I am in the infancy stages of my career and yet there were numerous points in the interview that I connected with Nancy’s responses. Nancy was so generous during our conversation. Ultimately, in sharing her own story she has modeled the passion that drove her to librarianship: the desire to help people. As two women of color, we crafted a space for one another to share openly with the hope that others could see themselves interwoven in her experiences. Our imaginations are powerful, but the opportunity to see someone who looks like you, or shares a characteristic of yours, living a life that until that point has lived only in your mind changes your perception of what is possible. We often fail to realize the importance of representation until we experience the impact it has in our own lives.

It seems a bit ironic that sometimes the simplest statements can be the most profound. When we share our experiences and the unique aspects of our lives, our humanity is laid bare in a way that exposes the pieces of ourselves that others can see in themselves. Nancy spoke about her journey to librarianship even mentioning a potential detour to a career of underwater photography despite distrust in her swimming abilities. People find, or stumble upon, librarianship due to a number of reasons. One of the common threads drawing people to the profession is their desire to serve. Libraries act as a pillar in the community. The library had a generational ripple effect in Nancy’s life and her mission has been to pay that service forward. Nancy’s email signature block ends with a quote reading “A great place to live, work and play…today and tomorrow”. It was an honor to share the experiences of someone who is deeply committed to making her community a great place to live, work, and play both today and in the future.

ZW: First, I am going to ask you to introduce yourself. If you’re comfortable, share your pronouns along with how you identify background wise – race/ethnicity – whatever you are willing to share.

NC: So, my name is Nancy S. Collett. But my full name is Nancy Saphiro Cervantes Collett. My pronouns are she, her, ella. Ella is essentially “her” in Spanish. I use “ella” as a kind of way to say to the Latino community: hey, I’m an ally but, I’m also bilingual. We say our pronouns to say we are allies and “ella” is another element to show others they can be comfortable with me as someone who identifies as part of the LGBTQ community but also someone who identifies as Latina or Hispanic. I identify as Latina/Hispanic because my father is from Mexico and my mother is from El Salvador. They are both immigrants who came to the United States back in the eighties. My mom came to escape the civil war in her country and my dad just came for a better life. So, I would be what you call a first generation American. I was born and raised in LA. I was not anything special in LA which I absolutely loved because all of my classmates, I grew up in Inglewood specifically, were Latino. They were different types of Latinos from different countries. We had people from Guatemala, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Honduras, just the spectrum and then the same thing with the Black community. We were a predominantly Black and Latino community, so it was my life and I never felt out of place.

ZW: Could you share a little bit about how you got to the point you’re at right now in your career? What made you decide to pursue librarianship?

NC: I was constantly being told that I would feel out of place once I got into higher education. So, I decided to consider something different. I wanted to be an underwater photographer, but I am a horrible swimmer. To this day, I don’t trust myself. I don’t trust that I can save myself in water. I went to this school in Northern California called Humboldt State University. It was a definite culture shock. My first year wasn’t so bad. I had my EOP, educational opportunity program, as support for students like me who were young adults, first generation college students, usually students from low-income communities. So again, I continued to be in this sphere of people who were like me. As I started to get closer to graduation, I started to realize okay, not seeing a lot of people like me. I really am a sprinkle in a sea of white faces. That started to change the trajectory of how I saw myself and how I saw the rest of the world. I ended up majoring in photography and one of my final projects was looking at who are my friends, who are people I trust, who are the people I take time to get to know. That ended up being people who identified as “others”.

Once I graduated, I worked in photography for a while. Photography just wasn’t something that made me happy. I ended up moving from California to North Carolina where my mom was living. Once I moved to North Carolina, I started to feel different. I started to see how people would react to me. So, I volunteered at a library in North Carolina. For the first time, and I want to clarify for the first time in my life, I saw a library employee who was a Black woman. She was wonderful! She was helpful and she engaged with the community. I thought it was amazing. Because like most people I thought libraries and books, but she was helping with story time, providing technology assistance, putting books on shelves, and helping people with printing. She asked me if I was interested in libraries, and I told her “I’m starting to be because I see the way you’re working with people and the way you’re helping them and the way they respond to you. You know your community and the community knows you as someone who can help them.” She told me “I think you should look into it. There aren’t many people like us in the field and I think it would be nice to have more.”

