Prelims

Half Title Page

ANTIRACIST LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE

Editorial Page

ADVANCES IN LIBRARIANSHIP

Advances in Librarianship Editor

• Bharat Mehra, The University of Alabama, Series Editor

Advances in Librarianship Editorial Board

• Denise E. Agosto, Drexel University, USA

• Wade Bishop, University of Tennessee Knoxville, USA

• John Buschman, Seton Hall University, USA

• Michelle Caswell, University of California Los Angeles, USA

• Sandra Hughes-Hassell, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA

• Paul T. Jaeger, University of Maryland, USA

• Don Latham, Florida State University, USA

• Jerome Offord, Harvard University, USA

Title Page

ADVANCES IN LIBRARIANSHIP VOLUME 52

ANTIRACIST LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE: RACIAL JUSTICE AND COMMUNITY

EDITED BY

KIMBERLY BLACK

Chicago State University, USA

AND

BHARAT MEHRA

University of Alabama, USA

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2023

Editorial matter and selection: © 2023 Kimberly Black and Bharat Mehra. Individual chapters © 2023 The authors. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80262-100-6 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-099-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80262-101-3 (Epub)

ISSN: 0065-2830 (Series)

Contents

Series Editor’s Introduction

I am delighted to take this opportunity and introduce myself as the new Series Editor of Advances in Librarianship since January 2021. In this capacity, I plan to extend the series’ impact via integrating a critical perspective that spotlights social justice and inclusive praxis from the shadows to become an emerging canon at the very core of who we are and what we value as legit in Library and Information Science (LIS) scholarship and practice. This strategic vision requires destabilizing of entrenched hegemonies within our privileged ranks and external communities to alleviate intersecting political, economic, social, and cultural anxieties, and power imbalances we witness today. As we move toward the quarter-century mark, we also need to effectively document such paradigmatic shifts in LIS, serving as a foundation of inspiration upon which, together in our multiple identities and diversities, we can proudly contribute to the building of a meaningful society toward a brighter future for our children to inherit.

New stimulating models reimagining (or extending) the roles for cultural memory institutions (e.g., libraries, museums, archives, schools, etc.) and the field of information are much required to develop symbolic and real infrastructures for moving us forward. We also need to better tell our stories of information activism and community mobilization in the face of overwhelming challenges to human existence, from forces of neoliberal corporatization, political ransacking, media irresponsibility, climate change, environmental degradation, pandemic dis/misinformation, etc. What do the contemporary threats of human extinction and cultural decay mean for LIS professionals, be it scholars, researchers, educators, practitioners, students, and others embedded in a variety of information settings? Not only does it require actions in the “doing” of resistance via information to decenter dysfunctional powerbrokers and their oppressions and entitled privileges. However, disseminating a forward-thinking agenda and narrative beyond our internally focused bastardized institutional bastions is equally important, as we adopt an active stance to promote fairness, justice, equity/equality, change agency, empowerment, community building, and community development.

Advances in Librarianship holds a special place in the hands, hearts, and minds of readers as a key platform to support creative ideas and practices that change and better articulate the vital contributions of libraries and the impact of information on diverse multicultural communities in a global network information society. Moving forward, my aim for the series is to engage our diverse professional communities in critical discourse that enable real transformations to occur. It is important to propel progress in shifting entrenched positionalities in LIS, while making visible content related to the “margins.” Decentering canons and practices toward equity of representation, inclusivity, and progressive change will naturally occur. Intersecting social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals in recent times demand an urgent response from the LIS professions in this regard.

I am truly honored and privileged to build on the legacy of Paul T. Jaeger, who served as Series Editor of Advances in Librarianship since 2013. His research helped to mobilize LIS in addressing concerns surrounding equity, diversity, and inclusion more substantially beyond past lip service, also shaping the focus of the book series. I plan to operationalize new directions for single- or multi-authored book-length explorations and edited collections by shifting focus on understudied spaces, invisible populations from the margins, and knowledge domains that have been under-researched or under-published in what we consider as high impactful venues in LIS and beyond. Examples might involve a reflective journey that established, or newly emerging LIS scholars, researchers, practitioners, and students critically reflect, assess, evaluate, and propose solutions or actions to change entrenched practices and systemic imbalanced inequities in different library and information-related settings. It might also involve decolonizing LIS publication industries in their biased Euro/Anglo-centricities with inclusion of content from geographical diversities around the world.

I am reaching out to our multiple audiences for their support toward these goals in spreading the word for proposals to new volumes in the series. Let us find our “collective voice” in the LIS professions to make us all uncomfortable as we continue to “push the buttons,” thereby, becoming stronger in our quest to further social justice and develop our humanity, human dignity, respect, and potential to the fullest.

