The following post is one in a regular series on issues of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility, compiled by a team of OCLC contributors.
Let’s Talk Race with Richland Library
The latest episode of the Public Libraries Podcast features Tamara King and Heather McCue representing the nationally recognized Let’s Talk Race team from the Richland Library (OCLC Symbol: SRC) in Richland County, South Carolina. Responding to the need for community healing following the tragic events of 2015, a team of library staff from across the organization began the Let’s Talk Race dialogue circles, offering a safe space for conversations about race. The Let’s Talk Race team has since facilitated more than 250 in-person or online discussions, community forums, and events, reaching more than 4,000 participants, and creating opportunities for civic engagement, community connections, and courageous conversations.
Earlier this year, the Richland Library launched the Let’s Talk Race Curriculum, providing a set of easy-to-follow resources for other libraries, museums, and related organizations to implement locally. The curriculum includes facilitation best practices, conversation guides, videos, and more. The curriculum provides a learning pathway to help get started, build facilitation skills, and create conversation guides to hold your own circles of dialog.
Having worked with the Let’s Talk Race team in 2019 on a WebJunction webinar, I was excited to see their impactful work come together in this accessible and implementable curriculum. Contributed by Jennifer Peterson.
Research methods for now
In today’s world, we cannot assume that tradition is always right. We are relearning and recentering our focus on an inclusive worldview and approach that will reconstruct how we do things. In their new book, Introduction to Intersectional Qualitative Research, authors Jennifer Esposito and Venus Evans-Winters provide a path forward for those of us trained in assessment, evaluation, user research, UX research, or all of the above. It walks us through question design, data collection strategies and analysis, considering intersectionality all along the way, but especially when considering how you gather and interpret data from research participants in ways that are compassionate and tell the whole story of that person’s experience.
Have you ever looked for a book for so long that you just assume it will never get written? That’s how I felt about research methods texts written by and for the white majority of people who complete PhDs. How we understand the world is vast and complex, and telling the stories of the people who lived in that world should be reflected in the data collection strategy and analysis. This book provides a bridge to those of us familiar with intersectional theories but have very little practical experience implementing them into our work. Contributed by Lesley Langa.
Neurodivergence and Libraries Summit
On 8 September, the Washington Library Association will host a one-day online Neurodivergence and Libraries Summit. With the support of state libraries, the event is free to all library workers in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, and registration is still open to individuals and groups. The program includes a keynote with Mike Jung, author and founding member of #WeNeedDiverseBooks, a session by PhD student Christine Moeller about the workplace experience of neurodivergent library workers, a neurodivergent meetup, and a poetry reading with Arianne True, Washington State Poet Laureate. Session recordings will be available to registrants.
It is rare to see a professional development opportunity that centers the voices and perspectives of neurodivergent library workers, writers, and researchers. This summit will provide an invigorating opportunity for learning, connecting, and networking across the Pacific Northwest region and beyond. I’m looking forward to Nicole Gustavson’s session about managing executive dysfunction at work as well as CM Wright’s and Lei Wiley-Mydske’s session about neurodiversity libraries. Contributed by Zoe Fisher.
New LibTech Insights posts discuss algorithmic bias and accessible user experience
Choice, the publishing arm of ALA’s Association of College and Research Libraries, recently made available two blog posts in the LibTech Insights that are of particular interest. Marcella Fredriksson, the Web and Discovery Services Librarian at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (OCLC Symbol: NXW) presents “An Introduction to Racial and Gender Bias in Algorithms: The myth of data neutrality,” about the human failings built into such technology as our search mechanisms. Lisa Campbell, Instruction and Outreach Librarian, and Brittany Kester, Education Librarian, both at the University of Florida (OCLC Symbol: FUG), write “Getting Started with Accessible User Experience (UX) Research: Why to include students with disabilities into UX research.”
Our ever-increasing reliance on technology leaves us vulnerable to the limitations, viewpoints, and prejudices of its human developers, all too often without even realizing it. These two brief overviews help alert libraries to the issues and point toward much more detailed research, standards, and advice. Contributed by Jay Weitz.
