![](https://d3ilqtpdwi981i.cloudfront.net/wuH-Go5ZQ1t0PqYMbIYnzzokmDQ=/425x550/smart/https://bepress-attached-resources.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/67/25/5d/67255d42-0623-4d84-afba-3b92f5ca739b/thumbnail_676a7e5d-9efb-4447-8147-d17379588480.jpg)
Presentation
Racial Healing and Counterspace Support for BIPOC Library Employees
LACUNY (Library Association of the City University of New York)
(2023)
Abstract
Academic libraries in the United States are strikingly white enterprises. Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) who work in them are often isolated, misunderstood and unsupported. This panel discussed one way that libraries can heed the call for racial healing by making funding clearly and easily available to racially marginalized and underrepresented workers to find counterspaces: community where they would not feel so culturally and racially isolated. Through its Inclusion, Diversity, Anti-Racism and Equity Committee, committed employees worked to establish funding for meeting some of the cultural and racial equity needs of BIPOC library workers. Libraries must prioritize tangible, creative, and innovative ways for bringing vitality to statements of solidarity, aspirational action plans, and anti-racist commitments. We present one part of a larger holistic framework.Â
Keywords
- racial healing,
- BIPOC librarians,
- BIPOC library workers
Disciplines
Publication Date
Spring May 12, 2023
Location
Virtual
Citation Information
Isabel R Espinal, Anne Graham, Kate Freedman, Maria Rios, et al.. "Racial Healing and Counterspace Support for BIPOC Library Employees" LACUNY (Library Association of the City University of New York) (2023) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/isabel_espinal/15/
Creative Commons License
![Creative Commons License](https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC International License.