CALC2023

This session will discuss accessibility in the context of User Experience (UX) research in libraries, the importance of including disabled users in our (design) processes, and lessons learned from a project on digital accessibility. This project on eBook accessibility will be used as a case study to illustrate the importance of inclusion of disabled users when designing resources and considering library processes, especially when using UX methods.

Whilst there has been significant attention to eBook accessibility over the last few years, less attention has been paid to the research processes around accessibility and whose voices are included (and excluded!) as a part of this. This project prioritised the inclusion disabled users at multiple stages of the research and design process, and worked closely with other professional service teams working with disabled users, in order to platform their experiences. This was especially challenging when planning the UX methodology. Whilst it was felt that UX methods and co-creation were the most appropriate approach to this project and its goals, many of the documented UX methods appeared to rely heavily on the use of visual materials (e.g. post-its, legos, hand crafted prototypes, graffiti walls etc). As such, they operate on the assumption that all users/participants would be able to engage in this way. Additionally, as developing a support resource was a key outcome of this project and prototyping was required, the prototyping process had to be redesigned to be accessible whilst remaining flexible. Generally, a key part of this project was the redesigning of (research) processes and reconsidering the needs of disabled users, whilst critically reflecting upon the hegemonic assumptions embedded in our daily practices.

Critical Librarianship scholarship and Library ‘Decolonisation’ initiatives currently within UK Academic Libraries fail to critically discus or address the usage, perspective and ethics of Technology. Why? When there are multiple key racial and/or other inequitable issues within Technology that Naomi will highlight in her session Naomi will share her research on some of these issues and her practical experience as a Critical Librarian engaging with these issues. Naomi will spark thoughts on whether ‘the Master’s tools can dismantle the Master’s House’ however, as she will reflect upon the fact that the same Technology she critiques is simultaneously used by her to facilitate discussion on Critical Technology issues, such as the creation of her Twitter hashtag #CritLibvsTech to facilitate critical librarianship discussion of Technology and her use of Tiktok and Instagram to communicate similar issues of social justice.  

This paper will report on a case study (Little and Murray, 2022) which sought to introduce a multilingual section into a main children's library. As well as considering stock and borrowing figures, the initiative introduced a number of multilingual events, as well as a multilingual reading scheme. In order to understand the impact the project had, we observed at events, gathered feedback from these events, ran interviews and focus groups with parents, and a focus group with library staff. The outcomes highlight some of the logistical difficulties facing a library looking to support linguistic diversity, but also illustrate the important role such support plays in creating a sense of identity and belonging among its clientele. The paper proposes that supporting linguistic diversity is, in fact, a social justice issue, through which we need to consider libraries as both physical (Lefebvre, 1968/2010; Massey, 2005) and metaphorical (Bhabha, 1994) spaces. Bhabha HK (1994) The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge. Lefebvre H (2010) The right to the city. In: Kofman E, Lebas E (eds) Writings on Cities. Cambridge, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, pp.147–159. (Originally published 1968) Little, S. and Murray, R. (2022, online first) The multilingual children's library as physical and metaphorical 'space' within the community: Practical and emotional considerations. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. Massey D (2005) For Space. London: SAGE. 

The presentation will introduce the joint USA/Canada/UK Cataloguing Code of Ethics published in 2021. 

The Code encompasses many Critical Cataloguing concepts and is intended for practitioners, employers, standards’ developers, vendors, students, and educators. It recognises that as cataloguers, we have significant influence over how information resources are represented through the choices we make. And acknowledges that metadata creation is an ongoing process involving work and standards that are wide-ranging, collaborative; and in a constant state of change – as are the user communities that we serve. Against this backdrop how can we embed DEI in our professional practice, work places and workforce? Practical examples of how the Code can be used to inform decision-making and professional practice will be included. 

What's your session about?

In the summer of 2020 I conducted research on the nature of academic library decolonisation projects underway in the UK, using a combination of literature review and semi-structured interviews with participants at 4 different universities. I found that while these projects are currently too broad and too recent to invite direct comparison, the number one factor influencing their success is communication and engagement with students and faculty.

