| Agenda Part 1: Thursday, October 3, 2019, 2-4:15 pm ET
Session 1 | 2:00-2:30 pm ET
What Is a Diverse and Inclusive Collection?
Kiera Parrott, LJ/SLJ Reviews Director, and Mahnaz Dar, Reference and Professional Reading Editor, LJ & SLJournal, will explain how the discussion groups and assignments will work and highlight key concepts, including #ownvoices, privilege, and intersectionality.
Speakers:
Kiera Parrott, Reviews Director, Library Journal & School Library Journal; Former Children’s Librarian
Mahnaz Dar, Reference and Professional Reading Editor, Library Journal & School Library Journal
Session 2 | 2:30-3:15 pm ET
Conducting a Diversity Audit
In this session, Karen Jensen will discuss the need for librarians to perform regular audits of their collections and programs in order to better align offerings to community need, identify gaps, and set benchmarks for diversification. Participants will learn how to perform a diversity audit, which salient data points should be included, how to gather the requisite information, how to set goals to address gaps, and how to make diversity and inclusion natural parts of collection management and promotion.
Speaker:
Karen Jensen, MLS, Creator and Administrator, Teen Librarian Toolbox
Intermission | 3:15-3:30 pm ET
Session 3 | 3:30-4:15 pm ET
Stereotypes, Tropes, and Cultural Appropriation
Some common stereotypes in books and media are easy to spot—others require a more fine-tuned understanding of culture and history. In this session, librarians will learn how to spot problematic stereotypes and tropes—and how to avoid unintentionally perpetuating such depictions. Participants will hear from several experts in the field about the ways that specific marginalized cultures—Native American, Asian American, and African American—are portrayed in mainstream media, their cultural traditions misunderstood or misrepresented, and their stories appropriated by cultural outsiders.
Speakers:
Part 1: Jennifer Baker, Writer, Editor, Advocate, and Founder, Minorities in Publishing podcast
Part 2: Naomi Bishop, Teaching, Learning, Research Services Librarian, Northern Arizona University
Part 3: Sarah Park Dahlen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Master of Library and Information Science Program, St. Catherine University (MN)
Part 2: Tuesday, October 10, 2019, 2-4 pm ET
Session 1 | 2:00-2:30
How Equitable and Inclusive is Your Library Staff?
A vital component in ensuring your library is equitable and inclusive is to consider staffing and representation. In this session, you’ll learn how to address issues of equity in staffing, handle workplace microaggressions, and empower library staff to be change agents in their communities. You’ll learn how one library’s staff equity initiative was developed and implemented, with practical takeaways you can apply to your own library.
Speaker: Deborah Anderson, Assistant Director of Education and Engagement, LA County Library (CA)
Session 2 | 2:30-3:00 pm ET
How Equitable Are Your Library Programs?
Learn how to conduct an equity audit of your library programs and services and develop a plan of action for the future. We’ll take you through establishing a protocol for your audit, as well as what to do with the results once you have them, in this session designed to help you tackle gaps in your programming and address barriers to access in your community.
Intermission | 3:00-3:15 pm ET
Session 3 | 3:15-4:00 pm ET
Library Accessibility: Issues and Initiatives to Improve
While ensuring equal and accessible library and information access, regardless of ability, is a core value of libraries, library accessibility is an area that nearly every library could improve upon. Heidi Schroeder, Accessibility Coordinator at Michigan State University Libraries, will discuss common accessibility issues facing libraries, especially related to e-resources, and share accessibility initiatives to help address them. You’ll leave with an increased awareness of accessibility best practices and information you can take back to their library to be an even better advocate for accessibility.
Speaker: Heidi Schroeder, Accessibility Coordinator, Michigan State University Libraries
Part 3 - Tuesday, October 17, 2018, 2-4 pm ET
Session 1 | 2:00-3:00 pm ET
Using Local History to Combat Racism
Librarians Andrea Blackman, Nashville Civil Rights Room, and Angel Tucker, Johnson County, will offer a deep dive into how they use their institutions’ historical collections and resources to help patrons, students, and community members explore, critically analyze, and combat systemic racism.
Speakers:
Part 1 (2:00-2:30): Andrea Blackman, Division Manager, Special Collections & Director, Civil Rights Room, Nashville Public Library, (TN)
Part 2 (2:30-3:00): Angel Jewel Tucker, Youth Services Manager, Johnson County Library, Overland Park (KS)
Intermission | 3:00-3:15 pm ET
Session 2 | 3:15-4:00 pm ET
Anti-Oppression, Allyship, and Emotional Labor
Librarians committed to building strong and diverse collections and programs may wonder what else they can do to be positive agents of change in their communities. While there is far more than can be and is being done than we can cover in a single session, we’ll look at what it means to be an “ally,” how librarians can strive for social justice in their spheres of influence, and make space for marginalized voices and viewpoints. We will explore the experience of emotional labor and offer ways that diverse coalitions of professionals and advocates can support each other's efforts in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Speaker: Nicole A. Cooke, PhD, MEd, MLS, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Science, College of Information and Communications, University of South Carolina |
