Invisible Debility: Attitudes toward the Underrepresented in Library Workplaces

Abstract

The American Library Association is committed to recruiting persons of color and those with disabilities to the profession, yet these groups are underrepresented among librarians. While intentional discrimination was the impetus for the Civil Rights Act of 1964, empirical studies in the workplace have exposed continued discrimination through unconscious bias. Extending such research to the library profession raises the question: How do librarians perceive the underrepresented as potential fellow library staff? In my recently conducted study of public library staff and future librarians, participants agreed that library staff should represent the diversity of the communities served; there was little support, however, for actively attempting to advance proportional representation through education or hiring.

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