(via Jonquil D’Souza Feldman, Medical Reference Services Quarterly Editor-in-Chief)
Sidney Poitier, who passed away in January 2022, was the first Black actor to receive an Oscar for Best Actor. He helped alter racial perceptions that existed in Hollywood and in society in general back in 1964. Yet, in the 48 years since this achievement, racial oppression and inequality, dismissal, and police brutality have persisted. The fight for racial justice continues but it is hoped that the movement for diversity, equity, and inclusion has made progress in the past year.
Medical Reference Services Quarterly is inviting manuscript submissions for a special issue on Diversity, Equality, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) initiatives in health sciences libraries. If your library has developed DEIA-focused programs, individually or in partnership with your institution, please consider submitting a paper for publication in Volume 42, No. 1 (2023). Poster and paper presentations from the Medical Library Association’s 2022 annual meeting that have been developed into an article are welcome. The submissions will be peer-reviewed by members of the Editorial Board as well as other invited reviewers.
What will we be looking for? Librarians in 2022 don’t see DEIA work as separate from their day-to-day work and so they continue to develop services and programs that promote DEIA values. But it’s not enough to describe the formation of a library DEIA committee or partnership with an institutional committee, development of LibGuides, or staff education activities. The papers we end up publishing will demonstrate a true shift in the culture at the authors’ institutions. If it turns out that there are not enough papers that illustrate this outcome, then more work needs to be done, and we will delay this special issue.
The submission deadline is Wednesday, August 31, 2022. Manuscripts on other topics related to programs and new service initiatives in health sciences libraries are always welcome. Click here for more information about the journal and the “Instructions for Authors”.
Please e-mail questions directly to Jonquil D’Souza Feldman, MALS, AHIP, Editor-in-Chief, MRSQ, at mrsqeditor@gmail.com.