Advancing IDEAs: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, 2022 December 13

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

Library and museum empathy

With funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Empathy Project is offering “Institutional and Social Empathy in COVID-19: Open Training Modules for Library and Museum Workers.” The free self-paced sessions are intended for all museum and library workers to increase awareness of barriers to service for historically marginalized users who may have both expressed and unexpressed needs. Among the topics covered are: “Compassion fatigue, Cultural humility, Implicit bias, Intent vs impact, Microaggressions, Power and privilege.”

Media representation

Jimmeka Anderson, founder of the nonprofit I AM not the MEdia contributes “Learning to Read Representation: Critical media literacy needs to be taught, not left to chance” to the November/December 2022 issue of American Libraries (Volume 53, Numbers 11/12, Pages 34-37). Anderson writes, “But just as black-and-white TV gave way to color in the late 1960s, and how we long thought the civil rights movement drove racism underground in the United States during that same time period, a critical lens reveals there has been only the illusion of inclusion, both on the screen and in real life.” Our media intentionally construct what we experience, and these “content worlds” both inspire and limit our imaginations, depending upon how they have been built. Asking such questions as “Who made this world?” “Who is present? Who is missing?” and “Who benefits from this world?” may lead to insights about our relations to these content worlds and increased media literacy.

DEI audits

Kawanna Bright, an assistant professor of library science at East Carolina University (OCLC Symbol: ERE) in Greenville, North Carolina, describes diversity, equity, and inclusion audits and their usefulness in “The Value of a DEI Audit: What an Assessment Can Show You—and Why You Should Care” in the November/December 2022 issue of American Libraries (Volume 53, Numbers 11/12, Page 40). Bright differentiates two types of assessments, the whole-library DEI audit and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Self-Assessment Audit or DEISAA. Such self-evaluations can establish a baseline for the future, allow an institution to chart its progress, and foster communication within the organization.

Conversations about race

On November 15, 2022, Columbus Metropolitan Library (OCLC Symbol: OCO) in Ohio presented Kwame Christian talking about his recent book “How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race: Practical Tools for Necessary Change in the Workplace and Beyond.” Being able to talk with each other about race, no matter how difficult those discussions may be, is a necessary condition for a more equitable workplace and society. Christian tries to teach how to overcome both internal and external barriers to productive conversations by using his “Compassionate Curiosity Framework.”

Libraries in a changing world

In October 2022, the Pacific Library Partnership presented the 2022 edition of its annual “The Future of Libraries” conferences, “Expanding Your Toolbox for a Changing World.” Among the presentations and panels are Frieda Afary of the Los Angeles Public Library (OCLC Symbol: LPU) on “Confronting Disinformation and Book Bans by Cultivating Critical Thinking and Empathy,” Wonda Powell on “From Critical Thinking to Critical Race Theory: Unearthing History,” and “Serving Unhoused Members of Your Community.” Most sessions from the PLP’s conferences going back to 2014 are freely available on its TFOL Archive.

CCQ special issue on “Empowering Representations”

Cataloging and Classification Quarterly Volume 60, Issue 6-7, 2022, is a special issue devoted to “Empowering Representations: Rethinking Surrogates from the Margins,” guest edited by Lynne C. Howarth of the University of Toronto (OCLC Symbol: UTF) and Katharine Leigh of Johns Hopkins University (OCLC Symbol: JHE). Among numerous other articles are: “On Overlap and Otherness: A Comparison of Three Vocabularies’ Approaches to LGBTQ+ Identity,” by Brian Dobreski, Karen Snow, and Heather Moulaison-Sandy (Pages 490-513); “Evaluating Metadata Quality in LGBTQ+ Digital Community Archives,” by Alexandrea Kord (Pages 514-535); “Prioritizing the People: Developing a Method for Evaluating a Collection’s Description of Diverse Populations,” by Brian Clark and Catherine Smith (Pages 560-582); “Controlled Vocabulary as Communication: The Process of Negotiating Meaning in an Indigenous Knowledge Organization System,” by Margaret C. Joyce and Keahiahi S. Long (Pages 583-598); “Misrepresentation in the Surrogate: Author Critiques of “Indians of North America” Subject Headings,” by Julia Bullard, Brian Watson, and Caitlin Purdome (Pages 599-619); “Body-Oriented Cataloging as a Method of Inclusive Gender Representation,” by Travis Wagner (Pages 620-645); and “Advancing the Relationship between Critical Cataloging and Critical Race Theory,” by Karen Snow and Anthony W. Dunbar (Pages 646-674).

