Anti-Racism Team Learning Series

We chose readings and activities that would introduce the topic areas for discussion in the session. We estimated that the pre-work would take about an hour to complete, but we also added some optional readings in case participants wanted more background.

Anti-Racism Team Learning Session 2: Collections

**Reminder: The reflection exercises are intended to get us all thinking about these issues before our session together, but we won't ask you to share anything from them.

Revisiting our Group Norms (Activity!)

• Complete the survey to identify your top five group norms from our brainstorm
  • [participants completed a Google Form to rank their top five group norms identified in the brainstorm during Session 1: Services]
• Reflection Question
  • Why is your top choice the most important to you?

Anti-Racism & Collections (1 page, 14 slides, 4 minute video)

• Extending the Social Justice Mindset: Implications for Scholarly Communication by Michelle Baildon
  • Okay to skim but please read with focus the "Missing voices: Is scholarly communication enough?" section
• Scholarly Communication and Social Justice: Pushing to Subvert Traditional Publishing Power Structures presentation by Charlotte Roh
  • Review slides 9-22
• Bringing Social Justice Behind the Scenes: Transforming the Work of Technical Services Video by Heidi Berthoud & Rachel Finn
  • Watch the 4:38-8:24min segment
• Reflection questions:
  • What are some of the structures of power that affect what we purchase/what's available to purchase for our collections?
  • What are some of the structures of power that affect how we organize, describe, and display our collections?

Decolonizing Library Collections (2 minute video, 2 pages)

• EDI-fying our LIS Services Video by Nicole A. Cooke
  • Re-watch the 2:56-4:53min segment on decolonizing libraries
• Decolonization is Not a Metaphor by E. Tuck and K.W. Yang
  • Read the introduction
• Reflection questions:
  • How is the canon that Nicole Cooke discusses shaped by the publishing practices explored above?
  • (How) does the terminology we use matter when we talk about decolonization/anti-racism/diversity in libraries?

Collection Strategies (3 pages)

• Creating a Social Justice Mindset: Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in the Collections Directorate of the MIT Libraries by the Collections Directorate Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice Task Force (report identifies strategy areas for MIT library "staff to manifest the values of diversity, inclusion, and social justice in their daily work")
  • Read section on strategy "2. Representation of Marginalized Identities" (p. 13-16)
• Reflection questions:
  • Which of their strategies seem the most doable for us?
  • Which seem the most like a reach?

Optional Additional Materials

• The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (19 min video)
  • Focus: Importance of representation in library collections
• Academic Publishing: Past and Future by Bernard Fourgues & Sébastien Liarte (17 page article)
  • Focus: Current state of academic publishing
• Antiracism Toolkit for Allies - Transforming Scholarly Publishing Communities by the Toolkits for Equity Project (57 page report)
  • Focus: Lack of diversity in academic publishing industry staff with suggested measures for making the industry more inclusive
• The Institutionalized Racism of Scholarly Publishing by Ryan Regier (5 page blog post)
  • Focus: Case study on the institutionalized racism faced by publishers from outside US/Europe
• Never Neutral: Libraries, Technology, and Inclusion by Chris Bourg (8 page talk transcript)
  • Focus: Libraries are not neutral repositories of information, but rather "reflect the inequalities, biases, ethnocentrism, and power imbalances that exist throughout our host societies"
• Bringing Social Justice Behind the Scenes: Transforming the Work of Technical Services by Heidi Berthoud & Rachel Finn (8 page article)
  • Focus: Applying a social justice lens to technical services, practice of "spiral collecting" and "expansive scope collecting"

• Adichie, C. N. (2009, October 7). The danger of a single story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9Ihs241zeg
• Antiracism Toolkit for Allies. (2020). Toolkit for Equity Project. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/scholcom/160
• Baildon, M. (2018). Extending the social justice mindset: Implications for scholarly communication. College & Research Library News, 79(4), 176–179. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.79.4.176
• Baildon, M., Hamlin, D., Jankowski, C., Kauffman, R., Lanigan, J., Miller, M., Venlet, J., & Willer, A. M. (2017). Creating a Social Justice Mindset: Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice in the Collections Directorate of the MIT Libraries [Report]. https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/108771
• Berthoud, H., & Finn, R. (2019a). Bringing Social Justice behind the Scenes: Transforming the Work of Technical Services. Serials Librarian, 76(1–4), 162–169. https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2019.1583526
• Berthoud, H., & Finn, R. (2019b, October 23). Bringing Social Justice Behind the Scenes: Transforming the Work of Technical Services. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkSRJlIKgN0&feature=youtu.be
• Bourg, C. (2015, January 29). Never neutral: Libraries, technology, and inclusion. Feral Librarian. https://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/never-neutral-libraries-technology-and-inclusion/
• Cooke, N. A. (2019, September 16). EDI-fying our LIS Services. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blM1gn_jUwc&feature=youtu.be
• Forgues, B., & Liarte, S. (2013). Academic Publishing: Past and Future. M@n@gement, Vol. 16(5), 739–756.
• Regier, R. (2018, June 9). The Institutionalized Racism of Scholarly Publishing. A Way of Happening. https://awayofhappening.wordpress.com/2018/06/09/the-institutionalized-racism-of-scholarly-publishing/
• Roh, C. (2017). Scholarly Communication and Social Justice: Pushing to Subvert Traditional Publishing Power Structures. American University Library’s Colloquium on Scholarly Communication. https://works.bepress.com/charlotteroh/40/
• Tuck, E., & Yang, K. W. (2012). Decolonization is not a metaphor. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, 1(1), 1–40.