U.S. Newcomers in Academic Libraries: What Should We Know, What Can We Do
Recorded on 07/31/2025Posted in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility (DEIA)
Learn how academic libraries can respond to the evolving and urgent needs of undocumented, refugee, and international visa communities on and off campus.
Summary:
Harmful, hardline anti-immigration policy and rhetoric—including travel bans or restrictions for international students and ICE raids now allowed on college campuses—have brought new pressures for academic libraries. How should academic libraries respond to the evolving and urgent needs of on- and off-campus new neighbors?
Join us for a Q&A with Dr. Ana Ndumu to discuss how to engage with students, staff, and faculty who are navigating asylee, refugee, stateless, undocumented, or international visa statuses. Attendees can expect to learn more about the challenges that undocumented and U.S. newcomers on campus are facing and strategies to support immigrant communities, in addition to useful resources on immigration, migration, and border studies.
Access Ana’s Padlet, “Academic Libraries // Immigrant Support Toolkit.”
Speakers:
Dr. Ana Ndumu
Assistant ProfessorUniversity of Maryland College Park’s College of Information StudiesDr. Ana Ndumu is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland College Park’s College of Information Studies. She primarily researches and teaches on library services to immigrants—particularly, Black diasporic immigrants—along with methods for promoting racial realism and representation in LIS. She directs the IMLS-funded LINA Project that has culminated in resources like the Improving Library Partnerships with Immigrants, a monthly Immigration Policy Digest to help busy information professionals stay abreast of national legislation, and the Immigration and International Information Research Alliance—a lab that examines immigrant information behavior and designs toolkits for immigrant empowerment. Dr. Ndumu has chaired the ALA Serving Refugees, Immigrants, and Displaced Persons sub-committee and leads within REFORMA, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association, and other groups. She is the editor of Borders and Belonging: Critical Examinations of Library Approaches toward Immigrants and co-editor of The Black Librarian in America: Reflections, Resistance, and Reawakening.
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