White spaces, Asian faces
Onboarding for racialized academic librarians

Ashley Manhas & Sabrina Wong
Politics of Libraries IV
April 1, 2022

We are speaking with you today from Capilano University’s main campus on the
traditional and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəỷəm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish)
and SəỈílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
We acknowledge all the communities who have been on the lands that you are joining from,
since time immemorial.
CapilanoU (2019). Elder Sla-holt (Ernie George) touches Skw’cháys canoe during the Awakening and Naming Ceremony. Retrieved from flickr.com

Sabrina
I am a settler residing on the lands of the xʷməθkʷəỷəm, Skwxwú7mesh, and
SəỈílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations.
My interest in equity, diversity and inclusion in libraries stems from my experiences and
things I have witnessed at work. I am inspired by colleagues who push for transformation
and change, and my hope is that equity, diversity and inclusion practices will guide our work
in libraries.

Ashley
I am a settler residing on the lands of the xʷməθkʷəỷəm,, Skwxwú7mesh, and
SəỈílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh Nations.
I am a cisgender, able-bodied woman of colour, and my interest in inclusion in libraries
comes from grounded experience as a racialized person in academic spaces as both a
student and an employee.

Our plan
Background
Three vignettes
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What happened
Why it happened
Harmful impacts

Recommendations

Photo by Bogdan Karlenko on Unsplash

Feelings are great, but actions are better!

From Fobazi Ettarh's keynote we'd like to bring forward these words

Why are we
doing this?

Photo by @WOCInTech from nappy

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Onboarding is a key part of retention, but we have found there is room
to expand on this in librarianship.
As the only racialized librarians at our institution, we've gained
important insight on this topic.
Our experiences indicate that applying an EDI lens to onboarding can
make a difference in how racialized librarians experience a workplace
and contribute towards retention and diversifying the field.

Our approach

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Our approach to this research has been guided by the thought: just
because it doesn’t happen to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
This is a way for us to position the experiences we’ll describe today as
valued information that may not necessarily be described in the
literature or experienced by all library workers.
It’s a form of counter storytelling, a way of giving voice to our grounded
experience as two racialized librarians and treating it as valid.

me
i
t
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Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

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The theme that has been interrogated in this conference series is
vocational awe.
Vocational awe creates this expectation that passion leads people to
library work.
Though we are deeply invested in today's topic, we are privileged to
have paid professional development time to work through this issue and
present today.
Our starting point is examining the role of vocational awe on onboarding
practices.
From Fobazi Ettarh, we know that there is the idea that libraries are
inherently good in nature and that librarians carry out this good work,
which then, as Ettarh describes: “sets up an expectation that any failure
of libraries is largely the fault of individuals failing to live up to the ideals
of the profession, rather than understanding that the library as an
institution is fundamentally flawed.”

On vocational awe and onboarding
“...because vocational awe
refuses to acknowledge the library
as a flawed institution, when
people of color and other
marginalized librarians speak out,
their accounts are often
discounted or erased.”
(Ettarh, 2018, Diversity)
Photo by Edwin Andrade on Unsplash

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Under vocational awe, the library is an institution without flaws, and as
Ettarh notes: when racialized or marginalized librarians identify and
speak to flaws, "their accounts are often discounted or erased."
We believe that vocational awe causes harm in the onboarding stage,
particularly for racialized librarians, in that, when a racialized librarian is
onboarded in the way that's always been done--without identifying
gaps, or developing a meaningful plan--the responsibility to succeed in
this stage is placed solely on the new librarian.
Ultimately, vocational awe plays out when we fail to recognize the
onboarding process as flawed–by trusting it as “inherently good”.
This--combined with less safety for a racialized librarian to speak out
about challenges experienced at this stage, can lead to deficiencies that
are perceived to be the new racialized librarian's alone, which makes
the onboarding experience a critical site for retention where inclusive
practices are necessary.
However, we’ve found that onboarding practices could better reflect
library values of equity, diversity and inclusion because without critique
and improvement, onboarding will fail racialized librarians, both new
and experienced in the profession.
In librarian onboarding, we witness the inconsistencies between the
fields' values and practices

Thesis

The onboarding experience for racialized librarians is an inherently flawed
checklist that — with some reimagining — can become a practice to intentionally
retain BIPOC librarians.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

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Through this lens of vocational awe, our experiences indicate that the
onboarding experience for racialized librarians is an inherently flawed
checklist that, with some reimagining, can become a practice to
intentionally retain BIPOC librarians.
The vignettes we discuss today illustrate these flaws and inform our
recommendations.