My boyfriend, now husband, wanted to move back to the Midwest. My mom and I did some research on the Midwest. I told him “I will move to the Midwest, only if it’s the Twin Cities in Minnesota.” You know exactly what that means “the Twin Cities in Minnesota.” As women of color, we wanted to know what states were red, what states were blue, what cities were red, what cities were blue. And then we looked at demographics to find places where there would be people of color. Before I moved out here, I applied for this job at Washington County [Library]. It was a phone interview, so they didn’t see me, and I didn’t see them. At the time, my name had fully changed to Nancy Collett. That couldn’t sound like a whiter name. The only reason I changed it was because my mom told me I needed to change my name. I didn’t want to change my name. Cervantes is a cool name. She goes “listen to me, you’re going to this new state. I don’t know anything about it. Looks like it’s predominantly white and I want you to have a chance at finding a good job.” Even then she knew there was a name preference and there was a better chance of getting a job as Nancy Collett than as Nancy Cervantes. So, I changed my name. I got the phone interview and sure enough I got the job. I show up and they’re like “you’re Nancy Collett?” I’m a 28-year-old, 4’11”, Mexican, not a 40-year-old white woman. It was in the role of a Library Assistant that I started to see more of what the library had to offer such as assisting with taxes –to a certain degree –, offering computer assistance, printing, light therapy kits, author talks, teaching new skills, story times. I was like this is it. I want to give back to my community and this is my community. The more hours I got the more the higher ups saw the value in my ability to do a couple of different things. One was to just make other staff feel comfortable and two was to be able to speak to a lot of the community members that some of them couldn’t speak to. So, they’re like oh your ability to be bilingual, your ability to speak Spanish. It was huge because a lot of community members we serve speak another language. I thought to myself maybe I will pursue librarianship. I got my certification at Minneapolis Tech where I learned some behind the scenes of the library. It was because of my certification that I was able to apply and get into UW Madison to do their online program. While I was doing their online program, I continued to excel here in my role to the point that I made it to a full-time Associate Librarian, is what you would call it these days, here which is huge. Becoming a full-time library staff is hard let alone climbing my way to that point. I went to school and got my degree last May. In June, I was promoted to a librarian part-time and when we met, I had finally gotten to full-time.

The main reason, other than helping people, was because I wanted to give the library back something it gave me. Like I said my mother came here during the eighties, Reagan era, to escape a civil war in her country. So, my mom came here. She was a refugee. She was allowed to work. She had her social security card, everything. There was one thing that she couldn’t do, she couldn’t vote. She decided she wanted to become a citizen. She had to live here for X amount of time for residency, she still paid taxes, she did everything by the book to earn that privilege. She went to the library and asked for information on how to become a citizen. They gave her a pamphlet one in English and one in Spanish, they gave her a book one in English and one in Spanish, and then they gave her the testing materials. My mom brought that home and we all studied with her. We looked at the English and she looked at the Spanish and then we switched it up. My mom knows more about American history than the average American. At the age of 32, she became a citizen, and she was unbelievably proud. It was life changing for her, and it was life changing for us. A few years later, she goes back to the library, and she wanted materials to earn her GED. They helped her again and they gave her the information she needed to get her GED. Changing her life once more, she gets a promotion and earns more money. We go from not eating meat every night to eating meat every night which was huge for us. I don’t know if they ever realized how much they changed her life. I see a lot of kids like me who are children of immigrants whose parents come in here looking for jobs. I have had an interaction with one or two that stick out in my brain, and he is now one of my favorites. We talk and I know his girls, I know how they’re doing in school, where they are in life, and I hope one day one of his girls sees the difference the library made in his life and goes I want to do that too. I want to make someone else’s life better. Even if it’s just one person, that’s one person who you helped change their life. That’s what got me wanting to give back to the library. I remember my mom being like “why? Why libraries?” I finally told her, and she said, “ay mama, so nice.”

