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Managing Without Capitalism: Transforming Library Leadership In Service Of Anti-Racism, Inclusion, And Equity, Heather Slania

New Librarianship Symposia Series: Fall 2021

Library leaders at all levels are grappling with addressing institutional racism. Despite years of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) interventions and a recognition of the overwhelming whiteness of libraries, the profession is not a better or safer place for library workers of color, people from other marginalized communities, or anyone who has had to endure the normalized toxic library work environment.

Leaders are stuck and previous interventions have failed primarily due to two factors:

• Modern libraries (and the institutions that hold them) were constructed as tools of white supremacy.

• Library leadership and management concepts/practices are rooted in capitalism.

Numerous …