Background: On college campuses, the academic library can be a place of comfort for some Autistic students. Autistic college students report using the library to explore their interests and as a place to escape a busy campus environment. However, academic librarians are not required to have a formal education about autism or neurodiversity more broadly.Methods: Through content analysis, this study examines sessions presented at the largest biannual conference for academic librarians in the United States to determine if, and how, attendees gain access to autism information.Results: Results indicate that few sessions focus specifically on autism but that the number is growing, especially when included within sessions about neurodiversity more broadly. Additionally, the language used to describe autism is increasingly in alignment with Autistic preferences.Conclusion: Conference sessions about autism and neurodiversity are limited but growing in number and quality. By encouraging more professional development opportunities for academic librarians to learn about autism, college and university students will benefit from more informed librarians and more inclusive library environments. Community Brief Why is this an important issue? Academic libraries are important support spaces for some autistic college students, yet academic librarians receive no formal training or education about autism. What was the purpose of this study? This study sought to understand if academic librarians receive autism education through professional conference sessions. What did the researchers do? The researcher studied conference programs from five previous biannual, national conferences of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), the largest conference in the United States for academic librarians, to find all references to autism or neurodiversity more broadly. The researcher analyzed conference sessions using descriptive statistics to provide basic frequencies and qualitative methods to assign meaning to session metadata and descriptions. What were the results of the study? Conference sessions about autism or neurodiversity were limited, with very few specifically addressing the topic. However, with the exception of 2017, these offerings have steadily increased since 2015. Language used to describe these sessions varied, but sessions used the term "neurodiversity" or its derivatives with greater frequency in most recent conference years, indicating greater awareness and understanding of this concept. Finally, sessions largely moved away from deficit-based language. What do these findings add to what was already known? This is the first study to look at academic library conference sessions for autism references. It helps us to understand what information is being provided and what autism education academic librarians still need. What are potential weaknesses in the study? This study only looked at sessions presented for the national conference. Academic librarians may be getting autism information from state or local conferences or other professional development avenues. More information provided through interviews and surveys with academic librarians and autistic library users may help provide additional context for these results. How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future? Previous work indicates that autistic college students appreciate their academic libraries. Creating more autism-informed academic librarians will help ensure these remain or become even more inclusive, supportive campus spaces.