1.
The EDI question

Photo by Keagan Henman on Unsplash

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In this first vignette, we are going to address the interview and expectations
set during the recruitment phase. The interview is often the first encounter
between the librarian and potential employer. It is a space for each party to
gauge the other and can provide an opportunity for a library to declare their
fluency in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (or EDI).
I think for many of us in this space today, we’ve either asked or been asked
“the EDI question” in interviews. By this, we mean some variation of “how have
you demonstrated EDI in your work?” or “what does EDI mean to you?”
As a candidate of colour, when you are asked this question by an all-white
panel, it can feel performative because you do not know whose perspective
you’re supposed to speak from – yours or theirs?
In Ozlem Sensoy & Robin DiAngelo’s 2017 article on faculty hiring
committees, they name that “these questions proceed from the unmarked
norm of Whiteness. They do so through their presumption that the White
candidate is neutral, that diversity exists outside of oneself, and that difference
is something that should or could be controlled and managed” (p. 570). Some
racialized candidates may feel that they need to counteract the “advantage” of
being able to name a difference from this “norm of Whiteness” that they
minimize this difference, so not as to seem ungrateful for having a visible
membership in an equity-seeking group. Or calling back to vocational awe and
the uncriticizable institution, they may feel unsure about sharing any criticism
they might have about libraries.

Ashley’s experience - interview

Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash

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When I was asked the EDI question during my interview, I paid careful
attention to the reception of my answer.
I gauged the committee members' reactions and felt safe enough to
return the question to them and ask about the library's EDI work, and I
felt satisfied by their answers and factored this into my acceptance of
the job.
I felt that there was an implied safety as we–me as an applicant, and
the interview committee representing the library–shared the same
language for and commitments to equity and inclusion.
But, upon being hired, it quickly became clear that the EDI engagement
that was spoken of in my interview, had not been incorporated into the
onboarding process.
After receiving the basics on the morning of my first day–equipment,
email access–I was left alone to navigate the bureaucracies that I
sensed dictated my work, but that I had no vocabulary to name.
I felt this viscerally--my stomach dropped and my anxiety heightened--at
the realization that the inclusion I had been expecting would not be
gained through formal onboarding.
Where I had hoped for support and welcoming plan, there was nothing
more than a standard checklist.

Ashley’s reflection

“Everyone is happy to hire
you, they checked off a box.
But no one thinks about
retention. There is no effort to
understand you, your culture,
or how you may react to
things differently than other
people. You have to just fit in
and just do it.”
(Aiko Moore & Estellado,
2018, p. 382)

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

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Reflecting on this, I realize I built expectations in the interview that were
not met during the onboarding process, and I find relevance in this
thought expressed by a racialized library worker in Aiko Moore
and Estallado's research:
"Everyone is happy to hire you, they checked off a box. But no one
thinks about retention. There is no effort to understand you, your
culture, or how you may react to things differently than other people.
You have to just fit in and just do it.”
As a new librarian eager to make a positive impression, this quote
resonates with me. I knew that without equitable onboarding I would
have to orient myself so that I could express confidence and
competence navigating institutional norms.
I knew that I had to conform to the unnamed but existing practices with
or without support to create a bridge to that next goal: retention.

Can we answer
the EDI question?

