In this multifaceted online course, you’ll complete work to ensure that your collections, programs, services, and staff culture are diverse, equitable, and inclusive—with personal coaching from experts from libraries and beyond.
Live Interactive Sessions: Tuesdays: February 25, March 3 & 10, from 2-4 PM ET. Plus, self-guided options and additional bonus content offered so you can follow along at your own pace.
Live sessions are bridged with online workshops, video lessons, assignments, discussions, and resources designed to help you build your own diversity initiative. PD certificates are available upon couse completion.
Can’t make a live session? All sessions will be available to you “on-demand” following the initial broadcast.
In this course, you will learn from EDI experts in speaker sessions created specifically for library professionals. You’ll learn about the concrete actions library leaders are taking to make their libraries more equitable today and in the future, and the tools that make it possible. Practical coursework, along with targeted support, will take you from theory to application, helping you to transform your library services to better meet the needs of all your users—and bring in new ones.
You’ll complete assignments to build your own diversity initiative over 3+ weeks in an interactive online classroom environment with personal coaching from an expert in the field. In addition, you’ll have access to our foundational bonus content—a series of webinars from Library Journal and School Library Journal contributors along with rich, supporting materials in the form of readings, activities, and videos—to explore at your own pace.
The ability to audit current library collections and programs through a culturally competent lens
The ability to assess the inclusiveness of current collection development and RA practices, acquisitions, marketing, plus assessing scheduling practices, branch hours, and staff hiring and retention
The ability to recognize common problematic stereotypes, tropes, and microaggressions in media
A refresher on key diversity and cultural literacy concepts such as white privilege, unconscious bias, cultural appropriation, and intersectionality
The course features live guest speakers in interactive sessions with Q&A as well as self-guided assignments, readings, and weekly discussion topics to support deeper learning. You’ll work in small groups with facilitators experienced in anti-oppression work to complete assignments and field research that will fuel your diversity initiatives.
Engage with presenters via live video stream, visual presentations, and chats, and workshop practical solutions in groups, with guidance from an advisor, to map out your own cultural literacy and inclusion initiatives. You’ll leave with well-developed strategies designed to make a lasting impact on your community. Full participation in the course and workshop will earn 15 hours of professional development credit at some institutions.
Instructor-led online course features personalized interaction over 3+ weeks
Real-time guest speakers and conversation via live webcast (with recordings available afterward)
Self-guided track with video lessons and supporting resources in the online classroom to provide a foundation for your work
Homework assignments to help you make progress on your goals
Individualized attention from course facilitators who work with you in a coaching environment to help sort out challenges
Ongoing group conversation via discussion forums
Articles, videos, and other resources
Access all course content for 6 months after the course ends
Bonus: Register early and get immediate access to archival video recordings from related courses
This event is excellent for public librarians, both adult and youth services; academic librarians; and school librarians. The program will be especially relevant to librarians in collection development, collection management, merchandising and displays, programming, outreach, and library marketing.
Reviewing the Basics: Foundations of Cultural Competency
How to Conduct a Diversity Audit
Recognizing Stereotypes, Tropes, and Appropriation
Assessing Programming for Equity and Inclusiveness
Using Local History to Combat Racism
Dealing with Microaggressions
Can’t make a live session? No worries. All sessions will be available to you “on-demand” following the initial broadcast.
Mahnaz Dar, Reference and Professional Reading Editor at Library Journal and School Library Journal, will explain how the discussion groups and assignments will work and highlight key concepts, including #ownvoices, privilege, and intersectionality.
Speaker:
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Mahnaz Dar, Reference and Professional Reading Editor, Library Journal/School Library Journal |
Serving diverse and marginalized populations is rewarding, but complicated, work. Among the barriers to inclusive service is implicit bias. It is important for information professionals to examine and acknowledge their own privileges and biases, and recognize their role in creating and sustaining a welcoming environment in the library for every person who seeks access to the library’s materials, services, programs, and spaces. In this session, you'll unpack the concept of implicit bias, as well as the closely related concepts of stereotypes, microaggressions, and cultural competence, and walk away with ideas for how to use this deeper understanding to enhance your critical information practice.
