Welcome from the Editors

In the “Welcome from the Editors” introduction in our initial issue of Libraries: Culture, History, and Society, we made several promises to you, our readers. LCHS would be a journal run collaboratively with a cadre of associate editors that would embrace the journal’s strong EDI policy. Accordingly, it would provide a safe space for marginalized groups to be seen and heard as they relate their stories of encounters with libraries, librarians, and the larger world of organized librarianship. Recognizing that stories belong to the groups that experience them and not to nongroup members, we vowed to uncover new stories and to relate traditional stories through new lenses.This issue contains two articles that fulfill our self-imposed mandate. First, “For the Purpose of Instruction and Diversion: The Library at the South Dakota State Penitentiary,” by Lisa Lindell, explains how the library at the South Dakota men’s prison was founded based on the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century belief in the rehabilitative power of self-education through reading. Lindell describes how the library’s staffing and contents changed over time as different philosophies of education, rehabilitation, and inmate management prevailed, eventually leading to the closing of the library. The second article, “‘A Mighty Fist’: The Birth of the National Associations of Librarians of Color in the United States, 1970–1980,” by Alicia K. Long, recounts the history of five ethnic caucuses (the American Indian Library Association, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, the Chinese American Librarians Association, and REFORMA, the National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking) that eventually affiliated with the American Library Association. As the article’s main title indicates, these associations arose out of a recognition that Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) were minoritized members of overwhelmingly white ALA, whose “mighty fist” can be more effectively wielded from within their own ethnic associations.These articles make important contributions to inclusiveness in libraries. In today’s social and political landscape, it is imperative that all members of communities see themselves reflected in libraries and librarianship’s professional research and literature. Anything less than full inclusion leads to disempowerment and alienation. Curtis L. Kendrick has noted the paucity of BIPOC librarians; currently, the field is 86 to 88 percent white. In his issue brief, Changing the Racial Demographics of Librarians (Ithaka S+R, 2023), Kendrick notes proposals aimed at increasing the number of BIPOC candidates eligible for employment by libraries. Unfortunately, the brief makes few suggestions in regard to retaining BIPOC librarians in libraries.We recognize that library history can play a role in both recruiting and retaining underrepresented people in libraries. When BIPOC and other marginalized users see their stories included in the history of libraries, there is a greater chance that they will utilize the library and perhaps choose librarianship as a career. Consistent attention to the stories of library users and workers, told by members of those groups, will, we hope, keep users coming to the library and help to retain librarians from these groups in our profession. Past and present representation matters.As the only American scholarly journal of library history, LCHS provides opportunities to tell groups’ stories in a safe and brave space. The journal publishes individual articles, and we encourage authorship by members of the groups that are the focus of our articles. We also encourage journal special issues dedicated to relating the stories of BIPOC or other marginalized groups, edited by members of the communities under study. Dr. Nicole Cooke’s double issue (with overflow published in Library News & Notes) is a sterling example of Black librarians and scholars relating the stories of Black female librarians in their encounters with American librarianship. We hope that BIPOC and other minoritized groups such as LGBTQ+ or disabled people will be encouraged to nominate editors or create editorial collectives, solicit authors and manuscripts, and become involved in telling their stories of our profession. We welcome the opportunity to work with you!