Microaggressions in Academic Spaces: What About the Library?
Juan José Prieto Gutiérrez, María Jesús Colmenero Ruiz · The Journal of Academic Librarianship · 2022
Microaggressions are subtle aggressions, often unintentional, which are usually directed at certain groups of people, generally minorities. Due to their insidious frequency, they cause great discomfort. They can even cause permanent problems with adapting and integrating of various kinds. University libraries, as the social spaces that they are, accommodate a wide variety of people and can be places where microaggressions occur in different directions: librarians towards users, users towards librarians and among these groups. This study analyzes the incidence of various types of microaggressions in the academic library environment from the point of view of one group of users: academics and researchers. An online survey was completed by a large number of academics and researchers from a large geographic area. Data was obtained on both observed and felt or experienced microaggressions in the library, either towards themselves or other users, or towards the librarian. The results indicate that researchers are more aggressive than librarians, making the library space a safer place for diversity than the university. Nevertheless, for certain aspects the library shows some data that invites reflection and an opportunity to further reduce occurrences.
