Diversity and Inclusion

> ZLuC 2019 Salt Lake > Diversity and Inclusion

Saturday July 20

Breakout session 2, 12:15-1:00pm

Session name: Diversity and Inclusion

Facilitator: Matt C.

Note taker: Jennifer E.

  • Introductions
    • Topics that came up: 
      • Representation
      • zines as an educating force to expose young people to other perspectives
      • Curation & starting a zine collection
      • countering elitism/hegemony in art libraries
      • inclusive spaces
      • health disparities
      • shutting up & getting out of the way, using power to lift others up and create inclusive spaces
      • inclusiveness in makerspaces, generous exclusion – Marijel (Maggie) Melo
  • Building Safe Spaces
    • How to create safe spaces without policing people?
    • Responsibility of being an authority figure (in the classroom) – calling a bad action bad if you see it
    • Statement about a safer space, laying out expectations 
    • Code of Conduct – post it at your event, enforce it 
      • De-escalation training, have a point of contact for zine fest tablers to contact if they are in a tough/uncomfortable/violent/unsafe situation 
    • Community agreement – discuss parameters, give people buy-in by creating an agreement together.
    • Refer to Code of Conduct for this conference: http://zinelibraries.info/events/zine-librarian-unconferences/zluc-organizers-toolkit/#conduct
  • Inclusive Spaces
    • Librarian conferences are white spaces (librarianship is an 80% white profession) – conversations about diversity & inclusion are fraught, people often don’t know how to respond 
    • Embracing embarrassment and uncomfortable moments in order to move beyond mistakes
    • Lack of conversation
    • Diversity as a buzzword rather than an action and a practice
    • You will make mistakes, and we will talk about it as part of a community conduct agreement
    • De-escalation training as part of a conference like this, seeking out professional development opportunities
    • Reading circle to learn how to talk about race
    • Bystander intervention, using your voice to preempt violence when you see it 
  • Getting out of the way vs. speaking up
    • Doing the work but not being a white savior
    • Community partnerships
    • Explicit goals in collection development, strategic planning in general
    • Not expecting people from marginalized communities to be the only ones doing the work, while centralizing marginalized voices
    • Racist imagery in old yearbooks – endless meetings, lots of anxiety, no action
    • “Verbal asterisks” when showing historical objects in closed stacks & pointing people to resources
      • Context and information literacy are our jobs too!
      • Presenting without lecturing
    • Getting into leadership in order to make change
      • Again, not expecting PoC & marginalized communities to do the work, but using power 
      • Lip service vs. action