Photo by Roger Bradshaw on Unsplash

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When I was initially hired, there was a question about supporting
under-represented students but none about more broadly elevating EDI
work at the Library or university.
Since then, the Librarian team has changed its interview process to
include questions about Indigenization, decolonization, and EDI, with a
great deal of discussion among our group about how we should ask
these questions and what a good answer might sound like.
During one of these meetings, I recall our colleague saying that a
candidate would likely turn around and ask us the same EDI question -Are we prepared to answer it?
No, we have not yet fully asked ourselves what these concepts would
look like across all of our practices.
Baharak Yousefi wrote about her realization that “…in libraries the
presence of one or two librarians of color is the full extent of our
commitment to ‘diversity and inclusion’” and added that this presence
“… is not a signal that we are all here to do the work of unlearning and
undoing that is necessary for substantive, structural change.” (p. 103)
So where is the turning point for an institution in making these
substantive changes? Is there a turning point? How do we know when
we’ve reached that point?

Bringing race into the Library

“Only peoples of color are racialized and seen as ‘bringing’ race into
race-neutral (White) spaces. If there are no peoples of color present, race
remains unnamed and is not presumed to be an organizing institutional factor.”
(Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2017, p. 560)

Photo by Brandi Redd on Unsplash

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The work to integrate EDI into the hiring process – or to bring race into
race-neutral (White) spaces as described by this quote – can be
challenging. In libraries we're overly concerned with being seen to make
visible changes, rather than invisible shifts in thinking. It’s great to have
workshops and dedicated PD days, but if that work isn’t carried beyond
the workshop into the day-to-day work, it doesn’t help anyone.
Sensoy & DiAngelo recognize that this labour has multiple dimensions:
POC need to not only do the diversity work, but “also navigate the
emotional landmines of White fragility so often triggered in response” to
this work (p. 561)
When I’m invited to share these things within the institution, it can
sometimes feel extractive: like my experiences and perspectives are a
natural resource that the institution can remove and refine into
something that suits their needs.
This circles back to Yousefi’s point about visibility not being a
substantive change.

Big picture view of onboarding process

Onboarding as a process should build trust and psychological safety

Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplash

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To make substantive change, we cannot lose sight of the forest for the
trees: we focus so much on small things, like the right words to use in
the job description, that we lose sight of the other parts of the hiring and
onboarding process that could be made more equitable. That is not to
say that a job description is unimportant, but not the only thing that
needs work.
Onboarding as a process should build trust and psychological
safety. Instead, what I experienced in trying to assimilate was the
disconnect between values and practices.

2.
Nice white meetings

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

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One of our first shared experiences was a librarian faculty meeting.

Ashley’s experience - meeting

Present but
Not a participant.
Photo by Anh Tuan To on Unsplash

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As library workers, we highly value equitable information sharing and
transparency and it is something that can be expected in a library
setting based on the profession's values.
However, we don't always find transparency within our internal
practices, such as meetings.
By being an attendee of the meeting, there was an appearance of
transparency--when in reality, a decision that directly affected me had
already been made in a separate setting and was now being discussed
in front of me, but without me. Here, I was present in the meeting but
not a participant in the conversation.

“Nice white meetings”:
Unpacking absurd library bureaucracy
through a critical race theory lens
Nataraj, Hampton, Matlin & Meulemans

Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash

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As a participant at the meeting, I was wondering what was going on,
unsure about speaking up, and not knowing what had previously been
discussed by the hiring committee and leadership, I lacked context for
the discussion.
I want to highlight that this problematic lack of transparency is not a
fault of a single individual, but rather a structural failure.
When we first talked about this experience, the first reference that came
to mind was: “‘Nice White Meetings’: Unpacking absurd library
bureaucracy through a Critical Race Theory lens.” In this article,
Nataraj, Hampton, Matlin & Meulemans name the library meeting as
one example of a bureaucratic activity where supposed transparency
and unspoken knowledge co-exist, and BIPOC library workers are
forced to navigate a minefield of interpretive labour

Secrecy
“…a power move that gaslights BIPOC — a way of gatekeeping,
where information is used to dominate marginalized groups.”
(Nataraj et al., 2020, p. 8)

Photo by Cas Holmes on Unsplash

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A lack of transparency can signal to a new librarian that there is an
existing and inequitable communication practice, and that the
bureaucratic practice of withholding information goes unquestioned.
It is like trying to interpret an unspoken process from the outside,
looking in, which unfortunately breeds worried thoughts: what else am I
not being told?
A perceived secrecy can be understood as “…a power move that
gaslights BIPOC—a way of gatekeeping, where information is used to
dominate marginalized groups.” (Nataraj et al., 2020, p. 8)

