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Amid growing isolationism after World War I, the American Library Association transferred its wartime programs to train librarians in Europe and promote the American model of public libraries. Working in collaboration with American philanthropists and members of the French library community, ALA established a permanent library school in Paris that operated from 1924 to 1929. This article traces the schoolâ€™s evolution from an ALArun program for a few French librarians to a center for internatio (1)

Counterstorytelling is defined by critical race theory scholars as a method of telling the stories of those people whose experiences are not often told, including people of color, the poor, and members of the LGBTQ community. This article discusses multicultural young adult literature as a form of counterstorytelling, with an emphasis on how counterstories challenge the stereotypes often held by the dominant culture, give voice to marginalized youth, and present the complexity of racial and ethn (1)

Critiques of hegemonic library classification structures and controlled vocabularies have a rich history in information studies. This project has pointed out the trouble with classification and cataloging decisions that are framed as objective and neutral but are always ideological and worked to correct bias in library structures. Viewing knowledge organization systems from a queer perspective, however, challenges the idea that classification and subject language can ever be finally corrected. E (1)

Drawing on the authorâ€™s experience as an information professional for individuals with disabilities, this article discusses the challenges faced by both library users and staff in obtaining and providing information to this community. It poses four questions: Where do individuals with disabilities fit into diversity studies? Do individuals with disabilities come into our libraries? If not, why not? What can we do for current staffs to make sure they are prepared to serve the disabled of their (1)

Eleanor (Edwards) Ledbetter, who served immigrant populations in Cleveland throughout most of the Progressive Era and the Great Depression, was one of the first librarians to advocate for multiculturalism (then called cultural pluralism) as opposed to Americanism. In providing multicultural and multilingual library services for immigrants, Ledbetter was active locally as librarian at the Broadway Branch of the Cleveland Public Library and member of the Cleveland Americanization Committee and nat (1)

In college, I was surprised by the excitement of those in the student union who were hovering over the headlines in the local newspaper: â€œRussia Launches the First Satellite â€¦â€کSputnik.â€™â€‌ Russia had won the â€œrace to space.â€‌ How could Russia, where the majority of the population had only learned to read and write in the last fifty years, outdo the United States? Hereâ€™s how: in 1945 the Allies allocated Berlin to Russia. Russia seized German scientists and Jewish intellectuals in co (1)

In the eighteenth century there were enough printed sources and archival materials to challenge or even overwhelm historians of that day. Two productive editors of lexicons and information management were Christian Gottlieb Jأ¶cher, who taught history at the University of Leipzig and became the chief librarian at his university, and Johann Heinrich Zedler, an eminent collector of biographical data. Jأ¶cher published his multivolume Allegemeines Gelehrten Lexicon in 1750â€“51. Jأ¶cherâ€™s chief r (1)

In the twentyfirst century, organizations need to actively work to foster diversity. This is important because it is the just response to an uneven playing field, because the rapidly changing demographics in the United States demand that institutions be responsive if they are to survive, and because heterogeneous groups are more effective than homogeneous groups. Culturally competent organizationsâ€”whether they are schools, colleges, or librariesâ€”have three elements in common: (1) they foster (1)

New homegrown groups such as iDiversity call attention to the important and essential role that studentbased groups play in promoting cultural competency within their own institutions and the profession at large. The iDiversity story outlines (1) how student engagement can be transformed into leadership and action by diversity focus within the curriculum, faculty guidance, and support from the information community, (2) how student organizations can inform library and information science educati (1)

Public libraries are heavily affected by political and policymaking processes that shape the funding, activities, and roles of libraries in society, with the explosion of information policy decisions in the past two decades significantly increasing the responsibilities of libraries while also increasing limitations on their activities. Research in library and information science, however, has paid scant attention to these issues over time. If libraries are to be able to effectively advocate for (1)