The following post is one in a regular series on issues of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility, compiled by Jay Weitz.
Access to information on reproductive health
The American Library Association Executive Board responded to efforts to limit information about reproductive health. Its 2022 August 9 statement, “American Library Association (ALA) Condemns Proposed State Legislation Limiting Access to Information on Reproductive Health,” says in part, “As members of a profession committed to free and equitable access to information and the pursuit of knowledge, we stand firm in opposing any effort to suppress access to information about reproductive health, including abortion, whether for medical purposes or as a matter of public concern and individual liberty.” Specific guidance for libraries and library workers beyond the many ALA resources already available are under development. “ALA calls on elected officials and policymakers to honor their oaths of office and protect the First Amendment rights and privacy of the people whom they are entrusted to serve,” the document continues, calling upon advocates to Unite Against Book Bans and stand up to all forms of censorship.
Ensuring that people experiencing homelessness can vote
Julie Ann Winkelstein, who co-edits the SRRT Newsletter of ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table, calls attention to Every One Votes: A Toolkit to Ensure People Experiencing Homelessness Can Exercise Their Right to Vote from the nonprofit National Alliance to End Homelessness. The free online resource emphasizes how vitally important it is to get out the vote by making sure that every eligible citizen can get registered and exercise this most fundamental of rights.
Michigan library millage defeated over LGBTQ books
In the Michigan election on 2022 August 2, voters in the state’s Jamestown Township voted by a margin of 25 points to reject the proposed renewal of a millage to support the Patmos Library (OCLC Symbol: MIPAT), raising the possibility that it would have to close during 2023, according to the nonprofit and nonpartisan online Bridge Michigan in “Upset over LGBTQ books, a Michigan town defunds its library in tax vote.” The local group Jamestown Conservatives — describing itself on its Facebook page as “created to help others of the community to be aware of the pushed agenda of explicit sexual content that is being infiltrated into our local libraries aiming toward our children. We stand to keep our children safe, and protect their purity, as well as to keep the nuclear family intact as God designed” — campaigned against the millage via flyers, yard signs, and attendance at library board meetings. Ironically, the library’s community room hosted one of the township’s three voting precincts in the August 2nd election. As reported in the Michigan Bridge on August 11, over $100,000 had been raised in two GoFundMe counter campaigns to save the library.
Community resilience through truth and equity
The Center for Community Resilience (CCR) of the George Washington University (OCLC Symbol: DGW) Milken Institute School of Public Health has been compiling information intended to build community resilience through countering what they call the “Pair of ACEs” — Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adverse Community Environments. CCR’s “Fostering Equity: Creating Shared Understanding for Building Community Resilience” brings together a webinar, four equity-based learning modules, case studies, and additional resources for community engagement in developing equity and promoting truth.
“Afternoon of Social Justice”
Recordings of the ALA Social Responsibilities Round Table (SRRT) “Afternoon of Social Justice,” held virtually on 2022 August 3, are freely available. In “Paying Better Attention to Indigenous Communities,” Karleen Delaurier-Lyle spoke about service to Indigenous students at Canada’s University of British Columbia (OCLC Symbol: UBC) Xwi7xwa Library and Kael Moffat of Saint Martin’s University (OCLC Symbol: WSL) of Lacey, Washington, USA, considered means by which libraries that are based on Western ways of knowing and sit on occupied lands might begin to “desettle” and “hear tribal voices.” “Neurodiversity in the Library” featured Kate Thompson and Rachel Bussan, both of West Des Moines Public Library (OCLC Symbol: IW9), talking about improving the library environment for users, staff, and potential employees. The originally planned third session, “Diversity is Not a Bad Word,” is expected to rescheduled at a later date.
“Critical Conversations in LIS”
During September and October, the University of South Carolina (OCLC Symbol: SUC) School of Library and Information Science will present five “Critical Conversations in LIS” guest lectures as part of its course on “Critical Cultural Information Studies:”
- “Nothing About Us Without Us: Inclusive Services for Youth with Disabilities at Brooklyn Public Library” (OCLC Symbol: BKL). On September 22, 2022, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, Carrie Banks will focus on serving people in the Deaf and neurodiverse communities.
