The mission of libraries has been in flux since their invention. Starting as record storage for merchants and national archives, they became status symbols for wealthy individuals, and today have become a cornerstone of the international infrastructure for national, private, and public information. Modern libraries have a broad set of goals, including entertainment, cultural preservation, education and research, the development of critical thinking and information literacy, and in social justice and equality (Rubin & Rubin, 2020). This set of objectives has been consistent for the last few hundred years and is likely to remain so, but the full realization of the diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility (DEIA) mandate has been elusive, and the methods used to fulfill that mandate are likely to change significantly due to technological innovation.
Racism and sexism are two of the most visible DEIA issues that libraries currently face. Dewey was a prominent example of sexism among library leadership back in the 1880s, and today women are still struggling to attain positions of leadership (Ford, 2018; Rutledge, 2020). That same sexism has been noted in library materials since 1977 and persists today (Barber, 1977). Dewey’s name comes up again when examining racism, which permeates library hiring, LIS education, and has been noted in American library collections since 1965 (Gibson, 2019; Gooding-Call, 2021; Larrick, 1965). The American Library Association’s statistics on librarians confirms these are ongoing issues, despite a commitment to address them since the ALA’s inception (American Library Association, 2012). Libraries also wrestle with access issues for disabled people, with hiring and retaining LGBTQIA+ staff, with ageism, and language and cultural barriers (American Library Association, 2019; Chu, 2009; Kuecker, 2017; Pionke, 2019). All of these factors can present intersectional challenges as well, where discrimination on more than one axis is greater than the sum of its parts.
As library systems seek to address these ongoing issues, the approaches they use will have to be modernized to keep pace with technological innovation. The acceleration of development within technology will disrupt the fields of library and information science with the same breadth and depth that the printing press did (Dewar, 2000). Access to technological devices suffers from a strong socioeconomic divide, as does access to and speed of internet connection (Ney, 2021; Vogels, 2021). The digitization of books and articles has significantly increased accessibility by those with reduced vision, but has simultaneously limited access to those same materials for those without the electronic means to access them. Databases that restrict access to library locations instead of allowing online access from anywhere disadvantage information seekers with mobility challenges. Fully online LIS education programs prioritize students with high technology literacy and access to internet-enabled devices, leading to candidate selection bias that matches the bias inherent in those skills and access. These factors amplify existing discrimination within library systems, and require new techniques to address them.
Addressing DEIA issues in light of modern technologies will require significant changes in many areas of librarianship. In order to continue to meet the needs of all information users going forward, we need to ensure those users are represented within all areas of librarianship. We need to close the gender and race divides from the stacks to the leadership of the ALA. We need to take a stronger stance against banning efforts that target works with racial, gender, and sexuality minority characters and authors. We need to keep the access needs of all users and librarians in mind, both for ability and socioeconomic status. We need to prepare for libraries to house fewer books and to lend more laptops and wifi hotspots, and to be an access point for a widening array of electronic resources. We need to produce information literacy programs that prepare users for accessing increasingly digital collections from inside and outside the library, and how to identify useful information in an increasing sea of mediocrity and misinformation. These changes need to be reflected in leadership at all levels, in research efforts, and in LIS education. We must seek to radically alter the knowledge infrastructure landscape to include more diversity, and we must match the radical innovation of technology in our DEIA efforts in order to meet the evolving needs of our users.
The DEIA mission of libraries is multifaceted, and many of those facets have faced libraries for centuries. With the increasing rate of technological innovation, many of those issues are changing, and approaches we previously used need to evolve to address those changes. Taking the steps outlined here will expand the responsibilities of libraries far beyond the print storage and cataloging they’ve overseen for millenia. The DEIA mission of libraries will stay consistent, but the execution of that mission will look radically different as the technological reality continues to evolve.
References
American Library Association. (2012, July 11). Librarian Ethnicity [Text]. Tools, Publications & Resources. https://www.ala.org/tools/librarian-ethnicity
American Library Association. (2019, July 9). Serving Non-English Speakers [Text]. About ALA. https://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/diversity/nonenglishspeakersreport
Barber, P. (1977). Discussion Group on Sexism in Library Materials for Children. American Library Association. https://alair.ala.org/bitstream/handle/11213/11707/1201011a_Box01_CSDDiscussionGrouponSexisminLibraryMaterialsforChildren_197703.pdf?sequence=1
Chu, M. (2009). Ageism in Academic Librarianship. E-JASL 1999-2009 (Volumes 1-10). https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/ejasljournal/112
Dewar, J. (2000). The information age and the printing press. Ubiquity, 2000(August). https://ubiquity.acm.org/article.cfm?id=348784
Ford, A. (2018, June 1). Bringing Harassment Out of the History Books. American Libraries Magazine. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2018/06/01/melvil-dewey-bringing-harassment-out-of-the-history-books/
Gibson, A. N. (2019). Civility and Structural Precarity for Faculty of Color in LIS. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 60(3), 215–222. https://doi.org/10.3138/jelis.2019-0006
Gooding-Call, A. (2021, March 8). A History of Racism in American Public Libraries. BOOK RIOT. https://bookriot.com/racism-in-american-public-libraries/
Kuecker, E. (2017). Recruiting and Retaining LGBTQ-Identified Staff in Academic Libraries Through Ordinary Methods. In the Library with the Lead Pipe. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2017/recruiting-and-retaining-lgbtq-identified-staff-in-academic-libraries-through-ordinary-methods/
Larrick, N. (1965, September 11). The All-White World of Children’s Books. The Saturday Review, 63–65.
Ney, J. (2021, January 11). Internet Access and Inequality 2021. The Startup. https://medium.com/swlh/internet-access-and-inequality-66505e1ab9fd
Pionke, J. J. (2019). The Impact of Disbelief: On Being a Library Employee with a Disability. Library Trends, 67(3), 423–435. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2019.0004
Rubin, R., & Rubin, R. (2020). Foundations of Library and Information Science (5th ed.). American Library Association.
Rutledge, L. B. (2020). Leveling Up: Women Academic Librarians’ Career Progression in Management Positions | Rutledge | College & Research Libraries. College and Research Libraries, 81(7). https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.81.7.1143
Vogels, E. (2021, June 22). Digital divide persists even as Americans with lower incomes make gains in tech adoption. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/22/digital-divide-persists-even-as-americans-with-lower-incomes-make-gains-in-tech-adoption/