Addressing the History of Discrimination and Bias in Past and Current Library Systems

Introduction

United States libraries are making the same mistakes as United States education by not addressing the full truth of their discriminatory history. Six states have passed anti-Critical Race Theory laws while twenty have plans or discussions in the works (Ray, 2021). Banning the discussion of race and racial history does not make it go away. Libraries and librarians take pride in being active in inclusion efforts and social justice, while the truth is that while libraries have worked towards inclusion, there is still a long way to go and difficult steps ahead. Displays, events, and other wonderful efforts are popular at academic and public libraries. But these events do not include the discussion of libraries’ history of exclusion and tendency toward the ‘White default’. Exclusionary practices of the past and present include segregated libraries, lack of LGBT+ content well through the Aids Crisis, lack of materials for the visually challenged, collection diversity issues, and so forth. Library systems, such as Dewey and the Library of Congress, have come under fire recently for outdated terminology and procedures. In this chapter, the author will explore how libraries can address an exclusionary history, and what practices have persisted or developed from this history that librarians must address in current times. There are many avenues and areas of discussion for this topic, but this chapter will function as an introduction to the topic and touch on some of the principal areas in libraries where this persists as a problem.