- “Finding Solidarity In Storytime.” On September 29, 2022, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, “Lavender Librarian” Kate Reynolds, creator of Storytime Solidarity, will promote new children’s resources, primarily by living authors and songwriters, “checked to avoid problematic historical associations” and intended to teach empathy and self-worth.
- “Cultivating the Reading Identity of Black Boys.” On October 6, 2022, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, Barbershop Books founder Alvin Irby will share “strategies for curating early literacy content and experiences that inspire Black boys to identify as readers and to read for fun.”
- “What’s So Critical About Intellectual Freedom?” On October 13, 2022, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, Dr. Emily Knox of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Information Sciences (OCLC Symbol: UIU) and Dr. Shannon Oltmann of the University of Kentucky School of Information Science (OCLC Symbol: KUK) will discuss the vital importance of access to information in our troubled times.
- “What’s It All Worth? Why I Continue to Engage in DEI Work and Why You Should Too.” On October 20, 2022, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, Dr. Kawanna Bright of East Carolina University (OCLC Symbol: ERE) will share her extensive research into diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as “efforts to dismantle systemic inequalities” in library and information science.
- “Diversity Work is Labor.” On October 27, 2022, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, Angel Truesdale of the University of North Carolina Charlotte (OCLC Symbol: NKM) will expound upon “the demanding but sometimes fulfilling labor” of equity, inclusion, and diversity in library and information science, “a profession that doesn’t inherently value equity and inclusion.”
Each lecture is free and open to the whole LIS community. They will be presented online and will also be recorded for later viewing.
Academic libraries helping first-generation students
As part of its Carterette Series Webinars, the Georgia Library Association will present “Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment: The Academic Library’s Role in Helping First-Generation College Students Succeed” on September 21, 2022, 2 p.m. Eastern. Liya Deng, Social Sciences Librarian and Associate Professor at Eastern Washington University (OCLC Symbol: WEA), will address the expansion of library services to help ensure that the diverse needs of first-generation students are met, encouraging them to overcome the cultural, social, communication, and economic hurdles they may face.
Ethical cataloging
The current issue (Volume 60, Number 5, 2022) of Cataloging and Classification Quarterly contains several articles that touch upon DEI topics. Treshani Perera of the University of Kentucky (OCLC Symbol: KUK) researches how lived experience may inform descriptive inclusivity and reflect the professional values that librarians claim to work by in “Description Specialists and Inclusive Description Work and/or Initiatives—An Exploratory Study” (pages 355-386). Paromita Biswas of the University of California, Los Angeles (OCLC Symbol: CLU) considers the role that the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) CONSER program might play in more ethical authority work for corporate entities in her opinion piece “Can CONSER Lead the Way? Considering Ethical Implications for Corporate Bodies in Name Authority Records” (pages 387-399).
“Weeding Out Oppression in Libraries”
Both the fifth and sixth episodes of the podcast Overdue: Weeding Out Oppression in Libraries from the Oregon Library Association (OLA) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Antiracism Committee are now available. Episode 5 features American Library Association (OCLC Symbol: IEH) Executive Director Tracie D. Hall in discussion about diversifying library staff with Ericka Brunson-Rochette, Community Librarian at the Deschutes Public Library (OCLC Symbol: DCH) in Oregon, and Melissa Anderson, Campus Engagement and Research Services Librarian at Southern Oregon University (OCLC Symbol: SOS), in “Mentoring and Developing the Profession.” In Episode 6, “How Bias, Power, and Privilege Show Up In Libraries,” consultant Christina Fuller-Gregory, who facilitates the Libraries of Eastern Oregon EDI Cohort and serves as assistant director of libraries at the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, talks with hosts Brittany Young of the Lane County Law Library in Eugene, Oregon, and Roxanne M. Renteria of the Deschutes Public Library (OCLC Symbol: DCH), on dealing with inequities and bias in the workplace.
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.