BIPOC Librarians to know

I created this list during this years annual National Library Workers Day, enjoy!

• Sandy Littletree, Diné (Navajo) – a Library and Information Science educator and researcher with interests at the intersections of Indigenous systems of knowledge and the library and information science field. Website
• Jessie Loyer (Cree-Métis) – is a writer and librarian, she writes poetry, fiction, commentary, and theory. Jessie is a member of Michel First Nation. Website; TikTok 
• Stacie Williams – Stacie Williams is trained in myriad aspects of librarianship and archives management, including: metadata schemas, public services, collection development, digitization, repository management and digital infrastructure. Website
• Alex Soto (Tohono O’odham) – is director of the Labriola National American Indian Data Center at Arizona State University (ASU) Library. Under his leadership, the Labriola Center has developed and implemented culturally informed library services, expanded its personnel four-fold, and re-established its physical locations as culturally safe spaces for Indigenous library users. Website
• David Fernandez – Rare Book Librarian at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library in Toronto. He has focused his education in Book History and Print Culture, and bibliographical studies.
• Julie Fiveash, Diné (Navajo) – They/Them pronouns; Librarian for American Indigenous Studies Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences Tozzer Library. Creator of comic books and illustrations. Website
• Luis Soriano (Colombian) – creator of The Biblioburro (The donkey library) is a traveling library that distributes books to patrons from the backs of two donkeys, Alfa and Beto. The program was created in La Gloria, Colombia, by Luis Soriano. The biblioburro operates within the central municipalities of the Department of Magdalena, on Colombia’s Caribbean shore.
• Analú María López (Huachichil/Xi’iui) – is the Indigenous Studies Librarian and Assistant Curator at the Newberry Library. In this role she helps steward the Indigenous studies collection while guiding library users through, connecting them with, and interpreting materials linked to the Indigenous Studies collection. Her interests include preservation, revitalization, and instruction of Indigenous languages, Native plants/medicines, and intentional community collaborations. Website
• Catherine Allen Latimer – was the New York Public Library’s first African-American librarian. She was a notable authority on bibliographies of African-American life and instrumental in forming the library’s Division of Negro History, Literature and Prints.
• Pura Belpré – became the first Puerto Rican librarian at the New York Public Library in 1921. She lead story hour for community members at the New York Public Library.
• Alec Brian Deer (Mohawk) – known as Brian Deer, was a librarian from Kahnawake known for the development of a high-level, original library classification system that expresses Indigenous knowledge structures.
• Lotsee Patterson (Comanche) – librarian, educator, and founder of the American Indian Library Association. She has written numerous articles on collection development, tribal libraries and Native American Librarianship.
• Vivian G. Harsh – first black librarian for the Chicago Public Library where she collected works by Black Americans. The Harsh collection is currently located at the Woodson Regional Library and contains rare books, historical periodicals, and archival documents of the black experience (especially in Chicago) and is the largest black history and literature collection in the Midwest.
• Dorothy B. Porter – “Dewey Decimal Decolonizer,” in 1932, Dorothy Porter earned an M.S. in library science from Columbia University and became their library school’s first black graduate. However, she may be best known as the librarian who changed how works by black writers are classified. Overall, Porter’s classification method challenged the inherent racism and colonial gatekeeping of knowledge within the Dewey Decimal System.
• Velma S. Salabiye, Diné (Navajo) – was a Navajo librarian and promoter of Native American librarianship. Salabiye served as the director of the University of California, Los Angeles American Indian Culture Center Library and was a founding member of the American Indian Library Association.
• Loriene Roy (White Earth Ojibwe) – is an American scholar of Indigenous librarianship, professor and librarian from Texas. She was the first Native American president of the American Library Association when she was inaugurated in 2007.
• Cheryl Metoyer (Eastern Band Cherokee) – researcher and professor of library and information science. Her research is focused on Indigenous systems of knowledge, especially in relation to American Indian and Alaskan tribal nations, as well as ethics and leadership in cultural communities.
• Janet Suzuki (Japanese-American) – Feeling that the needs of Asian American librarians were unrepresented and underserved by the American Library Association, she co-founded the Asian American Librarians Caucus (AALC) in 1975, with Henry Chang and Yen-Tsai Feng. She worked for her whole career at the Chicago Public Library, providing reference services in their business, science, and technology-related divisions.
• Lessa Kanani’opua Pelayo-Lozada (Native Hawaiian) – adult services assistant manager, Palos Verdes Library District, Rolling Hills Estates, California was elected 2021-2022 president-elect of the American Library Association (ALA). Pelayo-Lozada is the first Emerging Leader and first Native Hawaiian to be elected ALA President; she was part of the 2011 Emerging Leaders class. Website
• Lillian Lopez (Puerto Rican) – activist and librarian that worked for the New York Public Library from 1960 until 1985, spearheading the South Bronx Project, an effort to revitalize communities in the Bronx through library workshops and outreach, and also advocating for library services for under served communities, especially speakers of languages other than English.
• Arnulfo Duenes Trejo – a writer and Professor of Library Science at the University of Arizona. He was a leader in the movement to increase library collections of Latino literature and Spanish-language materials in the United States. He was also instrumental in efforts to train more Latino and Spanish-speaking people as professional librarians.
• Miranda Belarde–Lewis (Zuni/Tlingit) – is an assistant professor of North American Indigenous Knowledge at the iSchool and an independent curator and the co-author of “Imagining: Creating Spaces for Indigenous Ontologies” (2015), along with Marisa Elena Duarte and many other articles.
• Lorisia MacLeod (James Smith Cree Nation) – a librarian who published an article called “More Than Personal Communication: Templates for Citing Indigenous Elders and Knowledge Keepers.”
• Todd Honma (Filipino American) – professor in the Asian Studies department at Pitzer College and author of “Trippin’ Over the Color Line: The Invisibility of Race in Library and Information Studies.”
• Mario H. Ramirez – is the Head of Special Collections and Archives at the California State University, Los Angeles and the author of the article “Being Assumed Not to Be: A Critique of Whiteness as an Archival Imperative.”

Organizations

• We Here – We Here®️ seeks to provide a safe and supportive community for Black and Indigenous folks, and People of Color (BIPOC) in library and information science (LIS) professions and educational programs, and to recognize, discuss, and intervene in systemic social issues that have plagued these professions both currently and historically. Website: https://www.wehere.space 
• Librarians with Spines – “We are the alternate narrative in LIS publishing.” Website: https://www.librarianswithspines.com
• Blackivisits – A collective of trained Black archivists who prioritize Black cultural heritage preservation and memory work. Website: https://www.theblackivists.com
• Knowledge River – is a program within the School of Information (SI) at the University of Arizona in Tucson that focuses on educating information professionals who have experience with and sensitivity to Latinx and Native American populations. Knowledge River also fosters understanding of library and information issues from the perspectives of Latinx and Native Americans and advocates for culturally sensitive library and information services to these communities.