Power representation in the leadership of academic libraries in Indonesia

A. INTRODUCTION Libraries as a product of dynamic culture become a space of ideological sites viewed from Althusser's ideological concept (Oyieke, 2020; Barker, 2000), which includes an educational system as a part of the ideological apparatus. Libraries as part of the education system can be understood as an important element in the education system in general. The position of libraries in the education system directly puts them in a locus known as the site of ideological apparatus, which then becomes a vehicle for conflict and ideological struggle between actors in the constellation of the institutional structure of libraries as one of the organizations engaged in education, knowledge, and information infrastructure (Nurdin & Mukhlis, 2019). As an ideological site, libraries represent power relations. This is in line with Foucault's statement stating ideology, which similar to the concept of power. He emphasized that all people or institutions are involved in power relations, as according to Eagleton (1991, p. 7; Hancock, 2018), namely Power is not something confined to armies and parliaments: it is, rather, a pervasive, intangible network of force which weaves itself into our slightest gestures and most intimate utterances. This view makes it clear that power does not lie in one particular person or group, but is everywhere. This omnipresent and networked congregation of power touches all lines of social structure and permeates the most subtle and profound sides of individual and group (Barker, 2000). In such a situation, the ideology of power becomes a force that forms community groups, each of which moves based on their ideology to win their group. The power of ideology among library actors, especially the library leadership of Islamic universities and the people involved in the constellation of library power can be seen in various forms of construction, such as ideological and seniority bases (Nurdin & Zulaikha, 2020). Libraries in this context are interesting to see as ideological sites that become a battle arena for various players with different backgrounds. The representation of power in library leadership becomes an arena that can be traced to reveal the power relations that appear in the games of actors who compete in producing and reproducing their ideological domination. Representation, as a practice significance and all its effects (Severs, Celis, & Erzeel, 2016), can be traced to the leadership culture of libraries that become an important stage for reading group representation, both dominant and subordinate. Representation of power will be explored in several activities, such as organizing work and collection development, which is not only crucial in academic libraries, but also all kinds of libraries, such as community and home libraries (Nurdin & Saufa, 2020). This issue was investigated at three libraries of Islamic universities, i.e. those of UIN (State Islamic University) Sunan Kalijaga, UII (University of Indonesian Islam), and UMY (University of Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta). The three libraries have potentially different cultural, social, and governance backgrounds. UIN is a public university funded by the government so that it has a different sociocultural condition from others. UII is one of the largest private Islamic universities in Yogyakarta, which is managed by Moslems from various social, cultural, and religious backgrounds, while UMY as one of the largest Islamic universities is managed by a certain Islamic group, Muhammadiyah. The three backgrounds gave birth to a relatively different practice of power among the three academic libraries. This difference is an interesting topic in the world of libraries that tends to be interpreted as a natural process that is free from the intrigues of ideology and social practice (Laugu, 2015). Therefore, an effort to look beyond this natural perspective can show rich variants in library leadership in those three academic libraries. The selection of the three libraries was based on several reasons. First, the three libraries have relatively different socioreligious practices even though their institutional statuses are based on the same religion, namely Islam. Second, the three libraries are under similarly large universities and are famously known, both nationally and internationally. Third, the direction for educational development among them has been focused and engaged similarly in two major fields, namely general and religious knowledge as well as social and natural sciences. The similarity of their movement in general at this third point is an interesting element because it is implemented through social, cultural, and religious practices that have different nuances. Therefore, the phenomena of the practices of power relations in their library leadership become significantly important seen through critical social theories as an effort to uncover the construction of power representation in the three libraries. The construction is going to be systematically analyzed following Miles and Huberman's model in power issues of managing the universities' libraries. B. LITERATURE REVIEW 1. Culture and ideology Culture is a useful concept of seeing something different when the use and meaning of life continue to change (Barker, 2000; Gürlek, 2020), at which point the library becomes one of the objects for implementing such meaning. The concept of culture is defined by various social scientists. Raymond Williams defined culture in three meanings. First, culture is understood as a general process of intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development. Second, culture is understood as a way of life in special situations, such as holidays and sports. Third, culture is understood