Abstract
This chapter discusses the unique challenges and hidden advantages of working as the only entirely remote librarian, who also happens to be one of the few people of color, in an in-person academic library setting. In particular, I focus on how working from home has challenged and changed tried-and-true survival strategies like code-switching, performing being a model minority, and managing across differences by de-emphasizing my own difference. I will explore how a new approach embracing my whole self as a Brown self has impacted, changed, and ultimately improved my experience of my work as an academic librarian and manager. While this chapter focuses on my experiences working as an academic librarian and manager in an R2 land-grant university, I hope the perspectives and insights offered will be useful to all library workers who work remotely and those who are working with remote colleagues. This chapter focuses in particular on how remote work has supported me as a disabled person and person of color, so I hope other Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color (BIPOC) in the library will find inspiration and solidarity in this chapter.