For Black librarians like me, libraries also symbolize the literacy that was denied.

On the IFLA-L email list, Loida Garcia-Febo, chair of the IFLA Management of Library Associations, shared a link to the recording of a free webinar she moderated in March titled Bridging the Gap: In Support of Women in Librarianship—A Conversation With ALA Presidents.

Across the country, book bans and attempted bans have soared to the highest levels in decades. Public and school-based libraries have been inundated with complaints from community members and conservative activists.

"This book will contribute to the discourse on ways of increasing anti-racism, empowerment, and representation in the LIS field and beyond. It continues in the civil rights legacy of African American librarian pioneers including Dr. E.J. Josey, Dr. Virginia Lacy Jones, Dr. Carla Hayden, and Dr. Eliza Atkins Gleason"--

Mychal Threets’ sudden rise to fame as a pusher of ‘library joy’ isn’t over despite his exit from his job to focus on himself

"Confronting White Nationalism in Libraries is a resource by and for library workers to use when bigoted groups try to organize in our communities. We believe that sharing common experiences can shed light on the truth and promote learning. Through actual scenarios that our libraries have encountered, we suggest ways in which library workers can use tools we already have at our disposal to resist white nationalism - whatever our position in the library. There is a significant body of literature addressing racism in libraries (and this toolkit is part of that overall work), but the toolkit's specific focus is on responding to the social movement of white nationalism through our library work."--Page 4

"Librarianship has been conceptualized as a vocation or calling--rather than a profession--since the 1800s. Within this historical context, librarians are encouraged to think of ourselves as possessing a natural disposition to showing perpetual engagement, enthusiasm, and self-regulation in pursuit of our shared vocation. These assumptions about the profession can sometimes shield us from introspective criticism, but they can also prevent us from recognizing and managing the systemic occupational issues that afflict us. Academic Librarian Burnout can help librarians develop the agency to challenge the assumptions and practices that have led to so much professional burnout. In five thorough parts, it offers ways to discuss burnout in our work environments, studies burnout's nature and causes, and provides preventative intervention and mitigation strategies: Reframing Burnout; Conditions that Promote Burnout; Lived Experiences; Individual Responses to Burnout; and Organizational Responses to Burnout. Chapters explore the relationship of burnout in academic libraries and illness, intersectionality, workload, managerial approaches, and more, while offering real-life stories and ways for both individuals and organizations to address the symptoms and causes of burnout. The emotional, physical, and mental investment we require of librarianship--to go above and beyond to serve the ever--evolving needs of our patrons while perennially justifying our existence to library stakeholders-can come at the expense of our well-being. Academic Librarian Burnout addresses unsustainable work environments and preserves and celebrates the unique contributions of librarians"--

Libraries are increasingly on the frontlines of defending democracy, and resisting growing efforts to disrupt LGBTQ+ programming, ban books focused on inclusivity, and attack critical race theory. Western States Center’s toolkit gives librarians, administrators and communities the tools needed to effectively push back against these efforts. Written by and for librarians in collaboration with Western States Center, this toolkit is organized around six realistic scenarios, highlighting proactive and reactive practices for taking action along with communications approaches. The toolkit is part of the Western States Center’s ongoing efforts to strengthen those on the frontlines of defending democracy against white nationalism, especially in public institutions like schools and local governments that often need support.

"Conversations in Cultural Heritage" is 5-episode series that highlights the background and work of People of Color in cultural heritage organizations, supported by the Rare Book School’s (RBS) Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship for Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Heritage.

Hidden Barriers: The Experience of Academic Librarians and Archivists with Invisible Illnesses and/or Disabilities

"This book provides advice and support to help library employees best deal with sexually harassing patrons, unruly groups of students, gang members, thieves, Internet hogs, and others who can disrupt the safe library environment"--

This personal narrative explores the tensions between libraries and academia as sites that reinforce colonialism, and what is required of vulnerable and minoritized populations in order to secure livelihood in the profession of librarianship. This paper explores the culture of diversity initiatives through the framework of conditional hospitality, and attempts to reconcile indigenous participation in libraries and academia as colonial power structures through historical trauma theory. Barriers to inclusion for indigenous peoples are also explored, including examination of how indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing are included within the LIS curriculum. This chapter is included in The Politics of Theory and the Practice of Critical Librarianship, edited by Karen P. Nicholson and Maura Seale, and published by Library Juice Press in March 2018.

"LIS educators and students, library directors, managers, frontline employees, and those who work behind the scenes all share how they are taking action and creating change. Thoughtfully addressing DEI issues related to policies, services, and programs, this collection's diverse chorus of voices will both enlighten and inspire. Cultural humility offers a renewing and transformative framework for navigating interpersonal interactions in libraries, whether between patrons and staff or staff members with one another. It foregrounds a practice of critical self-reflection and commitment to recognizing and redressing structural inequities and problematic power imbalances. This collection, the first book-length treatment of this approach in libraries, gathers contributors from across the field to demonstrate how cultural humility can change the way we work and make lasting impacts on diversity, equity, and inclusion in libraries." --;"This collection gathers contributors from across the field to demonstrate how cultural humility can change the way we work and make lasting impacts on diversity, equity, and inclusion in libraries"--

Feminists Among Us: Resistance and Advocacy in Library Leadership makes explicit the ways in which a grounding in feminist theory and practice impacts the work of library administrators who identify as feminists. Recent scholarship by LIS researchers and practitioners on the intersections of gender with sexuality, race, class, and other social categories within libraries and other information environments have highlighted the need and desire of this community to engage with these concepts both in theory and praxis. Feminists Among Us adds to this conversation by focusing on a subset of feminist LIS professionals and researchers in leadership roles who engage critically with both management work and librarianship. By collecting these often implicit professional acts, interactions, and dynamics and naming them as explicitly feminist, these accounts both document aspects of an existing community of practice as well as invite fellow feminists, advocates, and resisters to consider library leadership as a career path. -- from back cover.

