Radical re-imagination: centering a BIPOC library workforce in an asset-based autoethnography

Abstract

PurposeAcademic BIPOC librarians oftentime struggle to envision themselves and navigate in White-dominant spaces due to deficit thinking. To better understand how DEIA efforts can bolster structural change in academic libraries, the two BIPOC authors opted to lean on an asset-based exercise–imagining a positive work environment made possible through a library staffed entirely by BIPOC individuals.Design/methodology/approachThrough collaborative autoethnography, the two authors interviewed one another and centered their unstructured conversations around one question: “What does an academic library composed entirely of a BIPOC workforce look like?” Three emergent themes were agreed upon and finalized by the two authors.FindingsThe authors' imagined library is able to foster a supportive community and also function efficiently thanks to its shared purpose grounded in DEIA. Despite relying on an asset-based framework, the authors found themselves having to reckon with trials and tribulations currently faced by BIPOC librarians. Effectively envisioning the “ideal” library environment is not possible without also engaging with librarianship's legacy of racial injustices.Originality/valueRecognizing that confronting systems of oppression naturally invokes trauma, this paper encourages librarians to challenge deficit thinking and instead rely on asset-based models to candidly imagine an anti-racist academic library. The authors acknowledge that BIPOC voices and experiences add tremendous value to the library workplace. At the heart of this paper is the belief that reparations for past racial injustices should not only fix past wrongdoings, but also contribute to positive workplace cultures.

Reimagining peer support and engagement

“…In this way, the autoethnographic approach has been more than a research method to collect data from the advisors' experiences. It has also been a personal practice that has empowered the authors to learn who they are becoming as early-career BIPOC information professionals in a white-dominant profession (Shearer and Chiewphasa, 2022).…”

On the Enduring and Fleeting Uses of the Teaching Statement

“…Like other researchers, librarians are drawn to the methodology's potential for creative, reflexive, personal, and justice-minded research (Deitering 2017, 7-8). To offer just a few recent examples, librarians have used autoethnographies to imagine truly BIPOC-centered library staffing (Shearer and Chiewphasa 2021), explore the information needs of people with albinism (Ngula 2023), and reflect on racialized embodiment in library spaces (Santamaria 2020).…”