Library and Academic Institution Movements & the Law

In the 2021-22 school year, RWU Law co-sponsored, along with the City University of New York School of Law and Jurist, an ongoing Integrating Doctrine & Diversity Speaker Series.

A Sarah Jessica Parker-produced documentary on the brave librarians fighting a wave of rightwing book bans has sparked conversation at Sundance

Two major U.S. state bar associations have pushed back after President Donald Trump took aim at efforts to promote more diversity in the legal profession.

As Donald Trump returns to the White House, a newly emboldened anti-DEI bloc has gained powerful allies.

While top brass in conservative circles aim to curtail DEI, college students are optimistic about diversity, according to a new survey.

Libraries are now reporting more aggressive, targeted, and organized First Amendment audits than in years past.

Challenges to nonbook materials -- such as displays, social media posts, reading lists, and programs -- are on the rise. What should libraries do in the face of these attacks?

This Q&A offers strategies and resources for preparing your library to approach community concerns as well as reaction to potentially controversial programs, events, and speakers.

They are "the original sharing economy," "early warning systems for broad cultural phenomena," offering tai chi lessons, advice, social services, and, yes, books, a whole lot of books.

America is facing an epidemic of loneliness and isolation, with troubling effects on our mental and physical health. We live in one of the most divisive times in our history, one in which we tend to work, play, and associate only with people who think as we do. How do we create spaces for people to come together--to open our minds, understand our differences, and exchange ideas? Shamichael Hallman argues that the public library may be our best hope for bridging these divides and creating strong, inclusive communities. While public libraries have long been thought of as a place for a select few, increasingly they are playing an essential role in building social cohesion, promoting civic renewal, and advancing the ideals of a healthy democracy. Many are reimagining themselves in new and innovative ways, actively reaching out to the communities they serve. Today, libraries are becoming essential institutions for repairing society. Libraries have a unique opportunity to bridge socioeconomic divides and rebuild trust. But in order to do so, they must be truly welcoming to all. They and their communities must work collaboratively to bridge socioeconomic divides through innovative and productive partnerships. Drawing from his experience at the Memphis Public Library and his extensive research and interviews across the country, Hallman presents a rich argument for seeing libraries as one of the nation's greatest assets. He includes examples from libraries large and small--such as the Iowa's North Liberty Library's Lighthouse in the Library program to bring people together to discuss important topics in a safe and supportive space, to Cambridge Cooks, an initiative of the Cambridge MA Public Library that fosters social connection by bringing people together over shared interest in food. As an institution that is increasingly under attack for creating a place where diverse audiences can see themselves, public libraries are under more scrutiny than ever. Meet Me at the Library offers us a revealing look at one of our most important civic institutions and the social and civic impact they must play if we are to heal our divided nation. --

A federal judge has struck down key parts of an Arkansas law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing so-called “harmful” materials to minors.

The Republicans take issue with ABA's Standard 206, which they say requires law schools to emphasize race-based admissions and hiring processes.

Widespread global uncertainty in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing wars, social uprisings, and rising inflation have led individuals to feel less of a sense of personal control. New research finds that this lack of control can drive employees to seek similarity in coworkers, forming homogenous teams that stifle diversity and innovation. Research involving over 90,000 participants across multiple studies revealed that individuals with reduced control gravitate toward those similar in race, religion, or values, reinforcing predictability but fostering segregation and limiting collaboration. Leaders can mitigate this effect by taking the following steps: 1) Foster psychological safety, 2) establish predictable work routines, 3) encourage cross-functional teams, 4) develop responsive feedback systems, and 5) cultivate individual autonomy.