as a form of works and practice of intellectual activities (Storey, 1993, p. 2). According to Kroeber and Kluckhohn (1952), culture as a complex concept includes knowledge, beliefs, art, law, morals, customs, and every capability, and habit acquired by a person as a member of society. Barker (2000, p. 50) argued culture as an expression of social relations of class power, which seek to naturalize social orders and obscure those relations of exploitation. This, according to Mulyadi, can be achieved through the capacity of cultural fluency in effective and efficient social interaction (Mulyadi, Zulkarnain, & Laugu, 2019). Likewise, ideology as an active and dynamic concept in the development of society has been developed by many experts, like Terry Eagleton (1991, p. 2), who saw ideology as a conception that is full of diversity. Ideological formulations differ from one to another. Stuart Hall (Storey, 1993, pp. 5-6) proposed ideology in five things as a collection of ideas articulated by certain groups, distortion to create unconsciousness, an image of a particular world that depends on the ideas of society which are more conflicting than consensus, the material practice of certain ritual life and customs that binds a social order, and it operates at connotation level, which Barthes called as myth, which refers to the hegemonic struggle to limit connotations, determine certain connotations, and generate new connotations (Barker, 2000). 2. Representation of power The concept of power is an interesting discourse among social scientists. Foucault says that power is everywhere, which is not limited to dominant parties (Eagleton, 1991, p. 7). The notion of power centering on coercion and orders/prohibitions begins to question. In interpreting power, Dhakidae (2003, pp. 60-61; Reed, 2017) formulated two definitions: first, power is seen as finished good and as a substance that can manifest in two sides, the left with the term constitution and the right with the term state apparatus. Second, power is seen as a relation, a pattern of relations. Such power can be seen with Bourdieu's concept of social capital, such as prestige, honor, and privileges which can be attached and mobilized through social relations expressed in networks of power '(OBryan, 2018). Foucault redefined the meaning of power that refers to an only absolute to rule, prohibit, and coerce society (Foucault, 2000, p. 331). He said that power is not ownership or ability. Power is not something that submits or serves economic interests. He emphasized that the pattern of power relations does not originate from the state. Power cannot be conceptualized as belonging to individuals or classes. Power is not a commodity that can be obtained or attained but is networked and pervasive. In the discourse of power, representation becomes an important process and stage in Foucault's discursive practice. Representation is a set of processes, when marking practices appear to represent or describe objects or other practices from the real world (Gonzalez, Aronson, Kellar, Walls, & Greenfield, 2017). As a result, representation is considered as an act of symbolism that reflects an independent object world even though in cultural studies representation does not simply reflect the symbolic form of something that exists in an independent object world, but representation is constitutive of the meaning it will represent. Representation does not involve the relationship between sign and object but creates the representational effect of realism. Representation is intrinsically related to the question of power through the selection process and the organization that is part of the representation formation (Freeburg, 2018; Barker, 2000). 3. Field and capital as power production Bourdieu's concepts on-field and capital are a theoretical circle based on dialectics, between structure and agency, which aims to understand a society through dismantling the shrouded power relations '(Dreher, 2015; ONeill, 2019). The concepts attempt to approach the struggle strategy of a person or group in maintaining domination of power and fighting for their eliminated rights. In the process of attaining new positions and dispositions in an agency, fields and capitals playing in habitus provide actors to contest with other actors. The field is a network of relations between objective positions in a social order that exists separately from individual consciousness. The field is not an intersubjective bond between individuals, but rather a kind of structured relationship that unconsciously regulates the positions of individuals and groups in a society that is formed spontaneously (Lo & Stark, 2020). As a battlefield, the field is part of the social space for status groups characterized by different lifestyles. Bourdieu considers that the game that occurs in social space is competitive, by various social agents who use different strategies to maintain and improve their position. The stake in this field is the accumulation of capital, which is both process and product. Bourdieu nominates four forms of capital, namely economic, cultural, social, and symbolic. Actors who start with certain forms of capital benefit from the start because the field depends on how productive that capital is. The lucky actors can use the advantage of their capital to accumulate and get more profit or success than others. Domains are formed differently according to the game played, each of which has its own rules, history, star players, legends, and customs (Desan, 2013). 