Urgency

“It is not surprising, then, that
BIPOC … may have a harder
time recognizing the inherent
absurdity of situations
masquerading as initiatives
of efficiency."
(Nataraj et al., 2020, p. 9)

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

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In later reflections, the words of this quote jumped out at me:
“masquerading as initiatives of efficiency.” (Nataraj et al., 2020, p. 9).
In academic libraries, it can feel like the norm to be in a rush to finish
something so that we can get to the next thing because we’re all so
busy all the time.
However, Tema Okun and Kenneth Jones warn us that urgency is an
element of white supremacy culture that “perpetuate[s] power
imbalance while disconnecting us from our need to breathe and pause
and reflect.” They outline antidotes to urgency that include collective
and personal practices – but it is clear changing our thinking and
actions needs to be an intentional practice. Until we identify the things
that we do under the guise of urgency we cannot change them

Agency
Photo by Work With Island on Unsplash

“it is by intentional design that BIPOC
are silenced by bureaucratic
structures, thereby maintaining the
hegemonic power structures of the
organizations that employ them—even
if these organizations position
themselves as social justice–oriented.”
(Nataraj et al., 2020, p. 11)

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Nataraj et al. (2020) note that much of silencing BIPOC workers is by
"design", which helps maintain the "power structures of the
organizations that employ them—even if these organizations position
themselves as social justice–oriented.”, like libraries (p. 11)
A lack of agency can result from information being withheld, meaning a
lack of transparency is harmful—it disrupts trust.
Yet it's made acceptable through the bureaucratic meeting process,
which BIPOC workers must try and interpret.
The requirement to engage in such processes where BIPOC library
workers are silenced, doubted, and left unconsidered has a lasting
impact that can crop up in a variety of ways.

Low morale and academic librarians

Photo by Eutah Mizushima on Unsplash

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It’s essential to mention Kaetrena Davis Kendrick’s work on low morale
and academic librarians here. Her approach to this topic highlights the
physiological, emotional and cognitive effects of low morale on BIPOC
library workers at all stages of their careers.
This links so well to vocational awe and what Fobazi Ettarh spoke about
in the keynote to this series: “being seen in the building is
paramount”--being seen to do the work is paramount. Here, the
functioning of this bureaucracy is placed above any library workers’
needs or lives
When the onboarding process does not factor in the new librarian as a
whole person, it can cause direct harm and trigger a low morale event
that then impedes an individual’s success at this important stage.

Escaping the four walls

Photo by Stanley Emrys on Unsplash

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After my first day, there was very little offered in the ways of an ongoing
check in--meaning, the onboarding process started and ended with the
checklist.
Because of this, I had no formal or casual opportunity to check in, but I
needed to talk with someone.

3.
Gossip

Photo by Egor Myznik on Unsplash

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So, how do we take care of each other and ourselves when we exist in
this environment where so much is unspoken?
We can’t wait for the institution to change. Our final vignette describes a
tactic that helps BIPOC library workers to navigate and find safety in
predominantly white workplaces

Storytelling

And it is not necessarily for our own benefit
that we tell tales; we can help others by
talking as well. By telling our stories, we
may help reduce the epistemic doubt of
others.”
(Yousefi, 2017, p. 98)
Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

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For some of us to find safety we might engage in gossip. Baharak
Yousefi names gossip as a tool for information sharing and subverting
established norms, procedures, and assumptions. She writes “And it is
not necessarily for our own benefit that we tell tales; we can help others
by talking as well. By telling our stories, we may help reduce the
epistemic doubt of others.” (Yousefi, 2017, p. 98)
For us, we had to leave the physical space of the library building to feel
secure and able to speak more freely. We started a lunchtime walk
which we made a regular practice during her first few months