ZW: What was your experience like in library school?

NC: Even in graduate school, you’re still a sprinkle [of color]. And you’re like damnit! But the one thing with educators is they do see and know the value of diversity in our field. What can get tough is when you are in school, and you do find that there are going to be some librarians that are more performative. In library school with my cohort, there was a lot of theory and it felt as though we were on the same page, but the reality of the situation is when you do get in our field it will be different. There will be that there is a time and place for everything. Now is not the time.

I never second guessed it, I never thought I wasn’t doing the right thing, it just felt right. One person told me “we need to have librarians like you because people of color need to know that they can be librarians as well.” I’m glad that I was the first person of color that you saw as a librarian. Like that woman in North Carolina, the Black librarian that I met there, she was the first librarian of color that I saw. And I thought I can do this; this is something I can do. There is something to be said about kids not realizing they can do something until they see someone else do it. Understand your presence carries weight in this field.

ZW: I feel as though diversity/representation tend to carry more weight with individuals and groups of minority status. As information professionals, how do we begin to increase the level of participation or support from groups who may be less likely to contribute towards efforts to increase diversity? 

NC: That is a tough question. I am actively doing that for our organization at this moment. We recently, in 2020, created a position called the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Coordinator. He piloted a “Beyond Diversity: 101 Training” and it was a train the trainer. He hand-picked Washington County employees who are presenting the information to our colleagues. It’s not someone else coming from the outside telling you and finger wagging. I like to tell people the information we are presenting is not finger wagging, it’s not blaming, this is information, these are statistics, these are facts. These facts are telling you a lot of different things. Sprinkled in with these facts are real life experiences and stories that we tell. I tell a story about microaggressions. I tell a story about an ally. I tell a story about the importance of names and biases based on names and the way they sound. We have found that some people are receptive to this information. We ask what people are going to do on a personal level to continue their education. What are you going to do as a paid employee of this organization to continue taking this seriously?

The reality of the situation is this is something Washington County wants to do. They are taking it seriously. It’s in our contracts. It’s in our performance evaluations. Especially when you’re serving a community that is constantly growing. When you see an increase in population, you’re going to see an increase in diversity of that population. I tell people if they want to help serve their community in the best manner possible it is important that we are a reflection of those community members, so they feel comfortable in the spaces they come into. At the end of the day, they are our clients, they are our patrons, they are the taxpayers who are paying us to fulfill this service. I do not like to put the onus on anyone. I like to present the facts. They pay us, it makes sense if they want us to look like them. Having an organization that backs you is definitely helpful in these efforts. When you have an organization or department that doesn’t, that makes it significantly harder. We have been lucky enough to be on that forefront to have a DEI Coordinator who takes it seriously. Someone who is using the county money for the community to improve services.

ZW: How have you seen professional codes of ethics harm patrons/individuals of marginalized communities? 

NC: As libraries we are supposed to be neutral spaces, we are 100% big believers in the first amendment: freedom of speech, freedom of information and access. When people come into our spaces, it’s like I may not agree with what you’re saying but I will defend your right to do so. That’s problematic, especially in Minnesota when it comes to freedom of speech and that right to access of information. We have had instances where people come in and they have the swastika on their clothes or on their mask. While that is their first amendment right to do that and they are not necessarily “harassing” anyone, it is making a lot of people uncomfortable. We can’t kick them out because at that point we are limiting their access to information, and we can’t do that.

