Serving the Underserved

Taking an intersectional approach, this week’s review discusses how library workers can best serve marginalized groups and underlines useful collaborations and initiatives.

Posted on August 11, 2025 in Reviews of the Month

Serving the Underserved: Strategies for Inclusive Community Engagement

ed. by Catharine Bomhold ALA Neal-Schuman, 2024
248p bibl index, 9780838936528 $65.99, 9798892555821

Bomhold (Univ. of Southern Mississippi), coauthor of Twice Upon a Time: A Guide to Fractured, Altered, and Retold Folk and Fairy Tales (2008) and Build It, Make It, Do It, Play It! Subject Access to the Best How-To Guides for Children and Teens (2014), assembles a team of experts to provide actionable strategies and curated resources for serving marginalized communities. Grounded in the belief that empowering oneself leads to empowering others, this guide urges library professionals to examine their practices and critically expand services to underserved populations. Serving the Underserved opens by discussing theories of information-seeking behavior across diverse populations while emphasizing the importance of intersectionality, highlighting how overlapping identities shape experiences and access to information. Subsequent chapters lay a foundation for understanding the unique challenges faced by refugee, immigrant, and international communities, among others; people experiencing homelessness; people with physical disabilities; people with mental health disorders or neurodiversity; LGBTQ+ youth; older adults; and incarcerated or formerly incarcerated people. Each chapter offers practical tools, including examples of effective programs and discussion questions ideal for professional learning networks, making it a valuable blueprint for fostering inclusivity.

Summing Up: Essential. Graduate students through faculty; professionals.
Reviewer: K. Dafoe, SUNY Cortland
Subject: Reference – Library & Information Sciences
Choice Issue: May 2025

Serving the Underserved

Taking an intersectional approach, this week’s review discusses how library workers can best serve marginalized groups and underlines useful collaborations and initiatives.