4. Library leadership Leadership is closely related to the use of power (Bertocci, 2009, pp. 65-73) to achieve goals and produce effective policies (Nelson & Quick, 2012). Leadership generally functions based on leaders' power to invite and move others to achieve a goal (Intarti, 2011; Reiche, Bird, Mendenhall, & Osland, 2017), while Chapman states that strong leadership refers to the way of communication, giving motivation, quickly and accurately in making decisions on every event (Iskandar, 2016; Anexander & Wakimoto, 2020). In line with this, library leadership requires innovative skills and competencies, and new ways of thinking to face challenges and create the will to adapt to change (Aslam, 2020; Abashian, 2017). Another role of a library leader is to have a positive influence on librarians in facilitating cultural evolution and learning democracy (Kwan & Shen, 2016; Colosimo, Desmeules, & McKinnon, 2017). Leadership competencies include adaptability and user-oriented decision making and respect for diversity (Rifauddin, Munardji, Halida, & Kholis, 2020). The library leadership pattern is based on the actions of maintaining information for users, providing welfare to staff, and implementing innovative ideas in achieving organizational missions. Leadership development refers to four stages: acquire new skills and adapt to the organizational environment; apply what you learn to your everyday activities; assert productivity of doing new things; and attain and ascertain (Kumaran, 2012). Leadership requires commitment, intelligence, innovation, strength, courage, and integrity in the face of complex challenges (Lewis, 2019). Likewise, a leader needs to develop behaviors, actions, and skills that are appropriate to himself and the institution, so that he/she is more effective in leading and managing the level of complexity that occurs (Chavez, 2018; Keohane, 2020; Matarazzo & Pearlstein, 2016). The leadership change cycle focuses on awareness, behavior, skills, and actions. Meanwhile, technical changes in organizations include evolutionary changes, accuracy in adapting, and revolutionary changes (Bertocci, 2009, pp. 86-111; Wilson, 2020). Libraries as complex and dynamic organizations have an important role in responding to social and public health events. In the face of a world health emergency, as it is today, libraries need to be productive and innovative institutions in providing services to users, as well as a place for librarian self-development (Cao, Liang, & Li, 2018; Lawton & Páez, 2015; Düren, 2013). Therefore, that the ability of library leaders is clearly at stake in ensuring the problems faced by communities can be overcome. The way libraries deal with such problems is carried out in various forms of expression of power, one of which is like in fig. 1 below. The illustration of the figure shows three forms of relationship, namely a strong relationship through a straight line, a possible relationship marked with a dotted line, and an influence toward a certain element depicted in the form of an arrow line.

This research uses a qualitative method with a constructionist approach based on a paradigm of cultural studies and focuses on case studies. Qualitative study is considered a multimethod that is interpretive and based on a natural setting. Natural here is intended as a study that seeks to investigate objects through natural settings to interpret phenomena relating to meanings that may be understood by society (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, p. 2). In line with that, this type of research is defined also as a new method because of its recent popularity, positivistic, because it is based on the philosophy of postpositivism, artistic because the research process is more artistic, and interpretive because the data from the research results are more concerned with the interpretation of the data found in the field. Meanwhile, the study based on a constructionist approach is intended as an attempt to interpret human actions and thoughts through a description of the basic structure of reality which appears to be self-evident in humans as individuals and groups in society. Therefore, this approach rests on social interactions that give birth to construction as well as convey the meaning of a reality that occurs in the community as a social and cultural reality. As a paradigmatic study of cultural studies, this research, in the context of its interpretation and explanation, seeks to critically dismantle phenomena in the form of interaction practices and relationships between factors to understand something behind the phenomena of data sources (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, p. 202). The data sources in this research are focused on nine informants consisting of heads, librarians, and staff in three researched libraries. The three kinds of sources were employed to get a comprehensive understanding of the people involved or affected by the process of power from those libraries' leadership. Interviews with those informants were conducted randomly, unstructured, for approximately two years, from 2018 to 2020, which was supported by longtime observation and documentation techniques. The analysis method used in this study refers to the analysis process proposed by Miles and Huberman which includes three stages: data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion or verification. Data reduction is the process of directing a collection of data obtained through trimming that is considered irrelevant to the object of study so that the analysis can be carried out on the target. Data presentation is carried out in the form of short descriptions, charts, and relationships between categories, which are often referred to as a structured and organized collection of information that allows conclusions to be drawn. Verification and conclusions are carried out temporarily and will change when stronger information is found. At this stage, interpretation and meaning construction of the data is carried out to conclude the study (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994, pp. 428-429).

