Posters

Abstract

In these times of uncertain funding support, library advocacy work may not be prioritized. However, the needs of our constituents and communities and of libraries themselves make this work even more critical today. This poster presentation illuminates experiences and stories of academic library workers of color who participate in library advocacy and legislative workin the local and/or national levels. What are their priorities and interests, and how do they get involved in advocacy work in a profession that is predominantly white? Based on a qualitative study, this critical race theory (CRT)is applied to frame the social relationships and the structure of inequities inherent in library advocacy work and in the profession at large by exploring the counter-stories, narratives and perspectives of academic library workers of color. The poster presentation shares the findings that address the two research questions:

1. Are there common characteristics and values of library workers of color involved in library advocacy work?

2. What are the potential barriers experienced by these workers?

Through in-depth interviews with 14 library workers of color (from school, academic and public libraries), this poster presentation highlights 5 academic library workers and their experiences. The counter-stories revealed that participants experienced common barriers such as systemic racism and sexism when doing advocacy work. In addition, values as equity, diversity and inclusion were often mentioned by participants when doing library advocacy work. Through the CRT framework, their counter-stories challenge the dominant narrative that every library worker can be a library advocate. This poster presentation explores how the library advocacy work can become inclusive and support academic library workers of color in their efforts to advocate for their libraries and communities at large.

Abstract

When students enter university, they learn that there are two types of information: information that can be found using library resources and the information that is found using internet search engines, like Google. These information sources are often framed in opposition to one another, with the library’s resources representing good, reliable, and authoritative information, while other sources are considered risky and inferior. The best way to avoid scientific misinformation students learn, is to defer to peer-reviewed sources. Librarians have started to question the usefulness of privileging certain types of information over others, acknowledging that highly useful and reliable information does exist outside of the confines of library resources (Mark, 2011; Mercer & Weaver, 2020).

If this privileging of sources does not serve the interests of students, then whose interests are served by this practice? Contextualizing information using critical theory helps us position information within the broader academic power structure (Accardi et al. 2010; Leckie et al., 2010). By devaluing sources created outside of academic power structures, the system helps to perpetuate itself at the expense of non-academic voices. Further, individuals with alternative viewpoints must first learn to act, think, and excel on academia’s terms before their worldviews and the information they have to share will be granted authority by the academy. We suggest a more inclusive approach to library instruction that encourages students to critically evaluate information regardless of its peer review status. Instruction on the critical evaluation of information gives students a framework to consider both non-peer-reviewed and peer-reviewed sources equally. By teaching skills that will serve students both during and after their academic career, notably when they lose access to subscription databases, librarians can foster inclusive and diverse perspectives, authorities, and viewpoints to support lifelong learning.

Abstract

Grounded in the work of Matthew Reidsma, Safiya Noble, Emily Drabinski, Kevin Seeber, and many others, this session will explore both the methods and results of a student-faculty research collaboration investigating how algorithmic bias may manifest in search results in Ex Libris’ Primo, Primo VE, and Summon discovery interfaces. The researchers will facilitate a discussion about the research, its findings, and what change and advocacy in this area might look like.

Abstract

Libraries are a microcosm of our larger world--where privileged voices have sway over everything from our legal system to the publishing world. We find ourselves struggling to make even small modifications to help bring more just and fair practices into the world. Libraries are asked to compromise their values in order to meet increasingly tight budget constraints by supporting 'cheap' and 'fast' book sellers who exploit their employees, and whose books are delivered by equally exploited delivery workers. But what if there were another way? What if instead of using Amazon and its affiliates, library staff could support an independent, Black-owned bookstore, and rely on the unionized workers of the USPS for delivery? Our small liberal-arts library has found one such alternative, the Collective Oakland (thecollectiveoakland.com), an online (and now in person) bookstore with the capacity for acquisitions that rivals Amazon's breadth of new publications. Our relationship with the Collective has allowed us to acquire the same quality of content, at nearly the same discount we had with Amazon, using USPS for deliveries--but also to address the longstanding erasure of BIPOC voices from academic libraries. The Collective acts not merely as a bookseller, but also as a 'book jobber' sourcing BiPOC authors and promoting their voices in the discourse. While the impact may be small (most of our monograph acquisitions come from Gobi), we hope to share our experience, including how we discovered the Collective and created a new path, in hopes of inspiring our colleagues to do the same.

