¡Presente!: Affirming Latinx voices within health sciences library scholarship

Aidy Weeks; Adela V Justice; Ruby Nugent; Bredny Rodriguez; Brenda Linares

doi:10.5195/jmla.2021.1295

¡Presente!: Affirming Latinx voices within health sciences library scholarship

J Med Libr Assoc. 2021 Oct 1;109(4):693-696. doi: 10.5195/jmla.2021.1295.

Authors

Aidy Weeks¹, Adela V Justice², Ruby Nugent³, Bredny Rodriguez⁴, Brenda Linares⁵

Affiliations

¹ aidybert.weeks@unlv.edu, Assistant Professor and Interim Director, GME Liaison Librarian & Collections Manager, UNLV School of Medicine Library, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV.
² avjustice@mdanderson.org, Senior Librarian, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center-Houston, Houston, TX.
³ ruby.nugent@unlv.edu, Assistant Professor, Biomedical Science Education Librarian, UNLV School of Medicine Library, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV.
⁴ b5rodriguez@ucsd.edu, Collections Strategist for the Health and Life Sciences, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA.
⁵ blinares@kumc.edu, Health Sciences Librarian, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS.

Abstract

Increasing diverse author representation within medical librarianship scholarship among BIPOC information professionals is an important endeavor that requires closer examination. This commentary looks to examine the ways in which the profession can support Latinx librarians and library workers in fully participating within the scholarly pipeline by exploring our unique and authentic voices, structural barriers, hesitation and fears, Whiteness in the profession and knowledge production, bias in the peer review process, lack of resources and support, and finally, a call to action.

Keywords: BIPOC; Chicanx; Hispanic; Latinx; health sciences librarians; information professions; library workers; medical librarians; representation; scholarly pipeline.

MeSH terms

Fellowships and Scholarships
Humans
Librarians*
Libraries, Medical*
Library Science*