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- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the authors
- Reviews
Read an interview with the authors and a blog post about this Special Report now!
Using an evidence-based approach, including the authors’ own cutting-edge research, this Special Report shares antiracist recommendations for practice that will help librarians in all settings identify and address explicit and implicit racial bias.
Librarianship is still a predominantly white profession. It is essential that current practitioners as well as those about to enter the field take an unflinching look at the profession’s legacy of racial discrimination, including the ways in which race might impact service to users such as students in school, public, and academic libraries. Given the prevalence of implicit and explicit bias against Black and African American people, authors Folk and Overbey argue that we must speak to these students directly to hear their stories and thereby understand their experiences. This Special Report (which follows Narratives of (Dis)Enfranchisement: Reckoning with the History of Libraries and the Black and African American Experience) shares the findings of a qualitative research study that explored the library experiences of Black and African American undergraduate students both before and during college, grounding it within an equity framework. From this Report readers will
- learn details about the study, which focused on the potential role of race in the students’ interactions with library staff, including white staff and staff of color;
- gain insight into Black and African American users’ perceptions of libraries and library staff, attitudes towards reading, frequency of library usage, and the importance of family;
- understand the implications of the study’s findings for our practice and for librarianship more broadly, including our ongoing commitment to diversifying the profession; and
- walk away with recommendations that can be applied to every library and educational context, such as guidance for developing an antiracist organization and more equitable service provision.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. About This Study
Chapter 3. Public Libraries
Chapter 4. School Libraries
Chapter 5. Academic Libraries
Chapter 6. Race and Library Experiences
Chapter 7. Conclusion
References
Index
"The authors have stimulated a meaningful dialogue that is, quite frankly, long overdue in addressing several critical issues within the LIS profession. Both reports speak to topics such as systemic racism and white supremacy, confronting whiteness in American libraries, and instilling and promoting antiracist principles and values within our work environments ... Folk and Overbey’s research provides LIS professionals with tools and resources to enhance equity-centered work. I highly recommend both reports. I also strongly recommend that this research be included as a part of the LIS curriculum to educate the next generation of librarians, and that it be used as a professional development resource for current librarians and administrators. These reports offer the LIS community an opportunity to engage in thoughtful conversations about the state of our profession and to learn from the experiences of Black and African American library users, who have been historically excluded from our institutions, and often underserved."
— College & Research Libraries