Beyond Diversity Speak: Practicing Cultural Humility in Your Library
October 25
9:00am – 3:30pm
Cedar Crest College
ACRL DVC Board Meeting Minutes. August 21, 2019
Attendees: Karen, Mary, Adam, Jess, Stephanie P., Stefani, Elise
June Meeting Minutes approved and posted to the blog
Financial Report – Adam
- TD Bank – an error (another business account’s debit was processed on our account) has been resolved.
- Assets are up by $450 — to about $6,500
- We should be able to give our usual $1000 stipend
- Membership has increased in Wild Apricot, but 40% of memberships are still overdue. Adam expects this will increase when folks want to attend the fall program
- Jess: the membership level wording – national vs chapter – is confusing. Is it possible to include explanatory text in Wild Apricot? Adam will find out.
- Karen: do we offer free membership to students and first year librarians?
- We haven’t yet found a way to do this, but Adam will look into it.
- We’re in a good place financially – we should spend it!
Fall Conference – Stefani
- Topic: Cultural Humility
- Title: Beyond Diversity Speak: Practicing Cultural Humility in your Library
- Location: Cedar Crest College
- Date: October 25, 2019
- Expenses:
- $500 for the venue
- Catering – not yet firm, but will be less than $2000
- $1200 for workshop leader, Lorin Jackson
- Save the date email to go out
- Call for Proposals to go out – board members should post to listservs and social media
Chapter event: free film screening of The Public
- Artsquest Center at the Steel Stacks
- Sunday, September 29 @ 7:00pm
- Pre-event meet-up for ACRLDVC: 5:00pm @ Bonn Place Brewery in the Southside, Bethlehem
- Post screening Talk back moderated by Jasmine and Ben Bertalan from Allentown Public Library
- The theater cost $400 but the screening is free and open to anyone
- Discussion: shall we ask for donations?
- Decision: we won’t advertise that we’ll request donations, but will offer the opportunity for people to donate at the event
Social Committee update
- Elise is exploring options
- Jess suggested a budget would be helpful in order to offer something like free appetizers
- Discussion about possible locations in or near Philly. Elise will figure out a way to poll members either at the screening event in September or have people vote on options at the fall meeting
Blog update
- Mary Huissen is new editor and has posted an introduction. She’d like to make the blog a bit more active:
- Stefani and Jasmine will each write an introductory post
- Will additional members contribute posts? We could interview members if people do not want to write something
- Board members (and all members) are encouraged to subscribe to the blog in order to be notified of new posts and share them on social media
Web update
- Karen will be coming back
- Jess updated the chapter members
- Meaghan is the contact for listserv
Next meeting: September 18
Chapter Event: free film screening of The Public!
Join us for a pre-screening social networking event at 5:00pm at Bonn Place Brewery in the Southside Bethlehem — even if you are unable to attend the screening!
Deadline Extended to October 2, 2019
Call for proposals: Beyond Diversity Speak: Practicing Cultural Humility in your Library
ACRL DVC 2019 Annual Fall Program
October 25, 2019, 9:00am – 3:30pm at Cedar Crest College
This year’s program will be focused on incorporating cultural humility into equity, diversity, and inclusion professional development in academic libraries.
Sara Ahmed (2012) describes diversity initiatives as frequently being “happy talk” that institutions write into their strategic plans and mission statements to manage their image but then do not integrate into everyday practice. While some libraries make a concerted effort to provide diversity or cultural competency training opportunities, often the attention is superficial and/or uninformed. Nicole Cooke (2016) stresses the importance of cultural humility in serving diverse populations.
Cultural humility is a cousin to cultural competency, but while cultural competency means learning about other cultures, cultural humility means continuously working to uncover how we and the institutions in which we engage are complicit in underserving some and overserving others and making ourselves accountable for rectifying the disparity. To do this, librarians and libraries need tools to help them reflect on themselves and their institutions, facilitate difficult discussions, and imagine new possibilities.
Lorin Jackson, the Research and Instruction Resident Librarian from Swarthmore College and co-founder of WOC+Lib, an online community dedicated to amplifying the voices of librarians of color, will run an interactive workshop in the afternoon on cultural humility that promises to be fun, enlightening, and practical.
We are now looking for proposals from academic librarians, staff members, and administrators for the morning session that examine the successes and failures they have experienced during their attempts to develop an environment of cultural humility within their libraries.
We also welcome theoretical explorations of the concept and practical discussions on how to apply these principles. We are accepting proposals for presentations, panels, and lightning talks. You may submit your proposal here. Please include the following information:
- Proposal title
- Name, affiliations, positions, and email addresses of the presenters
- Preferred presentation format:
- Option A: 20-30 minute presentation
- Option B: 20-40 minute panel
- Option C: 10 minute lightening round presentation
- A 250 word summary of the topic you wish to present including the points you intend to make and the way(s) you intend to engage the audience, if applicable.
