Abstract
The applied science of Library and Information Science (LIS) has long emphasized understanding user behaviors in information-seeking processes, particularly in higher education environments where new information and research are generated. However, a notable gap exists in the literature regarding the information-seeking and information-use experiences of autistic and neurodivergent students and adults, impacting an interconnected network of relationships between researchers, librarians, LIS students, and postsecondary students seeking support and services. In LIS, research informs practice, and information-seeking is a cognitive and learning process, especially prescient in academic institutions. The failure to address the information needs of autistic, neurodivergent, and disabled people in LIS research and LIS curricula, which educates future librarians, impoverishes both practitioners and students. Drawing from personal experiences and empirical data, the author highlights the prevalence of neurodivergent students in higher education and investigates why, despite a growing awareness of neurodiversity, LIS research, scholarship, and program curricula largely overlook the specific needs of neurodivergent individuals. The article asks questions and proposes ideas for facing the consequences of an incomplete LIS education, addressing the necessity of introducing inclusive pedagogical practices in the academic library and getting honest about the field’s cognitively biased scholarship because we cannot understand the information behavior landscape in all its neurobiological variations nor anticipate the future of information use and creation if we have bypassed neurodivergent and autistic minds.
Community Brief
Why is this topic important?
Gatekeeping in information science research has excluded autistic college students and adults from representation in studies on the information behaviors of library users. We do not know how autistic students seek and use information, and librarians-in-training are not being formally trained to help neurodivergent students find the support and information they need to succeed academically. This topic is important because college librarians use library research to develop inclusive services. The absence of research communicates that neurodivergent students do not have unique needs or deserve accommodations in seeking and using information.
What is the purpose of this article?
This article aims to shed light on how overlooking the experiences and challenges of autistic students in accessing and finding the information they need is a barrier that library science needs to address in research and practice. Drawing from personal experience and available studies, the author seeks to raise awareness of the importance of libraries in a college student’s experience and how library science, as a field, needs to focus on its neurodivergent and autistic students and users to be inclusive.
What perspectives does the author bring to this topic?
The author, an autistic individual with personal experience navigating higher education as a student, librarian, and researcher, brings a unique perspective to this topic.
What is already known about this topic?
There is growing awareness about neurodiversity in library studies overall. However, graduate library school programs are not adding courses to prepare librarians to help disabled, neurodivergent, and autistic students. There is little known about this research topic because researchers have chosen to study the information behaviors of cognitively typical college students, ignoring different cognitive neurotypes.
What does the author recommend?
The author asks questions and offers suggestions for addressing this gap, such as bringing disability, neurodiversity, and autism topics into the library school classroom and designing research studies that specifically focus on the voices and experiences of autistic students and adults.
How will these recommendations help autistic adults now or in the future?
Adding disability and neurodiversity topics to the library school curriculum would help train future librarians. Researching how autistic college students use and search for information will give college librarians data that help them understand how to support, teach, and serve neurodivergent information seekers. Implementing these recommendations would help autistic students and adults receive more support and inclusion in every higher education environment.
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