About the Racial Justice Project
Brown University is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and as the University’s academic library, we share that commitment. In response to the unjust violence against Black, Indigenous, and People of Color and as part of ongoing initiatives to fully integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout all facets of the organization, the Library launched the Racial Justice Project in mid-2020. The members of the Racial Justice Project team will use a research-based rubric to study how structural racism manifests in the Library — ultimately determining and implementing a plan of action to become a just, equitable, and inclusive site of free and open inquiry. The results will begin a process of integrating social justice into our core services so that our community feels welcome in our spaces and so that our approaches to materials, methods, and accessibility of scholarship reflect the backgrounds and experiences of Brown University students, faculty and staff, local and regional communities, and the global scholarly community.
Racial Justice Project team members:
- Amanda Strauss, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections (Chair)
- Tiffini Bowers, Head, Exhibitions & Engagement and Curator for Visual and Ephemeral Collections
- Emily Ferrier, Social Science and Entrepreneurship Librarian
- Patricia Figueroa, Curator, Iberian and Latin American Collections
- Roland Harper, Senior Library Associate Specialist – Special Collections – Reader Services
- Nirva LaFortune, Assistant Director of the Curricular Resource Center
- Daniel O’Mahony, Director, Library Planning & Assessment
Vision Statement
Brown University Library seeks to be a site of racial justice, wherein its services and policies are grounded in principles of equitable access, opportunity, treatment, impact, and outcomes for students, faculty, and community members. Through this project, the Library will examine how structural and institutional racism manifest within its collections, physical spaces, patron services, and instruction program. The Library will conduct an iterative self-study process that will evaluate these areas through a lens of anti-racism. The project will occur during the academic year 2020-21, and will produce a list of measurable, concrete changes that can be made in the short, medium, and long-term. This project does not address interpersonal or individual racism.
Project Goals
1. Common Vocabulary
Build a common vocabulary around racial justice and learn how to apply concepts drawn from critical race theory to our everyday work as a library.
2. Self Study
Conduct a thorough and focused self-study during the academic year 2020-21 to identify how structural racism manifests itself in four core areas of the Library: collections, instruction, patron interactions, and physical spaces.
3. Set Goals
Formulate a set of measurable and actionable short, medium, and long-term goals for how the Library can move towards racial justice in the four sites of inquiry.
4. Contribute
Ensure that the Library – a space of knowledge, innovation, and creativity – contributes to advancing the critical work of racial justice on campus and beyond.
Anti-racist structural analysis
The structural analysis will be an iterative process that gathers data, analyzes it against a defined rubric, and shares the results with the community. The analysis will initially focus on four sites of inquiry, which were chosen because they have a direct, continuous impact on campus.
The sites of inquiry that will be addressed are:
- Collections: assess gaps in holdings, stewardship, and access to scholarly materials
- Instruction: individual, project and course-related support, methods, formats, training and outreach
- Patron services: range of individualized and collective services offered to students faculty, researchers and the public
- Physical spaces: functional environments that engender collaborative learning, study, teaching and research
Brown University Library Social Justice Rubric
This rubric is an assessment tool with social justice criteria formulated to more objectively benchmark and realize the goal of dismantling institutional and structural racism within the Brown University Library. The analytic design combines both qualitative and quantitative approaches, supports concept integration, and is robust to allow for extractive and flexible use. The rubric was developed with the help of internal (Sheridan Center), external consultation, and the input and expertise of the project steering committee. As the rubric is refined, new versions will be posted here.
The rubric is a free resource that can be adapted and used by other libraries.
Preferred citation: Brown University Library Social Justice Rubric.
Key Definitions
Racial justice
Racial justice is the proactive reinforcement of policies, practices, attitudes and actions that produce equitable power, access, opportunities, treatment, impacts and outcomes for all.
Social justice
Racial justice is a component of social justice; the two are inextricably linked. Social justice often refers to human rights, centered around improving the lives of groups historically marginalized based on race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion and disability. It can be distilled into the framework of equal rights, opportunity, and treatment for all.
Structural racism
The overarching system of racial bias across institutions and society. These systems provide race-based advantages to white people resulting in disadvantages to people of color.
Institutional racism
Institutional racism is discriminatory treatment, unfair policies and inequitable opportunities and impacts, based on race, produced and perpetuated by institutions (schools, mass media, etc.). Institutional racism can be explicit or not, and Individuals within institutions take on the power of the institution when they act in ways that advantage and disadvantage people, based on race.
Anti-racist
Anti-racist refers to the conscious decision to recognize and dismantle racism in all forms. Anti-racist is not a static state of being, but rather it requires ongoing self-reflection and self-awareness, which results in actively combatting racism. In the absence of making antiracist choices, we (un)consciously uphold aspects of white supremacy, white-dominant culture, and unequal institutions and society. Being racist or antiracist is not about who you are; it is about what you do.
Interpersonal racism
Interpersonal racism occurs between individuals. These are public expressions of racism, often involving slurs, biases, or hateful words or actions.
Individual racism
Individual racism refers to the beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism in conscious and unconscious ways. The U.S. cultural narrative about racism typically focuses on individual racism and fails to recognize systemic racism.