Serving Hispanic, Latine, and Latinx Students in Academic Libraries
Editors: Sommer Browning and M. Isabel Soto-Luna
Price: $60
June 2024
ISBN: 978-1-63400-137-3
304 pages
Series on Critical Race Studies and Multiculturalism in LISServing Hispanic, Latine, and Latinx Students in Academic Libraries is a collection of essays written by library workers that highlights academic library practices, programs, and services that support Hispanic, Latine, and Latinx students. As of 2020, there were over 500 federally designated Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the United States and Puerto Rico with another 300 designated as “emerging”. But this is only part of the picture; there are many more institutions of higher education with large Latinx populations that do not have this designation. This book seeks to bring attention to the important and exciting work being done in the libraries of these community colleges and research-centered institutions. With chapters on information literacy, special collections, collection management, critical pedagogy, and many others, this is an essential book for library workers searching for new programs and fresh ways to support their Hispanic and Latine students.
Isabel Soto-Luna is the Business Librarian at the University of Nebraska Omaha. She is a 2017 -18 Spectrum Scholar and 2020 – 2021 ALA Emerging Leader. Her research interests include DEAI in education and community, Open Access, and Open Educational Resources.
Sommer Browning is Associate Director of Technical Services at Auraria Library, the library for Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and University of Colorado Denver. Her research interests include making access to electronic research materials equitable and streamlined and the intersection of creativity and librarianship.
“This book fills an important gap in the literature. Browning and Soto-Luna have assembled an impressive collection of essays representing activities at a broad range of institutions, with resources and services spanning all the departments in an academic library. Whether you work in archives, instruction, collections, programming, outreach, or reference, you will find sound advice on how to better serve our Hispanic, Latine, and Latinx students.”
Martin L. Garnar, Library Director, Amherst College
“The new voices, perspectives, ideas and experiences leap off each page, each chapter. Our academic library profession owe Ms. Browning and Ms. Soto-Luna our highest appreciation and recognition for this groundbreaking work. I believe this seminal work lays a foundation for both future services, collections and, most importantly, Latine library scholarship.”
Jon E. Cawthorne, Ph.D., ACRL President, 2020-21, Dean of University Libraries at Wayne State University
“This groundbreaking book fills a void in the professional literature. To those who work in academic libraries serving significant numbers of Hispanic, Latine, Latinx students — put this book on your must-read list! It is an outstanding edited collection of articles by academic library professionals from various backgrounds, most of whom identify as Latine, Hispanic, Chicanx, Black, Brown, Asian, and/or Indigenous. The editors, Sommer Browning and Isabel Soto-Luna, have put together a much-needed resource that amplifies the voices of those on the front lines who are providing exciting and innovative library services and resources. The authors share their ideas on how to better serve this fast-growing population of students, and in so doing they inspire fellow academic librarians to decolonize the academic library. Essential reading for anyone interested in diversity, equity, and inclusion in academic libraries!”
Orlando Archibeque, Emeritus Senior Instructor, Auraria Library, University of Colorado Denver, 2019 Elizabeth Martinez Lifetime Achievement REFORMA Award Winner
“Serving Hispanic, Latine, and Latinx Students in Academic Libraries is the volume I have waited for all my library career. Much of my work in and writing about libraries has centered on the role they play in facilitating educational, economic, social, and democratic access. This book takes on each of these areas through a specific and timely cultural lens and in so doing critically expands library and educational scholarship. Information services practitioners and academics will benefit greatly from topics and themes that range from authenticity and community building to archives and digital pedagogy.”
Tracie D. Hall, ALA Executive Director, 1998 Spectrum Scholar