Women's concerns in Alabama's public libraries: An exploratory website content analysis of illustrative information support services

Abstract

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development ratified 17 goals as a global blueprint towards “economic, social and environmental sustainability” of all nations. It includes “Gender Equality” (Sustainable Development Goal 5) that seeks to empower women and girls by eliminating discrimination and providing equal opportunities for their fuller participation in all aspects of life. This case study provides an exploratory assessment of web‐based information for women in Alabama's public libraries located in the “American South” and its Appalachian region. Both have experienced ostracization and stereotyping in popular culture owing to political and religious conservativeness, Civil Rights struggles, gender prejudice, and hostile conditions towards women/minorities. This exploratory website content analysis identifies seven examples of information offerings categorized into three groupings: (a) information sources (collections, resources); (b) information policy and planning (assigned role, strategic representation); (c) connections (internal, external, news and events). It develops a taxonomic framework with representative examples that challenge the regional stereotype in its images of solely deficit marginalization. The discussion provides new directions and potential opportunities to build collaborations of sharing within Alabama's public libraries and beyond to better address women's concerns and gender inequities in their local and regional communities.

“Don't Say Gay” in Alabama: A taxonomic framework ofLGBTQ+ information support services in public libraries—An exploratory website content analysis of critical resistance

“…How are they providing appropriate coverage and culturally relevant web access to this disenfranchised community in a conservative region that proudly identifies itself as the “heart of Dixie's Bible Belt”? (Locke, 2017; Mehra & Jaber, 2023). These serve as guiding research questions shaping the use of qualitative data mining and website content analysis reported in this article.…”

Assessing anti-racist resources online

“…The answers to these questions can be found in part by Mehra and Davis's 2015 article, "A strategic diversity manifesto for public libraries in the 21st century," which codified the different ways in which public libraries can advocate for diversity. Their Strategic Diversity Manifesto, or SDM, model categorizations (and similar models) has been applied to other marginalized groups, such as older adults and LGBTQIA2S populations, and is useful for understanding where a library does (or does not) provide representation and support for the group in question (Mehra and Gray, 2014;Mehra and Jaber, 2020;Winberry, 2018). It has not, however, been adapted for strictly online use, nor was it used uniquely for academic libraries.…”