2024 HBCU Library Alliance Membership Meeting Group Photo Courtesy of HBCU Library Alliance

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were established, mainly in the southern United States, during the Reconstruction era after the Civil War. At the time, most academic institutions did not admit Black students, remaining segregated and subject to quotas into the mid–20th century. Even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, HBCUs have remained important pathways to higher education for Americans of color.

The HBCU Library Alliance, founded in 2002, serves 93 member institutions. The organization works to provide mentoring and professional development for early and mid-career library staff, advance leadership, expand support for faculty research, offer networking opportunities, and provide other resources for HBCU libraries. The Alliance has also joined with partner organizations on preservation programs to document the history and legacy of HBCUs and collect research materials for the study of African American history.

In January, the HBCU Library Alliance announced the award of a $1,000,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to support its multipart program “Empowering HBCU Libraries with Civil Rights Preservation, Digital Innovation, and Transformative Professional Development.” The funding will help HBCU libraries focus on three key areas:

• The Lifting as We Climb Fellowship Program will help 10 paraprofessionals at HBCUs earn MLIS degrees through financial support and mentorship.
• The On-Demand Leadership Curriculum, a tailored initiative for HBCU librarians, will offer flexible, high-quality leadership training for library professionals across HBCUs.
• The Student Protest Archives Oral History and Digitization Project will document, preserve, and digitize student-led protests at 10 to 20 HBCUs. These will capture firsthand accounts of civil rights activism, social justice movements, and campus protests.

“The mission of the HBCU Library Alliance is to strengthen this membership, this body of knowledge, and this force of advocacy by developing library leaders, and…by preserving collections,” Executive Director Sandra Phoenix told LJ. “It is so relevant and timely and essential and critical that this happened for this community at this time.”

THREE PROJECTS, SERVING THE ALLIANCE MISSION

In July 2023, the HBCU Library Alliance surveyed its members to find out what new programs, events, and professional development opportunities they were looking for. Among their requests were more support for digitization services, support for non-director staff and students, and programming aimed at the emerging technologies and the unique challenges faced by members who are “lone arrangers”—librarians coordinating archives and digitization projects without support staff.

The MacArthur Foundation had recently conducted a review of its programs relating to racial justice and racial healing, prompting them to reach out to the HBCU Library Alliance to learn more about its work. The Alliance shared information on projects such as their Summer Conservation/Preservation Internship Program and leadership development for HBCU deans, directors, and other staff members, as well as the results of the survey. The MacArthur Foundation invited Alliance leadership to submit a two-year proposal for $1 million to support projects that would empower and equip its librarian community.

The three strands of grant funding, while distinct, are interconnected within the Alliance’s greater mission.

In partnership with North Carolina Central University (NCCU), the only remaining HBCU with a library science mentorship and degree completion program, the Lifting as We Climb Fellowship Program will support 10 paraprofessionals working at HBCUs to earn their LIS master’s degree. The program will provide scholarships up to $12,000, provide stipends to attend a national library conference, and offer mentorship with HBCU librarians in the Alliance’s network. An NCCU faculty member will develop scoring matrixes and an admissions evaluation process to ensure that the 10 participants qualify and to match them with appropriate mentors.

“There are many paraprofessionals working in HBCU libraries who, to further their career journey, are desiring of that MLIS degree credential,” said Program Manager Shaneé Yvette Willis (a 2021 LJ Mover & Shaker). “We wanted to lower the barrier of completing that degree to make it easier for them, and also to help them continue on as library leaders through providing that mentorship.”

The On-Demand Leadership Curriculum takes its inspiration from the hands-on leadership development program that the Alliance previously hosted with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. This version will provide virtual training via the Alliance’s revamped website, scheduled to launch this spring, covering areas such as leadership, resource management, fundraising, advocating with administrators, digitization, and succession planning.

“In many of our libraries, the lone arranger is unable to leave the library,” noted Phoenix. “So being able to bring that training to those professionals strengthens this community.” The curriculum will be flexible and self-paced, with interactive challenges and quizzes; the Alliance is working with web designers and UX researchers to ensure that it is accessible and meets the diverse needs of library professionals across all HBCUs. Members of the community will help build content as well.

The final piece of the grant builds on member projects digitizing material on the history of student protests at HBCUs, including news stories and oral histories. “Many of our students and institutions have participated in the civil rights movement, Black Lives Matter movement, all the way up to now,” said Willis, “so we have these geographic pockets of advocacy across HBCUs that we want to make available online.”

The Alliance will consult on best practices with practitioners in the oral history and archives space, including Lae’l Hughes Watkins, associate director of engagement, inclusion, and reparative archives at the University of Maryland; a 2019 LJ Mover & Shaker; and founder of Project STAND (Student Activism Now Documented), a digital resource for archives on activism in marginalized student populations. “Those are our voices, those are our stories, and our stories should be told by us,” said Phoenix.

NEXT STEPS

The Alliance will move the three programs ahead thoughtfully, so as not to duplicate existing work and to ensure maximum accessibility for all members. “We are wanting to make sure, knowing that we have two years to do these three projects, that we make the barriers to participation low,” said Willis.

A timeline to implement pieces of the project will begin with the website redesign and an MOU and task list with NCCU for the Lifting as We Climb program. The HBCU Library Alliance Board will contribute to project management, and the alliance is consulting with Dr. Shaundra Walker, dean of the library at Georgia College and State University, who wrote her dissertation on the in-person HBCU library Leadership Development Program, to help map out the online On-Demand Leadership Curriculum. An earlier Mellon Foundation capital grant enabled the Alliance to hire Willis, a development officer, and an executive assistant. Other advisors include Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library’s CEO and Director Dr. Kimberley Bugg and Digital Services Department Assistant Director Christine Wiseman.

“When I talk about the HBCU Library Alliance, I talk about it as an organization of capacity—capacity to meet our members’ needs and capacity to adapt as needed,” said Phoenix. “Sustainability, most definitely, is in our thinking all the time.”

Photo: HBCU Library Alliance. HBCU Library Alliance, 28 Oct. 2024. hbculibraries.org.