Abstract
A Review of:
Vong, S., Norlin, E., & Cho, A. (2025). Reframing organizational practices through a justice lens: A study on the experiences of racialized librarians in academic libraries. College & Research Libraries, 86(5), 728. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.86.5.728
Objective – To explore how racialized and Indigenous academic librarians experience their workplace’s practices through the lens of organizational justice.
Design – Survey with both closed and open-ended questions.
Setting – Academic librarians at Canadian and American institutions.
Subjects – One hundred and eleven academic librarians who identified as Black, African American, Indigenous, Asian, Latinx, as well as mixed or multi-racial. Most identified as female (or a woman), were in the United States, and were early career librarians.
Methods – Authors conducted a survey containing 20 questions (both closed-ended and open-ended) and used professional listservs in the United States and Canada to recruit participants. Questions revolved around career stage as well as racial, ethnic, and other intersecting identities. Additionally, questions regarding participants’ starting salary, workload, experience with management practices/procedures, and professional development were also asked. Data was analyzed by examining the closed-ended responses first. Once this step was complete, open-ended responses were coded and grouped into four themes adapted from an existing organizational justice framework (i.e. distributive justice, procedural justice, interactional justice, informational justice) to further clarity around their responses to the closed-ended responses.
Main Results – Forty-four percent of participants felt that their starting salary was not reflective of their skillsets and was inequitable (with reasons that aligned with distributive, procedural, and interpersonal justice themes), though 15% of participants were unsure if their starting salary represented their abilities and was equitable. Most (63%) felt their workload was fair and equitable compared to colleagues, citing reasons that aligned with the distributive justice theme (if provided).
Only 45% of participants were confident that Management was creating an inclusive and equitable work environment, which largely aligned with the interpersonal justice theme. In this vein, 50% of participants felt that human resources were not supporting inclusivity (citing reasons that aligned with procedural and interpersonal justice themes), and participants stated “Yes” (39%), or "Unsure" (39%), when asked if their performance reviews were inclusive and equitable (aligning with the informational justice theme). Lastly, most participants (74%) felt that their professional development experiences were equitable and fair, citing reasons that aligned with distributive and information justice themes.
Conclusion – Racialized and Indigenous librarians in North America are experiencing different forms of organizational justice, but managers and Human Resources departments still have work to do to foster inclusivity within academic libraries.