The following post is one in a regular series on issues of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility, compiled by Jay Weitz.
Library behavior policies
The racial reckonings and pandemic of recent years have complicated library customer services, says Library Manager Adrienne Doman Calkins of Sherwood Public Library (OCLC Symbol: OXE) in Oregon. In “Approaching the Library Behavior Policy with Justice and Access at the Forefront” (OLA Quarterly Volume 27, Number 2, Fall 2022, Pages 32-39), Calkins writes “A library’s behavior policy is a tool for a safe and welcoming library, and is also a litmus test for some of our most difficult circumstances where we are called upon to build relationships even as we may be removing access. The behavior policy strengthens our role as protector to counter hate speech, bullying, harassment, and microaggressions. Part of creating a library that is welcoming for everyone is looking for ways to build bridges, repair past distrust, and prioritize making just and equitable systemic change.” She outlines the steps that SPL took, before, during, and after the pandemic to incrementally update and standardize their policies with an eye toward holding the library accountable, protecting users and staff, and exemplifying library values of equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism.
Indigenous Studies LibGuides
Examining Indigenous Studies LibGuides from the perspective of Indigenous critical pedagogical and design practices is the aim of “From Pathfinder to Indigenized: An Assessment of LibGuides for Indigenous Studies by ARL Member Institutions” (College and Research Libraries Volume 83, Number 6, November 2022, Pages 1014-1031). Kristen J. Nyitray, Director of Special Collections and University Archives, and Dana Reijerkerk, Knowledge Management and Digital Assets Librarian, both at Stony Brook University (OCLC Symbol: YSM) in New York, encourage libraries to “reimagine guides as Indigenized, decolonized information sources to validate Indigenous ways of knowing” by incorporating controlled vocabularies, placing both past and current histories in their proper contexts, and centering Indigenous knowledge and design principles, all working “toward the goal of actualizing Indigenous self-determination.”
The Black Librarian in America
Dr. E.J. Josey (1924-2009), the founder of the Black Caucus American Library Association (BCALA) and ALA’s second Black president (1984-1985), edited the first edition of The Black Librarian in America in 1970 and The Black Librarian in America Revisited in 1994. Both were landmarks of the profession. Honoring the fiftieth anniversaries in 2020 both of that first edition and of BCALA, The Black Librarian in America: Reflections, Resistance, and Reawakening has been published. Edited for the first time by a quartet of Black women — Shauntee Burns-Simpson (Immediate Past President of BCALA and Associate Director of School Outreach at New York Public Library (OCLC Symbol: NYP)), Nichelle M. Hayes (BCALA current President and head of the Center for Black Literature and Culture at Indianapolis Public Library (OCLC Symbol: IMD)), Ana Ndumu (a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland College of Information Studies (OCLC Symbol: MDX)), and Shaundra Walker (Library Director at Georgia College (OCLC Symbol: GGC)) — the volume also features a foreword by Carla D. Hayden, the first Black woman Librarian of Congress, and an afterword by former ALA President Julius C. Jefferson, Jr. April M. Hathcock, Director of Scholarly Communications and Information Policy at New York University (OCLC Symbol: ZYU), reviews The Black Librarian in America in the November 2022 issue of College and Research Libraries (Volume 83, Number 6, Pages 1039-1041), praising “the wealth of wisdom and lived experience of the stories that are represented in this volume” but also noting such gaps as “as the distinct lack of representation of the Black LGBTQIA+ perspective.”
Local history preservation
Salishan, a storied neighborhood in eastern Tacoma, Washington, lost a nearby branch library in 2011 because of budget cuts, becoming an underserved community of the Tacoma Public Library (OCLC Symbol: TAW). But when TPL received a 2021 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to develop a Community Archives Center (CAC), it was an opportunity to preserve and provide access to that specific and unique aspect of local history. An intentionally integrated and widely diverse neighborhood, Salishan was the subject of the Salishan Story Fest on August 13, 2022, and the effort serves as a template for similar events and preservation activities around the city. Read about the whole project at “Celebrating an Underserved Neighborhood Through Story Fest” in the September/October 2022 issue of Archival Outlook from the Society of American Archivists. The IMLS National Leadership Grant declared that “The Tacoma Public Library will bring community members and organizations together to carry out a fully participatory process to broaden participation and inclusion within cultural heritage collections. This will create a model for institutions in small- and mid-sized urban areas seeking to enter collaborative partnerships with diverse groups to produce more equitable archives. This work contributes to greater understanding of how to develop better models of community partnerships for supporting community archives and how to expand knowledge of the impact of archives on urban communities.”