Libraries in general and academic libraries, in particular, are faced with a power relation containing various consequences in each line, both in a structural hierarchy and its implementation in a wider social world. This result shows that each relation line has an ideological construction among actors who play their roles, both formally and informally. This ideological construction manifests in the form of political propaganda, either openly or covertly, in influencing the behavior and actions of actors in organizational society which are then referred to as power representations as seen in the following five aspects, namely religious understanding, organizational morality, temporary power, seniority and gender, and collection development. 1. Religious understanding as a channel for the implementation of power In general, religious understanding among library actors who are the locus of research has shown implicitly the existence of religious ideological battles. This can be seen in the game of religious ideology that seems potentially to occur according to library leaders. However, they try to overcome such phenomena as far as their commitment and power have. The response according to informants is that such potential occurrence of the ideology results in difficulties to have achievements. Thus, professionalism needs to provoke to develop libraries. The actor realizes that the vision and mission of the library should be pluralist, in the sense that benchmarks developed are professional and social competencies between them so that library management can achieve the desired service level. Although, the presence of a religious element in this context has become the basis for their spiritual competence to be considered as a religious librarian. Religious understanding as an ideological channel that appears in libraries is based on the level of parent institutions. Such ideological relations are reflected in the university-level political constellation, such as UIN Sunan Kalijaga. Here, the religious ideology represented in the Islamic groups of NU and Muhammadiyah becomes a big issue in every succession of university leadership to the faculty level, even though these two groups, as far as researchers are concerned, are merely a traditional political vehicle used as an ideological force, traditionalist versus modernist, even though in initially partly from the same group. This can be seen, for example, in actors of Muhammadiyah, which are dominated by elements of the alumni of certain student organizations, whose ideological lines are relevant to Muhammadiyah. On the other hand, actors in NU are those who are alumni from different student organizations, strengthened by several alumni from previous student organizations. The two groups embodied in the symbols of Muhammadiyah and NU appear in a pluralist religious panorama that includes actors who are considered liberal, leftist, and partly moderate, while non-pluralists are represented by those who tend to be fundamentalists and some come from moderate groups. This non-pluralist group, especially at UIN Sunan Kalijaga, at the political level, did not get a place, so that some people regarded UIN Sunan Kalijaga as a place for liberals who carried out their actions in building liberal ideology. The two platforms that serve as the power of political and religious ideology represent actors categorized as pluralists and non-pluralists. As an implication of contestation between those groups, libraries cannot be separated from their influence because the input of their power forms a decisive factor in the selection of the head of the library. 2. Organizational ideology as a power implementation channel Organizational ideology as a channel for implementing power in the library is seen in UMY Library as an institution under the management of Muhammadiyah. Every important decision regarding organizational policy is always under the control of the organization's religious ideology (Schultz, 2019) so that people who have the opportunity to play in it are only those who have the same religious understanding as ideology in question, such as having Muhammadiyah ideology. Ideology, as an organizational policy, is an absolute framework for selection (Erskine, 1995; Yurdakul & Atik, 2015), which has strong implications toward the recruitment of library staff and touches the internal lines of competency for prospective librarians. As an absolute framework, staff candidates' competencies can be ignored when their ideology is questioned in the name of future organizations. This kind of situation during observations and interviews of researcher with several informants was founded as one of which stated as follows. "So far, most librarians, if not all of them, come from Muhammadiyah families, because identity is important ... so if you talk about ideology, yes maybe it is an ideology because this institution is built based on ideas generated by Muhammadiyah, ideology must be relevant to Muhammadiyah…. academic qualifications seem like the second important place, library science or not because there was nothing based on library background ... it could also be because at that time there were rarely candidates who had a library background so that anyone is considered to be able to work in the library ... albeit this is the problem" This ideology can be understood as one of the factors that contribute to the development of human resources at UMY library when compared to staff development with other two locations which tend to be relatively more competitive. The stronghold on the ideology creates an over-protective condition which results in recruitment based on, first, the immediate family of people who are considered important figures or people in the organization. Second, people who get a recommendation from the figure in question are known as "magic cards" as happened in many places, including