Wiegand and Davis’ article, “Race issues in Library History” (1994) focuses on library race issues in relation to the American Library Association (ALA), rather than adopting a broader lens on the history of race in libraries and librarianship as a profession. They state their narrow scope in the opening sentence: “…this article considers the issue of race mostly from the perspective of the history of the American Library Association, the oldest and largest professional library association in the world…”.
Keeping with the stated focus of study, Wiegand and Davis discuss various ALA landmark events concerning race relations in librarianship such as the ALA’s first concern with library service to blacks (1913), ALA’s Round Table on “Work with Negroes” (1922), the 1954 push to create one ALA chapter per state rather than have segregated chapters, and the addition to the Library Bill of Rights stating library use cannot be denied to people because of race, religion, national origins or legal views (1961). All of these events are important when studying race relations in library science; however Wiegand and Davis’ limited study of only the ALA does the issue injustice.
This becomes apparent when comparing the encyclopedia article with “‘The Place to Go’: The 135th Street Branch Library and the Harlem Renaissance” by Anderson. This article offers incite as to true race relations in libraries, instead of simply focusing on the ALA’s response to these racial issues. The fact that the creation of a library “Division of Negro Literature, History and Prints” in 1925 goes unmentioned by Wiegand and Davis illustrates the failure of the article to paint a history of race issues in libraries.
Wiegand and Davis could not have picked this limited scope without reason; why did they choose to focus on the ALA’s response to race issues instead of focusing on occurrences in libraries such as the desegregation of libraries and the hiring history of black librarians?
(P.S. - It has been pointed out to me that this article is by Josey, Weigand and Davis are the eds. Whoops. So, when reading this please mentally insert Josey rather than W&D. Apologies.)
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3 comments:
Whoops. It is by Josey. I take back all the ill feelings I expressed towards Wiegand and Davis. (Or on second thought maybe I don't considering they approved Josey's writing of the article).
Well I hesitate to to post this blog based on what everyone else has written but here it is anyway...
Perhaps Prof. Josey’s aim was to demonstrate how deeply rooted racism was in American librarianship by discussing the reluctance of the ostensibly progressive ALA to aggressively address the issues of racial segregation within it’s own organization. Libraries wishing to integrate probably could not get direction or instruction from the ALA for due to its passive attitude. It would be necessary for the ALA the set the ideal example of racial integration before any real progress could be made elsewhere in librarianship.
For more information about Prof. Josey see: www2.sis.pitt.edu/ejjosey/
I was also surprised to see an encyclopedia article suddenly turn into a first-person account. I found Josey's personal stories interesting, but this piece probably would have been better if he'd written it as an essay about his own experiences.
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