Abstract

Poly Publishing is a publishing program that aims to raise visibility and enhance access to Cal Poly scholarship. In working to create an immersive, interactive digital project, this alternative approach to present and disseminate academic scholarship rethinks accessibility and assessment of such work and the library's role in the academic publishing lifecycle. The system focuses on collaboration, accessible approaches, and recognition of individual’s places within structural systems, using inclusive and equitable practices to adjust scholarly publishing while centering historically underrepresented identities, perspectives, and creativity. This presentation will focus on the four part workflow of this digital publishing program, showing how each part requires critical practice to be inclusive and critical: the selection (critically community oriented), creation (non-traditional forms of knowledge building), assessment (open “peer” review under the LORDS model), and dissemination. The ideas and models that the system has shaped itself from include autoethnography, open peer review discussion sessions, critical race theory, contextual citation practices, visual annotation practices, establishing common vocabularies, and more, all designed to rethink the systemic inequities that academic publishing holds.

Using past projects from the Cal Poly faculty exhibition program as prototypes, the project aims to ensure scholarship will be transformed into digital publications that integrate with current publishing systems on and off campus. By creating a non-traditional pathway for publishing scholarly research, this pilot project plays an active role in strengthening Cal Poly’s scholarly communication system, with a commitment to amplify underrepresented topics and voices. Using an interactive choose-your-own adventure game format, presenting this project will showcase each section of the publishing process and will pose a question to allow viewers to follow various paths of how Poly Publishing will work, leaving room for feedback and further questions.

Abstract

Public library programs are often a great way to engage communities and expose patrons to library services. However, there are very few meaningful resources for programming librarians to examine their practices in a critical manner. For this poster session, participants will be presented with various topics to plan, create, and implement inclusive library programs for adults and teens. This poster will highlight the ideas and tools necessary for participants to critique their library programming practices. Participants will hear from three librarians who identify as Black, Indigenous, or Persons of Color (BIPOC) on the different aspects of library programs, including:

• No More Brownie Points: Critical & Intentional Diversity

• Thematic Isolation: Tokenizing and Going Beyond Monthly Themes

• Get Up, Get Out, Get Something: Outreach & Marketing

• Nothing to It, But to Do It: Implementation & Assessment

• Where Do We Go From Here: The Future of Library Programs

Participants will be challenged to reflect on their current practices and previous experiences to improve their library programs, specifically for communities of color.

(Note that this poster presentation was an abridged version distilled from the original 45-minute presentation given on June 17, 2021, in the We Here Community School.)

Abstract

Public libraries usually relegate their “diverse” programs offers during national recognized heritage months. At Chicago Public Library, we have 10 Cultural Committees that curate programs for those months. Although we seek to be more universal in our offerings, our EDIA work still centers on simply event programming and collection development.

To talk about meaningful EDIA work today however is acknowledging that true advancement goes beyond events and artifacts. We must evolve this approach to where the EDIA values drive our professional development through (1) critical librarianship (2) activated outreach and (3) interdisciplinary methods of evaluation.

The framework for EDIA at a large urban library has three pillars of focus. The first is our librarians. They already plan, curate, recruit, host hundreds of programs that take place at 80 different library locations. It is incredibly important that we acknowledge the work that already exists because to start to review EDIA as an institution but discount the BIPOC already doing is interest convergence, a tenet to Critical Race Theory. It is not a coincidence that staff of color inevitably seek to serve on these committees, whose main responsibility is in highlighting the stories of marginalized communities. Our institutional knowledge grows through their work and informs all our new EDIA initiatives.

Another pillar of EDIA at our library is to be addressed is by developing a systemwide plan for outreach. Outreach at the library is incredibly important for many reasons but is also viewed as an optional service. If the outreach plan’s focus is to diversify the profession, we must be present in the community often enough to build relationships. When we are in the communities, it is our responsibility to activate the space we inhabit whether it be a comic con or a law librarian conference. What is important is designing the space to reflect what our libraries are doing today and design for maximum of inclusion in unconventional spaces.