Speaker:
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Nicole A. Cooke, PhD, MEd, MLS, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Science, College of Information and Communications, University of South Carolina |
In this session, Karen Jensen will discuss the need for librarians to perform regular audits of their collections and programs in order to better align offerings to community need, identify gaps, and set benchmarks for diversification. Participants will learn how to perform a diversity audit, which salient data points should be included, how to gather the requisite information, how to set goals to address gaps, and how to make diversity and inclusion natural parts of collection management and promotion.
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Karen Jensen, MLS, Creator and Administrator, Teen Librarian Toolbox |
In this engaging session, you’ll learn how to dive deep into your current collection to spot problematic stereotypes and tropes -- both the easy to find and the more insidious ones -- and become a more critical reader. Dr. Sarah Park Dahlen, co-creator of the widely popular “Diversity in Children’s Books” infographics and co-editor of “Research on Diversity in Youth Literature,” will discuss both the landscape of children’s literature today as well as how we can assess books of the past - including well-loved classics like Dr. Seuss - and address how we can make our libraries more inclusive for all of our patrons.
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Sarah Park Dahlen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Master of Library and Information Science Program, St. Catherine University (MN) |
A vital component in ensuring your library is equitable and inclusive is to consider staffing and representation. In this session, you’ll learn how to address issues of equity in staffing, handle workplace microaggressions, and empower library staff to be change agents in their communities. You’ll learn how one library’s staff equity initiative was developed and implemented, with practical takeaways you can apply to your own library.
Speaker:
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Ryan Groce, Human Resources Business Partner, The Seattle Public Library (WA) |
Creating a space where all are welcome and engaged is a key component of inclusion at our libraries, and yet accessibility efforts are often overlooked when it comes to equity initiatives. In this enlightening session, you’ll learn how to focus your lens on how well your library is serving patrons with diverse accessibility needs by investigating physical and digital spaces, programming, and more. You’ll walk away with an increased understanding of accessibility issues that libraries face and best practices to use when approaching them.
Speaker:
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Carrie Banks, Supervising Librarian, Inclusive Services, Brooklyn Public Library (NY) |
Librarian Andrea Blackman, Nashville Civil Rights Room, will offer a deep dive into how they use their institutions’ historical collections and resources to help patrons, students, and community members explore, critically analyze, and combat systemic racism.
Speakers:
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PART 1 (2:00-2:30): Andrea Blackman, Division Manager, Special Collections & Director, Civil Rights Room, Nashville Public Library (TN) |
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PART 2 (2:30-3:00): Angel Jewel Tucker, Youth Services Manager, Johnson County Library, Overland Park (KS) |
Librarians committed to building strong and diverse collections and programs may wonder what else they can do to be positive agents of change in their communities. While there is far more than can be and is being done than we can cover in a single session, we’ll look at what it means to be an “ally,” how librarians can strive for social justice in their spheres of influence, and make space for marginalized voices and viewpoints. We will explore the experience of emotional labor and offer ways that diverse coalitions of professionals and advocates can support each other's efforts in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Speaker:
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Anastasia Collins, Research + Instruction Librarian, Simmons College Beatley Library (MA) |
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Carrie Banks, Supervising Librarian, Inclusive Services, Brooklyn Public Library (NY) |
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Andrea Blackman, Division Manager, Special Collections & Director, Civil Rights Room, Nashville Public Library, (TN) |
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Anastasia Collins, Research + Instruction Librarian, Simmons College Beatley Library (MA) |
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Nicole A. Cooke, PhD, MEd, MLS, Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and Associate Professor, School of Library and Information Science, College of Information and Communications, University of South Carolina |
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Sarah Park Dahlen, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Master of Library and Information Science Program, St. Catherine University (MN) |
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Mahnaz Dar, Reference and Professional Reading Editor, Library Journal/School Library Journal |
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Ryan Groce, Human Resources Business Partner, The Seattle Public Library (WA) |
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Karen Jensen, MLS, Creator and Administrator, Teen Librarian Toolbox |
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Angel Jewel Tucker, Youth Services Manager, Johnson County Library, Overland Park (KS) |
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