Doctorow defends libraries

Multi-hyphenate writer Cory Doctorow passionately defends our favorite institution in “They Want to Kill Libraries: The Last Place in America Where You Are a Person, Not a Customer.” “Behind the anti-library movement is a demand for extraordinarily invasive government control over parenting. Rather than leaving it up to parents whether they want their kids to read books about racism and queer sexuality, anti-library militias want the government to to make sure that parents don’t even know these books exist, and, should they discover their existence, they want to make it as expensive and inconvenient as possible for parents to share them with their kids,” Doctorow writes.

School librarians of the year

The Oregon Library Association (OLA) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Antiracism Committee presents the ninth episode of its podcast, Overdue: Weeding Out Oppression in Libraries. The episode entitled “School Librarians Creating a Culture of Reading and Inclusion while Navigating Challenges” features School Library Journal 2022 School Librarian of the Year, K.C. Boyd of Jefferson Middle School Academy in Washington, D.C., and the two finalists, Pia Alliende of Redmond School District in Oregon, and Andy Spinks of Campbell High School in Smyrna, Georgia, talking about book challenges and other impediments to what Boyd refers to as delivering excellence, “to provide the very best service, and most importantly … to help children identify books that are meaningful to them in their lives.” Constance Palaia, Library Manager at Fruitdale Elementary School in Grants Pass, Oregon, and Ericka Brunson-Rochette, Community Librarian at the Deschutes Public Library (OCLC Symbol: DCH) in Oregon, conducted the interview on October 23, 2022.

Queer archival history

In a four-part series of interviews, doctoral candidate Rachel M. Friars in the Department of English Language and Literature at Queen’s University (OCLC Symbol: CNSTL) in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, talks with “The Authority File” podcast from “Choice,” the publishing arm of the Association of College and Research Libraries, on “The Impact of Primary Sources on Lesbian Literature and History.” In the first podcast, “Introductions and Approaching the Materials,” Friars stresses the current relevance of archival materials in the realm of queer studies, stating “we’ve always been here, we’ve never been anywhere else, and, in some ways, there’s nothing modern about queer communities.” In the second episode, “Anne Lister and ‘Slowing Down’ in the Archives,” Friars discusses the nineteenth century lesbian diarist, the idiosyncrasies of her journaling methods, and how primary sources force the researcher to be more deliberate and intentional. In episode three, “Applying Primary Source Literacy Skills,” Friars spells out the demands of archival resources and how they must be regarded within their temporal and cultural contexts, both in general and specifically for queer archives. In “The Evolution and Significance of Queer Archives,” the final podcast of the series, Friars describes the process by which Lister’s diaries were saved and made accessible, as well as the vital importance of such preservation and archiving to connect queer history with current struggles.

Sensory sensitivity

Chelsey Roos, a children’s librarian at Santa Clara County Library (OCLC Symbol: JRY) in California, shares four “Simple Ways to Be More Inclusive of Autistic Families” in the ALSC Blog of the Association for Library Service to Children. Any family with sensory needs or library users with social anxieties will appreciate such thoughtful changes as the avoidance of strong scents, the advance distribution of discussion questions, the creation of visual schedules, and the use of color-coded communication badges.

Targeted universalism

“Targeted Universalism” describes an equity framework designed simultaneously to move varied groups toward specific goals and to communicate those goals and processes inclusively and cooperatively. Developed by the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society (now the Othering and Belonging Institute) of the University of California, Berkeley (OCLC Symbol: CUY), targeted universalism is the subject of “One Goal, Many Approaches” by Linda W. Braun in the November/December 2022 issue of American Libraries (Volume 53, Numbers 11/12, Page 42). Using this approach, Braun says, “users will come to realize that there is not a loss in services and that equity-based adjustments do not result in any one group receiving less. Instead, they will see that everyone gets what they need in a way that best suits the individual or community.”

Helping unhoused library patrons

With the official beginning of the Northern Hemisphere winter on December 21, WebJunction spotlights “Resources for Helping Unhoused Patrons.” Libraries serve as central lifelines to people facing housing insecurity. WebJunction gathers news, tools, courses, webinars, podcasts, documentaries, services, and other sources of information and advice to assist libraries in offering meaningful service to people experiencing homelessness. Coincidentally, recordings of the November 14, 2022, ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table “Homelessness Summit,” are now available freely to all. In addition to the opening and closing keynote speeches, there are sessions on “Partnerships Between Libraries and Social Workers;” “Community Partnerships and Public Health;””Education, Visibility, and Sensitivity;” and “Communities: Rural Homelessness, Food Insecurity, and Lived Experience.”