Dismantling Whiteness in Libraries and Librarianship: a journal club

An 8-week journal club open to all Princeton University Library staff based on the bibliography ‘Disrupting and Dismantling Whiteness in Libraries and Librarianship’ by Karla Strand, University of Wisconsin.

Contribution: Organizer and facilitator

Group norms

In this space, we...

1. Seek to critically examine the historical legacy, structural mechanisms, organizational culture, and current realities of racism in our institution and profession.

2. Seek to learn the language to articulate inequality, exclusion, and injustice in our institution and profession.

3. Seek to turn that language into advocacy, and advocacy into action.

4. Seek equity and justice for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC)

Schedule of Readings -- Summer 2020

June 17: Academic Libraries

Brook, F., Ellenwood, D., & Lazzaro, A.E. (2015). In pursuit of antiracist social justice: Denaturalizing whiteness in the academic library. Library Trends, 64(2). Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/43d8/f06a09e80f11e3db3f18908494acbc52de6d.pdf

June 24, 2-3 pm WEBINAR: Dismantling Institutional Racism in your Library: From Theory to Practice

July 1: Librarians of Color

VanScoy, A. & Bright, K. (2019, October). Articulating the Experience of Uniqueness and Difference for Librarians of Color. The Library Quarterly, 89(4), 285-297. https://doi.org/10.1086/704962. Retrieved from https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/704962

July 8: Collection Development

Bowers, J., Crowe, K., & Keeran, P. (2017). “If you want the history of a white man, you go to the library”: Critiquing our legacy, addressing our library collection gaps. Collection Management, 42(3-4), 159-179. Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01462679.2017.1329104

July 15: Instruction and Teaching

Pashia, A. (2017). Examining structural oppression as a component of information literacy: A call for librarians to support #BlackLivesMatter through our teaching. Journal of Information Literacy, 11(2), 86-104. Retrieved from https://ojs.lboro.ac.uk/JIL/article/view/LLC-V11-I2-1

July 22: COVID, Protest, LIS

Gibson, A. N., Chancellor, R., Cooke, N. A., Dahlen, S. P., Patin, B., & Shorish, Y. (2020). Struggling to Breathe: COVID-19, Protest, and the LIS Response. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/libsci_facpub/291

July 29: BIPOC Librarians

Kendrick, K. (2018, March 19). Running The Gauntlet: Lives of Practicing Minority Academic Librarians. The Ink On The Page. Retrieved from https://theinkonthepageblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/19/the-gauntlet-the-life-of-the-practicing-minority-academic-librarian/

August 5: Recruitment, Staffing, Hiring

Vinopal, J. (2016). The quest for diversity in library staffing: From awareness to action. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. Retrieved from http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2016/quest-for-diversity/

August 12: Discrimination

Tonin, M. (2018). Do librarians discriminate? Library Journal. Retrieved from https://lj.libraryjournal.com/2018/01/opinion/backtalk/librarians-discriminate-backtalk/#_