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Make the Library Loud: Removing Communication Barriers for Library Workers with Hearing Loss
We, people of color with disabilities, work in libraries too.
Confronting Anti-Asian Racism: A Statement on (In)visibility and Targeted Online Harassment
Despite the recent spotlight on targeted online harassment affecting universities and faculty members, its effects on libraries and library workers remain largely invisible. To address this gap, Reanna Esmail recounts her recent experience of anti-Asian racism resulting from the media's coverage of an event originally intended to confront anti-Asian racism. To set the record straight, she provides and contextualizes the original transcript. To shift the spotlight back from herself onto systemic issues, she examines the social construction of visibility in other recent cases of targeted online harassment affecting library workers and threatening academic freedom.
Drowned Disillusions
Hridi Das uses poetic prose to reimagine the disillusionment of BIPOC librarians in a fantasy imbued with elements of the sea. The use of metaphor gives a quality of anthropomorphization to the “90% of LIS is white” statistic. The piece sets the scene by starting off with statements that are direct to the injustice suffered, some inspired by recent events, others old as time. The writing takes a deep dive from there on by immersing the reader into the fantasy world.
The House Archives Built
The current trend focusing on liberating the concept of archives from physical institutions has served to mentally leave behind Black collections held in predominantly white institutions. Dorothy Berry reflects on the conflict of archives versus the archives, and how the fundamental structures of archives can disserve Black archival subjects by foregrounding ownership, collecting, and homogeneity.
Letter to Asian Diasporic Library Workers
A group of Asian diasporic library workers reflecting on recent events including the recent surge of anti-Asian violence especially in the Bay Area, anti-Black responses to that violence in Asian communities, and the controversy around School Library Journal’s February cover. They decided to write this call to action in hopes of highlighting ways that we can build solidarity among Black, Indigenous, and people of color.
Content warning: Mentions of racism and violence