Bharat Mehra

EBSCO Endowed Chair in Social Justice and Professor

School of Library and Information Studies

University of Alabama

About the Contributors

Arthur Aguilera is Teaching Assistant Professor and Collection Assessment Librarian at the University of Colorado Boulder. He completed his MLIS from the University of Washington Information School and his work has appeared in The Serials Librarian.

Kimberly Black is an Associate Professor in Department of Computing, Information, and Mathematical Sciences and Technologies at Chicago State University (CSU). She is a Co-founder of CSU’s Center for Information and Security, Education and Research, an Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence. She serves as a member of the executive advisory board for the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing. She is the author of What Books by African American Women Were Acquired by American Academic Libraries?: A Study of Institutional Legitimization, Exclusion, and Implicit Censorship. She has received federal funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Defense. Her work has appeared in Multicultural Learning and Teaching, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, and Black Women, Gender & Families.

Laurie Bonnici is an Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies, College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. She holds degrees in Spanish and Linguistics, Library Science, and earned her Ph.D. in Theory of Attribution in Information Science at Florida State University. Her research addresses information seeking in second-hand knowledge contexts for people in crisis conditions. Her research focuses on information quality, social media information diffusion, health information in online social media, community health information, data discrimination, linked data, and nuanced information retrieval. She has also written on information retrieval in the context of rewilded information which examines information exchange in everyday human interactions. Riding bicycles, kayaking, and stained glass-making are passions contributing to her work–life balance.

Shalonda Capers is a Doctoral student at the University of Alabama (UA) in the Department of Communication Studies. She has taught courses in Relational Communication and Communication and Gender at UA. She holds a Masters of Divinity degree and a Masters of Theology degree from Emory University and is founder of the Golden Moms, a community-based, pediatric cancer support advocacy organization.

Frederick C. Carey is Assistant Professor and History and Philosophy Librarian. His work has appeared in KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies and In the Library with the Lead Pipe.

Dirnele Carneiro Garcez is a Doctoral student in Information Science at the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Brazil. She is a member of the research group, Grupo de Pesquisa Ecce Liber (philosophy, language and organization of knowledge) and its Satélites em Organização Ordinária dos Saberes Socialmente Oprimidos (Organization of Socially Oppressed Knowledge); she is also a member of the Grupo de Estudos Intelectuais Negras na Ciência da Informação (Black Intellectual Studies Group in Information Science). Her research interests include scientific communication, information management, organization of knowledge, black feminism, and social media. Her work has appeared in ATOZ: Novas Práticas Em Informação E Conhecimento, Informação & Sociedade, and Revista ACB (Florianópolis).

Franciéle Carneiro Garcês-da-Silva is an activist and Black Brazilian librarian. She has a Ph.D. in Information Science by the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil. She is the Creator and Manager of the Quilombo Intelectual project and is a Coordinator of Selo Editorial Nyota. She is a member of Núcleo de Estudos sobre Performance, Patrimônio e Mediações Culturais at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, a member of the Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas sobre Recursos, Serviços e Práxis Informacionais, and a member of the research group Ecce Liber: philosophy, language, and organization of knowledge. She is the author of the book Epistemologias latino-americanas em Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação. She has served as an organizer for the publication of many books by Black Brazilian librarians. Her research has appeared in many publications including InCID: Revista de Ciência da Informação e Documentação, Revista ACB (Florianópolis), Liinc em Revista, Revista Brasileira de Biblioteconomia e Documentação, Tendências da Pesquisa Brasileira em Ciência da Informação, Revista Digital de Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação, and Perspectivas em Ciência da Informação.

Jennifer Elisa Chapman is the Research and Faculty Services Librarian at the Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland, Francis King Carey School of Law (UMD Law). She holds a JD from UMD Law and a MLIS from the University of Maryland, College of Information Studies. Her research broadly examines societal impacts of technology, prominently in the legal realm, and is inspired by her work teaching legal research in the UMD Law program. Her research has appeared in such publications as the Journal of International and Comparative Law and Fordham Law Review and she has presented at such symposiums as the Yale Law School Symposium on Citation and the Law.

Briana Christensen is a Librarian, Archivist, and College Educator working in academia. A member of Beta Phi Mu, she holds a Masters in Library & Information Science from the University of South Florida, as well as a Masters in Archival Studies from Clayton State University. She has served as an information literacy liaison Chair on Galen College of Nursing’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council since 2020. Briana is an advocate for racial and social justice and believes that diversity and inclusivity are foundational aspects necessary for information access, literacy, and knowledge building. She has published with the Medical Library Association and continues to engage in research on biased controlled vocabularies, thesauri, and taxonomies as barriers to equitable information access.

Mónica Colón-Aguirre is an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Science at the University of South Carolina. Her research includes understanding information behaviors of Spanish-speaking communities, information services for diverse communities, and academic library administration. Her research has appeared in The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, Library Management, and College and Research Libraries.

