So recently there have been a slew of anti-librarian legislation. Between library boards trying to remove the young adult designation or Louisiana’s HB 777 which would criminalize libraries or librarians who join the American Library Association with steep fines, jail time, or hard labor, it’s definitely a rough time to be a library worker.
But sometimes it’s the librarians who are doing the wrong things. In 2020 I wrote about the ways that various libraries were failing their employees and patrons. Whether it was inviting a known TERF to speak at the library (despite trans employees speaking out) or the downplaying of an actual Proud Boy in the library, library workers continue to uphold white supremacy in libraries.
Recently, an article came out about prison libraries. This article discussed the various ways this Texas women’s prison regulated and restricted the information the prisoners were allowed to access. And unfortunately one of the people restricting access to the prisoners was the librarian. Here is the full quote:
“People in solitary aren’t allowed to go to the prison library… we qualify for one book a week… the librarian always sends a Christian themed book.
How Texas Prisons Regulate Women’s Knowledge Behind Bars—
In 2018, I asked her, “Why don’t you give me what I request?” She said, “I’m called to save your heathen soul.”
Kwaneta Harris
As you can imagine, I was absolutely horrified when I read this. Librarianship is about the freedom to read, the freedom to choose materials that fit their needs and desires, and the freedom to privacy. It’s totally against our core values of librarianship of access and equity and privacy. It’s why we have a Library Bill of Rights. It’s why these stories about book banning and censorship are so horrible.
Most of the responses to the article and to the librarians words were repudiative and dismissive. That is to say the common response was “that person is not a real librarian.”
So, yes I was horrified. But was I surprised? No. Librarianship has a long history of trying to “civilize” the patrons that come into the library. Dewey hired women because he believed they would be a caring and civilizing influence. Women’s entry into public librarianship was only justified to the patriarchal authority by emphasizing how their femininity made them inherently fit to do the work. The abundance of white women in librarianship was not an accident, but done on purpose as they were considered germane for the moralizing missionary projects meant to “civilize”
early library users (Augst, 2001; Eddy, 2001; Garrison, 1979; Pawley, 2006;
Rubin, 2010). And Gina Schlesselman-Tarango‘s article “The Legacy of Lady Bountiful: White Women in the Library” discusses the archetype of Lady Bountiful and her role in librarianship as the “ideal woman/worker.” Lady Bountiful’s job/purpose was to reform others’ characters. And her ability to do so is directly attributed to her sex, and they thus carried a charge that was missionary in nature and emphasized “saving souls.” (Gerard, 1987). In fact part of the criteria for admittance into library school for white women was based on their personality, specifically their “breeding and background” as well as “the missionary spirit, cultural strength . . . gentleness, and sense of literary values” (Garrison, 1979).
And so you see, as much as we want to deny this Texan librarian as “not a real librarian” she is in many ways the quintessential librarian. She is only continuing the long line of (white) women who see their job as librarians as missionary work to save the souls of those they consider beneath them. And prisoners in most people’s perceptions are considered subhuman.
I don’t really have anything else to say except for please stop being shocked. POC have been telling you this forever. Trans people have been telling you this forever. Queer people have been telling you this forever. The disabled have you been telling you this forever. It is exhausting to see the disbelief and the repudiation. It’s exhausting to see the constant denial of a truth that we (should) all know— there is no one true librarian. There are plenty of librarians who are homophobic and transphobic and racist and sexist and ableist and so on. There are plenty of librarians who believe their job is to “civilize the rabble.” There are plenty of librarians who are also KKK members and Proud Boys. And not matter how much as we wish it wasn’t so these librarians will continue to exist. The foundation of librarianship has always been white supremacy. Librarianship is an institution, and all institutions are built according to hegemonic values which are inherently exclusionary to all populations considered “unworthy.” The sooner we as a field recognize that, the sooner we can actually start to make change. I’ve said this all already in my post “This is who we are” and I hope that I won’t have to make a 3rd post about this.
Works cited:
Augst, T. (2001). Introduction: American libraries and agencies of culture. American Studies, 42(3), 5–22.
Eddy, J. (2001). “We have become too tender-hearted”: The language of gender in the public library, 1880–1920. American Studies, 42(3), 155–172.
Garrison, D. (1972). The tender technicians: The feminization of public librarianship, 1876–1920. Journal of Social History, 6(2), 131–159.
Garrison, D. (1979). Apostles of culture: The public librarian and American society, 1876–1920. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Gerard, J. (1987). Lady bountiful: Women of the landed classes and rural philanthropy.
Victorian Studies, 30(2), 183-210.
Pawley. (2006). Unequal legacies: Race and multiculturalism in the LIS curriculum. Library Quarterly, 76(2), 149–168.
Rubin, R. (2010). Foundations of library and information science. New York: Neal-Schuman.
Schlesselman-Tarango, Gina, “The Legacy of Lady Bountiful: White Women in the Library” (2016). Library Faculty Publications. 34.
*This post is unedited, so any mistakes are on me. Thanks for reading!
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