Lawyerbrarian

How did April Hathcock go from corporate litigator to librarian? “I was working away on multimillion-dollar suits every night when I noticed the law librarians, who left at a decent hour, did much of the same research I did,” she says. “I realized I could do…the information wrangling I loved without [working] myself to death.” Now, as scholarly communication librarian at New York University (NYU), Hathcock still does legal work, helping with copyright or intellectual property research, library contracts, or access and rights issues. “But it’s combined with the values of librarianship,” she says.

Those values, such as diversity, accessibility, and inclusion, make her a catalyst for change in the profession, says nominator (and LJ Reviews associate editor) Stephanie Sendaula, who with Hathcock cowrote “Mapping Whiteness at the Reference Desk” (Topographies of Whiteness, Library Juice, 2017).

Through her tweeting, blog (At the Intersection), and speeches, Hathcock pushes back against what she describes as “white, male, cis-gender, heterosexual, capitalistic views of…making a difference in the world.” Hathcock measures her success by the connections she has made. “I got a postcard from someone I know on Twitter thanking me for my blog and for speaking up about race, whiteness, and oppression in our field.” Hathcock doesn’t keep count of such notes, but “each motivates me to keep doing what I’m doing, even when exhausted and frustrated.” “She isn’t afraid to say ‘We can do better,’ ” says Sendaula.