In this essay, we embrace a vision of the future of academic libraries where librarians confront and creatively address the lack of racial and ethnic diversity within our profession and actively pursue a social justice agenda within our libraries and in the communities we serve. This future requires that we acknowledge that many of our current…

How can libraries best assess and improve user space, even if they are not in a position to undertake new construction or a major renovation? Staff at New Mexico State University used a variety of ethnographic methods to learn how our spaces were being used as well as what our users considered to be ideal library space. Our findings helped us make…

Many people take for granted the tools of the librarian's trade: typography, books, even the idea of a library. But when Matthew Battles looks at these things, he sees responses that evolved to meet human needs and wants to know more. What purposes were these tools put to and what do they tell people about the culture that produced them? What does…