Antiracism at the Library

Statement

Members of the J. Paul Leonard Library staff, faculty, and administration are committed to combating racism and bringing an antiracist lens to our everyday work by actively identifying and countering racist ideas, rhetoric, policy, and systems in our library. We know that libraries have historically played a role in maintaining longstanding systems of oppression based on race. Recognizing that many at SF State have personally experienced racism and marginalization, we are also dedicated to ensuring that everyone in our community feels welcomed, valued, respected, and seen. We advocate and support similar work being done on our campus, in our communities, and throughout the library profession. 

Words matter, but a statement like this means little without action. That’s why we are also creating annual antiracism action plans, setting concrete goals, and committing to assess our progress regularly.

Published August 2024

    Commitments

    • Confront bias and white supremacy in library practices and policies.
    • Update our recruitment and retention practices to enact more inclusive practices for BIPOC library workers and members of other marginalized groups.
    • Incorporate a critical awareness of the intersectionality of all identities and lived experiences into our antiracist practices.
    • Set specific and measurable goals at all levels of the organization and hold ourselves accountable through periodic assessment.
    • Regularly seek community feedback to shape our antiracist action plans and evaluate the outcomes.
    • Connect with other groups and individuals working toward transformative change on campus.

    Goals & Action Plans

    2024 – 25 Academic Year

    • This year's antiracism action plan will be developed as part of library-wide strategic planning.

    2021 – 22 Academic Year

    • One Library, Many Stories: Antiracism — This group, formed in 2020 – 21, continued to facilitate One Library One Book discussion sessions focused on shared reading or viewing of antiracist books and films. 
    • Content Warnings Group — This group, also formed in 2020 – 21, finalized a Statement on Harmful Content and Description and developed a form for reporting concerns with library materials that may contain language or imagery that is racist, sexist, homophobic, violent, etc. The group developed a process for reviewing this feedback and adding subsequent content warnings.
    • Reparative Descriptive Work Group — This group was created in Special Collections & Archives in 2021 to address collections and finding aids containing harmful content. It developed an anti-oppressive assessment rubric and language to insert in finding aids to alert users to finding aids and collections containing potential harmful language and items.
    • Unit-Level Planning — The associate university librarian and interim head of Collection Management Services and Scholarly Communication worked with individual units in Spring 2022 to develop specific goals in support of our library-wide commitment to antiracism.

    2020 – 21 Academic Year

    Our Associate University Librarian’s Council initiated the creation of three working groups in the spring of 2021 to focus on the following priorities. All library faculty and staff were invited to join in these projects:

    • Antiracism Statement Group — This group conducted a review of antiracism statements, drafted an antiracism statement for the library’s website, and solicited feedback.
    • Antiracism Discussion Group — This group facilitated One Library One Book discussion sessions focused on shared reading or viewing of antiracist books and films, beginning with our inaugural reading of Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist.
    • Content Warnings Group — This group worked on developing content warnings for our collections to warn users before they click on library materials that may contain language or imagery that is racist, sexist, homophobic, violent, etc. While the library does not endorse such ideas, we do have materials that express them that we make accessible for historical or research purposes. 
    • Reparative Descriptive Work Group  — This group set a timeline and goals for the number of legacy finding aids to be assessed.

    2019 – 20 Academic Year

    • Antiracism Statement — A group of library faculty and staff collaborated on a J. Paul Leonard Library Workers Statement on Anti-Racism in June of 2020. The statement was inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, and in it, library workers committed to a range of antiracist actions intended to address the systemic racism that Black members of our communities face. Many of those actions will take time and broad consultation with our campus community as well as other stakeholders to achieve, and some things may not be feasible at this time or might have to look different. However, the library’s faculty and staff will continue to refer back to this statement for ideas and inspiration. 
    • Antiracism Resources Guide — Library faculty and staff also collaborated on our Antiracism Resources Guide in the summer of 2020.
    • Black Lives Matter Wikipedia Edit-a-thons — The library’s Digital Scholarship Center began hosting Black Lives Matter Wikipedia edit-a-thons in July of 2020. These edit-a-thons were held on a monthly basis and were open to our entire campus community.