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Anti-Racism Team Learning Series

Learning Objectives

  1. Recognize and discuss the historical and societal reasons that library spaces are not neutral
  2. Evaluate case studies of anti-racist library space assessments for suitability of use in own library environment
  3. Be able to apply equity-minded practices for evaluating websites to library websites

Session 3 Overview

Format:

  • 90 minutes
  • Zoom meeting
  • 15 participants - Engineering & Physical Sciences Division library staff members
  • Used a shared Google Doc to work through the activities and discussion prompts and to collaboratively take notes

Lesson Plan

Anti-Racism Team Learning Series

Session 3: Spaces

[This session was held on Zoom so we used a shared Google Doc with the following content and collaboratively took notes]

Agenda
Welcome & Group Norms (5 minutes)
Foundations: Spaces are not Neutral (20 minutes)
Anti-Racism & Physical Spaces (20 minutes)
Foundations: Physical vs. Virtual Spaces (15 minutes)
Anti-Racism & Virtual Spaces (25 minutes)
Wrap Up (<5 minutes)

We will be working through this shared document together. The facilitators will do their best to capture notes as we go, but feel free to add anything that gets missed.

Welcome & Group Norms (~5 minutes)

Background: Group norms are the informal guidelines of behavior and a code of conduct that provides some order and conformity to group activities and operations. We expect that all participants in this series will help create an environment that is respectful and productive.

Top Five Group Norms Based on Voting: [Include yours here from Session 2: Collections]

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Activity: Pause for a few minutes & reflect on your response to the pre-work.

  • Pre-Work Reflection Question: Identify one of our group norms that doesn’t come naturally to you and spend a few minutes reflecting on how you will work on upholding/living out that norm in our upcoming team learning session.

Foundations: Spaces are not Neutral (~15 minutes)

Background: 

“[T]hose who have made decisions about library spaces in the past and those who continue to make them in the present tend to have a shared cultural understanding of what the work of faculty and students is and should be. Such an understanding may be very different from the realities of library staff and students of color,” (Brook, Ellenwood, & Lazarro, p.257).

“[W]orking toward spatial justice with an antiracist approach means desiring the imprint of library users on the spaces themselves,” (Brook, Ellenwood, & Lazarro, p.261).

Many of the readings from the pre-work discuss how our library spaces are influenced by our own assumptions about how library spaces should be set up. We are not neutral creators of space. Our users may approach and use our library spaces in ways that we would not anticipate. In the following activity we will explore some of the ways that we respond to different types of library spaces.

Activity: We’ve pulled together a few images of different library spaces [we created a separate Google Doc with images of five different library spaces for participants to review]. Take a few minutes to look through them and reflect on the following questions:

  • What would you feel comfortable doing in each of these?
  • Which ones make you feel comfortable? Why?
  • How would you determine if a student would feel comfortable in this space?

Discussion Questions: 

  • What are library spaces for? What uses were our spaces designed for? What uses do students and other users desire? (How do we know?)
  • How do we empower our patrons to use the spaces in ways that make sense to them? (Both in how we approach planning changes to spaces and in our policies around space use.)

Discussion Notes:

Anti-Racism & Physical Spaces (~20 minutes)

Case Study: Duke University

Background: For the pre-work you reviewed the Duke Case Study which used a variety of methods (photovoice, focus groups, and surveys) to perform a community analysis of their libraries. The study focused on physical spaces on campus. The library centered their community assessment on First Generation Students, Black Students, and International Students with each group assessed individually for one academic year. We decided to highlight the Duke Study to provide an example where a library was able to gain insight into their students’ experiences in regards to their two research questions:

  • To what extent is Duke viewed as an inclusive space?
  • To what extent are the Duke Libraries viewed as an inclusive space?