Practicing Design Thinking for 6 years, I have learned how designing for behaviors instead of demographics has helped me combat my internal biases. As Design Thinking is a mindset and process, it allows us to reframe issues in the library through programs, services, spaces and systems. Every instance of outreach is an opportunity to observe and reflect on our audiences and understand what we need to do as a library system that seeks to serve the entire city of Chicago.

But effectiveness of our attempts at building a more equitable library system can be hard to measure. Developing a robust set of tools for evaluation that captures experiences of our patrons, staff and partners is the first step. Implementing interdisciplinary modes of evaluation is needed to accurately reflect the challenging work EDIA can bring. It is culturally misguided to attempt to quantify social and racial justice.

Our library has been practicing Design Thinking for years and useful when trying to understand the needs of our audiences. It is a process that will center the users and communities we hope to highlight, meet, and understand to better serve our city.

Handouts

DEIA in Libraries Glossary

Questionnaire on DEIA in Libraries

Abstract

Diversity, inclusive excellence, equity, and social justice are important core components to our campus’s history, mission, and vision. The library formed a diversity committee in 2017 made up of library faculty, staff and other campus partners. Its purpose is to support the library’s commitment to having an inclusive and welcoming environment for our students, library employees, faculty, and staff, as well as community members visiting the library. After gathering members, drafting and approving our mission statement, it was time for us to take action. One of the first things we did was do an “Equity Walk” through the library and view the space through different lenses.

Looking at the library through an equity lens helped us to identify actionable things we could do. One example, the committee built a lactation room in the library in the fall of 2019, which was highly used before the pandemic shut down the building. The committee also decided to do programming support on campus by either financially supporting events or buying books of campus speakers. Currently, our biggest project is to build a Family Friendly Study Room in the library to accommodate the increase in children appearing in our library who are accompanying their student parents. During the pandemic, our makerspace created and mailed out “Maker Kits” to students, and through some feedback, we have learned a few things that we can do, like providing more basic supplies for those in need, once we open back up to our students that we did not realize some students did not have. This presentation will focus on the actionable work that our diversity committee has done and how we plan to continue to build upon that work to create a better library for all.

Abstract

There are three dominant structural bedrocks of librarianship centered on subordination; historical connections to structures of social dominance, gender power dynamics, and neutrality. These three forms of subordination create a dynamic of extreme precarity that contributes to the championing and upholding of white supremacy allowing subordinate legacies to evolve, compound, and prevail. Subordination manifests itself in the library classroom in ways that immobilize and oppress librarians.

We need to identify and be critical of the ways we respond to the pervasive ideologies of racism and sexism in the academy, how they present themselves in the library classroom, and how they are interconnected to professional structures, policies, and practices. How can we ensure we are working to dismantle these structures in a way that restores our humanity and creates the agency required to move forward? Criticality must influence our research, teaching, and practice. This poster will provide a platform for discussion and opportunity to reflect on how these subordinate systems have affected the way we position ourselves in our praxis in order to spark change.

Abstract

With the move to Primo VE as the new UC discovery system comes open access (OA) faceting to better promote the discovery of OA resources. In preparation for the migration to UC Library Search, the UCLA Library embarked on two metadata projects to enhance existing MARC records with OA metadata for discovery in Primo VE: efforts to remediate records for UCLA electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) housed in eScholarship, as well as a broader effort to identify openly accessible resources for metadata enhancement in our catalog before the migration. Identifying OA resources and tagging them as such will allow our community - both locally and globally - to better discover a diversity of openly accessible scholarly resources through Primo VE’s OA capabilities.

Abstract

In August 2020, Copley Library formally created the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Committee in response to the Black Lives Matter Movement and repeated, violent attacks on people from marginalized groups on our campus and in the larger society. This presentation will discuss the DEIA Committee and research conducted by three Copley librarians as a scholarly extension of the committee. We will discuss the committee formation, employee makeup, charge, and action items undertaken, collaboration with other library committees, strategic planning, community outreach, and future plans. We will discuss interesting findings from our research about DEIA initiatives at Catholic-serving institutions. Our presentation adds to academic library DEIA discourse and practice and may serve as a model for others looking to develop or modify their committees with an action-oriented focus.