Editorial Note

In the recent article “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves,” author Fobazi Ettarh discusses how vocational awe can serve to silence people of color and members of other marginalized groups. Most librarians take pride in the core values of the profession; however, this pride can become dangerous when it “refuses to acknowledge the library as a flawed institution.”¹ Like any other institution, libraries have baggage with which we, as information professionals, must come to terms. Librarians’ commitment to intellectual freedom suggests that we should all think deeply about our libraries’ policies, services, and values, and question these same. Ettarh shows, however, that “when people of color and other marginalized librarians speak out, their accounts are often discounted or erased.”² With this special issue of Music Reference Services Quarterly (MRSQ), Ana and I hope to provide a forum in which diverse and divergent perspectives are heard, respected, and granted the permanence that publication confers.

With this in mind, we sent out a call for papers to practitioners, scholars, activists, and students inviting all to contribute to a themed issue on “Diversity and Inclusion in Music Librarianship.” We encouraged potential authors to think creatively about the theme and listed several possible topics, including diversity initiatives in music librarianship, inclusive management practices, social justice in music libraries, collection development techniques to support diverse constituents, inclusive practices in resource cataloging or description, accessibility and digital musical content delivery, accessibility and music library facilities, diversity and/or inclusion in music librarianship education, and neutrality in (music) libraries. By focusing on diversity and inclusion, we hoped to create space for MRSQ readers and the music library community to learn about and reflect on issues of diversity and inclusion. In addition to reflection, these articles also provide several practical ways in which we as library professionals can actively align our spaces, services, and interactions with our stated values of diversity and inclusion.

Zachary Tumlin’s insightful essay, “‘This Is a Quiet Library, Except When It’s Not:’ On the Lack of Neurodiversity Awareness in Librarianship” opens the issue. Tumlin explores language and labels used in discussions of neurodiversity and investigates library science literature on neurodiversity. Tumlin’s experiences confirm the need to privilege and amplify the voices of self-advocates: “Allies are appreciated and necessary, and some like Eng and Bakan have promoted the voices of neurodivergent people and not just their own, but self-advocates should not only be heard when an advocate is amplifying their voice. We need to be the ones leading, either independently or in equal partnership with neurotypicals. This conversation is about us, and we will not accept that our participation is conditional based on good behavior.”³

Upon invitation, Holling Smith-Borne followed up on a successful 2017 Music Library Association presentation and contributed, “Creating a Welcoming and Inclusive Environment for Transgender and Gender Fluid Music Library Users.” In this article, Smith-Borne focuses on practical aspects, offering nine concrete suggestions that facilitate readers’ understanding and confidence in their provision of service to this user population. The suggestions deal with using preferred names and gender-neutral language, collaborating to accommodate and connect users with support systems and resources, learning and modeling positive behaviors, and refraining from making assumptions or disclosing personal information.

Donna Koh relates the ongoing work of the Music Section at the National Library Service to provide music materials and reference assistance to blind, visually impaired, and print-disabled patrons in “Music Catalog for Blind and Visually Impaired Patrons.” Koh details how music materials in a variety of formats are described and encoded, identifies opportunities for improvement in the discovery and access of music materials, and, importantly, discusses the need to collaborate closely and learn from and with blind, visually impaired, and print-disabled users in order to better serve them.

Martin Kelleher’s article “Is World Music Racist? Classification and Os Mutantes: An Ethical Dilemma” offers a critique of the concept of world music. Kelleher problematizes it in positive terms, such as promoting music to a global audience, and negative terms, such as the stereotyping and exploiting of musicians. Kelleher discusses the complex relationship between classification and racism and applies this to a case study of (re)classifying a CD collection for an ethnomusicology course.

We hope that all of these contributions will encourage readers to seek out and listen to diverse and divergent perspectives, lead to discussions, and ultimately promote change and growth in our profession. Please email us ([email protected] and [email protected]) to let us know how this journal could be doing better to support diversity and inclusion. MRSQ welcomes submissions on diversity and inclusion at any time; please consider how you may wish to contribute to this essential conversation.

Notes

1 Fobazi Ettarh, “Vocational Awe and Librarianship: The Lies We Tell Ourselves,” In the Library with the Lead Pipe, paragraph 20, http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/ (accessed January 10, 2018).

2 Ibid.

3 Zachary Tumlin, “’This Is a Quiet Library, Except When It’s Not:’ On the Lack of Neurodiversity Awareness in Librarianship,” Music Reference Services Quarterly, doi:10.1080/10588167.2019.1575017.