"Explores the experiences of women of color in library and information science (LIS), using intersectionality as a framework"--

It is a book all LIS educators and administrators need to read now. The editors and author contributors show us by direct action what critical librarianship is. At the heart of the book is an ethics of care and self-care, an ethics born out of critical stances positioned in examining our rich intersectionalities and inter-being as people of color and allies. Librarians With Spines is a call to action that asks us to reflect on our intentionality as information professionals. It challenges librarians to proudly uphold and carry forward our duty to serve our communities in our daily work.

EveryLibrary is issuing a comprehensive report on 2023 state-level legislation affecting libraries. The report, “Unpacking 2023 Legislation of Concern for Libraries”, is designed to support and assist state library associations in future legislative advocacy campaigns. The recent wave of state legislation affecting libraries across the United States has been largely negative, with a focus on restricting access to certain materials, particularly those deemed harmful or inappropriate for minors. Through June 17, 2023, twenty-four bills have passed in state legislatures. Two were vetoed, and 22 are in various stages of enactment. These bills have been enacted in fourteen states: Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah. The bills encompass several recurring themes that pose potential challenges to library operations and services. [Clip] This report provides a moment-in-time review of state-level legislation affecting libraries and education while looking at key themes across and between states. The report offers strategic recommendations for state library association leaders and legislative advocates to build coalitions, activate constituents, and work across the entire lifecycle of a bill, including pre-session communications and post-session actions.

The Academic Libraries Video Trust is a service facilitating the preservation of audiovisual (“AV”) works in the collections of member libraries. The principal activity of ALVT is to provide a clearinghouse or repository of digital versions of selected AV works, generally works currently available only in the obsolete VHS format. The service is built on opportunities allowed to libraries and archives for the preservation and replacement of works in their collections, pursuant to Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Video Trust offers this service in order to encourage the preservation and appreciation of the educational films, motion pictures, documentaries, and other works that are increasingly out of reach because of the obsolete technology.

JusticeAccess is a law library focused on meeting the legal information needs of members of the public. Our goal is to provide reference help to people who need information because of any problem that touches on law. We will have a virtual reference desk providing video or audio chat with a librarian. We also plan to have a mobile library (bookmobile) once we have the funding to secure a vehicle. All JusticeAccess services can be anonymous, and all information shared with JusticeAccess staff or volunteers will be kept confidential.

U.S. Congress legislation, Congressional Record debates, Members of Congress, legislative process educational resources presented by the Library of Congress

Northwestern University Libraries have been a U.S. Federal Depository Library since 1876. Our collection includes materials in paper, microfiche, CD-ROM, DVD formats and online formats. This guide is based on a similar guide by Kelly Smith at UCSD.

Guide to information resources by and about the federal government.

Black, Indigenous, and Peoples of Color reimagine library and information science through the lens of critical race theory.

"The African American Struggle for Library Equality: The Untold Story of the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program unveils the almost forgotten philanthropic efforts of Julius Rosenwald, former president of Sears, Roebuck, Co. and an elite business man. Rosenwald simply desired to improve, "the well-being of mankind" through access to education.Many people are familiar with Mr. Rosenwald as the founder of the Julius Rosenwald Fund that established more than 5,300 rural schools in 15 Southern states during the period 1917-1938. However, there is another major piece of the puzzle, the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program. That program established more than 10,000 school, college, and public libraries, funded library science programs that trained African American librarians, and made evident the need for libraries to be supported by local governments.The African American Struggle for Library Equality is the first comprehensive history of the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program to be published. The book reveals a new understanding of library practices of the early 20th century. Through original research and use of existing literature, Aisha Johnson Jones exposes historic library practices that discriminated against blacks, and the necessary remedies the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program implemented to cure this injustice, which ultimately influenced other philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie and Bill Gates (the Gates Foundation has a library program) as well as organizations like the American Library Association."--Publisher's website (viewed 2019 September 24).

"Although illegal, racial segregation was strictly enforced in a number of American states, and public libraries were not immune. Numerous libraries were desegregated on paper only: there would be no cards given to African Americans, no books for them to read, and no furniture for them to use. It was these exact conditions that helped create Freedom Libraries. Over eighty of these parallel libraries appeared in the Deep South, staffed by civil rights voter registration workers. While the grassroots nature of the libraries meant they varied in size and quality, all of them created the first encounter many African Americans had with a library. Terror, bombings, and eventually murder would be visited on the Freedom Libraries--with people giving up their lives so others could read a library book. This book delves into how these libraries were the heart of the Civil Rights Movement and the remarkable courage of the people who used them"--Back cover.

By Rachel Evans, David Rutland, and Geraldine Kalim It’s June and that means it’s Gay Pride Month!  Stop by the Library Foyer to check out our Pride Month book & DVD display!  Through…

Index of Library of Congress Research Guides Research guides to the Library's collections, as well as subject guides prepared by Library of Congress staff, are listed below. More online guides covering other Library of Congress collections are available via the