Edited by: Casey Hughes and Sara Ludewig
In our post “Challenging the Status Quo”: Social Justice and Archives we explored the role of libraries and archives in working toward social justice and asked three University of Maryland Libraries and SCUA staff members to reflect on what social justice means to them. We’re continuing this series by exploring the perspectives of three more staff members! We asked these questions: 1) what do you do and what are some of your daily responsibilities? and 2) in your position, what does social justice in the archive or library mean to you? Their responses show the different initiatives, mindsets, and projects needed to ensure a more equitable, just, and welcoming future for libraries and archives.
Tahirah Akbar-Williams
Your position in the library – what you do and some of your daily responsibilities.
I am the Librarian for African American Studies and the College of Education. I am also one of the Diversity Officers in the Library and a Co-chair of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) Committee. My duties as a librarian includes but are not limited to: collection development, reference and one-on-one consultations, instruction/teaching, and research sessions with faculty and students. Additionally, in my capacity as Diversity Officer and IDEA Co-Chair, I do a variety of diversity and inclusion advising and programming for students, faculty and library administrators. One of the career highlights for me is the creation and development of the Diversity Immersion Institute (DII).
In your position, what does social justice in the archive/library mean to you?
Social justice in the library means we create an equitable workspace where all individuals can thrive. We rise to meet the people who use our services at their point of need, whatever that need is. Social justice for me is ensuring that we have representation, equitable and inclusive spaces that embrace and celebrate: race, class, gender, religion, sexual identity, and culture. It means that we have to have equitable pay structures, promotion and retention practices. Thus, social justice means ensuring that we are making pathways for disenfranchised communities to be able to reach full economic, political, and social equity.
I focus on anti-Black racism, in particular, because of the experience of Blacks in America, which you also can see reflected in libraries. So in the backdrop of what we learned this summer about the overall inequitable treatment of African Americans and Black people in this country, e.g: less earning potential, increased health disparities, shorter life expectancy and the mental and the emotional stress of racism (to name a few). When we look at the statement, “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness,” I have to think about who is left out of that part of the American Dream. We saw the disparities in full view with the protest this summer (some already knew) that our country has a long way to make those words ring true for African Americans. Libraries can be a model for many other institutions on how to achieve equity. We can lead the way by being active, i.e.: hiring, promotion, leadership, equal pay, creating spaces for disenfranchised communities and minoritized people.
I created and served as co-director of the Diversity Immersion Institute (DII). The DII is a social justice project that introduces African American men at an early stage (in high school) to LIS and the college experience. It simultaneously creates a space for LIS students to work with and collaborate with young African American students, librarians and other faculty of color in order to learn about anti-racist practices. We facilitated sessions for iSchool students about critical race theory, racism, sexism, and homophobia, and librarians of color shared their experiences in the libraries. It was pretty cool because we had librarians of color in the room to talk about their experience and we had graduate students and professors of color from around campus teaching lectures which added context to their experiences. I believe white librarians were enriched by this experience. The hope is that these experiences: 1) introduce African American men to the LIS field and the college experience, and 2) empower LIS students to be anti-racist and equity advocates and to work harder to embrace social justice and racial equity.
We work with students in the iSchool who volunteered their time to learn about diversity and inclusion in practice in libraries, particularly, issues of racism and why we have so few people of color, i.e.: African American men ( 0.5% African American men). Libraries need to do more. We are behind the eight ball in terms of this issue. It’s been a lot of hot air and empty rhetoric and no action — it’s time to act. We do that by supporting projects like the DII, listening to our African American colleagues about their experiences and needs, and being forward thinking in terms of hiring and promoting with equitable pay African Americans to the highest level of librarianship.
Joni Floyd
Your position in the library – what you do and some of your daily responsibilities.
As the Curator of Maryland and Historical Collections (MDHC), I am responsible for building, interpreting, and providing access to archival and manuscript holdings that span the history and culture of the state of Maryland. I also manage collections relating to women’s history and the historic preservation of cultural resources. My work involves developing the collection with special consideration given to mending its historical and ideological gaps stemming from the systemic marginalization of voices and histories by the myopic and “top-down” collection development practices of the past. My daily responsibilities include mining the collection for reference consultations, instruction, exhibits, and research guides.
A major MDHC goal is to increase the diversity of its donor profile. Toward this end, I participate in a scholarly agenda that involves engaging in professional, public history, and community development circles. I give workshops on community archives, and I also serve as the MARAC Archivist.
I play a leadership role in the Maryland History and Culture Collaborative, a network of information and heritage stewards interested in sustainable partnership building. As co-chair of The 1856 Project, I am building its infrastructure and outreach strategy. I also have the opportunity to mentor emerging information and heritage professionals both through supervision and by participating in the University Libraries/BIPOC Employee Resource Group’s Career Discovery Internship Program.
In your position, what does social justice in the archive/library mean to you?
