Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DE&I as it is commonly referred, is a phrase that broadly outlines the efforts an institution takes to create a more welcoming environment for people of less-privileged identities. To help you get started, we've broken down these concepts to help you piece togeth

In an agony-aunt format.

It was such an honour to be invited to speak at National Digital Forum in Wellington. This was the biggest talk I’ve ever done and it’s the first talk I’ve done on the diversity and inclusion. I surprised myself by how emotional I got at the end and it couldn’t have been a safer place … Continue reading "blah blah blah: diversity and inclusion"

On-demand access to the mentoring, tools, and support you need to be successful in the Academy.

Hoping to reflect a broader range of visitors, museums are diversifying their staffs, welcoming a more inclusive generation of future leaders.

In this post, Symphony, one of our Listen In Contributing Editors, shares research about library workers with disabilities, who are often overlooked in LIS literature.

Socialized into a deeply internalized sense of superiority and entitlement that we are either not consciously aware of or can never admit to ourselves, white people become highly fragile in conversations about race."Getting it" when it comes to race and racism challenges our very identities as good white people.

For a while now, I've been thinking about how terms like "white privilege," "inclusion" and "unconscious bias" all sound just... too nice. Don't they seem a little on the pleasant side for words used to address a system of racist oppression?

Robin DiAngelo argues that our largely segregated society is set up to insulate whites from racial discomfort, so that they fall to pieces at the first application of stress.

About Taking Criticism Pamela Oliver Pamela.oliver@wisc.edu This was originally published as a blog post at https://scatter.wordpress.com/2018/06/07/about-taking-criticism/ Abstract This essay is about constructive ways for responding to criticism about how your style as a person of power or privilege may be hurting others in your teaching or advising. Along the way it addresses the broader problems of taking criticism in general and of cultural differences in interaction styles. The punchline is about trying to be who you are (no personality transplants) in a way that respects both yourself and others and helps make your environment feel inclusive for more marginalized people. Sections discuss five issues: (1) Pay attention to issues of power and privilege. (2) Let people know you are open to criticism, including suggestions for classroom strategies. (3) Respect cultural and personal differences in interaction style and look for ways to communicate across these differences with attention to have this interacts with issues of power and privilege. (4) Learn general principles of taking criticism, including staying calm, listening for understanding, asking for time to think and reflect on critiques. (5) Pay attention to the problem of destructive criticism, including destructive relationships and bad classroom dynamics. The conclusion emphasizes that including formerly marginalized groups inevitably produces cultural conflict. Openness to criticism is a way forward for bridging differences in cultural and personal styles.

The American Library Association has not had a good run under the current presidential administration.   How We Got Here   First, in a since...

Many people documenting microaggressions in higher ed, faced with the resultant backlash, found that their institutions were not ready to back them up. At the 2018 American Library Association annual convention, a panel titled “Bullying, Trolling, and Doxxing, Oh My! Protecting our Advocacy and Public Discourse around Diversity and Social Justice” examined that gap.

Author(s): Caswell, ML | Abstract: Much recent discussion about social justice in archival studies has assumed a legalistic, rights-based framework to delineate the role of records, archives, and archivists in both the violation of human rights and in holding individuals and governments accountable for basic human rights, such as the right to life, privacy, and freedom of expression. Yet decades of feminist scholarship have called into question the universality of a rights-based framework, arguing instead that an ethics of care is a more inclusive and apt model for envisioning and enacting a more just society. This article proposes a shift in the theoretical model used by archivists and archival studies scholars to address social justice concerns – from that based on individual rights to a model based on feminist ethics. In a feminist ethics approach, archivists are seen as caregivers, bound to records creators, subjects, users, and communities through a web of mutual affective responsibility. This article proposes four interrelated shifts in these archival relationships, based on radical empathy.

Homogenous groups aren’t as effective as they seem.

Institutional Assessment Worksheet Take a Closer Look: How Inclusive Is Your Library to Transgender and Non Binary Folks?   Your Library Challenges for transgender folks Possibilities for change Policies -What do nondiscrimination policies include?  -What do harassment and disruptions pol...

Content updated 2016 Links updated October 15, 2018 Community-Led Work in Practice: Experiences from Canadian libraries A series of papers written by members of the former CLA Community-Led Library…