Nicole A. Cooke is Associate Professor and Augusta Baker Endowed Chair in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina. Dr Cooke was named a Mover & Shaker by Library Journal in 2007, she was awarded the 2016 ALA Equality Award, and she was presented with the 2017 ALA Achievement in Library Diversity Research Award, presented by the Office for Diversity and Literacy Outreach Services. She has also been honored as the Illinois Library Association’s 2019 Intellectual Freedom Award winner in recognition of her work in combating online hate and bullying in LIS, and she was selected as the Association for Library and Information Science Education’s 2019 Excellence in Teaching award winner. Now the founding editor of ALA Neal-Schuman’s Critical Cultural Information Studies book series, Cooke has published numerous articles and book chapters. Her books include “Information Services to Diverse Populations” (Libraries Unlimited, 2016), “Fake News and Alternative Facts: Information Literacy in a Post-truth Era” (ALA Editions, 2018), and “Foundations of Social Justice (ALA Editions, expected in 2023).

LaVerne Gray is an Assistant Professor at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. Her research engages critical race theory and Black feminist thought in exploration of information location and value in marginal community spaces. She explores African-American historical information collectives utilizing archival evidence analysis. Her work has appeared in Library Quarterly, Technical Services Quarterly, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, Libraries: Culture History and Society, and The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion.

Lucy Santos Green is Professor of Information Science at the University of South Carolina. Her authored and edited publications include LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Children’s Librarianship: Queer-Positive Policies, Programs, and Practices, The Flipped College Classroom: Conceptualized and Reconceptualized and Collaborative Models for Librarian and Teacher Partnerships. Her research has been published in The ALAN Review, School Libraries Worldwide, Educational Technology & Research Development, Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, School Library Research, and other publications. Her work has been funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Science Foundation, and she is the 2022 president-elect of The Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).

Gabriel Gutiérrez is Instructor of Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha where he is completing his Doctorate in Educational Leadership. He is a former high school social studies teacher. His research has appeared in the Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning, and Leadership in Education.

Baheya S. J. Jaber is a Doctoral student at the University of Alabama. Her work focuses on intercultural communication, community engagement, and social justice. Her research has explored management of academic libraries operating in conflict zones and human rights issues of immigrants. Her work has appeared in Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology.

Robert E. Johnson is a native Chicagoan and an MLIS student at Chicago State University. He serves as Library Assistant at the Paul G. Blazer Library at Kentucky State University.

Jeanne Kambara is an MLS student at Syracuse University. She is a member of Syracuse’s School of Information Studies Library Information Investigative Team.

Xiang Li is Associate Professor and Chinese and Asian Studies Librarian at University of Colorado Boulder. Her work has appeared in College & Research Libraries, Journal of Academic Librarianship, Reference Services Review, and Journal of East Asian Libraries.

Steven L. MacCall is an Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at The University of Alabama. He teaches and conducts research in metadata, linked data, and computational methods. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Rice University and a Master’s and PhD in Information Science from the University of North Texas.

Bharat Mehra is Professor and EBSCO Endowed Chair in Social Justice in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama. His research focuses on diversity and social justice in library and information science and community informatics to empower minority and underserved populations. He has authored over 65 scholarly articles appearing in journals such as Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology; Library Quarterly; Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies; International Journal of Information, Diversity, and Inclusion; Information Processing & Management; Open Information Science; Collection Management; Public Library Quarterly; among others. He has edited several books including Social Justice Design and Implementation in Library and Information Science; A Librarian’s Guide to Engaging Families in Learning; LGBTQ+ Librarianship in the 21st Century: Emerging Directions of Advocacy and Community Engagement in Diverse Information Environments; Library, Information and Society; Progressive Community Action: Critical Theory and Social Justice in Library and Information Science; and The Cross-Cultural Learning Process of International Doctoral Students: A Case Study in Library and Information Science Education. He is the series editor for Emerald Publishing’s Advances in Librarianship Series.

Janice Moore Newsum is Assistant Professor of Library Science at the University of Houston, Clear Lake. Her research explores the librarians’ leadership role in reading achievement particularly with early and adolescent literacy. She is the 2022 Chair of the Coretta Scott King Book Award and has served as the Maker SIG Chair of the Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education 2020–2021 Her work has been published in School Library Journal, School Libraries Worldwide, and other publications.

Beth J. H. Patin is Assistant Professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. Her research agenda explores the equity of information, epistemicide, and the intersection of disability and race in youth literature. Her work has been published in Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, MediaTropes, Nordisk Tidsskrift for Informationsvidenskab og Kulturformidling, and other publications. She is a Co-founder of the Library Information Investigative Team Research Group at Syracuse University. She is also the Founder and President of the Rocket City Civil Rights Initiative, a digital humanities and preservation organization. She has received grants for her work from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the US Department of Education, and the Community Foundation of Greater Huntsville.