in two other cases. This condition can at some point ignore the professional competence of a prospective library employee (Brundy, 2018). This tradition is enduring, as far as researchers observe, because of the perception that Muhammadiyah people are guaranteed to have a Muhammadiyah commitment because they have experienced long cadres, especially to pay attention to Muhammadiyah, not to seek life in Muhammadiyah. These various reasons and considerations strengthen the implementation of the group ideology in which it can be laden with subjectivity so that it seems does not only neglect professional competence, but also the objectivity of its application within the organization. This certainly cannot be immediately claimed as a bad or good process, but it could be a special strategy by that institution in advancing its institutional wisdom and achieving its vision through such strategy, according to some informants. 3. Temporary perspective as power implementation channel A temporary perspective is intended as a view or idea that believes an event or phenomenon that is temporary. In this context, the constellation of political ideologies that underlie the movements of winning leadership succession groups at UII is based on this temporary perspective, as can be seen in the following informants' interviews. "It is my experience that leadership succession here is usually driven by groups that appear temporarily, so it is not permanent with a certain ideology, it may be difficult to say it is ideological because it is temporary. All groups which had previously competed, returned to become one after the game... camps no longer appeared, and so on until there was another leadership election, the group formation was no longer the same as the previous group formation because maybe what was seen as the exemplary figure and ability to advance UII, so the conclusion was very temporary and this does not carry the attributes of a religious group" This interview shows that religious ideology is not at all a factor in favor of a person against a fighting group. However, they are more concerned with figures who are considered professional and capable of developing their organization. Such phenomena are considered as a form of channel for the implementation of power in libraries through temporary perspective viewing power within the succession of the university to faculty leadership and including libraries within UII. Based on the research results, it was found that current power at UII was represented in the form of temporary groups that appeared just before the change of leadership and would melt back after the moment of succession (Laugu, 2015). The election of the university leader has marked the end of the formation of the aforementioned temporary groups. This is different from what happened at UIN Sunan Kalijaga and UMY because both of them presented their group as an actors' identity continuously. On this side, the UII library has a power model that tends to be controlled by professional elements rather than an ideological one. However, this temporary flow of power had also transformed into a spreading force because leadership elections driven by certain actors who are considered committed to winning a leader have political implications and remuneration (MacLennan, 2007). This implication places the UII library as an arena for the manifestation of power from the leadership of UII, who directly appointed the head of the library which seems hierarchical even though the appointment is full of political intrigue. It can be seen that the appointed library leader had a connection with the issues of political discourses, albeit becoming less affected in the last several years according to interviews with several informants and observations by the researcher. Therefore, this is a strengthening indication that the placement of a person had political and even ideological consequences which represent the power of UII leadership as the ruler of the educational institution who wants all the ideas and visions of his leadership to be realized through one of them is the placement of group members in the library (Bertocci, 2009). 4. Seniority as tools for discourse practice The effect of seniority in terms of "more" in age, status, position, etc. can be seen in all relation domains, such as gender issues that will be seen later. Therefore, each "more" has a special impact on a relationship between one actor and another even though the quality of the seniority value differs from one relationship to another in space and time, both the same actors and different ones. The existence of seniority in the three research locations, according to informants, cannot be eliminated because it is a local character and culture that is deeply rooted, perhaps even in all types of cultures in the world. The existence of excessive seniority value can be overcome by each awareness of the importance of implementing competency standards in the world of works. This is because within such competency standards each actor can provide the best value for seniority to create professionalism in the field of libraries and librarianship. The age difference, for example, among individuals or groups of people, is often space for power relations to have a strong impact on the structure of society so that the practice of domination becomes stronger in maintaining its hegemony in a society that adheres to the seniority status. It is just that, at UII, UMY, and UIN libraries, such practices are no longer practiced. Librarians have realized that they are all governed by a standard of competencies that are at the core of their librarianship profession. However, in general, the behavior of respecting local customs and traditions that embraces politeness with respect for the elderly is still alive among librarians although it is a bit difficult to catch or feel. This is where