Inconvenient Library #KRIK

We're just starting the KRIK conference in Zagreb with a welcome from the conference co-chair, Sonja Špiranec. As usual there is the caveat that this liveblogging is my immediate interpretation of what is being said, and the limits of my typing.
Špiranec explained how the conference was part of the EU KRIK project. The acronym (KRIK) also means scream, which seems appropriate as a scream may follow on from silenc, silences that need attention paid to theme. Špiranec talked about how an essay by Emma Coonan stimulated her to reflect further on the pressures on, and changes forced on, those working in universities, including university libraries. The requirements to perform, to measure performance and so on brings into question what a university is and what a university library is for: what larger civic goals are they meeting? (actually there was more richness to the question, but I wasn't quick enough to catch it). This also brings in the concept of empowerment - the empowerment of the communities we are in and our own empowerment. This includes empowering people to question.
This was followed by the first keynote I'm liveblogging is The Inconvenient Library: Friction and Dissonance as Central to Developing Critical Literacy presented by David White (University of the Arts London, UK). He started by introducing the concept of cognitive surrender where people surrender their own judgement to that of another - for example AI (this is distinct from cognitive offloading - "strategically outsourcing a discrete task to an external tool"). This concept of cognitive surrender could be seen as yielding the means of production (where the product are our thoughts and ideas) to the tech bros.
White explained how his university had developed a set of AI principles (he has a lead role in this), which do have to deal with the the very wide range of feelings and attitudes and practice to do with AI. The principles include "Be intentional" "Be responsible" and "Think of AI as a machine" (he has blogged the principles). Talking about what AI means, also involves reflecting on what it means to be human and what is said (as opposed to thought etc.) only represents a small part of what it means to be a live human. Following on from this, AI is a simulation of language, and language is only a small part of being a human.
White then showed us a diagram of learning as a process of being/ becoming, with presence, pedagogy and placemaking intersecting (including facilitating connections, nurturing belonging and fostering agency). He also quoted from Jarvis' Learning to be a person in society. Building on this, if the "learning" has consisted of cognitive surrender, then there has been no learning/ becoming. White said that "frictionless learning is not learning". This friction used to be built-in, in that it took effort to avoid, so friction didn't have to be designed in.
White said that students "needed moments of friction" in the library so that it could enable their learning. He pointed up the conflict between the library as service and the library as educator, and felt it should go more towards the educator role (with its friction). He mapped information seeking to library-as-service and (critical) information literacy (which he identified with meaning making) to the educator role. White felt that students needed to be taught how to think (critically) before engaging with their subject disciplines. He encouraged academic librarians to connect with academics who had the same philosophy (of critical education), although the academics will mostly not call it information literacy.
White proposed that "Make cognitive production abundant ... and the scarce thing becomes verification" (a matter of understanding, meaning etc.). He also talked about the designers of technology abrogating responsibility and letting the technology (currently AI) do its irresponsible thing.
From discussion with a librarian, he identified 3 stances of librarians on AI: avoidant, person centric (identity is key) and the third one was focused on source quality. There could also be other positions. White felt that these different positions could be positive sources of friction - fitting in with his idea of the library as "designed friction": "promote the library-as-education; promoting dialogue-as-a-service; different members of staff taking different approaches; Teaching students/researchers how to design their own friction." This involves telling students that learning and education are difficult things and involve work and friction.
He finished by talking about friction as possibility (referring to possibility studies), with "library staff as experts in designed friction".
Photo by Sheila Webber: library in Zagreb "Audit in progress", September 2026