Email acrlpa.dvc@gmail.com with any questions about the process. We look forward to hearing from you!
The deadline to submit your proposal is Monday, September 23 with notification by Friday, September 27.
Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Cooke, N. A. (2016). Information services to diverse populations: Developing culturally competent library professionals. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Save the date! Friday, October 25, 2019
The ACRL DVC Board invite you to save Friday, October 25 for our 2019 Fall Program on cultural humility at Cedar Crest College from 9:00am – 3:00pm.
Sara Ahmed (2012) describes diversity initiatives as frequently being “happy talk” or “papered diversity” that institutions write into their strategic plans and mission statements to manage their image but then do not integrate into everyday practices.
While some libraries make a concerted effort to provide diversity or cultural competency training through professional development opportunities, often the attention is superficial or uninformed. By incorporating cultural humility into equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives, libraries can help shift their institutional cultures rather than simply check off the boxes.
Cultural humility is a cousin to cultural competency, but while cultural competency means learning about other cultures, cultural humility means continuously working to uncover how we and the institutions in which we engage are complicit in under-serving some cultures while over-serving others and making a commitment to rectify the disparity.
Through speakers, lightning talks and workshops, this program will give librarians tools to self-reflect, facilitate difficult discussions, and imagine new possibilities.
We happy to announce that Lorin Jackson, the Research and Instruction Resident Librarian from Swarthmore College and co-founder of WOC+Lib, an online community dedicated to amplifying the voices of librarians of color, will run an interactive workshop in the afternoon on cultural humility that promises to be fun, enlightening, and practical.
Please put October 25th on your calendar and start to think about whether you might like to present – the Call for Proposals will go out soon!
We look forward to seeing you all again and to continue to build our community.
*Ahmed, S. (2012). On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. Durham, ND: Duke University Press.
ACRL DVC Board Meeting Minutes, June 18, 2019
Attending: Jess Denke, Stefani Gomez, Meaghan Moody, Jessica Brangiel, Adam Mizelle, Megan Donnelly, Sarah Wingo, Leslie O’Neill
Minutes from the June 2019 meeting were approved.
Megan Donnelly has accepted a new position with the Claremont Colleges. Congratulations to Megan! Karen Sheldon has agreed to continue as the webmaster.
Sarah brought up the legislative board position.
- The board will evaluate whether it is time to review this position and its responsibilities in upcoming year
- ALA legislative day was not held for 2019 (ALA Annual Conference was held in DC in lieu of legislative day) and response to DVC calls for participants in the past were unsuccessful.
- Perhaps this position should be revamped with a focus of advocacy?
Administrivia
- The general ACRL DVC and Mentoring email accounts will be combined to simplify contact info.
- Jessica B. will give documentation on posting to the membership list through Wild Apricot to Meaghan M.
- Jess will send the membership list to Leslie for the archives
Adam provided the financial report
- Three years of taxes have been completed. Thank you Adam!
- Outstanding checks include $600 to the IRS and $2000 to ACRL
- Waiting for $3000 reimbursement for the spring program for LSTA grant
- DVC has been allocated $412 from ACRL national for membership
- The DVC website needs to be updated with the new membership rates. Renewals have gone out to members whose membership expires June 30th.
- Chapter is in good shape financially
Spring Program Review
- Attendee feedback was reviewed and was mostly positive
- Key takeaway: future programs should be shorter, starting no earlier than 9am and ending by 3:30pm
- Penn State Great Valley was great to work with. We should keep the location in mind for future programs
- PaLA grant was a huge help. The board will apply for this grant annually to support either the fall or spring program
Open Scholarship Learning Community
- Jasmine will head this new community of practice. Jessica B. will reach out to Jasmine regarding providing support for this new project.
Blog Update
- Megan has posted the spring program summary.
Web Update (Karen)
- We need to add the PO box as contact info on website.
- Adam will update Wild Apricot so membership checks may be sent to PO Box
- Additional website updates needed:
- new board members
- add information about free membership for first year librarians and students (Adam will figure out a procedure to add first year and student members to Wild Apricot)
Archive Update
- Leslie has done a lot of work cleaning up DVC records and created a finding aid.
- There are some holes in records from 2015-2017. Any board members with documents should please send them to Leslie.
