Hi, all,
If we don't know each other already, I'm Ashley Lierman, and I'm the Instruction and Education Librarian at Rowan University. I'm really excited about this section, and I regret not being able to jump into the discussion more earlier! I think there are so many really valuable opportunities ahead of us to shape the directions in which Core moves forward.
One thing I've been musing on today is the many dimensions of safety for library workers in our present moment, especially in light of the horrifying rise in attacks on Asian Americans, which seems to have surged in the last few days. I really worry about my Asian American library peers, in our very public-facing profession, as I so often do about my BIPOC peers and the risk of everything from microaggressions to racist abuse when dealing with the public. No one should have to face these kinds of threats just for being on a desk, being visible and helping people, and I have a vested interest in ways our libraries can come together to make sure we're all protected.
These concerns are also compounded by another big safety issue we as library workers are still facing at present, of course: exposure in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. I know how many of us felt failed by library responses to the situation last year especially, with
the struggles of D.C. librarians last summer being just one example, and how much anxiety is still in the air about what will happen amid efforts for reopening as vaccines roll out. To me it seems hard to disentangle these concerns from those about racist violence, actually, given how much protests against police violence toward Black communities and the pandemic have seemed to run in parallel this past year. A concept I've heard expressed, most recently by the great Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings at Vanderbilt's recent Racial Justice in Education and Society Virtual Conference, is that COVID is just one of multiple pandemics that are simultaneously affecting the globe, and it is working in tandem with the pandemic of anti-Black violence, in particular. And then there's the fact of how disproportionately the pandemic itself has affected communities of color.
In light of all this, while I absolutely agree that library workers have been needlessly put in danger in many places and it's unacceptable, I've been concerned to hear some of my colleagues respond to this threat by calling for increased campus police presence in our library to enforce mask-wearing, for example, or for increasingly punitive measures against students to enforce public health practices. In much the same way I very much support the points made in up//root's recently-published
Letter to Asian Diasporic Library Workers, pushing back against calls for carceral, policing-based responses to increases in anti-Asian violence. While I want my colleagues to be safe, amplified policing is a response that will only jeopardize the safety of my Black coworkers, my Black students, and the communities I live with. There are always alternative responses that are more beneficial for the safety of everyone, not just a few.
So I wonder what alternatives we, as library workers and library leaders, are coming up with or could come up with to think differently about keeping each other safe. What effective practices have been implemented, or would people like to see implemented? What really smart ideas are out there about how we all can be protected, and be in solidarity with each other?
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Ashley Lierman
Instruction & Education Librarian
Rowan University Libraries
She/Her/Hers
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