The focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion in libraries means that Latinx library workers find themselves increasingly tapped to utilize their linguistic skills and cultural heritage to evaluate and enrich the collections, programs, and services that libraries provide their communities. Biliteracy, biculturalism, and the lack of Latinx representation in libraries affects us in a double-edged fashion: biliterate and bicultural Latinx library workers are highly sought after professionals, and we often enable libraries to meet their diversity, equity, and inclusion goals while simultaneously opening ourselves up to increased workloads and in certain cases a dampening of our career trajectories, especially when one considers the disproportionate ratio of Latinx workers in paraprofessional and support positions. This session will analyze the multi-faceted labor conditions affecting Latinx library workers and how the biliteracy and biculturalism that make us assets to libraries can be used for advocacy in tandem with union activity, organized labor practices, legal protections, and affinity groups, to improve our wages, labor conditions, and career trajectories within the four walls of the library, and in libraries at large.
Learning Objectives:
Describe how our linguistic and cultural heritages as Latinxs enrich library spaces and services, and how they can be used to advocate for Latinxs within our profession.
Identify how our skills as information professionals, membership in a union, and the enforcement of a labor contract can improve the wages and working conditions of Latinxs in library spaces.
Identify how advocacy, such as a union steward structure and grievances based on contract language and labor law, can be used to improve our labor conditions.
Understand the possibility to bring about change through intentional Latinx representation, activity with affinity groups, and long-term union activity.