Ashley’s perspective - gossip

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Viewing onboarding as a checklist does not allow us to ask questions
and share our stories. Yet confiding in Sabrina during our walks was the
most critical aspect of my onboarding.
As I talked through the gaps and challenges that I was experiencing as
a new hire, Sabrina listened, answered, empathized, and validated.
Still, as a WOC, I was aware that she was not being compensated for
this work and that it would go unrecognized, but, her institutional
knowledge was the missing piece.
It’s worth noting that even both being WOC, a sense of trust needs to
be developed. For us, bonding over our shared enthusiasm for the
Pushing the Margins text was a signal to me that it was safe to speak
openly about my experiences. Having a trusted colleague hold space
for these conversations was not found on my new-hire checklist, but it
was the key piece that helped me move forward as a new librarian
to overcome the barrier of adapting to work in a predominantly white
institution.

Sabrina’s perspective - gossip

When minor feelings are finally externalized, they are interpreted as hostile, ungrateful, jealous,
depressing, and belligerent, affects ascribed to racialized behavior that whites consider out of line.
(Hong, 2020, p. 57)
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

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Having experienced the privilege and joy of having a colleague of colour
in a previous workplace, these conversations and walks that we’ve
shared over the past months have been meaningful to me and how I
see my work.
It’s sparked a renewed passion to push for change and speak our
gossip out loud. I’m inspired by Cathy Park Hong who wrote about
Minor Feelings as “the emotions we are accused of having when we
decide to be difficult – in other words, when we decide to be honest.
When minor feelings are finally externalized, they are interpreted as
hostile, ungrateful, jealous, depressing, and belligerent, affects ascribed
to racialized behavior that whites consider out of line.” (p. 57)
We also took inspiration from Sara Ahmed’s new book Complaint!,
which explores the nature and treatment of complaint in academic
environments, and has offered a reframe for speaking up and speaking
out.
In seeing my experiences reflected in works by these authors, through
the lens of vocational awe, it made me realize that there is no need to
withhold these “minor” feelings or complaints and that they can in fact
be constructive in shaping the change that we wish to see in our
workplaces

Why it’s harmful - gossip

“Ultimately, the emotional and interpretive labour of working in such gendered,
raced, and classed environments takes so much effort that it leaves no space for
women, especially those who identify as BIPOC, to think about their own
perspective or how to voice perspectives that may deviate from what is
considered and accepted as the norm; in this respect, they are left to engage in
absurd practices in ways that are guided by and satisfy those in management.”
(Nataraj et al., 2020, p. 10).

Photo by dylan nolte on Unsplash

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Adapting as a racialized hire is adjusting to unspoken practices
because much of onboarding work assumes that new colleagues come
to the institution equipped not only with the requisite MLIS and work
experience, but also the required knowledge to navigate white spaces.
This reality may also be invisible or forgotten by librarians who
experienced onboarding years ago.
The expectation of conformity in librarianship puts unseen work on the
racialized individual to interpret the existing norms, or for colleagues
who will also perceive this work, to do uncompensated and additional
labour to help their new colleague adjust.

Photo by Bruno Figueiredo on Unsplash

Recommendations

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To help us all make our libraries better places for racialized librarians,
we put together some recommendations. We want to be clear that this
is not a one-size-fits-all checklist that allows institutions to “accomplish”
EDI nor do these recommendations apply to every diverse person.
Rather, these are themes for further exploration in your own institutional
context as you consider what gaps you have.

1. Turn your critical eye inwards

What secrets does
your institution
have?
What is not
spoken about?

Photo by Wayan Aditya on Unsplash

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Our first recommendation to start by turning a critical eye inwards: examine
your own institution to investigate where onboarding gaps may exist. An
example of how this might play out is addressing secrecy around established
institutional practices:
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mannerisms
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jargon and acronyms
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meetings
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email and communication
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relationships between different units and people on campus and the
Library
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And in the Library, relationships between employees in different union
groups and with management
who can say what and to whom
and things that are not spoken about EVER.
The disparity between what we say and what we do in libraries, identified by
library workers like Baharak Yousefi, is a known issue in libraries, so pausing
to review our practices before onboarding is essential. “Because it’s the way
we’ve always done it” can no longer be a sufficient rationale for practices that
are actively harmful.
And yes, this does take time and resources. However, Sensoy and DiAngelo
remind us that while a “need for support is often positioned as a deficit of
candidates of color” – we should “consider all the resources put into diversity
workshops for White staff.” (p. 576). We put our resources and focus where
we think it’s important and needed.

