Since well before our annual MLA meeting in Portland, I’ve been reflecting on the state of music librarianship, particularly in regard to issues of diversity and inclusion. I’m moving these musings to a semi-public forum (my FB wall), and I’m also going to post my thoughts here.
Today’s topic centers on the idea that many of us believe that we are good people by virtue of our profession. Fobazi Ettarh refers to this as “vocational awe,” defined as “the set of ideas, values, and assumptions librarians have about themselves and the profession that result in beliefs that libraries as institutions are inherently good and sacred, and therefore beyond critique” (see the full article, “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves,” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/ ). Librarians are often depicted as saviors, beneficent figures who humbly share their knowledge with those under-educated, perhaps misguided, souls beneath them. (for more on this, see Gina Schlesselman-Tarango’s “The Legacy of Lady Bountiful: White Women in the Library,” Library Trends 64, no. 4 (Spring 2016), 667-86, doi:10.1353/lib.2016.0015). The same idea applies to libraries, with any discussion about how they participate in and even support institutional racism largely lacking. I would argue that music librarians have additional issues to confront, namely the continuing dominance of the Western classical canon and the lack of progress in diversifying our schools of music.
To be clear, I am not stating that music librarians are bad people, but we do have a big problem with self-critique. There is a tendency to become defensive, even hostile, when topics related to diversity and inclusion are brought up. As we are constantly reminded of declining membership in our own professional organization, we are going to have to be honest that one of our problems is indeed related to changing demographics and our failure to do the work that will welcome ALL PEOPLE into our ranks.
That’s all for today. I welcome discussion on this topic. Tomorrow, I’m going to talk about our main forum for communication between meetings, MLA-L.