The following post is one in a regular series on issues of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility, compiled by a team of OCLC contributors.
Women’s History Month 2025
In the United States, March has been commemorated as Women’s History Month since 1987. Shorter observances go back to at least 1911, when 8 March was first declared as International Women’s Day. Each March, Toward Inclusive Excellence (TIE), the blog from ALA’s Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), collects all kinds of resources to keep libraries — especially but not just those that serve higher education — informed about important ideas and initiatives. “Commemorating Women’s History Month with TIE and Choice Content” brings together recent book reviews, blogs, webinars, podcasts, interviews, and other resources to help librarians, researchers, and other interested readers to prepare, learn, and study.
This annual service provided by ACRL’s Choice publishing unit may be more consequential than ever. “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Generations” is the 2025 theme of National Women’s History Month as declared by the National Women’s History Alliance. Under its former name, the National Women’s History Project, NWHA was instrumental in establishing the commemorative month in 1987. Then as now, the organization has been devoted to “writing women back into history.” As part of that effort, OCLC worked with NWHA in 2023 to create the ”Women’s History” topic page on WorldCat.org. Thanks to the dynamic nature of the WorldCat bibliographic database, the preprogrammed searches are as up-to-date as WorldCat itself. Contributed by Jay Weitz.
A focus on elders and elder justice in libraries
When I read “Because I am Old” in the title of an academic journal article, it caught my attention–as it was intended to do. I know that older adults makeup a sizeable portion of active public library users and catering programs and services for them makes sense. The article describes the specific motivation for seniors to attend digital literacy training programs, which are all the things you would expect like feeling connected to society and family members and feeling ill-equipped to proficiently use information technology. Giving older adults a safe space to experiment is key to their success and boosts confidence. Libraries being that safe space feels natural, and many are already committed to serving this population. ALA’s new Elder Justice Task Force (EJTF) brings together librarians and advocates to centralize resources and learning around the myriad issues facing older adults. The EJTF will support librarians to create safe spaces for digital literacy and health and wellness courses that are sensitive to societal and internalized age discrimination. As noted in the Public Libraries Online article about the EJTF, serving older adult populations is often skipped in library science education and with the expected growth in this demographic the task force wants to aid librarians as they transition to a service model that cares for older adults at higher rates than children, young adults or adults.
There is a part of me that always has patience for people who need extra help. Sometimes that is people with disabilities, sometimes that is children and older adults. It’s a desire to be inclusive and caring in ways that society often moves past and forgets about, especially in the development of information technology. The EJTF fills a major gap in our social and library instruction, one that will affect the library profession in major ways. My hope is that the legacy of EJTF is that the library profession becomes more caring and inclusive of older adults in library programming. Contributed by Lesley A. Langa.
American Library Association / Gallup research on diversity in librarianship
A new report from the American Library Association and Gallup, Empowering Voices, Inspiring Change: Advancing Diversity Within Librarianship, spotlights one of the profession’s most persistent issues, diversity in the library workforce. Based on interview and survey data (and drawing on previous research as well as workforce data), the report presents a nuanced view of the profession as it stands and makes recommendations for improvement.
One of the things I appreciated most about this report is that it digs into the concept of diversity as a nuanced and complex issue. The library workforce is not only white, but also overwhelmingly female, aging and lacking socioeconomic diversity. The profession faces issues around retention, degree attainment for new workers, and also faces issues due to persistent stereotypes around who librarians are, but what library work entails. One interviewee commented, “There’s this misconception that librarians are agreeable, nice, they drink tea and like cats.” As a dog-loving, non-tea drinker this resonates with me; similarly, my work had fallen outside of what the public would imagine as library work. I also appreciated the report’s focus on the intersectional experiences and the need for representation from multiple facets including neurodiversity. Contributed by Merrilee Proffitt.
ALA president shares experience with autism
American Library Association (ALA) president Cindy Hohl shared that that she is one of the millions of people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in her 3 March 2025 message Spectrum of Leadership. The World Health Organization estimates that one child in 100 is autistic. It does not provide estimates on how many autistic adults there are in the world, but it seems reasonable to assume a similar figure for adults. Autistic adults may not disclose their status because of the social stigmas. ALA’s Reference and User Services Association has a webpage about ASD designed to provide information about providing services to ASD. While the page uses “may” language as in “a person with ASD may be unusually sensitive to smells,” this description of ASD patrons does not mention a single trait that might be seen as positive. It has instructions about contacting security or police to remove a person with ASD “in extreme cases” and informing law enforcement “that this person has a developmental disability and is not a criminal.” The tone of this page is a sharp contrast to Hohl’s description of ASD. Describing how she struggled with school, she writes, “I was not prepared to see my place in this world since I was focused on living in my own space and time, far from the societal pressures to be perfect. Turns out, I’m okay, and so are you.”
Hohl’s message is an important reminder that autistic people can be successful in a variety of careers, may communicate effectively with individuals and large groups, and may have any of the personality strengths that a neurotypical person does. As Hohl notes, the adversity she has experienced has taught her to use empathy when interacting with others. Hohl’s message reminded me of this quotation from the character Raymond Holt in the television show Brooklyn Nine-Nine: “Every time someone steps up and says who they are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place.” Contributed by Kate James.
Merrilee Proffitt is Senior Manager for the OCLC RLP. She provides community development skills and expert support to institutions within the OCLC Research Library Partnership.