Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness and Librarianship

Soliciting Performance, Hiding Bias: Whiteness and Librarianship

Despite the growing body of research on our professional demographics and multi-year diversity initiatives, librarianship in the United States remains overwhelmingly white. The author suggests the interview process is a series of repetitive gestures designed to mimic and reinforce white middle class values, which ultimately influence the hiring decisions—and relative lack of diversity—of librarianship as a whole. The author considers how the whiteness of librarianship may manifest long before the hiring process. By identifying and interrogating the body of white, middle class values inherent to both librarianship and professional job searching, the author offers suggestions to encourage an authentically diverse pool of applicants.

Intersectionality

Galvan, Angela

In the Library with the Lead Pipe, June 2015.

2015-06-03

CC BY

English

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