BIPOC Become Librarians: A Qualitative Study of Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Librarianship

San José State University’s (SJSU) Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, in collaboration with the SJSU School of Information and the San José Public Library, established BIPOC Become Librarians (BBL), a pilot mentorship and internship initiative aimed at increasing awareness of and access to careers in library and information science (LIS) for undergraduate students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). This research was grant-funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), grant no. RE-252403-OLS-22, to support diversity initiatives within librarianship. This portion of the grant, which occurred over six months, informed the development of BBL’s pilot mentorship and internship program to meet the unique mentorship needs of BIPOC undergraduate students. Project activities included recruiting BIPOC undergraduate students, facilitating focus groups, selecting mentors, mentees, and trainers, establishing internship partnerships, conducting ongoing project evaluation, developing curriculum and shareable resources, and disseminating findings.