- Adam has some physical records and will get them to Leslie
- Stefani will forward mentoring documentation to Leslie
- Leslie also needs ballot/election information for the archives
- Leslie has started to organize the email inbox
Fall Program Planning Committee Update (Stefani)
- Meeting July 19th
- Possible ideas include diversity and professional development
- Sarah W. has contact info for a good speaker at Villanova U she will send Stefani details
- Other program ideas include grant writing or designing an online course
- We need a date & location
Spring 2020 Program (Stefani)
- Temple has offered to host but they need a date right away to reserve space in the new library or the learning center in case the library isn’t available
- Board agreed to April 17, 2020
- Stefani to reach out to Stephen Bell to confirm
Social Committee Updates
DVC has planned a screening of The Public at the SteelStacks Theater in Bethlehem
- They will screen the film for us. We are responsible for the licensing fee
- The screening will be open to the public, should we request donations to put towards the license fee?
- Possible dates
- Needs to be on a Sunday through Wednesday
- Last two weekends of August discussed as possibilities
- What might make attendance easier for folks who are coming from farther away?
- Matinee time?
- Have drinks after?
- Market to PaLA, DVC – where else?
Fall social program in the city? Free Library of Philadelphia space maybe?
Mentor Program Update (Stefani)
- moving along
Resume Review Update (Stefani )
- We have had 6 people send in their documents and they have been sent for review
- Feedback email will be sent to those that sent in resumes
- Reminder email will be sent for those that haven’t reviewed resumes yet
Transitions
- Can those that are moving out of positions write a short list of bullet points of everything next person should know in the next week and post it into the DVC transition document on google docs? Emails, passwords, documents, routines, etc.
Next Board Meeting
- Next meeting will be August 21 at 2pm
- Please add a photo to Zoom for easier conversation facilitation
Hello!
I’m Mary Huissen, the new editor of the ACRL DVC blog. I’m the Librarian for Assessment + User Experience at Swarthmore College, which means (to steal a sentence from my job description) I’m responsible for providing “vision, leadership and strategic direction for assessment activities within the college libraries, with particular focus on the users’ experience, encompassing library services, digital interfaces and physical spaces.”
I’m passionate about my work at Swarthmore, and since the position is a new-ish one, I have learned how vital it is to communicate with colleagues both inside and outside the libraries about what it is I do, why it is important and the impact of my research.
In a similar light, I hope that this blog will help spread the word about the great work of the ACRL DVC. I’ve been inspired by every program I’ve attended and deeply appreciate the opportunities the Chapter provides for professional development and for getting to know colleagues at other institutions.
In addition to being happy to go to work each day, I really enjoy outdoor activities, travel, (combining those two things with tent camping, especially if there is a lake nearby) spending time with my friends and family and the company of my faithful companion Owen, a rescue dog of nondescript breed.
I hope to post news regularly so look for the Subscribe button on the lower right of this page and sign up to be notified of new content. And if you have ideas for blog posts or are interested in posting something as a guest, please let me know!
Networking Event Thursday March 14
This Thursday, join chapter members for a networking happy hour at Strangelove’s, benefiting Books Through Bars (BTB), a local volunteer run organization that distributes free books to incarcerated people. A representative from BTB will speak about the organization and how to get involved. Donations can be sent directly to BTB, specific in demand books (see list) will also be collected.
When: March 14, 5-7pm
Where: Stangelove’s, 216 S. 11th Street, Walnut + Locust, Philadelphia
ACRL DVC Social Committee
Elise Ferer
Greg Laynor
Meaghan Moody
Fall 2018 Student Stipend – Apply Now!
Librarians have the opportunity and responsibility to use their institutional membership to advocate for their communities. In an attempt to inspire local academic librarians our fall program is centered on the advocacy work already being down in the Delaware Valley Region. Every year, the Delaware Valley Chapter of the ACRL awards a stipend to support future academic librarians. This year the organization would like to help support the library studies of an individual that is focused on helping to create a more
equitable society. A $1000 scholarship will be awarded to a student enrolled in an ALA-accredited program to help offset the cost of educational expenses.
To apply, please submit a 250 word essay describing your interest in advocacy and activism in librarianship. Eligible applicants must attend school, work, or reside in the chapter’s service area.
Word Count: 250
Deadline: Monday, October 16, 2018
Please send submission to dvcmentoring@gmail.com
Fall Program Registration is Open – Please Join Us!
All are invited to attend the fall 2018 program of the ACRL Delaware Valley Chapter.
Program Description
This program seeks to provide insight into the activism and advocacy work being done in libraries in higher education across the Delaware Valley region and into the methods and lessons of prominent librarian activists. In times of inequity, discrimination, and social injustice, libraries have the opportunity to be institutions of resistance, understanding, and hope. This program will include a panel presentation, chapter meeting, lightning round presentations, and unconference-style round table discussions. Participants will have an opportunity to share their own work and will be inspired by the work of their peers to apply methods of activism to create more equitable, inclusive, and diverse library services. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.