Examples of some of the recommendations from the study:

  • Dedicate a library space to Black scholarship. Include art, photographs, or exhibits related to Black culture and history, or internationally. Highlight library resources from Black scholars.
  • Increase portraits, artwork, photographs, or other visual representations of people of color to balance the number of portraits of white people in library spaces.
  • Work with Black students and faculty to develop more exhibits and events that highlight Black students’ experiences and Black scholarship. 
  • Charge a group to further explore use of library spaces by student groups. 

Activity: After reviewing the Duke Study recommendations, what would we like to learn about our EPS patrons in regards to physical spaces?

[Provide link to a Jamboard titled "What would we like to learn about our patrons?"]

Discussion Questions:

  • Would you like to explain/talk about what you added to the Jamboard?
  • Do we (do our users) think about our spaces as single libraries or as a collective space? 
  • What resonated (or not) with you about Duke’s assessment, in terms of approach and recommendations?
  • How do you think using photovoice (or another technique) can help the library gather information from students?

Discussion notes:

Foundations: Physical vs. Virtual Spaces (~15 Minutes)

Background: Just like physical spaces, virtual spaces are also not neutral, or experienced in the same way by everyone. We also have many users that may never step inside one of our physical spaces, but engage with our virtual spaces. In the next section we’ll switch our focus to our online spaces, but first we want to take some time to explore the relationship between the physical and the virtual. In your pre-work, you read through Transforming Library Space and Policies (Module 23), by “Project Ready: Reimagining Equity and Access for Diverse Youth” which included a reflection exercise about effective library spaces. We’re going to revisit that activity, but focus explicitly on virtual spaces.

Activity: Take about 3 minutes to go through each of the criteria listed below for effective library spaces and picture how a virtual library space can reflect each of them.

Characteristics of Effective Library Spaces

Discussion Questions:

  • Which of the criteria for assessing physical spaces also work well for virtual spaces?
  • What kinds of things do we have more or less control over in our virtual spaces?

Discussion notes:

Anti-Racism and Virtual Spaces (~25 Minutes)

Background: As part of the pre-work, you looked through two examples of types of evaluations that can be done on web spaces to make them more inclusive. The first is an ongoing Cal Poly LibGuide evaluation and update project using a rubric, and the second from the Center for Urban Education was geared toward evaluating a University website using evaluation questions. Our hope is that reviewing these example projects will help us formulate our own questions about how patrons experience our virtual spaces and how we might improve them. 

Virtual spaces have a variety of purposes, and the Center for Urban Education Web Scan Guide you read approaches college “websites as artifacts of practice that:

  • Reflect colleges’ taken-for-granted attitudes, assumptions, expectations, and norms;
  • Cultivate a sense of the learning and campus environment that colleges strive to create for members of their community; and
  • Communicate who belongs and does not belong to their community, as well as what is required to fully participate.” p. 2

We update the portions of the Library website that we control and create and edit LibGuides on a continual basis, but we haven’t focused on representation and inclusion in a targeted and systematic way. For this section of the workshop, we’d like you to spend a few minutes evaluating a website with an equity lens, and then we’ll discuss virtual spaces and equity more broadly at the end.

Activity: We asked you as part of the pre-work to reflect on one of the Cal Poly LibGuides. We are now going to split into three groups and do a deeper evaluation of the guide. Each group will discuss two equity-minded practices and we’ll report back to the full group after 10 minutes of discussion. Make sure you have at least one person taking notes for your group and decide on who will report back during discussion.

[Provide links to Google Docs for each breakout group to use for notes. The content of the Google Docs we used is in a separate box on this guide called "Equity-Minded Practices Breakout Room Google Docs."]

Equity Minded Practices for Websites

  • WELCOMING: The web page communicates through words, images, tone, and design that students are welcome and will be cared for.
  • DEMYSTIFYING: The web page communicates program/department/institution policies in clear and approachable ways.
  • CREATING A PARTNERSHIP: The web page communicates through words, images, and tone that the program/department/institution is mutually responsible for student success.
  • VALIDATING: The web page words, images, and tone actively support and encourage students’ ability to be successful.
  • REPRESENTING: Web page content and images reflect a range of racial/ethnic identities and experiences.
  • DECONSTRUCTING: The web page counters the common presentation of “whiteness” as the norm.

