Library and Academic Institution Movements & the Law

PHOENIX -- State senators on Thursday approved a measure directing the Department of Education to create a list of books to be banned in public schools.

As some public and school libraries pulled books from their shelves earlier this year, New York City's Brooklyn Public Library made access to thousands of books easier for teens across the country.

UPDATED POST: A Tip Sheet for Librarians Facing Harassment (via PEN America) This guidance is intended to equip librarians with strategies to navigate online abuse. While this resource acknowledges the ways that online abuse can move offline, it is primarily focused on digital safety. For a discussion of physical safety in libraries, see: “We Need […]

Many organizations take big actions in the realm of DEI because of something they see another company do—such as publicly declaring themselves champions of people of color or setting an ambitious top-down DEI strategy across the firm. However, these grand stances usually fizzle out, leaving leaders frustrated and saying, “DEI work is too hard. It takes too long to see results.” The fact is, DEI isn’t a short-term project, and a company making big moves before it has the right culture and structures in place is likely to fail, leaving marginalized employees and customers no better off and giving companies a reputation for hollow promises. Academic research and the author’s experience working with firms on DEI strategy suggest that companies tend to follow predictable stages on their DEI journey. In this article, Georgetown professor and organizational psychologist Ella F. Washington describes the five stages: aware, compliant, tactical, integrated, and sustainable. She also includes questions for leadership teams to ask themselves. Understanding what stage your company is in can help you decide where to focus your energies most effectively and keep you from getting stuck.

Allyship Traditionally, the library and information science profession has been predominately white. Even in diverse communities, library professionals do not always reflect the populations they serve. Therefore it is essential that library and information science professionals serve their communities as allies. So, what exactly is an ally? The word ally comes from Middle French and means ‘to bind together.’ An ally is one who recognizes their unearned systemic privilege from societal injustice and works to change these patterns of injustice.

This reading list has been developed to assist faculty, staff, and students in gaining understanding and appreciation of DEI issues in our society.

Presenting the fierce and vital writing of organizers, lawyers, scholars, poets, and policy makers, this book radically repositions the antiviolence movement by putting women of color at its center. The contributors shift the focus from domestic violence and sexual assault and map innovative strategies of movement building and resistance used by women of color around the world. The volume's thirty pieces - which include poems, short essays, position papers, letters, and personal reflections - cover violence against women of color in its myriad forms, manifestations, and settings, while identifying the links between gender, militarism, reproductive and economic violence, prisons and policing, colonialism, and war. -- Provided by publisher.

From a Joint Announcement (via Harvard Library): The HBCU Library Alliance and Harvard Library this week announced a project to sustain and deepen capacity for the digitization, discovery, and preservation of African American history collections held in HBCU libraries and archives. Harvard’s support for the HBCU Library Alliance’s ongoing work is a step in addressing […]

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day! To mark National Indigenous Peoples Day we are pleased to announce that the CFLA-FCAB’s Indigenous Matters Committee’s – Red Team-Joint Working Group on Classifi…

CRKN has completed the first step in decolonizing Canadiana collection metadata by replacing the subject heading “Indians of North America” with “Indigenous peoples.”

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion are fundamental values of the association and its members, and diversity is listed as one of ALA's Key Action Areas. The Office for Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services uses a social justice framework to ensure the inclusion of diverse perspectives within our profession and association to best position ALA as a trusted, leading advocate for equitable access to library services for all.

WITNESS partnered with El Grito de Sunset Park to find new ways to use eyewitness video and open source data to expose systemic police violence.

Max Macias writes: “It is with great excitement and honor that the Oregon Library Association’s Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Antiracism present the OLA EDI Antiracism Toolkit! You can download a copy at the Oregon Library Association Web Site, or the State Library of Oregon website. A paper copy of this toolkit will be distributed to every library in Oregon. They will also receive a digital copy to print and share with staff.”

TOOLKIT OVERVIEW Throughout this project we documented the tools we used, the processes that worked best for us and the things that made our light bulbs go off. We compiled those learnings into this Toolkit for others to use, share and help grow. The Toolkit can be used as a step-by-step guide, or you can jump right in to the section you’re most interested in!

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The information provided in this Toolkit is designed to help you recognize some of the biases that we all have, including, specifically, the implicit biases of judges, prosecutors, and public defenders.

