A New Leadership Brief From the Urban Libraries Council: “Anti-Racist Executive Leadership for Public Libraries”

From the Overview Section of the Brief:

The police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and other African Americans in 2020 ignited a new wave of public demand for race equity and social justice. At the same time, COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous and people of color has further amplified and exposed racism’s deep roots and sustained harm across our society. For library leaders, these events were painful reminders of how deeply racism is embedded not only in our communities but also within our libraries. As part of effectively advancing systemic change and dismantling structural racism in our communities, there is an urgent need for libraries to do the hard, foundational work of facing and actively addressing the racism internal to our institutions and our profession.There is no shortcut or easy solution for this work. It requires leaders at the highest levels of the organization who are openly and passionately dedicated to driving their libraries forward on their anti-racist journeys.As communities everywhere recover from and move beyond the pandemic, racism will not be left behind. It is up to today’s library executives to lead the charge for the institutional reckoning and racial healing that is long overdue in today’s public libraries.

Direct to Full Text Leadership Brief
4 pages; PDF.

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