University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

We Here: Speaking Our Truth

Brown, Jennifer; Ferretti, Jennifer A.; Leung, Sofia; Méndez-Brady, Marisa

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/101942

Description

Title
We Here: Speaking Our Truth
Author(s)
  • Brown, Jennifer
  • Ferretti, Jennifer A.
  • Leung, Sofia
  • Méndez-Brady, Marisa
Issue Date
2018
Keyword(s)
  • Libraries
  • Information science
  • Library and information science
  • Diversity
  • Race
  • Ethnicity
Abstract
In this article, we seek to seed an honest conversation about how librarianship needs to meaningfully address systems of structural oppression in order to actualize diversity and inclusion initiatives at large. We will investigate issues of recruitment, retention, education, and mentorship within the library and information science profession through the lens of our experiences as women of color, and as early-career librarians; we will also weave relevant insights reflected from within the literature to support our narratives. Central to this work is an understanding of the barriers that people of color (POC) face in our workplaces and the profession at large; we will discuss this at length throughout. Finally, we will conclude with recommendations on how the profession, as a whole, can do better at retaining and supporting its marginalized workforce. This is a call to action for librarians at every level to hold themselves accountable for the ways in which they are complicit within systems of oppression and inequality. Concurrently, this article aims to generate momentum in coalition building as a tool for POC attempting to navigate the overwhelming whiteness evident within the profession.
Publisher
Johns Hopkins University Press. The School of Information Sciences at Illinois. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Series/Report Name or Number
Library Trends 67 (1). Summer 2018
Type of Resource
text
Language
en
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/101942
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2018.0031
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2018 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Owning Collections

Library Trends 67 (1) Summer 2018: Race and Ethnicity in Library and Information Science: An Update PRIMARY
Library Trends 67 (1) Summer 2018: Race and Ethnicity in Library and Information Science: An Update. Edited by Nicole A. Cooke