Why do you think this/these topics are interesting or important?

The library decolonisation movment has been gaining momentum for the last few years, but with no central organisation, strategy, or clearly stated goals. Better communication between libraries engaged in this work could prevent a lot of wasted time and resources.

How do you think this/these topics relate to critical approaches in libraries?

Decolonisation, as a catch-all term for the decentering of the white, male, Eurocentric perspective in collections and curricula, is crucual for academic libraries to improve the experience of BAME and other minority students. The process of decolonisation is a way for universities in general and libraries in specific to examine and address the impacts that colonial ideologies have had on their history and structure.

Does your session relate to a specific area of critical approaches in libraries?

Decolonization, Equality, diversity and inclusion, Representation

Does your session relate to a specific area of libraries/librarianship?

Collections

Does your session relate to a specific library sector?

Higher education

Why do you think people should attend this session?

Library decolonisation efforts would benefit from more cross-institutional discussion about the methods being used and their pros and cons.

In this presentation and discussion we connect our experiences as higher education and library workers with working-class experiences of libraries, and present a critical reflection on our experiences of libraries throughout our lives. Our presentations and discussion are developed from collaborative autoethnography data (Chang et al., 2013) created for our forthcoming article in the Journal of Information Literacy. 

For CALC, we expand on our analyses of personal and collaborative memory data to further explore academic libraries as sites of social class marginalisation and exclusion. We also celebrate the value of working-class cultural capital, employing Tara Yosso’s (2005) community cultural wealth model, and explore our capacity to challenge our academic workplaces and learning environments which otherwise proselytise higher education’s normative middle-class values and assumptions. 

We present initial reflections in the form of photo reminiscences, blending additional data gathered from our autoethnography with new narrative accounts of our experiences. Such accounts of working-class experience are rare in the literature, and we aim to present new usable, actionable insights to CALC attendees. For discussion and Q&A, we will engage attendees in sharing their reflections and experiences–particularly those of working-class heritage. To facilitate open discussion, we will include an anonymous route for input.

References

Chang, H., Ngunjiri, F.W. & Hernandez, K.-A.C. (2013). Collaborative autoethnography. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315432137

Yosso, T.J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006 

Neurodiversity aligns with the social model of disability, which takes the view of our neurotypes being differences in cognitive function in the way an individual processes information, learns and experiences the world. However, it can still be challenging when neurodivergent (ND) individuals are forced to live and work in a world not organised or accommodating of such differences, and it is these societal barriers that we need to change (Psychology Today, 2022). Recent figures from The British Psychological Society (2022) estimate that 1 in 7 of the UK population are neurodivergent, which means a sizeable proportion of library staff and users are too. Yet little discussion seems to have taken place within the library community about how we as a sector can support our ND colleagues and users, or the struggles and strengths those of us who identify as ND experience. This session aims to address some of that lack of discussion. It will cover the experiences of three different neurodivergent librarians of working within libraries as a ND member of staff. Topics covered will include experiences with disclosing, getting reasonable adjustments and support put in place, working with colleagues, working with ND students/users, and other personal challenges experienced within the workplace. It will also discuss some of the strengths of the ND mind and the positive elements someone with ND can bring to the library world. 

References 

The British Psychological Society. (2022, May 9). Celebrating neurodiversity in Higher Education. https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/celebrating-neurodiversity-higher-education 

Psychology Today. (2023, Jan 2). A strengths-based approach to neurodiversity. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/divergent-minds/202301/a-strengths-based-approach-to-neurodiversity 

