Advancing IDEAs: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, 2022 November 15

The following  post is one in a regular series on issues of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility, compiled by Jay Weitz.

Demythologizing Thanksgiving

Just in time for the holiday, the Association for Library Service to Children‘s ALSC Blog offers “Thanksgiving Books Without the Myth” by Abby Johnson, Collection Development Leader at the Floyd County Library in Indiana. Johnson lists books that concentrate on current traditions, books from the viewpoint of Indigenous people, books about gatherings of family or friends in which food is shared, and books more generally about gratitude. “I know several years ago, we looked at our Thanksgiving books and determined that if we weeded the books that contained the Thanksgiving myth, we would have almost nothing left and there weren’t better books to fill the demand,” Johnson writes. “That’s getting better every year (for which I am thankful!).”

“Bringing Disability to the Forefront”

Reference librarian at Mercer County Community College (OCLC Symbol: MRR) in Trenton, New Jersey, Stephanie Sendaula offers some practical advice about “Bringing Disability to the Forefront” in a recent ACRLog posting from the Association of College and Research Libraries. She emphasizes how important it is to both “consider the needs of disabled students year-round” and “highlight books by chronically ill and disabled authors throughout the year.” So many students and fellow workers “are living with either chronic illness, disability, or both,” and so much of it can be invisible.

Muslim representation

Earlier this year, Hijabi Librarians issued a 2022 update of its free guide to Evaluating Muslims in KidLit: A Guide for Librarians, Educators, and Reviewers, by Ariana Sani Hussain, a teacher librarian in the Twin Cities metropolitan area in Minnesota, and Mahasin Abuwi Aleem, a San Francisco Bay Area children’s librarian. Acknowledging that literature is often the first exposure that children have to both Islam and Muslims, the guide intends “to be deliberate in combating tropes and stereotypes that deal in disinformation, fear-mongering, and histories rooted in ‘orientalism’ (as coined by scholar Edward Said), colonialism and white supremacy.” In two sections, the guide “identifies resources for learning more about Muslim Americans while providing context for media representation” and suggests questions with which to consider and analyze individual works and library collections.

Jewish representation

The Association of Jewish Libraries recently published Evaluating Jewish Representation in Children’s Literature, edited by Heidi Rabinowitz, a past president of AJL and Library Director for Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton, Florida. “Jews have always been marginalized and Jewish books belong everywhere that diverse books are being discussed,” the free resource notes. “The Jewish community itself is also very diverse. According to GlobalJews.org, 20% of America’s 6 million Jews or 1.2 million are African American, Latino/Hispanic, Asian, Sephardic, Mizrahi, mixed race and growing. In recent years, Jewish children’s literature has started to reflect this reality.” The AJL document, which also delves a bit into materials for adults, pays homage to and takes inspiration from the aforementioned Hijabi Librarians’ guide.

LGBTQReads

Author, editor, and founder of the blog LGBTQReads.com, Dahlia Adler recommends eight recent or upcoming young adult LGBTQ+ romances and romcoms in Booklist. As an aside, the November 2022 Booklist newsletter “Quick Tips for Schools and Libraries” in turn recommends Adler’s blog as “a beautifully organized database of LGBTQ children’s and young adult books.”

Researching Asian American history

Gonzaga University (OCLC Symbol: WUG) librarians Shayna Pekala and Stephanie Plowman and political scientist Shyam K. Sriram, formerly at Gonzaga, in Spokane, Washington, but now at Canisius College (OCLC Symbol: VKC) in Buffalo, New York, together created the first “Asian American Politics” seminar to be offered at Gonzaga earlier in 2022. They write about the experience and how it ended up “Inspiring Asian American awareness through archival research” in the November 2022 issue of College and Research Libraries News (Volume 83, Number 10, pages 427-431). Requiring students “to engage physically with the library,” making research consultation with the liaison librarian mandatory, introducing the library to students in a manner that caused them to reevaluate the institution’s offerings, and offering “the freedom to develop their own research agenda,” proved a successful formula that the authors believe can be replicated elsewhere. Beyond the library instruction aspects of the project, “we believe that all colleges have a responsibility to educate students on Asian American history, which is a preemptive step in ending anti-Asian bias.”

Diversity audits

Library collection diversity audits help analyze the varieties of representation, viewpoints, and experiences that can be found in the institution’s materials. Whether conducted manually or through automated means, they can lead to more inclusive and equitable collection development. In “Using Data From Collection Diversity Audits” (Computers in Libraries, November 2022, Volume 42, Number 9, pages 15-19), four librarians recount their experiences in planning and conducting audits with the goal being that “Every new patron who walks through the door should be able to see their identity represented on your library’s shelves and display units.” Anitra Gates and Amberlee McGaughey of Erie County Public Library (OCLC Symbol: EPL) in Pennsylvania, Celia Mulder of Clinton-Macomb Public Library (OCLC Symbol: YMN) in Michigan, and Sarah Voels of Cedar Rapids Public Library (OCLC Symbol: IWR) in Iowa write about the valuable information that can be gleaned from such audits but also warn of the shortcomings and how to compensate for them.

Web accessibility indicators

Reporting on the poll of success indicators for web accessibility that they conducted in 2020, Sonya Schryer Norris of Plum Librarian LLC and Jared Oates of Niche Academy reveal the “Data Behind Key Web ACCESSIBILITY Success Indicators and Staff Training Needs” (Computers in Libraries, November 2022, Volume 42, Number 9, pages 20-24). The two most prominent shortcomings were the absence of an explicit accessibility policy that includes the name of an Americans with Disability Act contact person plus a complaint form and a procedure to follow, and the lack of alt text, which “describes images to computer users who are blind and accesses websites via screen reading software.”

Coping with book challenges

On November 17 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern, Booklist will present “Persevering in the Face of Book Challenges,” a free webinar intended to be “a frank and inclusive conversation about how we press on to do the best for our patrons and communities, for intellectual freedom, and for ourselves in these difficult circumstances.” Cindy Hohl, Director of Branch Operations at Missouri’s Kansas City Public Library (OCLC Symbol: KCP); Kansas’s Olathe East High School (OCLC Symbol: SX3) Librarian Shelly McNerney; and Gavin Downing, Kent School District librarian and winner of the Washington Library Association‘s Candace Morgan Intellectual Freedom Award, are the panelists.