In our own voices, redux : the faces of librarianship today

Title:

ISBN:

9781538115374

Publication Information:

Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2018.

Physical Description:

xxix, 298 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

General Note:

"Foreword by Camila A. Alire"--Cover.

Contents:

Still Ambiguous after All These Years: Reflections on Diversity in Academic Libraries / Deborah R. Hollis -- Malore the Explorer: Becoming Global with a Library Touch / Malore I. Brown -- The Less Than One Percent: Native Librarians in Conversation / Sarah R. Kostelecky and Lori Townsend -- Moving On and Upward: A Conversation with Dexter R. Evans -- Boundaries of the Body - Finding My(whole)self: Rituals and Rites / Jennifer Brown -- Do It for the Culture: My Life as an Archivist / Rachel E. Winston -- You Are Note Alone / Joanna Chen Cham -- How I Got Over / Evangela Q. Oates -- The Jackie Robinson of Library Science: Twenty Years Later / Teresa Y. Neely -- "The Shoe Is Too Small and Not Made For You!": Racial "Covering" and the Illusion of Fit / Silvia Lin Hanick -- "While I Have the Floor..." / Mark D. Winston -- What Have I Learned from the Past, Present and Future? / José A. Aguiñaga -- Like Our Lives Depended on It: Reflections on Embodies Librarianship, Counterspaces, and Throwing Down / Nicholae Cline, Jorge R. López-McKnight and Madelyn Shackelford Washington -- Une De Solamente Cuatro: Overcoming Barriers to Minority Recruitment in Appalaachia / Monica Garcia Brooks -- How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: The School-to-Prison Pipeline / Sheree D. White -- "I Shall Become a Collector of Me" / Kimberly Black -- Serving the Sons and Daughters of Mechanics and Farmers at the Crossroads of America / Madelyn Shackelford Washington -- Grief in Five Stages: Postgraduate Librarian Degree m/ Leni Matthews -- Confessions of a Retired Librarian / Lisa Burwell -- Being a Super Token at the America Heritage Center-University of Wyoming / Irlanda Esteli Jacinto -- Shi Shei Liná Naaltsoos Bá Hooghan: "My Library Life" / Monica Etsitty Dorame -- The Skirt Revolution: Speaking Out as a Mexicana Librarian / Jimena Bretón -- Reflections of a Long Journey / Mee-Len Hom -- What Do I have to Be? / Tanya Elder -- My America / Ngoc-My Guidarelli -- I'm Still Here : An Addendum to a Personal Perspective of Academic Librarianship / Lisa Pillow -- How Never to Be a Librarian: A View from Retirement / Zora J. Sampson -- Letter to New People of Color in LIS / Sofia Leung

Abstract:

"In this twnety-year reboot of Neele and Bif's 1996 In Our Own Voices, fifteen of the original contributors revisit their stories alongside fifteen new voices. This Collective represents a wide range of life and library experiences, gender fluidities, sexualities, races, and other visible and invisible identities. Their essays bring honesty, vulnerability, authenticity, and power to the diversity conversation in libraries and beyond. More importantly, these voices, from a variety of races, ethnicities, genders and sexualities, matter." -- PUblisher

Subject Term:

Minority librarians -- United States.

Minorities in library science -- United States.

Women librarians -- United States.

Local Subject:

LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE COLLECTION

EQUITY, DIVERSITY, AND INCLUSION COLLECTION

Added Author:

Neely, Teresa Y.

López-McNight, Jorge R., 1981-

Alire, Camila A.

Available:

Library	Call Number	Material Type	Status
Searching... State Library of Oregon	027.7 In	4-Week Loan	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

In the 20-year reboot of Neely and Abif's 1996 In Our Own Voices, fifteen of the original contributors revisit their stories alongside the fifteen new voices that have been added. This Collective represents a wide range of life and library experiences, gender fluidities, sexualities, races, and other visible, and invisible identities. In addition to reflections on lives and experiences since the 1996 volume, chapters cover the representation of librarians of color in the profession at large, and more specifically, those among them who are still the "only one"; the specter of "us serving them--still;" and migrations from libraries to other information providing professions. These authors reflect on their careers and lives in libraries and other school and workplace settings, as activists, administrators, archivists, library students and information professionals. They share stories of personal and professional abuse, attempts to find and secure gainful employment, navigating the profession, and how they overcame decades of normalized discrimination to complete their educational and career pursuits. They write about the need for support systems, work-life balance, self-care, communities of support, and the importance of mentoring and being mentored. And above all, they persist, and continue to disrupt systems. These essays are from contributors from a variety of libraries and library related environments, and provide answers to questions professionals new to LIS haven't even asked yet. The inclusion of a new group of librarian his-, her-, and their-stories provides a voice for those currently finding their way through this profession. These essays bring honesty, vulnerability, authenticity, and impactfulness to the "diversity" conversation in libraries and beyond. And more importantly, these voices, from a variety of races, ethnicities, genders and sexualities, matter.

Author Notes

Dr. Teresa Y. Neely is professor of librarianship, and assessment librarian in the College of the University Libraries & Learning Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. Dr. Neely has worked in academic research libraries for more than 20 years, and is the author or co-author/editor of six books and conference proceedings and has authored/coauthored numerous scholarly peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, conference papers, and a white paper for ACRL. Her research interests include African American and Native American rap and hip-hop lyrics as activist narrative; women and the economic enterprise in the19th century southwest, text and sentiment analysis in social media data.Jorge R. López-McKnight was most recently the First-Year Experience Librarian at the College of the University Libraries & Learning Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM. In that role, he participated in numerous teaching and learning activities with freshman and transfer students to support their growth and educational processes. His research interests include critical race theory and library & information science, educators of color identities and teaching practices, and university/college libraries-high school relationships.

Summary:

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

As reported in "Library Workers: Facts and Figures" (a 2018 fact sheet released by the AFL-CIO's Department for Professional Employees), the library profession continues to suffer from "a persistent lag of racial and ethnic diversity that shows few signs of abating," despite superficial efforts to instruct, recruit, and hire a more diverse workforce in libraries of all types. As it was in 1996, when In Our Own Voices: The Changing Face of Librarianship, ed. by Teresa Neely and Khafre Abif (the first iteration of the present volume) was published, librarianship is overwhelmingly white and female. In this update, 15 original and 15 new contributors address the myriad ways the dominant culture reinforces academic pipelines and administrative structures, leaving little room for different races, ethnicities, genders, and sexualities. Organized by broad themes, the 28 essays bring attention to the overt and subtle ways marginalization takes a toll on professional and personal lives. Though some of the contributors remain hopeful about the future, others--particularly those near or in retirement who spent careers battling racism and sexism--are less optimistic. In the end, each of these stories matters, both in the writers telling and in the profession listening, if the demographic needle is ever to move. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, professionals. --Linda J. Frederiksen, Washington State University