By Valentina Iturbe-LaGrave, Ph.D., Director for Inclusive Teaching Practices In the last few days, many of us have seen or read about the gruesome and violent videos of young Black men being forcibly restrained, hunted down, and killed in broad daylight and read the stories of a black woman being killed in her own home. Violence against Black and Brown bodies has been a horrific and longstanding trope of the American experience. While it has always impacted us, the recent demonstrations and riots eclipsing COVID19 news and media coverage challenge our courage at a time of immeasurable community and individual trauma. To help you navigate these complex and challenging times, we offer a brief summary of trauma-informed critical pedagogy as a way to consider how trauma may be impacting you and your students. We also invite you to check-in with students, and teach in a way that does not re-traumatize students but instead supports healing the mental and emotional effects of the trauma. Below are some critical trauma-informed pedagogy considerations, suggested readings, and resources to help you on this journey. As always, contact the Director for Inclusive Teaching Practices for one-on-one consultations on Zoom, email, or over the phone.

Resources related to the #blacklivesmatter, #marchforourlives, #marchforscience, #metoo, #timesup, and #nobannowall social movements.

Political Protest and Social Movements resources

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Many libraries have put together LibGuides or other resources in support of diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, antiracism, etc. On … "Antiracism, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Social Justice Resources"

Author Art Spiegelman says he felt "jaw-dropping disbelief" upon learning about the decision from a Tennessee school district to ban his graphic novel about the Holocaust.

Founded in 1936, the Society of American Archivists is North America's oldest and largest national professional association dedicated to the needs and interests of archives and archivists. SAA represents more than 6,200 professional archivists employed by governments, universities, businesses, libraries, and historical organizations nationally.

The field of information and library science has long struggled with the lack of diversity in the workforce. In response, a number of programs have been created to encourage students of color to pursue careers within the library and information sciences. Despite this, the number of diverse individuals working in the field is still low. This paper explores instances of discrimination towards library and information science students of color and how these experiences shape their academic career and their outlook on the profession overall. Qualitative interviews were conducted with five students of color currently pursuing a master’s degree in library and information science and will be transcribed and analyzed for overarching themes. This paper intends to identify ways students of color in LIS master’s programs can be better supported.

Bias in library systems directly affects patrons’ experiences in the library. This ALA Editions excerpt looks at implicit bias -- how it can be identified and how it can be reduced.

After the tragic police murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, there has been a sudden groundswell of interest in beginning the monumental task of tackling the racial injustice and systemic racism…

Let me tell you about someone I met a couple of years ago in 2019. Her name was Judge Deborah A. Batts. The Honorable Judge Batts was the first openly gay person to be appointed as an Article III federal judge. She held this position for over 25 years in the Southern District of New York. As part of the library team in my previous position, we commemorated her 25 years of service with a candid interview during Pride month with her fellow openly gay judges also at the US Courts for the Second Circuit: Judge Alison J. Nathan, Judge J. Paul Oetken and Judge Pamela K. Chen. If you watch this interview as many times as I have, you can’t escape the gravitas of Judge Batts words when she describes herself as a “trifecta” and says “it’s important to pass it on…” As a librarian, and particularly someone working with the law, I believe the responsibility of pass it on should be a major tenet in our profession And despite that altruistic goal and the best of intentions, I oftentimes find myself in situations where we have failed to do just that. Why is that? What is missing? Who is missing? Whose voices we are missing? I don’t presume to have any of the answers. However, I’ve decided to create this platform and hear from my esteemed friends on the notes we pass to each other. By now, we all know the concepts, or at least we can find a new libguide with further reading. Let’s now dismantle and create. Let’s now more forward and be intentional. Let’s create the space and pass it on. Notes Between Us (NBU) is a blog about conversations and topics of interest to the writers. The writers are expressing their personal opinions solely. Their essays represent their personal beliefs and not that of their workplaces or any organization they are associated with. By Marcelo Rodríguez

AALL stands against racism and we fully support the Black Lives Matter movement. AALL is striving to do better as an Association to bring more awareness to the biases in the legal information profession, and to help others understand the impact of racism. This guide was created to provide resources on anti-racism, diversity, inclusion, and equity for members and their organizations.