SUPPORTING DIVERSITY & WORKING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
My undergraduate years were spent studying marginalized populations which laid a foundational
understanding of the social currents shaping our collective and
individual lives and how those currents work with status, power, and
justice. My affection for libraries was born in part from a belief that
libraries are social justice, working to bring equal opportunity to everyone
including those most marginalized and oppressed. I still believe this
to a certain extent - most of us in the information profession hold that
value tight and dear to our hearts. But as I have grown
professionally and personally I have realized that values held tight and
dear do not always manifest structurally and
institutionally. We as a profession, and as people, must work and push
hard to recognize our biases, build communities of trusted support where
challenges can be accepted, stand up when appropriate, apologize when
needed, and ready ourselves for change. I am currently in a position that allows me to dive deep into equity and inclusion work and I look forward to sharing this work in future positions.
UWB/CC Campus Library
My involvement with the UWB/CC Campus Library Equity, Diversity. & Social Justice (EDSJ) Team has been particularly fulfilling and challenging. Our team formed in 2012 with the express purpose of implementing the Diversity Standards released for academic libraries by the ACRL. Our team is comprised of personnel from different departments and job classes who can more fully represent the different diversities of staff.
Using a consensus based decision-making model, we have carefully planned all-staff trainings with outcomes of increasing staff awareness of themselves and others, understanding the demographics of our campus and profession, deconstructing the intersectionality of identity, and recognizing and interrupting acts of oppression in our environment. For staff who want to engage further in these conversations we have introduced a brown bag program that has offered student voices, critical readings, and deep discussions.
While in this role I also actively participate in diversity programming and training on both sides of my campus in order to further my own knowledge and understanding of community issues and to lay groundwork for future collaboration and support. This engagement helps contextualize my work, builds relationships, and assists in clearly demonstrating the library’s support for campus-wide efforts. Furthermore, I have worked on library displays to promote our collections (e.g. women in STEM and Veterans) and to engage our patrons in a conversation about where they are from (see the images above).
Our team has a strong desire to help other libraries engage in diversity work that is relevant in their own environments, giving them the tools necessary to embark in such efforts. Our article titled "Creating a Campus Library Diversity Team" in C&RL News shares some of our methods. We have presented at professional conferences on the how our team was formed, how it has developed, and how we strive to infuse social justice work into our daily professional lives.
All of these activities have helped me foster skills in project management, curriculum planning, team building, outreach, and public speaking. Communication has also been an extremely important skill to nurture while delving into this work. At times the work has been frightening - we have not shied away from issues of power and privilege, and those can be difficult conversations in the workplace. Honest conversations with leadership and with each other have allowed us the trust to pursue what we view as essential training and dialogue.
Using a consensus based decision-making model, we have carefully planned all-staff trainings with outcomes of increasing staff awareness of themselves and others, understanding the demographics of our campus and profession, deconstructing the intersectionality of identity, and recognizing and interrupting acts of oppression in our environment. For staff who want to engage further in these conversations we have introduced a brown bag program that has offered student voices, critical readings, and deep discussions.
While in this role I also actively participate in diversity programming and training on both sides of my campus in order to further my own knowledge and understanding of community issues and to lay groundwork for future collaboration and support. This engagement helps contextualize my work, builds relationships, and assists in clearly demonstrating the library’s support for campus-wide efforts. Furthermore, I have worked on library displays to promote our collections (e.g. women in STEM and Veterans) and to engage our patrons in a conversation about where they are from (see the images above).
Our team has a strong desire to help other libraries engage in diversity work that is relevant in their own environments, giving them the tools necessary to embark in such efforts. Our article titled "Creating a Campus Library Diversity Team" in C&RL News shares some of our methods. We have presented at professional conferences on the how our team was formed, how it has developed, and how we strive to infuse social justice work into our daily professional lives.
All of these activities have helped me foster skills in project management, curriculum planning, team building, outreach, and public speaking. Communication has also been an extremely important skill to nurture while delving into this work. At times the work has been frightening - we have not shied away from issues of power and privilege, and those can be difficult conversations in the workplace. Honest conversations with leadership and with each other have allowed us the trust to pursue what we view as essential training and dialogue.