2. Center the new hire

“Imagine if we listened to the experiences of people from underrepresented communities, set
concrete goals for increasing equity and inclusivity on their terms, and bench-marked progress
against their expectations, not those of the majority culture.” (Alburo et al., 2020, p.105)
Photo by AllGo - An App For Plus Size People on Unsplash

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Build the onboarding process around the new hire, rather than fit them
into a checklist: actively center them in the process.
To do so, have conversations to determine the new hire’s needs and
hear about their individual strengths.
Just as community needs and inclusion are assessed and designed for
in library programs and services, we suggest consulting and listening to
the new hire to design a plan, and as this quote about retention points
to—bring marginalized hires in and set "concrete goals for increasing
equity and inclusivity on their terms, and bench- mark progress against
their expectations, not those of the majority culture.” (Alburo et al.,
2020, p. 105)
Calling back to the dissonance between the experience of “the EDI
question” during the interview, and subsequent lack of EDI-focused
support during onboarding, centering the new hire offers an inclusive
path forward.

3. Support system:
Mentorship
“A mentor who provides
guidance, shares resources, and
understands the organizational
culture can be the “lifeline” for
library employees of color when
facing barriers to their retention
and career growth.”
(Alburo et al., 2020, p. 100)

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

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Our third recommendation is mentorship–and the critical role this plays
cannot be stressed enough.
Mentors offer guidance and when they understand those unspoken
practices, mentors can really be that lifeline to overcoming barriers new
racialized librarians experience so that they can continue on in the
profession
This said, mentorship is not a one-size-fits-all situation. Racialized
scholars have noted that “When developing mentorship opportunities
for librarians of color, libraries must also bear in mind the implications of
doing so in such a homogeneous, white environment, which can have
the “ unintended consequence of pushing librarians of color to
assimilate into the whiteness of librarianship, alienating those at the
margins even further ” (Brown, Ferretti, Leung, & Mendez-Brady, 2018 ,
p. 173, as cited in Alburo et al., 2020, p. 100)
Mentorship should be recognized as labour with appropriate
compensation and the understanding that to do this work properly it has
to be set as a priority within the library.

4. Support system: Community participation

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The sharing with and caring for one another that mentorship provides
can happen in external channels as well. Our next recommendation is
to include community participation in the onboarding process.
Not every librarian has a support network, so something a workplace
can actively do is provide paid time and cover membership fees to
support a racialized librarian in forming these relationships. Here are
some of the LIS-focused organizations we’ve had personal experience
with:
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ViMLoC mentorship program in Canada
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APALA, which is a group supporting Asian American, Native
Hawaiian and Pacific Islander library workers that is affiliated
with the American Library Association
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We Here, an organization that provides a safe and supportive
community for BIPOC in LIS professions
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There are so many more organizations out there doing this
essential work. If you’re a part of a supportive community group,
we invite you to share the name of the group in the chat.
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The research that we have examined describes these activities
as “gossip,” “talk” or “validating experiences,” but the consistent
theme is community and care.

5. Self care

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

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Our final recommendation is to advocate for a new racialized librarian to
care for themselves in the onboarding process. From Aiko Moore and
Estrellado's research, in Pushing the Margins, one woman
said: “Self-care is the core foundation of things that we, as women of
color librarians should learn how to implement first and foremost.
Without self-care everybody else gets nothing from us. We need to
replenish”.
Underscoring this recommendation is that institutions do not provide
care, and burnout is a real consequence of low morale, as addressed in
Kendrick’s research.
In onboarding practice, this might look like encouraging healthy breaks
and boundaries, or alerting new hires to meaningful wellness
opportunities, like personal relationship building.
Most importantly, understand and normalize that care is needed in
these situations as adjusting to a new role and environment is incredibly
challenging, and the less visible work we have spoken about today
makes it even more critical for new racialized librarians to perform acts
of self preservation

Closing recommendation
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Does your onboarding
checklist reflect the values
and practice of equity,
diversity, and inclusion?