I had an instance where a patron was saying some pretty abhorrent things about Mexicans while discussing her neighbors who she assumed were Mexicans. I am sitting there, and I am listening to this, and I can’t say anything because it’s her first amendment right to say what she wants. These are her opinions; none of these things are facts. Because I am an employee I can’t be like what you’re saying is pretty offensive and it’s making this environment uncomfortable for me. Now, if another patron of Mexican descent heard that I could step in and say what you’re saying is making this an unwelcome environment you will need to leave if you do not stop that would work. But because I’m a paid employee and I’m the one being affected it’s a different thing. That’s hard because if you are with a coworker who doesn’t have the spine to stand up and say something, then you just have to sit there and deal with it until you can come off desk and leave the public. I was lucky enough to have a coworker who had a spine. She saw how visibly upset I was getting, and she walked over, and she broke up the conversation to ask if the patrons needed anything. She stopped the whole conversation. That was an act of allyship. That is where it gets hard with our code of ethics. We do believe in these rights but at what point in letting certain people say certain shit in our spaces are we making it an uncomfortable situation not only for staff but for other community members. At that point, it’s really hard to be neutral. We have to compartmentalize part of ourselves when we are in these roles. I find that when I speak to certain communities, I do not have to compartmentalize and then there are other times that are different. Some days it’s great and it’s awesome and you do have people who will back your play and then other days don’t because they’re nervous or scared. Then you go to that place where you decide if it’s something you want to comment on. Is this the situation that turns me into the stereotype?

ZW: Information centers are often characterized as neutral spaces. Conceptual ties to neutrality can provide information centers with an underserved cloak of innocence. How does the concept of information centers existing as neutral spaces influence the conversation of diversity in the field? 

NC: I feel like we need to be honest. Like we as library professionals need to be honest about what’s going on in our field. The reality is that we’re getting more and more people who have more progressive ideas than neutral ideas. That’s the reality. As time is progressing, we are being put in situations that can’t be neutral. You just can’t be neutral. Look at the example of what’s going on in Florida libraries, this isn’t an exaggeration, they are under attack and their librarians are leaving in mass. Largely, because they can’t remain neutral, and I think that’s fair. I think the idea of us as neutral is antiquated with the idea of librarians shushing, the idea that librarians don’t curse, that we don’t have tattoos, and that we are all old white ladies with cardigans and glasses.

We are lucky enough to have a lot of really great librarians who listen to their community and their community’s needs when they are taking things like programs into consideration and when they’re thinking of materials that provide equal access. Like our hotspots and Chromebooks, that was a couple of librarians who were like “our community has internet needs during the pandemic, they can’t come to us, we need to get them this.” When it came to mental health, a couple of librarians were like “we need light therapy kits. Mental health is something we need to start taking very seriously especially after the pandemic.” Everything is serious after the pandemic. Thank you, pandemic. That’s what you taught us, that things are serious. I just feel like if you do want to be an inclusive space, then I don’t think you can be neutral.

Something we are constantly fighting against during after school hours is having fifty to one hundred teens who come in, about 60% of the teens are teens of color. So, then you get our older generation these patrons who have this antiquated idea that libraries are only a quiet space who end up saying some of the most bigoted, ridiculous shit. And I am standing there I’m not going to go well, they’re welcome and you’re welcome. No, I don’t do that. I go You know what? This is a community space. They are welcome to be here. We have hours when it is not so loud. I have other quiet spaces for you over there. I’m not going to ask them to leave simply because they’re existing in this space. Because to me that is not being neutral that is me defending their right to exist in this space. If I was neutral, I would just sit at the desk and do nothing. I personally don’t think you can be neutral when you want there to be diversity. Because part of being a more diverse and more inclusive profession means that some people are going to have to get uncomfortable. They are going to have to feel uncomfortable for the first time in their lives whereas some of us have been feeling uncomfortable for a very long time. If not our entire lives. It’s ok for us to make ourselves uncomfortable in order for us to make more people feel welcome.

ZW: How have you seen the “white ceiling” impact information professionals of color? 

