Last November, my home state of Iowa saw a flurry of activity relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), both positive and negative. A group of plaintiffs filed suit against the state over a law that would ban books in K–12 schools that purportedly depict sex acts. (A federal judge temporarily halted enforcement of the law on December 29.) On election night, many candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty—a national organization of conservative parents—or its local chapters lost their bids to local school boards. And in mid-November, the Iowa Board of Regents, which governs the state’s public universities, passed recommendations to restrict DEI initiatives at University of Iowa in Iowa City, University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, and Iowa State University in Ames, where I work.
The current backlash against DEI is playing out in libraries and legislative buildings, on campuses, and at the ballot box, with many efforts targeting the works of authors of color and members of the LGBTQ community. Efforts to dismantle DEI initiatives on college campuses create a chilling effect that silences and erases the perspectives, experiences, and histories of marginalized communities. The fight has come to academic librarians’ front doors. With the recent targeting of education, it’s critical to amplify the voices of those most likely to be censored.
Libraries have conducted diversity audits of their holdings and begun acquiring more resources by and about marginalized communities. Here are three more ways academic librarians can support authors who hold marginalized identities.
With the recent targeting of education, it’s critically important for librarians and libraries to amplify the voices of those most likely to be censored.
Understand. Librarians should know how systemic racism is embedded in publishing and how we are complicit—something I’ve written about with my colleague Charlotte Roh, publications manager at California Digital Library. Academia, publishing, and librarianship—the professions that influence what gets published and what libraries purchase—are overwhelmingly white. Authors of color must navigate a publishing system that has been constructed in whiteness. A starting point to learn how bias and racism manifests in publishing is to read how librarians of color have been harmed in their attempts to publish their work in professional literature.
Educate. Include academic publishing in your library’s information literacy offerings. During her time at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Roh offered successful brown bag sessions for graduate students of color to teach them how to navigate the scholarly publishing process and advocate for themselves if they encounter bias.
Fund. Many small open access publishers, including publishing programs at libraries, rely on volunteers to take on copyediting, typesetting, and publication management responsibilities. Faculty members of color are often overburdened with expectations to provide these services, which take time and energy away from the intellectual labor of research and publication. Financially supporting publications by and about communities of color can help them procure professional services to manage this work. Lyrasis’s Open Access Community Investment Program provides an opportunity to do so. The program included two journals dedicated to communities of color, American Indian Culture and Research Journal and Liquid Blackness: Journal of Aesthetics and Black Studies, in its third and most recent donor-supported funding round that concluded December 15.
Given the current socio-political climate, it is especially important for us to double down on our support of authors who hold marginalized identities. This requires intentional action and the commitment of resources, or else we risk having the antiracism statements issued by many libraries and library associations stand as empty promises of action and change.
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