Decolonisation and social justice have long been established discourse in library scholarship, yet diversity remains the dominant paradigm through which action is taken. Findings in a recent study exploring progress on race and equity in healthcare information services, and the potential and imperative for libraries to contribute to health equity through resources and collections held, suggest more guidance is needed to effect change beyond diversity (O’Driscoll and Bawden, 2022). COVID-19 highlighted and gave transparency to the scale of health disparities experienced by racially minoritised people in the UK, making healthcare information an illustrative example of the scale challenges faced, and some opportunities to move the decolonisation conversation forward. Despite calls and efforts to decolonise medical education, significant deficits in racial representation in research and resources remain. Critical Race Theory (CRT) provides a framework for working towards deeper change in information contexts, particularly in public service and education environments. This paper explores the utility and accessibility of CRT as a framework for decolonisation, adopting CRT tenets as detailed by Leung and López-McKnight (2021, p. 13), including race as a social construct; racism as normal; challenges to dominant ideologies (here in both healthcare and Library and Information Science (LIS)); and interdisciplinarity as key to opportunities to address systemic racisms embedded in information systems and structures. This approach is advocated here as theoretical groundwork for identifying a breadth of actions for practice. CRT is also highlighted as an opportunity for LIS education to equip students for a landscape in which information equity and decolonisation continue to be both necessary and prevalent.

This session aims to showcase a different, interactive approach to reading list diversity and is a reaction to work done in this area which has the potential to be tokenistic or only engage with academic diversity superficially. This approach to diversification of reading lists will centre the question of how to 'operationalise' diversity in a way that intersects with pedagogy and goes beyond skin tone, nationality, or author identity more broadly. It has identified five broad 'dimensions' (Identity, Representation, Access, Interactions and Critical Interaction) through which to approach the concept of diversity which also interacts with the material itself. It hopes to address the issue that diversity in academic texts is different from our colloquial understanding of diversity, and therefore requires a different approach (as academic literature exists in a network that has inherent power hierarchies). The central, practical aim is to approach diversifying reading lists as a 'literacy skill' in terms of how we view and engage with texts, and to embed this in pedagogical practices.

As such, this session will be split into two parts: an introduction to the framework and its principles (‘theory’) and an open discussion where we will create an annotated reading list on (critical approaches to) reading list diversification. Please note that this work is on-going and does not aim to provide an answer, but rather aims to provide a framework for discussion and interaction with reading lists.

*International Federation of Library Associations Library Reference Model

The dissemination of personal bias is inevitable when the role of the cataloguer begins to resemble that of a biographer, and rectifying evidence of this bias begins in our theoretical frameworks. To whom should we be granting the authority of negotiating gender and identity within the bibliographic universe? Is it possible to redistribute this power amongst those affected on the basis of consent and self-identification?

Through this session, I will consider Library Reference Model (LRM) as the lens through which we conceptualise cataloguing ethics, Queer Theory as the lens through which we critique them, and Marxist ideology as the lens through which we seek change. As an entity-relationship model, LRM provides a common vocabulary by which to consider people and the way they are described regarding the concern of cataloguing ethics. I am interested in the correlation between Melissa Adler’s (2017, p. 154) assertion that, when considering bibliographic control through the lens of Queer Theory, it is crucial for cataloguers to reconcile with “[...] impossibility of fairness in the present while imagining the possibility for a field of justice and equality in the future.” Key topics to be discussed include reimagining the interpretation of structural frameworks when practice fails to accommodate theory, the minoritisation of Queerness as it relates to systemic control, and how to encourage critical engagement with information at the user level.
Adler, M. (2017) Cruising the Library. New York: Fordham University Press.

Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) on LGBTQIA+ topics have not evolved alongside the frequently changing vernacular vocabulary used to access resources on the topics. To rectify this issue, libraries can choose to use an alternative controlled vocabulary, like The Homosaurus: An International LGBTQ+ Linked Data Vocabulary. This presentation will detail a case study which provides an overview of how Cooperative Computer Services (CCS), a public library consortium in Illinois, made the case to allow the Homosaurus in the CCS catalog, gained approval from the member libraries, and crafted a cataloging manual section. Other libraries can follow the recommendations in this article on how to properly make the case for the approval of a policy to allow an alternative controlled vocabulary in their catalog.