NC: It’s one of those things where I started to realize there really aren’t professionals, I am one of, if not two people who identify as people of color as a professional in the library as a librarian. We do have more people of color who have their MLIS that are in the role of paraprofessionals. That is hard for a number of reasons one being that sometimes the things that we say don’t get taken seriously. It’s like for women we have the glass ceiling. I do wonder how far I can get. I was talking to my supervisor at the time, and we were having a discussion about diversity in our field. I told him if he were to leave, we would be down to less than 5% people of color in the library. It’s hard because there are times when we say the community needs this and leadership does not listen. Here is an example, I did a tour for English language learners, and they asked why we don’t have books in Arabic. So, I began looking into it and I told the Deputy Director who then told the Collection Development Librarian who essentially said “we would need to look at the percent of the population who would actually use this. We need to make sure the money we have goes to the people who are actually going to come in here and use it.” That interaction made me think maybe I should shift roles and go into the behind the scenes and look into what things are needed in our collection. In our department, there is not racial or ethnic diversity among leadership. I do feel, with the current administration, that I finally have a chance to be there. I did not feel that way with the previous administration. However, with the current Director and Deputy Director that we have, I feel like I have a better chance. The Director sees the importance and need of diversity, equity, and inclusion and has made it part of the library’s strategic plan as one of our priorities. So, I know she values that. The Deputy Director really cares about staff and does believe in promoting from within in a way that if a staff member is just good at their job there are opportunities. I do have a better chance of getting there.

I feel like the generation after me will be able to make that change. It did impact me before because I didn’t trust that the people in administration cared, but now I feel like the current administration does care. I think at the end of the day, I would like to end up in library administration only because you can make effective change when you’re in those positions. I was talking to my coworker, and we were talking about getting social workers in our library. She was saying “we can’t do anything at our level. If we want to get social workers in the library, we need to start looking at positions in library administration.” Wherever I decide to go, I know that if I want to make change, I would have to be in a position of leadership. Whether it’s subject terms we are using in our cataloging materials, because up until two years ago we used the term “illegal aliens” anytime a Mexican immigrant was referred to in the material. Now, it’s undocumented. And I like that much better. Or like if I wanted to improve the collection by making sure that it represents the different languages spoken in our community, I would want to be a collection development librarian. If I wanted to make sure the programming that is occurring at our libraries is fulfilling the needs of the community, I would want to be an adult services librarian. It’s about what change I want to make. I don’t think I want to stop here, but also for money reasons. You want to help along with make connection with the community and also make money. Two things can be true at once.

ZW: What do you say to the student/person of color who says the information profession is not for them or not for people like them? 

NC: Why not? Why isn’t it for you? The bigger issue of being BIPOC in the field of library is that there is this barrier that we have to overcome, and that barrier comes in the form of finances. Bachelor’s degrees aren’t cheap. Master’s degrees are extremely not cheap. That is a financial barrier that a lot of people can’t overcome as well as time. You’ll find that most library students are going to be education majors, English majors, this is their second or third career. A lot of them have another sustainable income in order for them to be able to do this. There were a lot of us who had full-time jobs, going to school three quarters in order to make ends meet, so we could continue to live our lives and go to school and do our job. Because I didn’t have the luxuries that the other students had. This wasn’t my second career, and my spouse was able to take care of me. This wasn’t like I was living at home. It’s one of those things where it’s not as easily attainable if you don’t have the means to do it. I think that in and of itself presents a barrier because in order to become a librarian most places require that you have your MLIS degree. I am not saying we need to get rid of it, I’m just saying there needs to be more financial assistance for students who maybe can’t afford it. There is like one or two grants or scholarships out there and you’ll find them on the ALA website. The first one is the Spectrum Scholarship and you’re competing against other phenomenal students for this scholarship in order to be able to go to school and even then, you’re not promised the second or third year. I’m saying yes do it but be aware of the free money that is out there and take advantage of it to the best of your ability.

