Equity of access : Core value of modern libraries

Among the Core Values of Librarianship (American Library Association, 2019), one that resonates strongly with me is equity of “Access” to libraries and their collections, as well as the related “equity” of being able to participate in the library workforce.

When I read the Core Values, I found that several of the values seem to be interrelated. The core value of “Access” states that “All information resources that are provided directly or indirectly by the library, regardless of technology, format, or methods of delivery, should be readily, equally, and equitably accessible to all library users” (ibid). This seems closely tied to the core value of “Diversity,” which states that “We value our nation’s diversity and strive to reflect that diversity by providing a full spectrum of resources and services to the communities we serve” (ibid).

Milestones that paved the way for ‘equity era’ of librarianship
Our textbook tells us that the “equity era” of librarianship began in the 1960s with two major milestones: the ALA’s 1963 Access Study and the U.S. government’s enactment of the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) in 1964 (McCook & Bossaller, 2019, p. 54).

The Access Study was created via a policy adopted by the ALA at its 1962 annual conference. It offered the “first national review of racial inequality in librarianship” (ibid, p. 55). In addition to direct discrimination, like the complete exclusion of blacks from southern libraries, the study also highlighted “indirect discrimination,” a wide discrepancy “in terms of quantity and quality” among branch libraries in northern cities.

Our text cites an observation by Virginia Lacy Jones, saying, “No one should have been surprised that branch libraries discriminate against Negros, since all public institutions in the United States had discrimination against Negros built into them. This fact is well known in the South; it is time the North woke up to it.” (ibid, p. 55).

The Access Study identified consistent discrimination in library services and the LCSA, in turn, provided “financial and philosophical support” for the ALA and its members to address this discrimination (ibid, p. 55).

With the LCSA’s support, a variety of affiliate organizations were soon established (ibid, p. 56), including the American Indian Library Association, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, the Black Caucus of the ALA, the Chinese American Librarians Association, REFORMA (the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking), and the Task Force on Gay Liberation (now known as the Rainbow Round Table of the ALA).

In 1996, the ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table formed the Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty Task Force to promote and implement the ALA’s Policy 61, “Library Services for the Poor,” adopted by the ALA in 1990 (SRRT, n.d.). The SRRT observes that “To date, the potential of Policy 61 is only partially realized, and much work remains to be done.”

Equity of access expands personal possibilities
A recent talk by Sharmichael Hallman (2020) for TEDxMemphis really dramatized the radically different outcomes made possible through increased equity of access. He related that 57 years after a group of young people were turned away from the Cossitt Library in Memphis, Tennessee, simply because they were “Negros,” he became the library’s manager.

In the spring of 2019, Halllman had a conversation with a woman named Grace who had been part of that group of college students who tried to integrate Cossitt Library.

(Cossitt had established a segregated library for African Americans in 1903, but “Nearly everything about the segregated Black branch was inferior to Cossitt’s main library” according to a library history timeline [Memphis Public Library, n.d.]. “It was stocked mostly with hand-me-downs, and in 1916 Alma Childs, the librarian of the LeMoyne branch, had a monthly salary of $25 — the same as the lowest paid assistant at the main branch.”)

In his talk for TEDxMemphis, Hallman (2020) said, “I remember looking Miss Grace in the eyes and saying ‘Miss Grace, if it had not been for what you did as an 18-year-old college student, I now as a Black man couldn’t manage this branch.”

Physical barriers to the library
Equity of access encompassed dismantling segregation that barred people from entering the library, but it also encompassed removing barriers that kept out people with disabilities.

I confronted such barriers several years ago when, walking with a cane while I recovered from an injury, I found blankets, boards, and other debris littering a mobility walkway that led to my public library (Parkhill, 2013). This detritus had been left by Fourth-of-July parade-goers who were staking out viewing space in advance of the parade.

In a letter to the editor that was published by the local newspaper, I urged library workers to “please monitor the walkway during hours that lead up to a parade,” and I also urged local residents to keep the walkway clear: “A community tradition of staking your claim to curbside viewing space does not allow you to entirely obstruct a mobility access walkway. Your convenience does not trump my right to safely access public facilities” (ibid).

Access under threat in LGBTQAI+ communities
In regard to its future, equity of access must be fought for and defended, which ties it closely to the core value of “Intellectual Freedom” (ALA, 2019): “We uphold the principles of intellectual freedom and resist all efforts to censor library resources.”

One current threat relates to access by people from LGBTQAI+ communities. Will we feel welcomed and supported when we enter public libraries, and, once inside, will we find books that speak to our experiences?

When Charlie McNabb conducted a survey of 150 people with LGBTQAI+ identities about their experiences in adolescence, 51 participants said that they “lacked books and other media that provided positive representations of LGBTQIA+ people” (2020, p. 111). Among their concerns was the need for “less visible identities such as asexuality, bisexuality, and nonbinary identities” to be represented in books and media (ibid).

