Friday, October 05, 2018

Call for Chapters: Underserved Patrons in University Libraries: Assisting Students Facing Trauma, Abuse, and Discrimination

We are seeking chapter proposals for a new volume, Underserved Patrons in University Libraries: Assisting Students Facing Trauma, Abuse, and Discrimination, edited by Julia Skinner and Melissa Gross and published by Libraries Unlimited.

We are seeking proposals from professionals across the field of librarianship, broadly defined. This includes professional librarians as well as graduate students, faculty, and paraprofessionals. 

We are particularly interested in chapters that consider the intersection of theory and praxis, and which offer actionable advice to improve programs and services. 
While case studies of individual programs will be considered, these should be contextualized within the larger discourse of the field (e.g. what gaps in service was this filling? How is this instance different from other offerings at other institutions? How does it relate to the literature, and how does sharing this case move the literature beyond where it is now?) 

In all cases, our role as providers of information and resources, and creators of valuable programming is emphasized: We do not seek to situate library professionals in other professional contexts (such as counseling) that require duties they may not be qualified to perform. Subjects to cover include, but are not limited to, the following:

•       Assisting students attending school after a period of incarceration
•       Providing information services to sexual assault and abuse survivors
•       Providing information services to survivors of domestic violence
•       Information work with immigrants and refugees
•       Information services for students with mental illness
•       Information assistance for non-English speakers
•       Working with students attending school while facing financial difficulties and/or homelessness
•       Addressing the information needs of dual-enrolled high school students
•       Serving international students in the academic library
•       Serving older adult students in the academic library
•       Offering meaningful library services to queer and trans* communities
•       Working with patrons facing racial discrimination
•       Stigma and the differently abled community on campus
•       The importance of visibility and representation for underserved and marginalized communities in library programming, staffing, and collections
•       Cultural competency: Information services for multicultural students
•       Neurodiversity: Serving students on the spectrum
•       Assisting patrons with HIV/AIDS and other stigmatizing illnesses
•       When religious identification is a concern for students seeking information
•       Critical illness
•       First generation college students
•       Serving student veterans

To submit a proposal:

Chapter proposals of roughly 250-500 words are due by January 15, 2019 and should address the chapter’s approach and structure, and how the chapter expands upon existing literature.  Please also include a brief bio for each author.

Send completed proposals to JuliaCSkinner@gmail.com and mgross@fsu.edu 

Authors will be notified of editor decisions by March 1st, 2019, and chapters will be due to the editors on November 1st, 2019. 

About the Editors: 

Dr. Julia Skinner received her Ph.D. in Library and Information Studies from Florida State University. She is involved in community work personally and professionally and emphasizes the intersection of theory and praxis in her teaching and research work. She is a member of the Georgia State Board for the Certification of Librarians, a former department director, and the owner of Root, a small business exploring the intersections between food and community. She has written 2 books,13 single-author articles and chapters, and 12 reviews, and co-authored 1 book and 3 articles. She has won numerous awards, including a Phyllis Dain dissertation award honorable mention, Beta Phi Mu membership, ALISE featured presentation, and Salem Press Best Newcomer Award (won in collaboration with the rest of the Hack Library School blogging team). 

Dr. Melissa Gross is a professor in the School of Information at Florida State University and a past president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE).  She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1998 and was awarded the prestigious American Association of University Women Recognition Award for Emerging Scholars in 2001. Dr. Gross has published extensively in a variety of peer reviewed journals including Library and Information Science Research, Library Quarterly, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, and College & Research Libraries. She has authored, co-authored, or co-edited nine books. Her forthcoming edited book, with co-editors Shelbie Witte and Don Latham, is Literacy Engagement through Peritextual Analysis (Chicago, IL: ALA Editions).