To paraphrase Langston Hughes, social justice in MDHC means to support individuals, organizations, and collections that convey, “I Too Sing Maryland.” Social justice in the archives means I must regularly interrogate the politics underlying accessioning collections, the selection and distribution of resources, and the type of partnerships I generate. It means that I must become more aware of my own biases; I must shed light on any invisible labor, and I must measure outcomes to ensure our efforts move beyond the incidental or performative to standard practice. It also means that I must hold myself (and by natural extension University of Maryland Libraries) accountable to those I assist and with those I collaborate. In short, social justice in the archives means that I must not take lightly my role as a driver of systemic transformation.
Lae’l Hughes-Watkins
Your position in the library – what you do and some of your daily responsibilities.
I am the University Archivist for the University of Maryland, College Park. Generally speaking, my job involves archiving, documenting, preserving, and providing access to records related to the institutional memory of the University of Maryland. My day-to-day duties are far-ranging. A typical day could include having conversations about social media campaigns and issues of social justice in archives, mentoring new professionals, helping our amazing student Terp community with archival inquiries – that’s one of the things I get the most joy out of – to meeting with donors and increasing the visibility of University Archives. Everyone loves us when they come in and visit, but they have to know we exist first. I also make people aware of the resources we have in our space, nurture our wonderful students who work for us, giving them space to be their fabulous selves, and helping them to be ready for their first professional gig. I also help with digitization projects; it’s a lot. There’s no such thing as a routine day.
I also work on several exciting projects. The 1856 Project is one of the projects I’m really excited about. It can feel overwhelming when you think about the gravity of the work. The 1856 Project is a branch of Universities Studying Slavery for the University of Maryland. It’s not that our institution hasn’t ventured here before, but this is, to my knowledge, the first formal advisory group that has been created. Our task is to support campus efforts to build an inclusive university community. We want to enhance the collective understanding of the Black experience at UMD within the context of the surrounding community. We also want to bring into the fold and collaborate with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in our University System. It is critical that we do this to ensure we provide a complete story regarding the history of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, and more contemporary movements we’ve been witnessing, specifically with the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery.
In your position, what does social justice in the archive/library mean to you?
Utilizing a social justice lens in the archives has been critical, and it’s the reason I decided to join this profession. It means giving a voice to the invisible, the voiceless, and marginalized communities. When I think of my introduction to archives, it was during my thesis project for my MA in English. I was in graduate school when I first went to an archive. I’m glad I didn’t go through life ignorant of the value of archives and their role in society, in our communities, and our families. The profession itself has its challenges, but it also has fantastic opportunities. I was researching a woman of color, specifically a Black woman named Fay M. Jackson, who had an amazing history of documenting Black Hollywood and the Harlem Renaissance of the West Coast and international affairs such as Hailie Selassie. There was very little in the records at her alma mater. This would have been material from the 1920s through the 1940s. She had a phenomenal career, and there was just surprisingly very little I could utilize in the archives, despite the efforts of the fantastic archivist. I made contact with her granddaughter, who was still living, and I saw that she had all the records in her house because she didn’t trust traditional academic archives. While I didn’t yet have the theory behind me and wasn’t thinking about library school yet, I knew I wanted to address and repair that relationship. I wanted to be part of the efforts to repair that break in the line of trust from the repository to people like the granddaughter. Social justice in archives is a reparative act. Bringing in voices that have been ignored or relationships in disrepair, communities that have been left out of the records and were not seen as whole people. Doing that work is a very radical act. That’s what social justice in archives means to me.
The march toward social justice is ongoing, that won’t go anywhere. The system of racism, this system of discrimination has always existed, from the systematic attempt to erase indigenous histories/peoples, since the arrival of the first slave, to the silencing of the LGBTQ community, to the dismantling of women’s rights. As much as I know that I’m making a dent, this is not something that will be addressed or completed in my lifetime. I think of Amanda Gorman, the poet laureate, and how she says that we are unfinished. This is work that will always be unfinished. Social justice in archives means making sure this work is a priority; you can’t let up. It’s making sure you’re carving out a space to continue addressing anti-Blackness and other anti-oppressive practices, requiring institutional support, financial support, and changing policy. We must ask what our collection development policies say about our priorities, what collections we are processing; we must ask how our commitment to equity and inclusion is reflected in our physical spaces and how we interact with our patrons from the disabled community to the elder a block away from campus. We can’t just have conversations and reading lists; those are just a start, not an endpoint.
I’m excited about the fact that I can work on Project STAND and make that a priority in my work at the University of Maryland. We’re about to hire a Project STAND coordinator. I’m looking forward to seeing what applications come in; we want someone who can embody that work. We’re looking to bring someone in who is ready to be a co-pilot on this project. I’m also excited about the Stamp Your History initiative. We were stopped in our tracks with the pandemic last year. I’m looking forward to gearing up to reaching out to students as campus opens up more, whether that’s in physical or virtual spaces. We’re working to inform students about the importance of archives and saving their stories. We want to make sure they have archivists or historians in their student organizations. Students are thinking about this already. I’m excited to be part of those conversations. I recently had a conversation with the Asian American Student Union, and they are doing amazing work. That’s a community I hadn’t had a chance to build a relationship with yet at UMD. I’m excited to make sure that students who haven’t traditionally been a part of the historical record are getting their voices heard. I’m so grateful to make these connections.