The University of Washington Bothell Diversity Council
My specific work on the Diversity Council began when I facilitated a lecture series for all members of our campus to participate in. I was responsible for bringing a diverse set of faculty and staff voices forward to share their research and work in order to foster understanding, gain knowledge, and build personal and work alliances. Topics have ranged from how to introduce Hip Hop into our classrooms in order to contextualize information for a specific culture to how to effectively provide accessible online learning materials. Participants gain valuable knowledge and skills they can realize in their own classrooms and work. Below are some images of the posters I developed for some of these lectures.
Facilitating this lecture series has improved my networking and marketing skills as I have worked to recruit speakers and promote the events.
My appointment on the council has also allowed me to advocate for the creation of a new leadership position on campus, Director of Diversity. I worked with the council to develop a job description that is flexible and encompassing of fluid needs as our campus grows and our population shifts. I was also selected to serve on the search committee for this position which proved invaluable in honing my project management, communication, and evaluation skills.
In 2015 I collaborated with other Council members to produce a campus Diversity Action Plan, and now we are working very hard to achieve the actions we outlined as necessary in that plan.
In 2015 I collaborated with other Council members to produce a campus Diversity Action Plan, and now we are working very hard to achieve the actions we outlined as necessary in that plan.
Research
Much of my coursework during both my undergraduate and graduate years focused on attending to marginalized and overlooked populations in the information field.
During my years studying Sociology and Women Studies at WWU some of my focus was on race and gender in America. As I completed my studies I became very interested in Environmental Sociology which eventually culminated in a minor thesis on women's ability to access information for subsistent agriculture during the Green Revolution in India.
I continued to be interested in marginalized populations and their relation ship with information. I examined the information seeking behavior of drug addicts and built upon that research in when I developed an information literacy course designed specifically for public libraries seeking to assist addicts seeking recovery.
My colleagues and I also examined the information worlds of immigrants in Seattle by conducting fieldwork at ReWA and local library ESL programs. Our executive summary and final presentation describe our process, findings, and models of analysis. Later, through a different collaboration, a colleague and I developed a research proposal that would theoretically aid two local public library systems, KCLS and SPL, in serving a local refugee population. In Library Use Barriers and Benefits: The Burmese Refugee Perspective we examine a specific population, the hurdles they may face in seeking information, and propose a longitudinal qualitative study of their information behavior.
Through research and design I have bolstered my ability to assess needs and build programs that meet those needs. The content of the work itself has expanded my knowledge of marginalized populations and how they interface with their libraries.
During my years studying Sociology and Women Studies at WWU some of my focus was on race and gender in America. As I completed my studies I became very interested in Environmental Sociology which eventually culminated in a minor thesis on women's ability to access information for subsistent agriculture during the Green Revolution in India.
I continued to be interested in marginalized populations and their relation ship with information. I examined the information seeking behavior of drug addicts and built upon that research in when I developed an information literacy course designed specifically for public libraries seeking to assist addicts seeking recovery.
My colleagues and I also examined the information worlds of immigrants in Seattle by conducting fieldwork at ReWA and local library ESL programs. Our executive summary and final presentation describe our process, findings, and models of analysis. Later, through a different collaboration, a colleague and I developed a research proposal that would theoretically aid two local public library systems, KCLS and SPL, in serving a local refugee population. In Library Use Barriers and Benefits: The Burmese Refugee Perspective we examine a specific population, the hurdles they may face in seeking information, and propose a longitudinal qualitative study of their information behavior.
Through research and design I have bolstered my ability to assess needs and build programs that meet those needs. The content of the work itself has expanded my knowledge of marginalized populations and how they interface with their libraries.
Future Projects & Goals
The UWB/CC Campus Library's EDSJ Team will continue designing and leading workshops and brown bags during the next year. Possible topics identified include hegemony within our institutions, appropriation of knowledge, and diversity in our strategic planning. We will be presenting on the bias of Google and other search systems at the 2016 WLA Conference and in August we will discuss building solidarities with students at the National Diversity in Libraries Conference. I am also very excited to attend my first National Conference for Race & Ethnicity in American Higher Education (NCORE) this Spring.