Library and Academic Institution Movements & the Law

A recording of the June 10th ACRL Together Wherever presentation: 2020 President’s Program - Shifting the Center: Transforming Academic Libraries through Generous Accountability. Inspired by the work of critical scholars, artists and activists within and outside libraries, the 2020 President’s Program, "Shifting the Center: Transforming Academic Libraries through Generous Accountability," asks participants to imagine a world where holding ourselves truly accountable for systemic inequity in our profession and institutions is a welcome opportunity for growth. We understand that the inequitable systems governing our institutions are not broken, but are functioning as they were designed to do. In light of today's global pandemic, we find these inequities even more severe for many in our communities. To rebuild these institutions, we must pay close attention to the voices and needs of people experiencing inequity, and enact change according to what we hear. Hosted by ACRL President Karen Munro and featuring keynote speaker McKensie Mack, anti-oppression consultant, researcher, facilitator, founder of #BoundaryWork, and former executive director at Art+Feminism, the session will explore how doing this work—holding ourselves, each other, and our institutions meaningfully accountable for inequity—can be an opportunity for generosity, humor, and care. Make sure to join us at the start of the program for a special recognition of the recipients of ACRL's Academic/Research Librarian of the Year Award, Excellence in Academic Libraries Awards, and the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award. We also welcome you to explore the companion reading list, http://www.ala.org/acrl/acrl-presidents-program-reading-list, compiled by the 2020 ACRL President’s Program Committee.

An OCLC presentation by Mary Sauer Games, VP Global Product Management, and Merrilee Proffitt, Senior Manager OCLC Research. Digital Reference Page available here: oc.lc/acrl-citations Description, subject analysis, classification, authority control, and cataloging practices are part of a powerful naming and labeling process in bibliographic cataloging. Metadata is laden with outdated, harmful, and even racist terminology. Though many areas of librarianship and archival work have evolved, core ontologies and taxonomies at the heart of descriptive and classification practices remain biased and rooted in white supremacy. This presentation will cover how OCLC has sought to learn and advance knowledge for member libraries though research and programming. Additionally, we will share information about an initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and OCLC that will produce a consultative community agenda. This agenda will inform research, learning, and other actionable steps that libraries, archives, and allied organizations can take to reimagine descriptive practices in the records they steward, and will establish a foundation for future community engagement and reciprocal consultation.

University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, 13th Annual Public Interest Week, Reframing the Nation: Working Towards Racial Justice, (2021).

Many organizations are struggling to diversify their ranks through the flawed application of well-intentioned diversity policies. DEI policies are only as good as the people responsible for carrying them out. If those people don’t fully understand what problem new processes or policies are solving, they won’t understand their role in bringing those plans to life — or how to hold themselves and others accountable. The author has developed a three-part framework for driving better accountability around DEI by focusing on educating people on the why, not just the how; listening to feedback and iterating on policies; and celebrating your wins while nudging those who need it.

Presidential candidate and U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm in 1972 Library research guides are always an incredible source of collected resou...

Diversity & Inclusion in Law Libraries – Resources (Rev. May 6, 2022) This guide presents information for law libraries who … "Diversity & Inclusion Resource Guide"

Diversity and Inclusion resource page.

Professional development initiatives intended to help underrepresented employees don’t always lead to the progress leaders think they will — especially if those initiatives are designed around a harmful expectation of assimilation. The authors suggest examining the company’s expectations of assimilation and professionalism, reframing professional development programs, adjusting feedback processes, and focusing on relationships.

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.

How an intention to address racial equity can influence institutional impact investing strategy.

Freedom libraries in the south provided Black residents with access to spaces and books, whether in church basements or private homes.

Home | Proactive Preparation | Responding to an Incident | Meeting Community Needs | Special Considerations & Resources What prompted the need for this document? | Assistance and Consultation | Definitions What prompted the need for this document? After the 2016 elections, there was a spike in reported hate crimes in American libraries. Consequently, questions about hate speech, the First Amendment, and patron behavior in the library are escalating.Hateful Conduct in Libraries: Supporting Library Workers and Patrons

Abstract: As the growth in Latino college enrollment is expected to continue for years to come, academic libraries at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and beyond will be serving increasing numbers of Hispanic students. Since Latino educational attainment remains lower than than of other groups and academic libraries’ impact on retention, GPA and related educational outcomes has been well documented, it is crucial that academic libraries actively foster Latino students’ success. A review of the literature on Hispanic students and library use, the article also includes recommendations for practice and offers a local example to illustrate strategies libraries may implement to better meet the educational needs of Hispanic students.

Articles published by student-run law reviews were cited more often after they adopted diversity policies for selecting editors, according to a study that will be published in the Columbia Law Review.

This column shares the experience of one minority Collection Development Librarian throughout their career and their lessons learned. Also sharing pra…

A VOICE AND A FORCE FOR LIBERAL EDUCATION. AAC&U advances the vitality and democratic purposes of undergraduate liberal education.

Academic librarians, like so many others in the higher education and library sectors, have discussed equity, diversity, and inclusion for many years. A number of prominent initiatives have worked to address these issues across the profession and within individual institutions. Yet, libraries have struggled to make progress on these stated values, especially in meeting their goals of employee diversification. The organizing led by Black Lives Matter activists in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd sparked an increase in demands for racial justice across the higher education sector. Many leaders called for an end to police violence and pledged to address their institutions’ history of racism. Academic libraries in turn have grappled with renewed attention to increasing the diversity of their employees, addressing retention issues, and fostering equity and inclusion for both internal and external constituents. Some have also focused their efforts on library practices such as increasing the diversity of their collections. To better understand the impact of these national events and long-standing challenges on academic libraries, we surveyed 638 library directors in fall 2020 to examine how perspectives and strategies relevant to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism evolved over the last year

Abstract Training culturally competent and socially responsible library and information science (LIS) professionals requires a blended approach that extends across curricula, professional practice, and research. Social justice can support these goals by serving as a topic of inquiry in LIS curricula as well as by providing a scholarly framework for understanding how power and privilege shape LIS institutions and professional practice. This article applies social justice as a topic and tool for transforming LIS curricula and culture by exploring the implementation of social justice–themed courses and an extracurricular reading group in one LIS department. Exploring curricular and extracurricular cases in a shared institutional setting contextualizes key challenges and conversations that can inform similar initiatives in other institutions. Transforming LIS culture to prioritize social justice values, epistemologies, and frameworks requires multivalent strategies, community buy-in, and shared responsibility in terms of the labor of leading and sustaining engagement with social justice.

In an increasingly globalized world, social justice issues dominate the news. Libraries are often viewed as places where social justice ideals are upheld and pr...

Automation is coming to HR. By automating the collection and analysis of large datasets, AI and other analytics tools offer the promise of improving every phase of the HR pipeline, from recruitment and compensation to promotion, training, and evaluation. These systems, however, can reflect historical biases and discriminate on the basis of race, gender, and class. Managers should consider that 1) models are likely to perform best with regard to individuals in majority demographic groups but worse with less well represented groups; 2) there is no such thing as a truly “race-blind” or “gender-blind” model, and omitting race or gender explicitly from a model can even make things worse; and 3) if demographic categories aren’t evenly distributed in your organization (and in most they aren’t), even carefully built models will not lead to equal outcomes across groups.