Library and Academic Institution Movements & the Law

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.

Librarians in at least three states are asking the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to intervene after they were fired for refusing to ban books.

A library in rural Southeast Washington could be the first in the nation to close over a fight about removing books. The debate revolves around a group of books in the library’s kids and young adult sections that some residents say aren’t age-appropriate. Seattle Times reporter David Gutman is here to explain how things got to this point, with some help from life-long Dayton resident John Hutchens.

No longer are just books under fire, but also the library administrators, teachers and long-beloved librarians who are defending them.

The number of reported challenges and attempted bans to books doubled in 2022 according to data released by the American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom Monday.

A conservative campaign to ban certain books from schools is prompting other parents to push back. The issue is often framed as the latest "culture war" battle, but some see democracy itself at stake.

Senate Bill 81 would open the door to criminal liability for the distribution of “obscene” content by school and public libraries.

"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.

By Allan Cho (Follow us on LinkedIn) As part of the Visible Minority Librarians of Canada Network (ViMLoC), I’ve participated in its mentorship program and have met many talented and eager ear…

Systemic racism is a reality in Canada. At many junctures in life, a person’s access to opportunities and fair treatment will be affected by their race, skin colour, or indigineity. The legal profession, in order to do its essential work in our society, must recognize and confront systemic racism. So far, most formal efforts to […]

December 5, 2023 – Today Stanford Law School’s Filing Fairness Project announced the launch of its Filing Fairness Toolkit, a first-of-its-kind, i

Invisible illness and disability; Latino USA story, The Archivists; Toolkit for Program Challenges; Kellogg Canada's EDI efforts threated by boycott

The Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium: Reflections, Revisions, and New Works collects expanded and updated presentations given at the Critical Librarianship and Pedagogy Symposium (CLAPS) held biennially at the University of Arizona Libraries. This anthology provides a toolkit for critical library pedagogy that recognizes how knowledge is created within historical and deeply politicized contexts. Authors working in library or disciplinary teaching.

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

By Ezekiel Amari McGee (Follow us on LinkedIn) For the past year, watching the news often feels like watching a Hitchcock film—you know something awful’s coming, it’s just a matter of when. Wh…

The President of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, expressed deep concern over the challenges faced by law firms’ diversity initiatives following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to reject affirmative action in colleges and universities. The ABA, the largest voluntary bar association in the country boasting around 166,000 members as of 2022, has conveyed […]

"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"--

Is the output of generative AI entitled to First Amendment protection? We’re inclined to say yes. Even though current AI programs are of course not people and d

The American Bar Association may soon require law schools to adopt free speech policies, a change that follows several high-profile campus incidents in which students disrupted controversial speakers.

Although much of my work involves navigating digital information, I try not to forget that libraries are also physical spaces. Indeed, my lifelong love of libraries as places and structures is a bi…

Guest Post by Mari Cheney, Associate Director of Research and InstructionBoley Law Library, Lewis & Clark Law School I had the immense honor of attending this year’s annual meeting in Boston us…

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.

"Neurodiversity in the Workplace presents a timely and needed perspective on the role and responsibility of employers, and those working to increase the effectiveness of workplace practices, to examine the many ways we preclude large segments of the population from employment and how we can create opportunities for building a truly inclusive work environment"--

"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.

We go inside a Florida college battling Gov. Ron DeSantis.

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

By Marlena Okechukwu (Follow us on LinkedIn) Photo by Paul Hanaoka on Unsplash Conferences are big business. In fact, globally, the Meetings industry generates trillions of dollars annually – …