Rebecca Crown Library
Why the Library?
White supremacy and discrimination permeates all areas of American life and sadly, the library is no exception. Historically, there has been an inherent err on the side of neutrality within the library with regards to socially conscious practices of hiring, programming, collection development, and more. As social justice movements and racial studies have shown: there is no neutral. To believe in such a space only leaves room for oppressors or unconscious bias to move in. In light of this reality, libraries and library studies have reevaluated and restructured their approach and commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion practices. In taking a more proactive approach, librarianship across the country takes action to do their part in combatting racism and racial bias as a culture. In this light, libraries enthusiastically promote and participate in The National Day of Racial Healing. According to their website, this day "is an opportunity for people, organizations, and communities to call for racial healing, bring people together in their shared humanity and take action together to create a more just and equitable world." The emerging fields of racially conscious librarianship dovetail perfectly with these efforts.
Why Rebecca Crown Library?
At the heart of the University is its Catholic, Dominican tradition, grounded in the compatibility of faith and reason, that affirms the dignity of the human person and concern for the common good. The University's curricula, research and campus life demonstrate a commitment to ethics, community service, social justice and global citizenship. Dominican University educates one student at a time in the company of others, engaging a multiplicity of cultural, religious and secular worldviews, transforming students, faculty and staff into agents of positive change.
The Rebecca Crown Library (RCL) is an integral part of the culture and community of Dominican University. Its mission is in harmony with the Dominican University Mission: to pursue truth, give compassionate service, and contribute to a more just and humane world. The mission of the Rebecca Crown Library mandates the academic support of students, faculty, and staff for resources and services. In addition to supplying print and electronic materials, services such as reference, circulation, interlibrary loan and instruction provide means through which the Dominican University Mission may be realized.
Librarianship and Antiracism
Diversity Regimes by ISBN: 9781978800427Publication Date: 2020-05-15As a major, public flagship university in the American South, so-called "Diversity University" has struggled to define its commitments to diversity and inclusion, and to put those commitments into practice. In Diversity Regimes, sociologist James M. Thomas draws on more than two years of ethnographic fieldwork at DU to illustrate the conflicts and contingencies between a core set of actors at DU over what diversity is and how it should be accomplished. Thomas's analysis of this dynamic process uncovers what he calls "diversity regimes": a complex combination of meanings, practices, and actions that work to institutionalize commitments to diversity, but in doing so obscure, entrench, and even magnify existing racial inequalities. Thomas's concept of diversity regimes, and his focus on how they are organized and unfold in real time, provides new insights into the social organization of multicultural principles and practices.
Freedom Libraries by ISBN: 1538115530Publication Date: 2019-10-01Freedom Libraries: The Untold Story of Libraries for African-Americans in the South. As the Civil Rights Movement exploded across the United States, the media of the time was able to show the rest of the world images of horrific racial violence. And while some of the bravest people of the 20th century risked their lives for the right to simply order a cheeseburger, ride a bus, or use a clean water fountain, there was another virtually unheard of struggle--this one for the right to read. Although illegal, racial segregation was strictly enforced in a number of American states, and public libraries were not immune. Numerous libraries were desegregated on paper only: there would be no cards given to African-Americans, no books for them read, and no furniture for them to use. It was these exact conditions that helped create Freedom Libraries. Over eighty of these parallel libraries appeared in the Deep South, staffed by civil rights voter registration workers. While the grassroots nature of the libraries meant they varied in size and quality, all of them created the first encounter many African-Americans had with a library. Terror, bombings, and eventually murder would be visited on the Freedom Libraries--with people giving up their lives so others could read a library book. This book delves into how these libraries were the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, and the remarkable courage of the people who used them. They would forever change libraries and librarianship, even as they helped the greater movement change the society these libraries belonged to. Photographs of the libraries bring this little-known part of American history to life.
Topographies of Whiteness by Call Number: Z716.4 .T67 2017ISBN: 1634000226Publication Date: 2017-04-30Exploring the diverse terrain that makes up library and information science (LIS), this collection features the work of scholars, practitioners, and others who draw from a variety of theoretical approaches to name, problematize, and ultimately fissure whiteness at work. Contributors not only provide critical accounts of the histories of whiteness - particularly as they have shaped libraries and archives in higher education - but also interrogate current formations, from the policing of people of color in library spaces to imagined LIS futures. This volume also considers possibilities for challenging oppressive legacies and charting a new course towards anti-racist librarianship, whether in the classroom, at the reference desk, or elsewhere.