professionalism plays its role to show that librarians are pluralist and competency-based as the main key to overcoming excessive seniority culture. Although in general it is realized that librarianship competency standards are important to do for the progress of libraries, their application is still half-hearted because Islamic university libraries have difficulties to apply them for various classical reasons, such as budget constraints and competence development among library staff, especially related to librarian education, which needs more advanced in the field of libraries and librarianship. The lack of standards and efforts to implement them creates an organizational culture that is not progressive. This nonprogressiveness gave birth to low culture, in the sense that organizational dynamism which should be the key and basis for increasing competence is pushed back by a permissive, and completely understandable culture, which ultimately becomes a tradition that is considered true and even as local wisdom. 5. Power effect in collection development The effect of power in collection development manifests in various forms. There is a tendency for groups to use religious ideology as the pressure in the collection development or a certain position, for example, can be a means of power to procure collections for libraries. The discourse of pluralism in the collections available in libraries can be seen in several forms because the actors involved in pluralist libraries or book trends favor the issues of pluralism so that inevitably, libraries are affected by global effects of trends in the world of books referred to as the political economy of library collection development (Laugu, 2019). The first form of the emergence of pluralism in the collection development is because actors who play in the library organization consist of people who have a pluralist religious ideology, thought, and practice. In this regard, UIN Sunan Kalijaga library is known as a library controlled by pluralist-minded actors who value differences and strive to provide the widest possible portion of all forms of practice and thought that develop in society without tending to control any group. This group has played a dominant role at UIN Sunan Kalijaga which has implications for the election of its library leader so that UIN Sunan Kalijaga is considered a place of apostasy. This can also be seen with the emergence of several corners providing liberal collections, such as Canada and Iran, both of which are known to have open religious insights. As a result of this liberalization, Saudi Arabian Corner is almost served because some parties were protesting against the pluralism movement (Laugu, 2015). Another form of the pluralism emergence was caused by the strength of the political economy trend of the book business which was won by liberals or pluralists so that the fields of public discussion were dominated by liberal discourse and pluralism. The effect of the contestation of liberals and pluralists against the issue of fundamentalism is a trend that cannot be avoided by libraries as an information and knowledge preservation institution that must secure information and knowledge to provide the widest possible insight to library users without the intention of winning certain groups. So, what libraries do is to be professional, even though the professionalism does not make them sterile from political and ideological elements that carry power and have implications for libraries (Raber, 2003). The development of books, which are almost untouched by the practice of censorship, provides opportunities for openness to differences so that the violence of ideas and practices which are then often referred to as the fundamentalist movement, both social and religious, gradually finds its form, whether it is defended by the community or even abandoned by its adherents. Non-pluralists, especially radical fundamentalist groups, will experience resistance to ideas from pluralists. This is also an indication that non-pluralists are increasingly experiencing crises and challenges. The development of Islamic books occurred at the three Islamic university libraries in question showed that generally, pluralism discourses in collections are increasingly open, not only in printed books but also in electronic books and journals (Laugu, 2019). The following fig. 2 is the illustration of the power representation at the three discussed academic libraries.

Libraries in their various programs and activities are not solely professional, which are free from cultural, social, religious, and other related issues. Therefore, libraries are considered as one of the important elements of ideological apparatus. The concept of Althusser's ideology implicitly explains the position of libraries as a product of dynamic culture. This position illustrates that the library becomes the playing field for various actors from various backgrounds, which represents various ideologies. This construction clearly describes the research results in terms of five important findings. First, religious understanding emerged in the contestation between the two groups, Muhammadiyah and NU. Second, organizational ideology was born as an organizational authority in determining all policies in the library. Third, the temporary perspective of power is played in the leadership succession of the library parent institution. As temporary power, actors only compete for a very limited time. Fourth, the power of seniority is still a common phenomenon in many library practices, especially in Islamic universities. Finally, the effect of ideology that develops in the development of library collections. This issue occurs continuously because the library collection spreads without a time limit and certain groups. These findings are new concepts for developing science among library science theorists and new lessons to librarians.