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Ultimately, if we value these things they should be included in an
onboarding checklist. Because checklists contain the things that are
important to us. To put these thoughts into actionable reflections, ask
yourself: does your onboarding checklist or process reflect the values
and practice of equity, diversity, and inclusion?
To re-center this question on people, we can ask questions posed by
Jennifer Ferretti in her 2020 article about building a critical culture:
○
“Are we treating our colleagues with the same critical care as we
strive to provide our students/patrons?
○
Are we as reflective of our behavior in the workplace as we are
instructors in the classroom?”

How do we take this forward?

Photo by Elena Koycheva on Unsplash

●

●

BIPOC library researchers show us that inequity is pervasive through
library policies and practices. Today we have used vignettes to illustrate
the gaps in existing onboarding processes and how these institutional
failures cause harm to both new and existing employees. While libraries
and librarians have made commitments to diversifying the field and
decolonizing their teaching and external-facing practices, this attention
has not been extended to inward-facing library policies and practices
and we have attempted to shine a light on how this is harmful in the
onboarding process.
Our work today only addresses one small part of the larger problem,
and through one aspect of our multifaceted identities but we hope that it
will encourage you to make it an intentional practice to apply an EDI
lens to different elements of your work.

References (1/2)
Ahmed, S. (2021). Complaint! Duke University Press.
Aiko Moore, A. & Estellado, J. E. (2018). Identity, activism, self-care, and women of colour librarians. In R. L. Chou & A. Pho
(Eds.), Pushing the margins: Women of color and intersectionality in LIS (pp. 349-389). Library Juice Press.
Alburo, J., Bradshaw, A. K., Santiago, A. E., Smith, B., & Vinopal, J. (2020). Looking beyond libraries for inclusive recruitment
and retention practices: Four successful approaches. In S. S. Hines & D. H. Ketchum (Eds.), Critical Librarianship
(Advances in Library Administration and Organization), pp. 85-109. Emerald.
https://doi.org/10.1108/S0732-067120200000041009
Davis Kendrick, K. (2017). The low morale experience of academic librarians: A phenomenological study. Journal of Library
Administration, 57(8), 846-878. https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2017.1368325
Ettarh, F. (2018). Vocational awe and librarianship: The lies we tell ourselves. In the Library with the Lead Pipe.
https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/
Ettarh, F. (2022, March 18-April 29). POL IV: Keynote address [Conference presentation]. Politics of Libraries IV: Vocational
Awe, Online. https://sites.google.com/view/politicsoflibraries/home

●

We hope that the work of these scholars will affirm your experiences or
provide you with insight onto others’ experiences

References (2/2)
Ferretti, J. A. (2020). Building a critical culture: How critical librarianship falls short in the workplace. Communications in
Information Literacy, 14(1), 134-152. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2020.14.1.10
Hong, C. P. (2020). Minor Feelings. One World.
Nataraj, L., Hampton, H., Matlin, T. R., & Meulemans, Y. N. (2020). “Nice White meetings”: Unpacking absurd library
bureaucracy through a Critical Race Theory lens. Canadian Journal of Academic Librarianship, 6, 1-15.
https://doi.org/10.33137/cjal-rcbu.v6.34340
Okun, T. (2021). Urgency. White Supremacy Culture. https://www.whitesupremacyculture.info/urgency.html
Sensoy, Ö. & DiAngelo, R. J. (2017). “We are all for diversity, but…”: How faculty hiring committees reproduce whiteness and
practical suggestions for how they can change. Harvard Educational Review, 87(4), 557-580.
https://doi.org/10.17763/1943-5045-87.4.557
Yousefi, B. (2017). On the disparity between what we say and what we do in libraries. In S. Lew & B. Yousefi (Eds.), Feminists
among us: Resistance and advocacy in library leadership (pp. 91-105). Library Juice Press.

Contact info
Photo by Jaida Stewart on Unsplash

Ashley Manhas - ashleymanhas@capilanou.ca
Sabrina Wong - sabrinawong2@capilanou.ca