Long reads

Longer reads for librarianship, the profession, and the workplace

Andrews, N (2020). ‘It’s not imposter syndrome: resisting self-doubt as normal for library workers’. In the Library with the Lead Pipe, 10 June 2020. 

Library workers, as with other professions, are quick to diagnose ourselves and others with imposter syndrome when we doubt or devalue our everyday work. 

However, methods of coping with imposter syndrome have changed little in the forty years since the term was first theorised, and often centre on feel-good fixes which do not address power imbalances between the sufferer and their workplace environment. 

Here, I examine the origins of imposter syndrome, and identify factors often misinterpreted as imposter syndrome but which are instead the product of oppressions such as precarious labour, racism, and sexism. 

By unpacking how oppression and gaslighting shapes a workplace environment, we can then alleviate individuals with imposter syndrome of sole responsibility for their own healing, and hold institutions and managers accountable for the conditions they help to perpetuate. 

Barr-Walker J (2019). ‘Critical librarianship in health sciences libraries: an introduction’. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 107(2):258-264.

The Medical Library Association recently announced its commitment to diversity and inclusion.

While this is a positive start, critical librarianship takes the crucial concepts of diversity and inclusion one step further by advocating for social justice action and the dismantling of oppressive institutional structures, including white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism.

Critical librarianship takes many forms, but, at its root, is focused on interrogating and disrupting inequitable systems, including changing racist cataloging rules, creating student-driven information literacy instruction, supporting inclusive and ethical publishing models, and rejecting the notion of libraries as neutral spaces.

This article presents examples of the application of critical practice in libraries as well as ideas for applying critical librarianship to the health sciences. 

Charles E (2019). ‘Decolonizing the curriculum’. Insights 32(1):24.

The term ‘decolonizing the curriculum’ is of high currency in higher education in the UK and in local students’ unions at these institutions.

This article seeks to give a very brief history and context for why this is fundamental for academic institutions and what role libraries and the scholarly communication sector can play in this movement.

I look at why this is so important for black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) and othered (otherly minoritized, e.g. disabled, LGBTQ, etc.) students and what steps some libraries have already taken.

One of the themes of the UKSG 2019 Conference was ‘diversity and change’; decolonizing the curriculum is exactly that, if done correctly. Two presentations from the plenary session provided a good starting point and the article touches on how decolonizing the curriculum may impact research/researchers.

It concludes that there is a need for academia to now move past just identifying that there are issues about retention and progression of BAME and othered students and staff, and for both the library and information and scholarly communication sectors to act to address this now. 

Ishaq, Dr M and Hussain, Dr AM (2019). BAME staff experiences of academic and research libraries. London: SCONUL. 

This report puts the voices of BAME library staff at the centre of the conversation around the lack of ethnic diversity in the library profession, and specifically within the HE section.

The report sets out further work that SCONUL is planning to undertake to address leadership, voice, zero-tolerance policies, cultural and behavioural change, active support for BAME staff and effective partnerships for change.

Martin, ER (2019). ‘Social justice and the medical librarian’. Journal of the Medical Library Association, 107(3): 291-3030. 

This article is the transcript of Elaine Russo Martin’s 2018 Janet Doe Lecture which focused on the role that health librarians can play in social justice. It argues that social justice needs to be core to the role of health librarians and the profession as as whole.

Tarango GS (2016). ‘The legacy of Lady Bountiful: white women in the library’. Library Trends, 64(4): 667-686. 

White supremacy and patriarchy have acted upon and through the white female body, which has implications for library and information science (LIS), a white- and female-dominated field.

Insisting that we investigate librarianship through a lens that does not consider gender alone, this paper draws upon whiteness, critical race, and feminist theories to explore the formation and persistence of a particular mode of whiteness in LIS.

Calling on the Lady Bountiful archetype, this paper interrogates the ways in which patriarchy, white supremacy, and notions of ideal femininity have worked together to craft a subject fit to perform the work of colonialism in its variegated and feminized forms.

By exploring how the white woman was deemed an appropriate agent for the racial, missionary, and “civilizing” projects of early libraries, one can better locate her legacy in contemporary pedagogies, practices, and representations.

This paper concludes with suggestions for addressing this undertheorized yet prevalent archetype in both LIS scholarship and teaching. [Abstract]