The following post is one in a regular series on issues of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility, compiled by Jay Weitz.
Women’s History Month
In the United States, Women’s History Month can probably be traced back to the February 28, 1909, observance of National Women’s Day in New York. The United Nations’ commemoration of 1975 as International Women’s Year led to its proclamation of March 8 as International Women’s Day beginning in 1977. Dedicated to “writing women back into history,” the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) arose in 1980 in Santa Rosa, California. In 1987, Congress named March as the annual National Women’s History Month. In 2018, NWHP became the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA), “to better support the study and celebration of women’s history all year long.” The 2023 theme for National Women’s History Month is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories.” In celebration, WorldCat.org has worked with NWHA, the National Women’s Studies Association, and the Karson Institute for Race, Peace, and Social Justice of Loyola University Maryland (OCLC Symbol: LOY) to create an extensive KnowMore: Women’s History page that collects lists of books, films, articles, dissertations, and more. NWHA co-founder and Executive Director Molly Murphy MacGregor calls it “a centralized, comprehensive, and accessible resource that enables people to explore the strength and inspiration of the women who came before us—and the remarkable women working among us today.”
“Community Engagement and Advocacy in Libraries”
The 32nd annual Dr. Elizabeth W. Stone Lecture, “Community Engagement and Advocacy in Libraries: How to Thrive in Volatile Times,” will be delivered by Nicholas Alexander Brown, chief operating officer for communication and outreach at the Prince George’s County Memorial Library System (OCLC Symbol: MDK) in Maryland on March 24, 2023, at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. In the free presentation, Brown will speak about how outreach, partnerships, and communication can help libraries maintain their pivotal place in community life while facing today’s challenges of censorship, security, and funding.
Diversifying collections
Right here in “Hanging Together,” OCLC Research Library Partnership Senior Manager Merrilee Proffitt reports on “Casting a different net: Diversifying print monograph collecting in research libraries.” Following up on a 2017 RLP survey. Proffitt and colleagues interviewed staff from eight institutions about their collection development efforts focusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Equally important is building DEI into workflows, community relationships, and hiring practices.
Library’s Guide to Sexual and Reproductive Health Information
Soon to be published by ALA Editions, The Library’s Guide to Sexual and Reproductive Health Information is intended to fill “The need to find accurate information about sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion” in these fraught times. Author Barbara A. Alvarez was a 2011 ALA Spectrum Scholar, is a 2022 Library Journal Mover and Shaker award recipient, and teaches at three schools of library and information science, University of Wisconsin-Madison (OCLC Symbol: WID), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (OCLC Symbol: ILG), and Clarion University (OCLC Symbol: CSI) in Pennsylvania. Although the book is aimed at public libraries, its strategies, suggestions, and recommended resources are relevant in other library settings, as well.
Reading with Laura Sackton of Book Riot
Laura Sackton, a Senior Contributor to Book Riot, always comes up with eclectic and valuable reading lists that call attention to what she calls “little-known and under-the-radar books.” In recent weeks she has outdone herself, so to speak. All of her essays and reading recommendations going back to 2017 can be found on her Book Riot profile page, but here’s an intersectional selection from 2023: “8 Essential Queer Black History Books,” “12 of the Best Books by Black Authors that You’ve Probably Never Heard Of,” “2023 Queer Comics & Graphic Memoirs to Add to Your TBR,” “10 Queer Books You Need to Read in March,” “Queer African Lit: A Brief Introduction,” and “10 Must-Read Native American Authors.” Over the years she has contributed to Book Riot, Sackton has also written about cooking and baking, how to read and write reviews, audiobooks, and bookish gift-giving beyond the obvious, not to mention book lists that you never thought to imagine.
Broadband Affordable Connectivity Program
On April 4 at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, the Federal Depository Library Program will present a free FDLP Academy Webinar, “An Overview of the Affordable Connectivity Program.” This benefit from the Federal Communications Commission (OCLC Symbol: FCC) helps ensure that qualified households can afford broadband service and receive discounts on related electronics such as laptops. Keyla Hernandez-Ulloa, Deputy Chief of the Consumer Affairs and Outreach Division of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau of the FCC will discuss details of the program, eligibility, and the application and approval process.
