Mapping Race and Racism in U.S. Library History Literature, 1997–2015

Abstract

This paper is a critical bibliography which examines U.S. library history literature from 1997 through 2015 to map the current research around race, ethnicity, and racism in such literature. Seventeen years ago Wayne Wiegand (2000) examined fifty years of published research literature (1947-1997) in American library history looking for varied theoretical perspectives. He argued for the use of more critical theories, and for library historians to join with social and cultural historians to help contextualize library history within broader cultural and social forces in the United States. The paper examines the progress of histories around race, racism, and people of color in libraries since Wiegand's call, and discovered that theoretical perspectives around library histories have broadened into the areas of race and ethnicity, but that there is still much research to be done. Many topics and time periods are still underresearched. For example, the paper found few or no articles that focus on race or ethnicity in the histories of U.S. private libraries, the predecessor to the public library, special libraries, or library education; it also found many articles in ethnic studies journals rather than LIS journals. Melissa Villa-Nicholas is on the faculty of the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, in the Harrington School of Media and Communications. Her research interests include the history of Latinxs and information technologies and information spaces, Latinx sociotechno practices, the history of libraries, and race/class/gender technology studies.

Proving the proverbial gadfly: situating the historical and racial context of Southern medical works by Mary Louise Marshall

“…For this work, the author sought clarity on how history and racism played a role in the narratives found within the annals of the MLA's flagship publication. In examining the history of library and information studies literature, Velez and Villa-Nicholas point to the only two articles written explicitly about racism in the health sciences librarianship field [ 16 ]. These two articles written by Carolyn Lipscomb, “Race and Librarianship: Part I” (2004) and “Race and Librarianship: Part II” (2005), proved to be insightful works in understanding how anti-Blackness sentiment was present during the early days of the association [ 17 – 18 ].…”

Systemic Oppression and the Contested Ground of Information Access for Incarcerated People

“…Numerous academics and professionals have drawn from existing critical research within the field and taken it upon themselves to challenge the field to do more to address its own biases and tendencies toward normative power structures. Among these are attempts to trace publications that discuss race and racism as related to library history, how to introduce social justice as a tenet of librarianship, examinations of how the field aligns with nationalist projects, and critical interrogations of how the profession utilizes the language of diversity to sidestep its own histories of and current practices that are steeped in racism and other oppressions (Cooke, Sweeney, & Noble, 2016;Hathcock, 2015;Mehra and Rioux, 2016;Sierpe, 2019;Velez and Villa-Nicholas, 2017). These and other passionate scholars are advocating for the restructuring of librarianship in ways that address historical harms that continue to shape the field.…”

Information Provision and the Carceral State: Race and Reference beyond the Idea of the “Underserved”

“…The process of answering questions and interacting with the Reference by Mail letters acts as an avenue of recognizing the humanity of patrons in jails and prisons, giving LIS students the opportunity to become more critical of the carceral State and to overcome separations Critical theoretical positions form the pedagogical foundations for a project that surpasses the walls of the jail or prison and the distances perpetuated by neoliberal turns within online education in LIS. Alongside the claims to and for increased equity and diversity in library services, numerous scholars in the field have argued the necessity of addressing library histories of colonialism, nationalism, whiteness, and resource guarding (Honma, 2005;Peterson, 1996;Schlessleman-Tarango, 2016;Velez and Villa-Nicholas, 2017;Weigand, 2000). Despite a variety of diversity initiatives in LIS education that have been implemented, at times as a response to student's direct demands (Cooke, Noble, & Sweeney, 2016), the profession remains largely culturally and physically composed through whiteness (American Library Association, 2018).…”