HSLI Newsletter

(via Melissa Johnson, Augusta University)

Are you building a graphic novel collection? Do you integrate movie clips and memes into library instruction? Do you use video games for library programming?

We invite chapter proposals for a forthcoming book from Rowman & Littlefield, Integrating Pop Culture into the Academic Library. This book will explore how popular culture is used in academic libraries for developing collections, providing instruction, and presenting outreach programs. This book will describe the foundational basis for using popular culture and discuss how popular culture promotes conversations between librarians and students, making information and library personnel relatable. The editors are librarians who utilize popular culture in various ways to provide instruction and reinforce information literacy concepts.

The focus of this book is to provide a theoretical basis for the use of pop culture and practical examples of how others can integrate it into their own libraries. We invite chapters on topics including, but not limited to, the following ones.

• defining popular culture
• popular culture pedagogy
• diversity, equity, and inclusion in popular culture pedagogy
• critical information literacy and popular culture
• institutional culture and popular culture use
• copyright and popular culture
• examples of popular culture collections in academic libraries (e.g., movies, video games, comics, popular novels, etc.) and their use
• case studies of developing popular culture collections (particular interest in emerging areas such as comics, zines, memes, social media, popular music, etc.)
• issues surrounding popular culture collections, such as use, need, budget, copyright, storage, etc.
• how to integrate popular culture into information literacy instruction
• student reactions to popular culture in the classroom
• case studies of popular culture-infused lessons (music, movies, television, video games, memes, etc.)
• challenges accessing popular culture in the classroom
• how to integrate popular culture into programming
• student reactions to popular culture programming
• case studies of popular culture programs (music, movies, television, video games, memes, etc.)
• challenges accessing and using popular culture for programming

Proposals are due Thursday, April 15. E-mail an abstract (300-500 words) and author bios (up to 100 words) as a Word document to librarypopculture@gmail.com. Notifications of acceptance will go out by Saturday, May 15. Final chapters will be between 4,000-6,000 words and due by Wednesday, September 1. Projected publication is in 2022.

(via Jill Emery, Portland State University)

The co-editors of Collaborative Librarianship invite proposals for a themed, double issue of the journal on collaboration for equity, diversity and inclusion. See below for details.

Throughout the world, thousands have been protesting police brutality and systemic oppression following the brutal killings of Black Americans including George Floyd in Minnesota, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, and Breonna Taylor in Kentucky. The ongoing attacks on the BIPOC and LGBTQ communities, along with the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic, illustrate how racism, sexism, and homophobia manifest in systems, policies, norms, practices, and behaviors that oppress marginalized communities. It is incumbent upon libraries to examine our institutions’ role in sustaining these systems of inequity in order to create a more inclusive profession.

This themed issue seeks to advance diversity and equity in libraries through research, commentary, theory, and practice. Engaged scholarship that draws from lived experience, praxis, and/or critical theory is encouraged. We welcome articles from professionals working in all types of libraries and institutions. In keeping with the overall focus of the journal, all proposals must center collaboration as a key component of the work of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Through this issue, we aim not only to advance diversity and equity in libraries but also to generate lessons for the communities and patrons we serve.

Proposal submissions may include (but are not limited to) the following topics.

• collection-diversification efforts
• recruitment and retention of librarians of color
• addressing whiteness in librarianship
• supporting diverse patron populations
• incorporation of critical pedagogies or anti-racism into information literacy instruction
• partnerships for EDI work
• other EDI initiatives

The journal Collaborative Librarianship is an open-access, scholarly journal with publishing opportunities for both peer-reviewed articles as well as professional practice reports and columns.

The deadline to submit a proposal is Monday, March 22. For full details on the call for proposals, please go here. Direct any questions to the co-editors, Carrie Forbes, at Carrie.Forbes@du.edu, and Chris Robinson-Nkongola, at audrecr@bgsu.edu.

(via Amy Tureen–University of Nevada, Las Vegas)

The deadline for chapter proposals for the forthcoming text Intersections of Wellness and Leadership in Higher Education has been extended to Friday, February 24. Higher education employees are invited to submit chapters focused on the intersections of wellness and leadership of all types. Chapter topics can include, but are not limited it, the following:

• strategies for developing wellness habits/practices
• coping techniques and practices for new leaders
• mentorship & wellness
• unique wellness challenges/needs for BIPOC leaders in higher education
• unique wellness challenges/needs for LGBTQIA+ leaders in higher education
• unique wellness challenges/needs for leaders at for-profit higher education institutions
• unique wellness challenges/needs for higher education leaders with parenting/caretaking responsibilities
• unique wellness challenges/needs for higher education leaders experiencing chronic illness or disability
• COVID-19
• barriers to wellness
• developing wellness-focused organizations
• emotional health
• faith as a component of wellness
• physical impact of extended stress
• learning mindset
• vulnerability & leadership
• cohorts & support systems
• navigating HR & FMLA policies
• navigating wellness related benefit policies
• wellness incentive programs
• emotional labor
• imposter syndrome
• mental load
• compassion fatigue

The full call for chapters is available here.

(via Garrett Trott, University Librarian at Corban University)

In light of recent events in the country and in recognition of long-standing inequities in the library profession, Theological Librarianship (TL) is planning to devote the Spring 2021 issue to a forum addressing questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion in theological libraries and librarianship. Such questions take different forms in different libraries and even in different theological contexts, and we expect the forum to reflect some of these differences as well as some common themes across the landscape of theological librarianship. The TL forum will be an opportunity to share your experiences with these questions at your institution in a brief (750-1500 word) statement or reflection.

Since diversity, equity, and inclusion (themselves often fraught terms) evoke a variety of concerns and realties touching race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, class, disability, religious and ethnic identity, etc., TL is looking for submissions that address this variety in critical and constructive ways, with a special focus on the intersectional nature of differing religious commitments and theological perspectives as they engage with other forms of diversity.

Theological Librarianship is an open-access journal publishing peer reviewed articles, as well as essays and reviews, on subjects at the intersection of librarianship and religious and theological studies that potentially impact libraries.

The deadline for submissions to the Spring 2021 forum has been extended to Sunday, February 28. Submissions must be made here. Please review the submission guidelines carefully. You will need to login to create your submission. If you have not previously created an account, you will need to register first before a submission can be completed. In the submission form, select “Special Forum” under the Section drop-down.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our editorial team, at editors-tl@atla.com.