Blogs

In the debut of our Academic Insights column, academic librarians Twanna Hodge and Jamia Williams assert that BIPOC voices must be centered in every aspect of librarianship.

A couple years ago, Book Riot posted an article by Katisha Smith titled, “13 Pioneering Black Librarians You Oughta Know.” Among others, Smith introduces us to Edward C. Williams, the f…

By Sue Silverman One of the first things that struck me when teaching international and foreign law research for the first time was how Western and Eurocentric international law is, from the princi…

From technology to teaching about how to use tech, libraries foster equity of access for everyone - regardless of their own means

By Brooke Doyle You may have heard about Improving Access to Civil Legal Justice through Libraries, an initiative developed in partnership between OCLC’s WebJunction program and the Legal Serv…

Deep listening is a contemplative practice that assists us with dropping our habitual story lines so that we can genuinely engage with other people and the world around us.  It is a practice of listening with an open mind, suspending our tendency to immediately label, analyze, critique, or

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the fact that a master’s degree is required to be a librarian. For me, choosing to pursue a graduate degree in library science made perfect sense. I have …

The study found the presence and usage of public libraries and museums to be positively associated with community health, school effectiveness, institutional connection, and cultural opportunity.

Law librarians are utilizing their skills as legal information innovators and educators to bridge the justice gap by providing citizens with the resources and services necessary to engage in civics through meaningful access to justice.

Social Justice, Privilege, Equity, Inclusion. These terms are all terms that each of us as MLIS students have heard with some level of frequency. Libraries are commonly thought to be champions for …

Yep, I’m still harping on that theme of the stark lack of diversity in librarianship. For a profession that claims Diversity as  a core value and declares that “We value our nation…

It didn’t take long for Todd Lockwood to realize that a hierarchical book classification system would not work for the Brautigan Library. He was, after all, following through on Richard Braut…

Over the past several years, public, state, academic, and law libraries have increasingly sought to serve people in prison through a variety of services. Now, with a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Ithaka S+R is undertaking a planning project that will set the stage for future partnerships to develop and pilot wrap-around library services to meet the information needs of people who are currently incarcerated.

During the Summer and Fall of 2022, threats directed to public and school libraries and library workers escalated, including the forced temporary closure of five public library systems due to bomb and shooting threats. On September 27, the executive board of the American Library Association (ALA) transmitted a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray expressing concerns about the threats directed to public and school libraries and library workers.

ALA is the first organization to launch a nationwide public-facing anticensorship campaign with Unite Against Book Bans.

As AALL and RIPS committee work ramps up again this fall, the RIPS Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force is off and running.  Not familiar with the Task Force?  Let me get you up to …

By Mikayla Redden I hadn’t been in graduate school more than a month when I noticed something alarming about the Library of Congress (LoC) classification system—the alphanumeric system we, in acade…

By Hannah Plotkin and Francesco Fasano The rate of housing loss is unfortunately increasing throughout Arizona. Rising rents, stagnant wages and job insecurity are driving a looming crisis. Exacerb…

By Jenny Silbiger The Americans and the Holocaust (AATH) traveling exhibit arrived to our island home of Oʻahu on January 28, 2022, and left a couple of days ago, on March 9th.  The traveling …

Dr. Angelica Geter strives to build systems and criteria that ensure Black women's psychological safety at work.

As buzzwords like social justice, equity, and inclusion permeate our conversations, it’s essential for advocates of progress to remember another ‘ism.’

Individual differences is a natural encounter at the work place, nevertheless, the job must still be done but when one is working with the o...

Though many library staffers receive physical first aid and CPR training, mental health first aid training happens far less often. However, it can defuse tense situations, provide needed resources, and help patrons through crises.

"In September 2020, President Trump issued an executive order excluding from federal contracts any diversity and inclusion training interpreted as containing Divisive Concepts, Race or Sex Stereotyping, and Race or Sex Scapegoating."

Let me tell you about someone I met a couple of years ago in 2019. Her name was Judge Deborah A. Batts. The Honorable Judge Batts was the first openly gay person to be appointed as an Article III federal judge. She held this position for over 25 years in the Southern District of New York. As part of the library team in my previous position, we commemorated her 25 years of service with a candid interview during Pride month with her fellow openly gay judges also at the US Courts for the Second Circuit: Judge Alison J. Nathan, Judge J. Paul Oetken and Judge Pamela K. Chen. If you watch this interview as many times as I have, you can’t escape the gravitas of Judge Batts words when she describes herself as a “trifecta” and says “it’s important to pass it on…” As a librarian, and particularly someone working with the law, I believe the responsibility of pass it on should be a major tenet in our profession And despite that altruistic goal and the best of intentions, I oftentimes find myself in situations where we have failed to do just that. Why is that? What is missing? Who is missing? Whose voices we are missing? I don’t presume to have any of the answers. However, I’ve decided to create this platform and hear from my esteemed friends on the notes we pass to each other. By now, we all know the concepts, or at least we can find a new libguide with further reading. Let’s now dismantle and create. Let’s now more forward and be intentional. Let’s create the space and pass it on. Notes Between Us (NBU) is a blog about conversations and topics of interest to the writers. The writers are expressing their personal opinions solely. Their essays represent their personal beliefs and not that of their workplaces or any organization they are associated with. By Marcelo Rodríguez

A publication of the Black Law Librarians Special Interest Section (BLL-SIS) of the American Association of Law Libraries

After the tragic police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, there has been a sudden groundswell of interest in beginning the monumental task of tackling the racial injustice and systemic racism…