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Disrupting Whiteness in Libraries and Librarianship: A Reading List

This guide is in progress.

Developed by Karla J. Strand, DPhil, MLIS
Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian
University of Wisconsin System
2019

This bibliography is number 89 in the series “Bibliographies in Gender and Women’s Studies,” published by the University of Wisconsin System Office of the Gender and Women’s Studies Librarian.
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Introduction

This bibliography contains citations and links (when available) to resources focused on race, racism, and disrupting whiteness and white supremacy in libraries. Particular emphasis is placed on the field of library and information science and librarianship as a profession. The resources are organized by topic; non-LIS-specific resources can be found at the bottom of the list. Updates to the list will be highlighted at the top with the date. “New” indicates a new addition to this guide, not necessarily a newly-published resource.

If you have suggestions of resources for this list, please contact Karla Strand, GWSL, karla.strand@wisc.edu.

New to this list (updated December 2020)

  • Added category: Decolonizing Research and Knowledge
    • Collins, P. H. (2019). Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Duke University Press.
    • Crenshaw, K., N. Gotanda, and K. Thomas. (1996). Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement. The New Press.
    • Delgado, R. and J. Stefancic. (2017). Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. 3rd ed. NYU Press.
    • Feagin, J. R. (2020). The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing. 3rd ed. Routledge.
    • Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 4th ed. Bloomsbury Academic.
    • Santos, B. de Sousa and M. P. Meneses. (2019). Knowledges Born in the Struggle: Constructing the Epistemologies of the Global South. Routledge.
    • Strega, S. and L. Brown. (2015). Research as Resistance. 2nd ed. Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc.
    • Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2012). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books.
    • Walter, M. and C. Andersen. (2013). Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Research Methodology. Routledge.
    • Wilson, S. (2008). Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Fernwood Publishing.
    • Zuberi, T. and E. Bonilla-Silva. (2008). White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Methodology. Rowman & Littlefield.
  • Added to Reference Services:
  • Added to Other Whiteness, etc.:
    • Hamad, R. (2020). White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color. Catapult.
    • Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to Be an Antiracist. One World.
    • Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press.
    • Oluo, I. (2020). Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Seal Press.
    • Ricketts, R.. (2020). Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy. Atria.
    • Saad, L. F. (2020). Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. Sourcebooks.

New to this list (updated September 2020)

  • Added category: Health Sciences Librarianship – send me your suggestions!
  • Added category: Neutrality – send me your suggestions!
  • Added category: Publishing in Libraries for materials about whiteness or lack of POC voices in library publishing.
  • Added category: Statements for examples of statements from professional organizations in support of Black Lives Matter and other racial justice movements or condemnation of incidents, etc.
  • New resources:

Blogs, Orgs, and Periodicals

Core resources

Academic Libraries

Archives

  • Botnick, J. (2019). Archivists as Amici Curiae: Activating Critical Archival Theory to Confront Racialized Surveillance. Journal of Radical Librarianship, 5. Retrieved from https://journal.radicallibrarianship.org/index.php/journal/article/view/35.
  • Caswell, M. (2017). Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives. The Library Quarterly, 87(3), 222-235. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1086/692299
  • Caswell, M. (2014). Inventing New Archival Imaginaries: Theoretical Foundations for Identity-Based Community Archives. In Identity Palimpsests: Ethnic Archiving in the U.S. and Canada, edited by Dominique Daniel and Amalia Levi. Sacramento, CA: Litwin.
  • Caswell, M., Broman, G., Kirmer, J., Martin, L., & Sowry, N. (2012). Implementing a Social Justice Framework in an Introduction to Archives Course: Lessons from Both Sides of the Classroom. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies, 8(2).
  • Dunbar, A. (2006). Introducing critical race theory to archival discourse: Getting the conversation started. Archival Science 6, 109-129.
  • Eagle, J.H. (2019). “I Want Them to Know We Suffer Here”: Preserving Records of Migrant Detention in Opposition to Racialized Immigration Enforcement Structures. Journal of Radical Librarianship, 5. Retrieved from https://journal.radicallibrarianship.org/index.php/journal/article/view/32
  • Gilliland, A. (2011). Neutrality, Social Justice, and the Obligations of Archival Education and Educators in the Twenty-First Century. Archival Science 11(3–4), 193–209.
  • Hughes-Watkins, L. (2018). Moving Toward a Reparative Archive: A Roadmap for a Holistic Approach to Disrupting Homogenous Histories in Academic Repositories and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Marginalized Voices. Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies 5. Article 6. Retrieved from https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/jcas/vol5/iss1/6
  • Jules, B. (2016). Confronting Our Failure of Care Around the Legacies of Marginalized People in the Archives. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/on-archivy/confronting-our-failure-of-care-around-the-legacies-of-marginalized-people-in-the-archives-dc4180397280
  • Kim, E. (2017). Appraising Newness: Whiteness, Neoliberalism & the Building of the Archive for New Poetry. Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, 1(2). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.24242/jclis.v1i2.38
  • Ramirez, M.H. (2015). Being assumed not to be: A critique of whiteness as an archival imperative. The American Archivist, 78(2), 339-356. doi:10.17723/0360-9081.78.2.339 http://maint.literatumonline.com
  • Sutherland, T. (2017). Archival Amnesty: In Search of Black American Transitional and Restorative Justice. Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, 1(2). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.24242/jclis.v1i2.42
  • Williams, S. & Drake, J. (2017). Power to the People: Documenting Police Violence in Cleveland. Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies, 1(2). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.24242/jclis.v1i2.33