When I sought books to learn more about myself and how I relate to other people, I turned to my public library. Along with informational or “non-fiction” books, I also checked out stories about characters with whom I could relate: people who sought to make sense of themselves in the same way that I was, as well as stories about people who were further along in understanding themselves.

“Equity of access” is what guaranteed for me that I’d find books that spoke to my experiences when I searched my library’s collection. But organized efforts to remove books from libraries that center LGBTQAI+ experiences threaten our continuing access to these books.

Self-censorship by librarians
In addition to threatening books that are already in libraries, self-censorship is a real concern as libraries may seek to avoid controversy.

Reference librarian Jennifer Downey (2013) identified several “traps” in thinking that promote self-censorship: including perceptions that it’s “hard to find” LGBTQAI+ books and that the books “don’t circulate,” concerns about what LGBTQAI+ books “will say about” the librarian who selected them, a perception that there “aren’t any” LGBTQAI+ people in the library’s service area, and that the library budget doesn’t support investing in these materials.

Downey stated that “Censorship takes many forms. It can be as obvious as book-burning or as innocuous as simply not knowing where to look. But when we practice self-censorship, we not only harm our patrons, we harm our profession” (ibid, p. 106-107).

Equity of access to the library workplace
Much of our studies have focused upon equity of access by a library’s patrons, or customers. But the library profession needs to make sure that its workforce is as inclusive of varied demographics as it is toward serving them as patrons.

As someone who is on the autism spectrum, this issue is very personal to me.

In the December 2022 issue of Library Worklife, Kelley McDaniel expresses, “In my experience, librarians tend to do a good job promoting their diverse and inclusive collections and programs, including programs designed specifically to appeal to and serve the needs of children patrons who are neurodivergent.

“I would like to address neurodiversity in library employment, because those neurodivergent children who will grow up loving and feeling welcome in libraries will become neurodivergent adults who may choose jobs and careers in libraries. What will happen to them? Will we welcome neurodivergent adults as colleagues the same way we welcomed them when they were child patrons?” (McDaniel, 2022)

McDaniel states that she has a loved one who is neurodivergent, “and it has been heart-breaking to watch them confront stereotypes and face the stigma and ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’ — especially in the workforce” (ibid).

The very next issue of Library Worklife included a Q&A with an autistic adult who worked for more than a decade as a library shelver and who completed two bachelor’s degrees, including one in Information and Library Science. This person was forced to leave the profession after “being passed over for promotion and being rejected for half-a-dozen entry-level jobs in other libraries” (McDaniel, 2023).

I reflected on these articles with the perspective of someone with 10-plus years of experience in libraries: someone who performed poorly in job interviews in the past but who afterward, with employers who were willing to give me a chance, earned stellar reviews for my job performance, my abilities, and my commitment.

I would like to think that these “will speak for themselves” with any future employer I apply with, but the social aspects of job hunting are very concerning to me. Before a person is allowed to work, they must first make a good impression, and navigating small talk and “unwritten” expectations can be difficult for me.

References:
American Library Association. (2019). Core values of librarianship. Intellectual freedom: Issues and resources. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/corevalues

Downey, J. (2013). Self-censorship in selection of LGBT-themed materials. Reference & User Services Quarterly 53 (2), p. 104-107. https://journals.ala.org/index.php/rusq/article/view/3458

Hallman, S. (2020, March 17). Reimagining the public library to reconnect the community [YouTube video]. TEDxMemphis. TEDxTalks. https://youtu.be/JI2CLgq3LLk McCook, K. & Bossaller, J.S. (2018). Introduction to public librarianship (3rd ed.) Neal-Schuman.

McDaniel, K. (2022). We need to talk about how we treat library workers who are neurodivergent – Part One. Library Worklife, 19 (12). ALA-APA. https://ala-apa.org/newsletter/2022/12/15/we-need-to-talk-about-how-we-treat-library-workers-who-are-neurodivergent-part-one/

McDaniel, K. (2023). Library workers who are neurodivergent – Part two. Library Worklife, 20 (1). ALA-APA. https://ala-apa.org/newsletter/2023/01/09/library-workers-who-are-neurodivergent-part-two/

McNabb, C. (2020). Queer adolescence: Understanding the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, and asexual youth. Rowman & Littlefield.

Memphis Public Library. (n.d.) Cossitt Library. Library history collection: Explore the history behind your local branch. https://www.memphislibrary.org/digmemphis/libraryhistory/cossitt-history/

Parkhill, C.M. (2013, July 6). Parade viewers block access to Ashland library. Cynthia Parkhill. https://cynthiaparkhill.blogspot.com/2013/07/parade-viewers-block-access-to-ashland.html

Social Responsibilities Round Table. (n.d.) Hunger, Homelessness, and Poverty Task Force (HHPTF). SRRT statements. https://www.ala.org/rt/srrt/hunger-homelessness-and-poverty-task-force-hhptf