Mehra Bharat - LGBTQ+ Librarianship in the 21st Century

Jeanie Austin is a librarian with San Francisco Public Librarys Jail & Reentry Services program. Their publications largely concern the provision of library services to people held in state custody and the gendered, racialized, and ability-centric political and social systems that surround this work. Jeanie earned their PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Donna Braquet is a subject specialist of Biological Sciences and Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the University Libraries, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and holds the rank of Professor. She has published several articles and book chapters on LGBTQ+ issues in higher education and librarianship. She established the first LGBTQ+ campus center at a public university in Tennessee and served as Director until the state legislature defunded the office and removed her from her position. She has resumed her full-time position as a Librarian and is currently working to create an archive of East Tennessee LGBTQ+ history called, Voices Out Loud.

Melinda F. Brown is Librarian for Inclusion Initiatives and Librarian for Womens and Gender Studies, Vanderbilt University, received their B.S. in Womens Studies at the University of Wisconsin Madison and their M.S.L.S. at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They have been in the library field 23 of the 27 years theyve been involved in bisexual+ activism. They were invited to the Bisexual Community Briefing at the White House in 2016 and most recently were a founder of the organization, Bi Tennessee. Their research interests include academic achievement and health/social disparities for bisexual/pansexual+ college students.

Eric Sancho-Br is a graduate in Literary Studies at the University of Barcelona. His final dissertation was titled Trans Voices: Creation of Identities and Occupation of the Space in the Collective Imaginary Through Literature. He created and is responsible for the library collection Trans Identities and Gender at the Nou Barris Library in Barcelona. He is the co-author of an article in Item: librarianship and documentation magazine, n66 of the COBDC. He is a trans activist for Trans*forma la Salut.

Kai Ewing (pronouns: they/them/their) currently works as the Reserves Processing Assistant and Evening Circulation Supervisor at the R.B. House Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). They received their Masters in Library Science from the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at UNC-CH in 2015. Kai previously served as the alumni representative on the 20172018 SILS Diversity Committee and currently serves on the 20182019 UNC-CH Library Diversity and Education Committee. They were chosen as the first recipient of the UNC-CH LGBTQ Center Faculty & Staff Advocacy Award in May 2018 for their work advocating for LGBTQ+ populations and issues on campus and in the community. Additionally, Kai received distinction at graduation as a SILS Diversity Advocate Certificate Recipient. Prior to their contributions to this anthology, Kai published their Masters paper,