Discussion Questions:

  • Activity Debrief
    • Briefly describe the website’s strengths and weaknesses for the equity-minded practices you discussed.
    • After listening to these strengths and weaknesses for all six practices, is there any element of the page that worked for one practice but not another (can the practices be at odds)?
  • What are library virtual spaces for? What uses were our virtual spaces designed for? What uses do students and other users desire? (How do we know?)
    • Are these answers the same/different for LibGuides vs. the library website?
  • Is there anything you would add to the “What would we like to learn about our patrons?” Jamboard we created earlier this session after going through this activity focused on virtual spaces?

Discussion notes:

Wrap Up (<5 Minutes)

[Provide information about the follow up feedback survey]

Equity-Minded Practices Breakout Room Google Docs

Anti-Racism and Virtual Spaces Activity (10 minutes)

The Equity-Minded Practices used in this activity are adapted from the Center for Urban Education's Equity Minded Inquiry Series: Web Scan

Breakout Room 1

We asked you to reflect on the Cal Poly Aerospace Engineering LibGuide as part of the pre-work. Revisit that guide and evaluate it based on two of the Web Scan Equity-Minded Practices. If you finish early, feel free to discuss the other Equity-Minded Practices listed in the main workshop notes.

Aerospace Engineering Guide

Equity-Minded Practices

  • WELCOMING: The web page communicates through words, images, tone, and design that students are welcome and will be cared for.
  • DEMYSTIFYING: The web page communicates program/department/institution policies in clear and approachable ways.

Discussion Questions & Notes:

WELCOMING

  • In what ways does the LibGuide communicate through words, images, tone, and design that students are welcome and will be cared for?
  • Are there aspects of the page that detract from the goal of being welcoming?

DEMYSTIFYING

  • In what ways does the LibGuide communicate content in clear and approachable ways to users of this guide?
  • Are there aspects of the page that detract from the goal of demystifying content?

Breakout Room 2

We asked you to reflect on the Cal Poly Aerospace Engineering LibGuide as part of the pre-work. Revisit that guide and evaluate it based on two of the Web Scan Equity-Minded Practices. If you finish early, feel free to discuss the other Equity-Minded Practices listed in the main workshop notes.

Aerospace Engineering Guide

Equity-Minded Practices

  • CREATING A PARTNERSHIP: The web page communicates through words, images, and tone that the program/department/institution is mutually responsible for student success.
  • VALIDATING: The web page words, images, and tone actively support and encourage students’ ability to be successful.

Discussion Questions & Notes:

CREATING A PARTNERSHIP

  • In what ways does the LibGuide communicate through words, images, and tone that the library is mutually responsible for student success?
  • Are there aspects of the page that detract from the goal of creating a partnership with students?

VALIDATING

  • In what ways does the LibGuide’s words, images, and tone actively support and encourage students’ ability to be successful?
  • Are there aspects of the page that detract from the goal of validating student success?

Breakout Room 3

We asked you to reflect on the Cal Poly Aerospace Engineering LibGuide as part of the pre-work. Revisit that guide and evaluate it based on two of the Web Scan Equity-Minded Practices. If you finish early, feel free to discuss the other Equity-Minded Practices listed in the main workshop notes.

Aerospace Engineering Guide

Equity-Minded Practices

  • REPRESENTING: Web page content and images reflect a range of racial/ethnic identities and experiences.
  • DECONSTRUCTING: The web page counters the common presentation of “whiteness” as the norm.

Discussion Questions & Notes:

REPRESENTING

  • In what ways does the LibGuide’s content and images reflect a range of racial/ethnic identities and experiences?
  • Are there aspects of the page that detract from the goal of representing a range of identities?

DECONSTRUCTING

  • In what ways does the LibGuide counter the common presentation of “whiteness” as the norm?
  • Are there aspects of the page that detract from the goal of deconstructing whiteness as the norm?

References