Over the Rainbow book lists
After considering nearly 300 titles of every type, the Over the Rainbow committee of ALA’s Rainbow Round Table has released its annual lists. Considering the current challenges to the accessibility of queer literature, however, the committee decided to make available not only the usual Top 10 Book List and its annotated Short List of works published during 2022, but also the full list of titles submitted to the committee for consideration. Included are biographies, essays, fantasies, fiction, graphic novels, histories, horror, memoirs, mysteries, nonfiction, poetry, romance, short stories, and other genres. In making the complete list available, the committee hopes “to increase visibility, access, and knowledge of the titles, authors, and publishers who make sure our stories are heard.”
“Homelessness 101 for Libraries”
The Colorado Department of Education (OCLC Symbol: DDA) and Colorado State Library (OCLC Symbol: COZ) will present the free online webinar “Homelessness 101 for Libraries” from the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless on April 6 at 1:00 p.m. Eastern. Assessing the current state of homelessness across the country, considering its causes and consequences, and discussing solutions will be the focus. The award-winning nonprofit founded in 1984 offers integrated housing, healthcare, and other services in its efforts to both prevent homelessness and establish lasting solutions.
BIPOC representation in Wikipedia
The Oregon Library Association (OLA) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Antiracism Committee presents the fourteenth episode of its podcast, Overdue: Weeding Out Oppression in Libraries. The episode entitled “Righting Black History” features Sherry Antoine, Executive Director of AfroCROWD; Laurie Bridges, Instruction and Outreach Librarian at Oregon State University (OCLC Symbol: ORE); and Diana Park, Science Librarian at Oregon State University. Founded in 2015, AfroCROWD (Afro Free Culture Crowdsourcing Wikimedia) “seeks to increase awareness and the number of people of African descent who actively partake in the Wikimedia and free knowledge, culture, and software movements.” The three talk about what libraries and their partners have been doing to assure that the histories of all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color are accurately represented in Wikipedia and how these efforts contribute to social justice. Antoine, Bridges, and Park spoke with Melissa Anderson, Campus Engagement and Research Services Librarian at Southern Oregon University (OCLC Symbol: SOS), and Brittany Young, the Lane County law librarian in Eugene, Oregon, on 2023 February 13.
DDC Editor-In-Residence to focus on LGBTQIA topics
In February 2023, Kathryn Becker joined OCLC for a six-month stint as the second Editor-In-Residence for the Dewey Decimal Classification® (DDC®) system, intending to concentrate on LGBTQIA topics. Becker, who graduated in 2022 from Texas Woman’s University (OCLC Symbol: TWW) with an MLIS and a concentration in cataloging and technical services, decided on the LGBTQIA focus “because it is important for people to be able to find information—possibly about themselves—in an accurate grouping, and not a grouping of outdated thought.” Alongside her specific attention to LGBTQIA topics, Becker will also take on other DDC editorial work and contribute to 025.431: The Dewey Blog.
Missouri librarians challenge book bans
On behalf of the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri has challenged a state law that prohibits “explicit sexual material” in schools and libraries. When the law went into effect in August 2022, “many librarians across the state went through their collections removing anything they thought could be considered criminal,” according to a report, “ACLU sues Missouri over book ban law that pushed school libraries to remove hundreds of titles,” from Kansas City NPR station KCUR. “Under the law, the ACLU argues that school staff are forced to choose between students’ First Amendment rights and prosecution.” The ACLU lawsuit asks the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri “to find Missouri Revised Statute § 573.550 unconstitutional and render it unenforceable or, alternatively, to enter judgement defining and clarifying how and when it applies to eliminate the ongoing confusion and the threat of arbitrary enforcement.”
Utah HB 427
In an opinion piece in The Hill, Paisley Rekdal, co-chair of the Utah Chapter of PEN America and professor of English at the University of Utah (OCLC Symbol: UUM); Peter Bromberg, associate director of the nonprofit “national political action committee for libraries” EveryLibrary and co-chair of the Advocacy Committee of the Utah Library Association; and Rebekah Cummings, the other co-chair of the ULA Advocacy Committee and Associate Librarian at the University of Utah, write about Utah’s new “Individual Freedom in Public Education” bill HB 427. “If passed into law,” they say, “this bill would effectively shelter students from the past, spoon-feeding them versions of the world that make no one feel uncomfortable about anything, least of all actual facts. It’s not only a paternalistic attitude, but one that would stultify the classroom.” In “National wave of curriculum bills fails both students and American history,” Rekdal, Bromberg, and Cummings suggest that “Rather than see inclusion as a loss, why can’t we treat the broader range of materials as an expansion of American culture itself? We cannot value fear more than we value facts.”
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.