Libraries as “friendly spaces”
The Oregon Library Association (OLA) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Antiracism Committee presents the eighth episode of its podcast, Overdue: Weeding Out Oppression in Libraries. The episode entitled “Putting ‘Friendly Places’ on the Map with Roland Barksdale-Hall” features the author, activist, and griot, who is the branch manager of the Stey-Nevant Public Library in Farrell, Pennsylvania, on creating that “friendly space” in a community. To build connections, Barksdale-Hall stresses, one needs to know the history of a place, and “when we want to assess needs of a community, we need to have representation from that community.” Being true to one’s cultural identity, listening actively, challenging biases are means by which diverse and inclusive connections are built and libraries become vital places. LaRee Dominguez, Resources Coordinator at the Albany Public Library (OCLC Symbol: ABY), and Meredith Farkas, Faculty Librarian at Portland Community College Library (OCLC Symbol: OQP), both in Oregon, conducted the interview with Roland Barksdale-Hall on August 19, 2022.
Serving patrons with memory loss
On December 7 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern, the Library Services for Dementia/Alzheimer’s Interest Group of ALA and OCLC’s WebJunction will jointly host the free webinar “Remember Your Patrons Living with Memory Loss.” Retired academic librarian Mary Beth Riedner, the creator of Tales and Travel, and Tami Hurst, Outreach Librarian at Olathe Public Library (OCLC Symbol: KOP) in Kansas, will talk about programs and activities to help make libraries more welcoming to users with memory loss.
Library challenges in American Libraries
The November/December 2022 issue of American Libraries (Volume 53, Numbers 11/12) — like most issues in recent memory — has several items about challenges to the freedom to read and how libraries have coped. In “When It Happens to You” (Pages 20-24), Claire Zulkey recounts five stories from across the United States where misinformation, book challenges, and censorship have made life difficult for libraries, staff, and the public. In “Facing the Challenge” (Pages 26-29), excerpts from the Public Library Association virtual town hall of the same name, held on March 4, 2022, are presented, featuring Deb Sica of Alameda County Library (OCLC Symbol: JQA) in California; Cindy Hohl of Missouri’s Kansas City Public Library (OCLC Symbol: KCP); Kathy Carroll of Westwood High School in Blythewood, South Carolina; Melanie Huggins of the Richland Library (OCLC Symbol: SRC) in Columbia, South Carolina; and moderator Angela Maycock, manager of continuing education at PLA.
Gender Queer and obscenity in Virginia
Maia Kobabe’s graphic novel Gender Queer: A Memoir has been among the most challenged books in the United States since its publication in 2019. The non-profit Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) presents a “behind-the-scenes” video, “Gender Queer in Virginia Beach: A Case Study” recounting its defense of the book from obscenity charges in Virginia Beach, Virginia. In fact, CBLDF is a staunch ally of libraries and schools in the fights for intellectual freedom and against censorship. Its website includes a large section of “Librarian and Educator Tools” with webinars, discussion guides, a Banned Books Week handbook, and numerous resources about integrating comics into library collections and school curricula.
Prior to his retirement in 2023, Jay was a Senior Consulting Database Specialist in the Membership and Research Division of OCLC, Jay has long been involved in WorldCat bibliographic quality control and record matching, OCLC-MARC validation, the Member Merge Project, the Virtual AskQC Office Hours, and the maintenance of OCLC’s Bibliographic Formats and Standards. He created the seven-session “Cataloging Defensively” series of presentations. For many years, he coordinated OCLC’s Enhance Program. He serves as OCLC liaison to numerous organizations, including the Music OCLC Users Group (MOUG), Online Audiovisual Catalogers (OLAC), the Cataloging and Metadata Committee (CMC) of the Music Library Association (MLA), the MARC Advisory Committee (MAC), and the Standing Committee on Standards of the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC). He also sits on the Bibliography Standing Committee of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), represents the IFLA Cataloguing Standing Committee on the Committee on Cataloging: Description and Access (CC:DA) of the American Library Association (ALA), and is Secretary of IFLA’s Permanent UNIMARC Committee.
Before coming to OCLC in 1982, Jay was a cataloger at Capital University in Bexley, Ohio. He is the author of Cataloger’s Judgment (2004), both editions of Music Coding and Tagging (1990 and 2001), and the cataloging Q&A columns of the MOUG Newsletter and the OLAC Newsletter. Since 1992, catalogers throughout North America and Japan have been subjected to dozens of his workshops. He was the recipient of the MOUG Distinguished Service Award in 2004, OLAC’s Nancy B. Olson Award in 2005, and the Music Library Association’s lifetime achievement award and highest honor, the MLA Citation in 2019.