Public libraries strive to promote justice and inclusion, yet disabled patrons and staff often encounter systemic barriers. This study introduces dysconscious ableism-a distorted understanding of disability that tacitly accepts ableist norms-into library and information science (LIS) discourse. Using critical theory, ethnographic interviews with 10 librarians, and critical discourse and policy analysis of 52 public library policies, the research examines how dysconscious ableism operates in professional beliefs and institutional practices. Findings reveal deficit-based discourses framing disability through medicalized, burdensome, and dependent lenses, alongside policies that employ vague behavioral standards, uphold inaccessible procedures, and perpetuate the status quo. These patterns marginalize disabled individuals and legitimize injustice. The article calls for critical reflection, inclusive policy reform, and universal design to disrupt ableist norms and advance disability justice in librarianship.
San Jos & eacute; State University's (SJSU) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, in collaboration with the SJSU School of Information and the San Jos & eacute; Public Library, established BIPOC Become Librarians (BBL), a pilot mentorship and internship initiative aimed at increasing awareness of and access to careers in library and information science (LIS) for undergraduate students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). This research was grant-funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), grant no. RE-252403-OLS-22, to support diversity initiatives within librarianship. This portion of the grant, which occurred over six months, informed the development of BBL's pilot mentorship and internship program to meet the unique mentorship needs of BIPOC undergraduate students. Project activities included recruiting BIPOC undergraduate students, facilitating focus groups, selecting mentors, mentees, and trainers, establishing internship partnerships, conducting ongoing project evaluation, developing curriculum and shareable resources, and disseminating findings.
Public librarianship operates as a boundary profession structurally, organizationally, and in daily tasks. This requires that library staff constantly navigate jurisdictional tensions, role ambiguity, and evolving expectations. Drawing on boundary work theory, this essay examines how public library staff engage in practices of creating, negotiating, reinforcing, and crossing boundaries, particularly as they respond to community crises, emotional labor, and expanding service demands. Boundary work is understood here as a process that shapes professional identity, delineates responsibility, and mediates interprofessional dynamics. In the absence of formal training or institutional scaffolding, library workers rely on situational judgment and personal values to manage complex patron interactions, often enacting roles more aligned with adjacent fields like social work and health care. This essay argues that public librarianship's permeable boundaries present both structural challenges and creative opportunities, enabling the profession to adapt to community needs while contending with unstable definitions of its own legitimacy.
Academic libraries have begun to acknowledge institutional gaps in knowledge and cultural understanding. To attend to Indigenous students' emergent library and information needs, we interviewed Indigenous undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Toronto to investigate their relationships to the library system. We found that while students understood the need for strong library and research skills, the library lacked much of what Indigenous students needed to be successful in its collections, programming, and services. The Indigenous students revealed that the library was not a space of cultural safety, nor did it reconnect with the Lands and Waters that were necessary for successful research and relations. Instead, current library practices exposed Indigenous students to culturally damaging and traumatic materials and failed to protect them from profiling and racialization in physical spaces. We call for a transformation and decentering of traditional library practice toward a more just and equitable future praxis with Indigenous students.
With the release of commercially available virtual reality (VR) headsets in 2016, an increasing number of libraries and educational institutions in the United States adopted these technologies to enhance teaching and research. This article retrospectively analyzes interviews with undergraduate students about their initial experiences with VR technologies in an academic library context in 2017 to understand this period of initial adoption. By comparing this data to recent research findings on educational VR, the study produces insights into the changing ways that students engage with VR as it becomes more commonly used in higher education in the US context. This article adopts a phenomenological perspective to understand students' experiences and how they made sense of this new media technology to integrate it into their learning. Findings suggest that VR is more common but remains a novel technology for some students and must be implemented by trained staff to ensure its success as a learning tool that enhances student engagement.