I was lucky enough, I don’t want to say lucky, but my husband made a sacrifice in which he joined the National Guard so they could pay for my school. So, now he’s in the Guard until 2026. We made that sacrifice to do this. Someone once said, “oh, it must be nice to go to grad school.” And I’m like you don’t know. We’re not of means. Right now, we are but we weren’t before. I say, why not? You could be that one person who changes it for someone else, who changes the perspective, who changes that concept, who challenges that concept. I think the hard part is that I don’t get to be my 100% authentic self here, so I feel like a lot of students don’t get to see me for who I am. I feel like there are a few times, even with my volunteers, I try to not get too Nancy because I’m like I have to be a professional, I don’t want to scare them away, but I have to be myself. I say do it. The more of us there are the more we get a chance to be our more authentic selves. I don’t know how many of us are being our full authentic self.

ZW: What is something you wish your younger self had known before going into this profession? Or if you could speak to your younger self, what is one piece of advice you would give to yourself?

NC: I think it would be to own who you are sooner. Just be you. Because the sooner that I came out of my shell and was my true self, then I felt comfortable in my ability to do my job. It took close to a year for me to be comfortable. I didn’t really let myself be myself until 2020. That’s when I really was just like I don’t give an f. I am who I am period. I think at some point in time I stopped caring about how other people perceived me in my profession. I was like I am me. I am an individual who feels. I am an individual who can be dramatic. I am an individual who has a passion and drive for helping. I know my strengths. I am an achiever. You want something done? I will get it done. Just remind me because I might not do it until it’s due, but I will get it done. I am someone who is funny, and nerdy, and I live with anxiety. That would be it. Nancy, just be you. Be unapologetically you. And it’s ok to be unapologetically you. They’re not the person who signs your paycheck. They don’t pay your bills. When I became more myself, everyone else was more receptive to this version of me. I should have just been myself the whole time.

ZW: Being in Minnesota in 2020, outside of the pandemic, we experienced the murder of George Floyd. I am wondering if you can comment on how the library addressed the murder and the ways the library’s culture shifted after what happened in Minnesota following George Floyd’s death.

NC: In some libraries, like Hennepin County and Ramsey County, they were more *holds up a fist*. Our library didn’t. We’re in a more “conservative” area. That’s when I started to become my more authentic self because I became angry at the fact that we did not release a statement. We have people in our community, people of color, and you’re not making any kind of statement saying we stand with you. We see you. Do you know what that says to not only the community we serve but the people that work here? The fact that you are not willing to say shit. I think that’s why the true me came out because I was furious. Some libraries put their money where their mouth was, and I was like I love you. We were not one of those libraries. I had really strong feelings about it to the point where some people were not talking to me which was a “them” problem not a “me” problem. Then the county took a long look at itself after they got a lot of pushback from staff because we ended up writing a letter – sending it to library administration, who then sent it to county administration – that said they needed to make a statement. You need to say something because when you say nothing, you’re being complicit. I was willing to put my job on the line. I think that’s when I realized some people were performative and some were not. You could see some libraries in Minnesota who were putting their money where their mouth was, and that’s when you saw some politicians get voted out of office. Our organization took what staff had to said seriously enough to create a DEI Coordinator position, to hire for that position, and have that person hit the floor running. Within our organization, we did see that change. We’re still tiptoeing the line, but staff are more open to talking about stuff. Some staff are more open to learning. Some staff looked at their programming and looked at the collection and looked at the recommendations. Staff did a lot of work to be more aware. There was change, but it can be harder to see the change on a larger scale.

ZW: Is there anything we have not discussed that you would like to share with current LIS students/future LIS professionals?