Attribution and Citation

Collection Development

Decolonizing Research and Knowledge

  • Collins, P. H. (2019). Intersectionality as Critical Social Theory. Duke University Press.
  • Crenshaw, K., N. Gotanda, and K. Thomas. (1996). Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement. The New Press.
  • Delgado, R. and J. Stefancic. (2017). Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. 3rd ed. NYU Press.
  • Feagin, J. R. (2020). The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing. 3rd ed. Routledge.
  • Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. 4th ed. Bloomsbury Academic.
  • Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press.
  • Santos, B. de Sousa and M. P. Meneses. (2019). Knowledges Born in the Struggle: Constructing the Epistemologies of the Global South. Routledge.
  • Strega, S. and L. Brown. (2015). Research as Resistance. 2nd ed. Canadian Scholars’ Press Inc.
  • Tuhiwai Smith, L. (2012). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. Zed Books.
  • Walter, M. and C. Andersen. (2013). Indigenous Statistics: A Quantitative Research Methodology. Routledge.
  • Wilson, S. (2008). Research Is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Fernwood Publishing.
  • Zuberi, T. and E. Bonilla-Silva. (2008). White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Methodology. Rowman & Littlefield.

Diversity/Multicultural Studies Librarianship

  • Harrell, M. & Menon, V. (nd). Serving diverse library users: The multicultural studies librarian at an urban research university. Retreived from www.lib.uiowa.edu/wwwarchive/cicdiversity/harrell.doc
  • Ransom, C. (1994). The Diversity Librarian. In Cultural diversity in libraries edited by Riggs and Tarin. NY: Neal Schuman.

Health Sciences Librarianship

History

  • Cooke, N. A. (2017). The GSLS Carnegie Scholars: Guests in Someone Else’s House. Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, 1(1), 46-71. DOI: 10.5325/libraries.1.1.0046. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/libraries.1.1.0046
  • Hanbury, D. (2018). “It is simply out of the question to eliminate the colorline”: The Development of Black Library Service in Atlanta and the Integration of the Atlanta Public Library. Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, 2(1), 24-47. DOI: 10.5325/libraries.2.1.0024
  • Hand, S. (2012). Transmitting Whiteness: Librarians, children, and race, 1900-1930s. Progressive Librarian, (38/39), 34-63.
  • Josey, E. J. (1972). Libraries, reading, and the liberation of black people. The Library Scene, 1(1), 4-7.
  • Knowlton, S.A. (2017). The “Negro Branch” Library in Memphis: A Case Study of Public Services in a Segregated Southern City. Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, 1(1), 23-45. DOI: 10.5325/libraries.1.1.0023
  • Macias, M. (2016, October 23). Whiteness in libraries. Lowrider Librarian. Retrieved from https://lowriderlibrarian.blogspot.com/2016/10/whiteness-in-libraries.html.
  • Stauffer, S.M. (2017). Libraries Are the Homes of Books: Whiteness in the Construction of School Libraries. Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, 1(2), 194-212. DOI: 10.5325/libraries.1.2.0194
  • Wiegand, W. (2017). “Any Ideas?”: The American Library Association and the Desegregation of Public Libraries in the American South. Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, 1(1), 1-22. DOI:10.5325/libraries.1.1.0001

Information Literacy

Knowledge Organization, Classification, and Cataloging

Librarians of Color

Library Initiatives

LIS Programs

  • Cooke, N.A. & Sweeney, M.E., eds. (2017). Teaching for justice: Implementing social justice in the LIS classroom. Library Juice Press.
  • Cooke, N., Sweeney, M., & Noble, S.U. (2016). Social Justice as Topic and Tool: An Attempt to Transform an LIS Curriculum and Culture. Library Quarterly 86(1), 107–24.
  • Gabiola, J. (2016). Instruction for Inclusion: Addressing Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the LIS Curriculum. Paper presented at the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE) conference, Boston, MA.
  • Greiner, Tony. (2008, May). Diversity and the MLS. Library Journal, 133(8), 36. Retrieved from https://www.libraryjournal.com/?detailStory=backtalk-diversity-and-the-mls 
  • Pawley, C. (2006). Unequal legacies: Race and multiculturalism in the LIS curriculum. The Library Quarterly, 76(2). Retrieved from https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/506955
  • Peterson, L. (1996). Alternative perspectives in library and information science: Issues of race. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 37(2), 163–174.
  • Roberts, S.T. & Noble, S.U. (2016). Empowered to name, inspired to act: Social responsibility and diversity as calls to action in the LIS context. Library Trends, 64(3). Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/613921

