A Library Guide for Anti-Racist Research: Development, Evolution, and Reflection

Background: Mid 2020, after George Floyd's murder, faculty researchers began asking librarians how to incorporate BIPOC scholars into their work. There is no simple answer to this question from an information science perspective, and as librarians began consulting with one another, we realized this need was cross-disciplinary, frequent, and pressing. It became clear that we needed to collate the information in a LibGuide for accessibility to the university community and beyond.

Description: Two librarians and a library intern - all white-identifying with expertise in the areas of psychology/social science, public health, and social justice activism - authored the LibGuide, with invited input from all institutional librarians. Initial meetings focused on defining the scope, audience, and organization of the Guide. The scope: share resources and strategies for conducting anti-racist research rather than pointing to anti-racism readings. The audience: students, staff, and faculty - from any institution - who wish to incorporate anti-racism into their research. Organization of the guide: clearly name the problematic practice and offer strategies for mitigation. Some disciplinary librarians (e.g., liaison to Native American studies) were asked for their feedback, and then feedback was solicited from all librarians via anonymous Google form. The presentation will highlight particularly useful resources and strategies from the Guide.

Conclusion: Since January 2021, the Guide has had 19,000+ views. We have been asked to present the Guide at various campus conferences (e.g., health sciences education, design ethics, data diversity) and were asked to write a book chapter based on the information shared in the Guide. The successes of the Guide have been surprisingly plentiful, but authoring it does not come without challenges. We have received negative feedback from colleagues, a campus affiliate, and an outside source. We’ll discuss how we’ve navigated management of an educational resource that is viewed as controversial, and share how we plan to maintain the Guide with reflexivity.