Ferial Pearson is an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She is the Founder of the Secret Kindness Agents Project and the author of Secret Kindness Agents: An Educator’s Guide: How Small Acts of Kindness Really Can Change the World and Secret Kindness Agents: How Small Acts of Kindness Really Can Change the World. She is the recipient of the Kennedy Center’s Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award. Her research areas include social justice and culturally responsive teaching, social emotional learning, mindfulness, kindness education, trauma informed education, and the recruitment and retention of BIPOC teachers.

Conrad Pegues is an Assistant Professor and Public Services Librarian at Paul Meek Library, at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He has taught American Literature, African American Literature, Composition/Advanced Composition and Remedial English at Nashville State Community College and at Southwest Tennessee Community College. He has served as a member of the EDI Assembly Committee of the American Library Association and was EDI Chair of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. He was a scholar with the Black Book Interactive Project, a National Endowment for the Humanities-funded project whose aim is to increase the number of black-authored texts in digital humanities.

Sandra Rodríguez-Arroyo is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education and the Professor Robert Ackerman Faculty Fellow of Community Engagement at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education, New Waves-Educational Research and Development Journal, and Revista Comunicación, Política y Cultura. Her research interests include translanguaging perspectives in bilingual education teacher preparation, asset-based service-learning experiences with diverse learners and families, and Latina faculty testimonios.

Leyde Klebia Rodrigues da Silva is an Assistant Professor in the Documentation and Information Department at Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil. Her research interests include sociology of information, information technology, ethnic-racial studies, knowledge production, dissemination, use and appropriation of information, and the preservation and memory of web information sources in black movements and black women’s organizations. Her work has been published in Archeion Online, Perspectivas em Ciência da Informação, Tendências da Pesquisa Brasileira em Ciência da Informação, and Revista Digital de Biblioteconomia e Ciência da Informação.

Amanda Rybin Koob is Assistant Professor, Literature and Humanities Librarian, at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research has appeared in Art Documentation; Information Technology and Libraries; Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture; and Public Services Quarterly.

Melissa Smith is an MLIS candidate in Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, focusing on archives and cultural heritage. As a recipient of the school’s Wilhelm Library Leadership Award, she serves as a research assistant and is a member of the Library Information Investigative Team. She holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Texas at Austin.

Natalia Tingle Dolan is Business Collections and Reference Librarian, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her research has been published in Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, Information Technology and Libraries, and other journals. She is active in national organizations and serves as a member of the Education Committee of the Business Reference and Services Section of the American Library Association and previously as a member of the ALA Joint Working Group on E-books and Digital Content in Libraries.

Anders Tobiason holds a Ph.D. in Music Theory and a Masters in Library and Information Sciences from the University of Wisconsin. He currently serves as Assistant Professor and Multimedia Development and User Experience Librarian at Boise State University. His research interests include accessibility and equity in libraries, copyright, critical theory librarianship and instruction, digital curation, digital humanities, anti-racist collection development, and media studies.

Jieun Yeon is a Doctoral student in Information Studies at Syracuse University. Her work is informed by social justice and critical librarianship; her research area is concerned with public library boards and library governance. She was formerly a Reference Librarian at Seoul National University and a Research Performance Management Librarian at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology. She is a member of Syracuse’s School of Information Studies Library Information Investigative Team.

Tyler Youngman is a doctoral student in Information Science and Technology at Syracuse University. His scholarly work investigates the concept of epistemicide within the context of libraries, archives, and museums. He is a member of Syracuse’s School of Information Studies Library Information Investigative Team.

Alexander Watkins is Section Lead for Collections Engagement and Associate Professor, Art & Architecture Librarian at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the Co-editor of Fair Use in the Visual Arts: Lesson Plans for Librarians, Occasional Paper no. 17, ARLIS/NA, 2018 and his research has appeared in journals such as Information Technology and Libraries, Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, Art Libraries Journal, Art Documentation, and other publications. He teaches courses in art history research methods and serves on the ARLIS/NA Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

Editors’ Dedication

In assembling this work, we acknowledge and affirm Martin Luther King, Jr’s observation made in his 1963 ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail,’ where he stated that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” We would like to dedicate this volume to the world that we have yet to create and to those who will inhabit it—a global ‘Beloved Community’ characterized by justice, equality and peace. As individuals who have devoted our careers to promoting social justice through education and fighting racism and race-based oppression, this volume is a testimony to the collective potential and power of information work and information professionals to transform society in creation of a just world.

First, we acknowledge and give honor to our forerunners and to those who came before us, who fought for us and who sacrificed more than we can imagine including in some cases, their very lives. We would also like to acknowledge and thank the many fabulous minds and righteous hearts that brought this project to realization including our authors, peer reviewers, supporters and of course, our readers –all co-laborers in the field for racial justice.