University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"Louder for the people in the back": Amplifying historically marginalized voices through qualitative research

Montague, Kaitlin; Ackerman, Matthew; Senteio, Charles

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117950

Description

Title
"Louder for the people in the back": Amplifying historically marginalized voices through qualitative research
Author(s)
  • Montague, Kaitlin
  • Ackerman, Matthew
  • Senteio, Charles
Issue Date
2022-10
Keyword(s)
  • Qualitative research methods
  • Social justice
  • Community engagement
  • Underrepresented populations
  • Research methods
  • Specific populations
  • Community and civic organizations
  • Community-led services
Abstract
Racial segregation in publicly funded libraries in the United States was generally accepted until 1964 when the Civil Rights Act made it illegal. Today, public libraries continue to be beset by underrepresentation and discrimination. Current literature calls to improve the LIS landscape by integrating social justice and equity into research, education, and practice while also confronting systemic racism. In this paper, we posit to improve LIS research by diversifying representation through qualitative methods by including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) perspectives and participation to help address the persistent negative impacts of racial discrimination. We demonstrate how qualitative methods are vital to more fully elicit the stories, experiences, feelings, and perspectives of historically marginalized populations. We include advice through verbatim quotations from a BIPOC community leader with extensive experience with LIS research which promotes understanding and empathy as LIS continues to confront historical and contemporary racial discrimination.
Series/Report Name or Number
Proceedings of the ALISE Annual Conference, 2022
Type of Resource
text
Language
eng
Handle URL
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117950
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21900/j.alise.2022.1014
Copyright and License Information
  • Copyright 2022 Kaitlin Montague, Matthew Ackerman, Charles Senteio
  • This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

Owning Collections

Proceedings of the ALISE Annual Conference: ALISE 2022 PRIMARY
Go Back and Get It: From One Narrative to Many