Microaggressions

  • Alabi, J. (2015). Racial microaggressions in academic libraries: Results of a survey of minority and non-minority librarians. Journal of Academic Librarianship 41(1): 57-53.
  • Alabi, J. (2015). “This actually happened:” An analysis of librarians’ responses to a survey about racial microaggressions. Journal of Library Administration, 55(3): 179-191.
  • Tonin, M. (2018). Do librarians discriminate? Library Journal. Retrieved from https://lj.libraryjournal.com/2018/01/opinion/backtalk/librarians-discriminate-backtalk/#_

Neutrality in LIS

  • Schlesselman-Tarango, G. (2017). How cute! Race, gender, and neutrality in libraries. Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 12(1). Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.21083/partnership.v12i1.3850
  • Stoffle, C.J. & Tarin, P.A. (1994). No place for neutrality: The case for multiculturalism. Library Journal 119(12). Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/10251094/No_Place_for_Neutrality_The_Case_for_Multiculturalism?auto=download

Publishing in Libraries

  • Roh, C. & Gabler, V. (2020). Systemic barriers and allyship in library publishing: A case study reminder that no one is safe from racism. College & Research Libraries News 81(3), 141. doi:https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.81.3.141

Recruitment, Staffing, and Hiring

Reference Services

  • Hall, T. D. (2012). The black body at the reference desk: Critical race theory and black librarianship. In A. P. Jackson, J. C. Jefferson, Jr., & A. S. Nosakhere (Eds.), The 21st-century black librarian in America (pp. 197-202). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
  • Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press.
  • Teves, S. N., A. Smith*, and M. H. Raheja. (2015). Native Studies Keywords. University of Arizona Press. *I’m including this book because of its other editors; I do not condone Andrea Smith’s false claims to Native identity.

School Libraries

Statements

Other LIS

  • Berry, J. D. (2004). White privilege in library land. Library Journal. 129 (11), 50.
  • Lance, K.C. (2005, May). Racial and ethnic diversity of US library workers. American Libraries, 41-45. Retrieved from https://www.lrs.org/documents/workforce/Racial_and_Ethnic.pdf
  • Lipsitz, G. (2008). Libraries & memories: Beyond white privilege 101. Progressive Librarian, (32), 3-9.
  • Morehart, P. (2018). Battling racism below the surface: Interactive session sheds light on bias in the workplace. American Libraries. Retrieved from https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/blogs/the-scoop/battling-racism-surface/
  • Neely, T.Y. & Abif, K.K. (1996). In our own voices: The changing face of librarianship. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow.
  • Neely, T.Y. & Lopez-McKnight, J.R. (2018). In our own voices, redux: The faces of librarianship today. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
  • Pho, A., & Masland, T. (2014). The revolution will not be stereotyped: Changing perceptions through diversity. In N. Pagowsky & M. Rigby (Eds.), The librarian stereotype: Deconstructing perceptions & presentations of information work (pp. 257-282). Chicago: Association of College and Research Libraries. Retrieved from http://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1164&context=ulib_fac
  • Riggs & Tarin, eds. (1994). Cultural Diversity in Libraries. NY: Neal Schuman.
  • St. Lifer, E. & Nelson, C. (1997). Unequal opportunities: Race does matter. Library Journal, 42–46.

Other Whiteness, etc. (not LIS-specific)

  • Anderson, C. (2016). White rage: The unspoken truth of our racial divide. Bloomsbury USA.
  • Bonilla-Silva, E. (2017). Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America. Rowman & Littlefield. [5th ed.]
  • Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299.
  • DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon Press.
  • DiAngelo, R. (2011). White fragility. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 3(3). Retrieved from http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/view/249
  • Dyson, M.E. (2017). Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America. New York: St. Martin’s.
  • Eberhardt, J.L. (2019). Biased: Uncovering the hidden prejudice that shapes what we see, think, and do. Viking.
  • Feagin, J. R. (2020). The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing. 3rd ed. Routledge.
  • Frankenberg, R. 1993. White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Gusa, D.L. (2010). White Institutional Presence: The Impact of Whiteness on Campus Climate. Harvard Educational Review, 80(4), 464-490. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.80.4.p5j483825u110002
  • Hamad, R. (2020). White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color. Catapult.
  • Hill, M., ed. (1997). Whiteness: A critical reader. New York: New York University Press.
  • Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to Be an Antiracist. One World.
  • McIntosh, Peggy:
  • Noble, S. U. (2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. NYU Press.
  • Oluo, I. (2018). So you want to talk about race. Seal Press.
  • Oluo, I. (2020). Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America. Seal Press.
  • Ricketts, R.. (2020). Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy. Atria.
  • Saad, L. F. (2020). Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor. Sourcebooks
  • Tatum, B.D. (2017). Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?: And Other Conversations About Race. Basic Books. [updated ed.]