NC: The one thing that you never expect about being in this library profession is that you are going to change someone’s day let alone their life. Because that has happened where someone is having a really shit day and all they need is something to make a photocopy or get an email printed. And they come back to you and they’re like “thank you so much, I’ve been having a really rough day.” Or even the case of my mom where she wanted to become a citizen. There was a patron who would ask me to help him with job information on several occasions. He disappeared and then he came back. He was like “you know this librarian here; she helped me find a job. She’s so nice and she’s so good.” And I was like “I just helped you print this” or I just did this one thing. There’s a different feeling you get when you want to help people and then people say you helped me. It’s not self-serving but it’s like that’s all I wanted to do. I always appreciate interactions when they don’t like me, it happens a lot with teens boys, and I happily help them. And they come back reluctantly like “hey, I got an A. Thank you.” I’m like “You’re welcome.” see I’m cool, but you don’t think I’m cool. But I can still help you with your history project, your research project, your homework, etc. We don’t have to be besties, but I can still help you!

Even your existence in a space could change the perception of someone else and they begin to believe they are capable of doing a job. I would love it if a little Latina came in one day and saw me and was like I want to be a librarian because she’s a librarian.

The library has a crucial role as an information gatekeeper in communities around the world. The library holds the power of deciding what information is made available to patrons through collections, services, and programs (Mehra et al., 2010). Knowledge and information are key factors impacting the livelihood of individuals who are constantly affected by systems of oppression. For marginalized communities, the library can act as an additional barrier or as a means of access to information beyond the limitations enforced upon them by society. Nancy demonstrated the pivotal role the library and librarians had as a means of access in her mother’s life and subsequently in her life. A moment that was likely another routine reference encounter for the librarians on duty, changed the course of Nancy’s life by facilitating her mother’s efforts to obtain citizenship. Nancy’s close personal ties to the library may differ from others who had the privilege of utilizing the library as a resource that enhanced their access to information rather than it being central to their status as a citizen of this country, but the library’s importance is nonetheless palpable. The magnitude of impact the library has in each of our lives is different. For Nancy and her family, the impact was immense. However, this reality did not rid Nancy of her ability to analyze the library through a critical lens.

Nancy discussed the ethics of access to information through examples exemplifying what can be a difficult balance between professional ethics and personal values. In large, the librarian has a responsibility to preserve patrons’ freedom of choice which is fostered through selection policies (Asheim, 1983). Inevitably there are times when selection policies do not facilitate preserving a patron’s freedom of choice. Nancy brought up an instance in which a gap in the collection was highlighted by a patron touring the facilities. Nancy immediately noted the problem and discussed the issue with the Deputy Director. Ultimately, the gap identified by the visiting patron was not filled due a reliance on collection policies and user demographics. Policies written without diverse patrons in mind offer libraries the ability to fallback on policies that are inherently exclusive. Analyzing acts that impede access to information must happen on a broader scale looking into the systems supporting the exclusion of certain materials versus others. It becomes a catch-22 to rely on the argument that collection money must be devoted to individuals who use the library when the existing gaps in the collection are likely the very reason certain community members are not frequent users of the library. Libraries demonstrate who the intended patron is through collections and various services.

Nancy spoke to the experience of being in a professional setting and not being in the space as the fullest version of herself. There are times when she is put in a position in which she is forced to uphold the needs of a patron at the expense of her own comfort. It brings to question the different sacrifices professionals, particularly professionals of color, make when attempting to abide by codes of ethics. Nancy addressed the discomfort individuals may feel as the profession grows and diversity among patron groups increases challenging the status quo. Situations arise which require libraries to take action to demonstrate their commitment to the community they serve. Even when libraries decide against taking action, the absence of a choice or action is in and of itself a choice or action.

Currently, the broader discourse regarding libraries amplifies a level of distress due to the various ways fundamental principles of the profession are under fire. On a more hopeful note, Nancy spoke to the shift she has seen in the field. She mentioned the undeniable evolution towards a more welcoming library occurring in the profession. Opportunities to cultivate a more inclusive space become available as individuals with diverse perspectives challenge the existing standards. Nancy highlighted the reality of professionals being committed to making the library reflective of its community of patrons. Nancy has hope that the next generation of LIS professionals will tilt the profession in favor of abiding by one of the fundamental principles of libraries being open access to all.