When Leadership Falls Short: The Crisis of Care in Library Work
Posted on in Blog Posts
Executive Orders Meet Professional Ethics
Posted on March 12, 2025 in Blog Posts
Authors:
Sam Berry-Sullivan
A period of chaos and uncertainty is unfolding across the United States, and institutions of higher education are uniquely impacted. A nexus for many of the recent executive orders being issued by the second Trump administration, institutions of higher education are reeling from the impacts of these orders. From questions regarding federal funding streams to the future of DEI offices for students and programs of study and what will happen to student loans if the Department of Education closes, libraries are ideally positioned to support our harried students and colleagues. Not only are they well positioned to do so, but they are called to do so by the ethics of the library profession, set forth by the American Library Association in 1939:
We affirm the inherent dignity and rights of every person. We work to recognize and dismantle systemic and individual biases; to confront inequity and oppression; to enhance diversity and inclusion; and to advance racial and social justice in our libraries, communities, profession, and associations through awareness, advocacy, education, collaboration, services, and allocation of resources and spaces.
Libraries of all kinds across the United States have leapt into action, creating guides or updating existing resources to educate and protect their patrons and educate their librarians and library staff about how they can educate, protect, and advocate for those patrons. Some examples include:
- Pence Law Library’s LibGuide about Trump’s executive orders, which covers the legal landscape for different groups (e.g., immigrants, civil servants). It also includes a litigation tracker to follow challenges to orders and actions coming out of the current administration and other resources.
- Berkeley Law Library’s LibGuide focuses on executive orders affecting immigration and immigrants, adding books for further self-education to their informational resources that explain the state of immigration law and ways citizens can take action against xenophobic legislation.
- The Clinton-Essex-Franklin public library system in New York State’s North Country has created a veritable clearinghouse of links to articles and websites tracking news and developments specifically related to anti-DEIA efforts.
- The Colorado Community College Library offers informational resources, printable information, and rights materials such as “red cards”: small, debit-card-sized sheets printed on heavy paper, often red, containing information on rights held by citizens and non-citizens on one side, and a statement on the other indicating that the individual does not forfeit their Fifth and Fourth Amendment rights. Individuals being questioned by ICE agents can read this statement before handing the card to the questioning agents, or they can simply hand the card to the ICE agents and remain silent. Oakton College Library provides versions of the red card in fifteen languages, along with more Spanish-language resources.
I have said many times in professional and casual settings that a major reason I pursued a career in librarianship is because the profession’s values align with my own deeply held values. I am proud to be part of a profession whose commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is explicit and baked into our work. Just as librarians came together to educate and protect our patrons during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is our professional obligation to do so again and to become oases of knowledge, resources, and compassion for our communities, particularly our undocumented, international, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ students, faculty, and their families.
About the author:
Sam Berry-Sullivan is a white, nonbinary, neurodivergent academic librarian who leverages their privilege and unique experience of the world to advocate for diversity and equity in librarianship, higher education, and health sciences, for which Sam is subject liaison.
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Header image is a detail of This is Harlem by Jacob Lawrence. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. © 2021 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. For more information, click here.