Publication Date
Winter 2-2026
Faculty Department
Libraries
Document Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
While scholarly conversations about supporting library patrons who are neurodivergent have grown in the past years, conversations about library workers who are neurodivergent lag behind. As it becomes easier to encourage students to destigmatize their neurodivergence, share their experiences, and seek formal and informal accommodations in university spaces, when, and how, will it become easier for neurodivergent library workers to do the same?
Perhaps slow librarianship is one answer to this question. Following in the footsteps of Jocelyn Swick-Jemison (2023), this chapter is part autoethnography, in which two early-career librarians will share their perspective of learning how to be liaison librarians while simultaneously learning how to be adults with ADHD. We will begin by painting a picture of how ADHD can lead to differing working styles that do not fit into the mold of an output- and deadline-focused work culture.
This chapter will then explore the principles of slow librarianship as an intervention for assisting neurodivergent library workers and their neurotypical colleagues in conversations about destigmatizing being neurodivergent at work in the library. Can the hallmarks of slow librarianship – being good, humane, and thoughtful at work (Farkas, 2021) – help librarians with ADHD work more authentically, and be better understood in their workplaces? Can slow librarianship be more than a theoretical framework, but rather a set of shared values and habits that universally supports all library workers?
Finally, this chapter will recognize the potential pitfalls of slow librarianship as a framework for supporting neurodivergent library workers. While conversations are necessary to adjust work culture to fit the needs of all library workers, libraries should not require anyone to disclose personal details, and neurodivergent library workers should not have the onus on themselves to kickstart changes. To make a meaningful impact as a mindful practice and as a set of shared values, slow librarianship requires an institutional shift in working culture and habits that will take time, collaboration, and resources to achieve.
Slow librarianship can be one way to address diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility issues in our libraries by helping to frame, accommodate, and destigmatize neurodivergent library workers’ workplace experiences – if our organizations are willing to embrace it as a universal framework. By providing flexibility, independence, humanity, thoughtfulness, and goodness to employees with ADHD through slow librarianship, we can empower them to excel in librarianship.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Linsinbigler, Valerie and Bayne, Liana, "Exploring Slow Librarianship as an intervention to support library workers with ADHD" (2026). Faculty Scholarship. 67.
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/faculty-submissions/67
Comments
This book chapter was originally published by Litwin Books in the edited volume, Slow Librarianship: Reflections and Practices. These publication rights are fully non-exclusive, and the authors retain all rights to republish, share, and use in any other way, as the holder of the copyright.