"Free speech is indispensable on college campuses, essential to learning and the pursuit of truth. But free speech does not mean a free-for-all. A university that values free expression still has to regulate some speech to enable its educational mission. So how can we distinguish reasonable restrictions from impermissible infringement? In this clear-headed, no-nonsense explainer, Cass Sunstein takes us briskly through a wide range of scenarios involving students, professors, and administrators. He shows, for instance, why it's consistent with the First Amendment to punish students who shout down a speaker, but not those who chant offensive slogans; why a professor cannot be fired for writing controversial op-eds, yet an applicant's political views can be considered in hiring decisions. And he explains why private universities, though not legally bound by the First Amendment, would be well advised in most cases to follow it nonetheless." --

While DEI has faced significant backlash in the last year, companies across industries are still looking for ways to build healthy, inclusive workplace cultures where everyone can do their best work. New data at shows that even during this year of backlash, companies continued to make progress on many of their DEI initiatives. There are three ways companies should consider shifting their approach to DEI, both to be responsive to the current moment and to achieve greater impact: resetting the narrative, using data more effectively, and moving from siloed efforts to an embedded organizational focus on creating cultures that work for everyone.

U-M Libraries Territorial Acknowledgment Working Group hosted an event centered on the Maawn Doobiigeng System.

Democrat Rhode Island lawmakers on Wednesday promoted a suite of bills motivated by the Freedom to Read movement — an assertion of libraries’ right to hold controversial books, amid an ongoing culture clash over the written word.

Both the Indiana and Iowa State Legislatures have introduced legislation regarding criminally charging libraries and librarians over “inappropriate” material. These bills are closely related to widespread book challenges occurring at schools and public libraries across the nation, with people trying to remove books that address certain topics relating to gender, sexuality, and race from library collections. In many cases there is already a clear process for reconsidering materials in a collection, so how do legal defenses play a role in this and what do the bills change?

We’ve documented actions taken on dozens of campuses to alter or eliminate jobs, offices, hiring practices, and programs amid mounting political pressure to end identity-conscious recruitment and retention of minority staff and students.

This paper introduces a subfield of management studies, "critical management studies" (CMS) in order to rethink mainstream management practices in academic libraries, with strategic planning as an illustrative example. Mainstream management models from the corporate sector prioritize efficiency, productivity, and numerical measures for assessing impact. Academic libraries have generally borrowed uncritically from this mainstream management praxis, but how well does this serve our needs, especially when it comes to the most complex issues we face? CMS draws on critical theory to interrogate the methods and goals of mainstream management, with an emphasis on denaturalizing "taken for granted" practices and prioritizing ethics and worker equity. After providing a brief overview of the history and adoption of mainstream management in academic libraries, this paper focuses on strategic planning as an illustrative exploration of CMS principles in an academic library context. Strategic planning is a common managerial practice that has been embraced by academic libraries and generally modeled after mainstream approaches. Yet, CMS scholars contend that traditional strategic planning reproduces workplace inequities and universalizes managerial interests. In this article, I employ ideas from CMS to rethink library strategic planning by opening participation, reframing problems, and embracing our ethical agency.

This guide serves as a collection point for information pertaining to Responsibility Centered Management.

Editor’s Note: This guest post has been authored by Alejandro Marquez (Science and Engineering Librarian at the University of Denver Libraries) and Brady Niemitalo Woods (Patron Training Specialist at Jefferson County Public Library, Colorado). The fall semester started recently, marking the begi

Creating an inclusive library : approaches for increasing engagement and use with students of color-book

One of the things small town librarian Amanda Jones values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss "book content," she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. Amanda would be damned if her community were to ban stories representing minority groups. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing. Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo, and a porn-pusher; she has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns--funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians--in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and "Christian." But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a fight: she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance. Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against equity and inclusion, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers.

The School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is pleased to announce the publication of Library Trends 72 (1). This issue, "Indigenous Librarianship," examines the current state of Indigenous librarianship. Ulia Gosart and Rachel Fu served as guest editors. Library Trends, in partnership with the guest editors and select authors, will host a virtual webinar featuring lightning talks based on articles from the upcoming issue.

The American Library Association and the Sustainable Libraries Initiative have announced the new National Climate Action Strategy for Libraries and created an implementation guide to help libraries incorporate climate action locally into strategic and facility plans.