The following post is one in a regular series on issues of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility, compiled by Jay Weitz.
ARLIS/NA supporting LGBTQ+ communities
Decrying anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, protests, and other threats across North America, the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) stated that it “unequivocally supports the LGBTQ+ community’s rights to full and equitable inclusion in libraries, both as patrons and employees, and to representation within the collections we steward.” In its June 1, 2023, “Statement in Support of LGBTQ+ People in Libraries,” ARLIS/NA notes in particular the attacks on the rights and well-being of transgender people. These assaults on the identities and rights of LGBTQ+ people are threatening not least because intellectual freedom, equitable access to information, and service to diverse communities are central concerns of libraries and library workers.
Sapphic YA romances
“Telling the Right Story: Talking with Dahlia Adler” finds Maggie Reagan of Booklist talking with LGBTQ Reads blog creator Dahlia Adler (the subject of an Advancing IDEAs piece on 2022 November 15) about how the world of LGBTQ Young Adult romance is evolving, particularly in the area of sapphic love stories. “There is some sort of internalized misogyny and externalized misogyny in every industry, and publishing is not an exception,” according to Adler, who sees a growing demand for such stories. Adler also lists the kinds of stories that need to be more common, including “trans girls in love,” “trans girls of color,” “transmasculine representation,” “nonbinary representation,” and “more disability rep,” to name a few. And “more gay vampires.”
“BIPOC Leadership in Libraries”
The Oregon Library Association (OLA) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Antiracism Committee presents the third episode of Season Two of its podcast, Overdue: Weeding Out Oppression in Libraries. The episode entitled “BIPOC Leadership in Libraries” features two library leaders of color who have succeeded in predominantly white spaces. Chantel Walker is Director and Executive Committee At-Large Member of the Marin County Library Foundation of the Marin County Free Library (OCLC Symbol: JRG) in San Rafael, California. Patricia Wong is City Librarian for California’s Santa Clara City Library (OCLC Symbol: JRZ) and immediate past president of ALA. Differences between BIPOC and white library leadership and challenging the white cultural norms that continue to dominate library practices are just two of the questions Walker and Wong discussed with Ericka Brunson-Rochette, Community Librarian at the Deschutes Public Library (OCLC Symbol: DCH), and EDI Anti-Racism Committee member Krista Neth, on 2023 May 19.
Building diversity into communications
Making library communication design more inclusive in both the digital and physical realms is the topic of “Designing for Diversity in Your Library’s Communications,” to be presented by WebJunction on July 13, 2023, 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Mollie Peuler, eLearning Librarian at Appalachian State University (OCLC Symbol: NJB) in Boone, North Carolina, will speak about building diversity into marketing, signage, and all aspects of library communications.
“Cultural Diversity Issue” of the IFLA Newsletter
In recognition of the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, which was May 21, IFLA dubbed the May 2023 issue of the IFLA Newsletter (Volume 3, Number 5) as “The Cultural Diversity Issue.” “Libraries Stand Out in Special Rapporteur’s Report on Cultural Rights of Migrants” highlights the roles of libraries as recounted in the report of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “IFLA Celebrates World Book Day with a Spotlight on Indigenous Languages” is about the 2023 theme of “Indigenous Languages” for World Book and Copyright Day on April 23.
Grants for small and rural library accessibility
In May, ALA announced the initial cohort of libraries awarded Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities grants, intended for areas located at least five miles from an urbanized area and having a population of fewer than 25,000 people. “ALA announces 240 recipients of library accessibility funding for small and rural libraries” includes a link to the complete list of libraries, representing 43 states plus the Northern Mariana Islands, all intending to create and/or enhance services to people with disabilities. The next round of LTC grant application will begin later in 2023.
Restoring an archival finding aid
In the May/June 2023 issue of Archival Outlook (Pages 3, 16) from the Society of American Archivists, Christopher Laico of Columbia University (OCLC Symbol: ZCU) writes that “Remediating the Philipse Archives felt as though my calling had been translated into action.” Laico briefly recounts the process of removing “the colonizing, derogatory, and Eurocentric descriptive language” and restoring “The original Algonquian language, as well as geographic and cultural identifiers that emphasize positive powers in Tribal leadership” to the online finding aid. Read the full story in “Continuing Chief Daniel Nimham’s Fight for His People and His Homeland: Decolonizing Archival Description in the Philipse Archives.”
More active opposition to book bans urged
On the Scholarly Kitchen blog of the Society for Scholarly Publishing, National Information Standards Organization (NISO) Executive Director Todd Carpenter writes “The Publishing Community Should More Actively Oppose Book Bans.” Carpenter laments the fact that only a single publisher, Penguin Random House, had joined the lawsuit filed in Florida in May 2023 against censorship, which was noted in the 2023 May 30 issue of “Advancing IDEAs.” As Carpenter points out, the Florida case is merely one of what “appears to be a coordinated campaign across dozens of states, generally targeting a small subset of the few millions of books published each year.” The lists of books, the rationales for censorship, bans based on a dislike of a book’s ideas, and the deliberate blurring of what is simply available in a library with what is actually taught in a classroom, all point to this national coordination. Carpenter presents that case that publishers and advocacy groups need to care and to act in response to efforts to suppress free access to information. “There are many ways to show our collective support and commitment to our principles.,” he concludes. “It would be wonderful if more in our community provide more than quiet, tacit support.”
Libraries and U.S. poverty
ALA’s Social Responsibilities Round Table will sponsor a “Free Book Talk and Facilitated Discussion of Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, By America” on July 13, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. In his 2023 book, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Princeton University (OCLC Symbol: PUL) sociologist Desmond asks why the richest nation on Earth has more poverty than any other advanced democracy. Using the book as the touchstone, co-hosts Rachel Rosekind of California’s Contra Costa County Library Commission (OCLC Symbol: JQJ) and Derek Wilmott, Acquisitions and Collection Management Librarian at the University of Toledo (OCLC Symbol: TOL), will consider some of the implications of Desmond’s thesis and the role that libraries might play.
“Debiasing Dewey”
The July 2023 OCLC Virtual AskQC Office Hour (VAOH) sessions will be devoted to “Debiasing Dewey: Righting the Past by Rewriting the Classification.” On July 11 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern and July 20 at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, DDC Senior Editor Alex Kyrios and Editor-in-Residence Kathryn Becker will talk about efforts to address the historic biases in the Dewey Decimal Classification, particularly within topics related to LGBTQ+ communities.
Racism, sexism, and health
In the Toward Inclusive Excellence blog “How Racism and Sexism Impact Weight Gain and Obesity,” TIE editor Alexia Hudson-Ward, Associate Director of Research and Learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries (OCLC Symbol: MYG), writes about recent research into the interrelationship between health and the scourges of racism and sexism. Hudson-Ward considers the new insights to be “a call to action for higher education,” concluding that “re-examining all medical practices and metrics is vital to ensure that more culturally sensitive approaches are leveraged when determining the best health outcomes for marginalized communities.”
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.