EVENT: #DLFteach Twitter Chat: Engaging in the work of anti-racism in your library

Join the DLF Pedagogy working group for a Twitter chat (#DLFteach) about “Engaging in the work of anti-racism in your library” on Tuesday, October 20  8-9 p.m. Eastern / 7-8 p.m. Central.

From the announcement:

According to ALA’s 2017 Strategic Plan, “Libraries play a crucial role in empowering diverse populations for full participation in a democratic society.” However, our systems have been developed in a context permeated by institutional racism. How do we rebuild our digital services and collections to come closer to our strongly held ideals? How can we make our practice of librarianship into a radical act of hope for an anti-racist future? Share your experiences and aspirations in conversation with us during our Twitter chat.

Participants are encouraged to engage with the optional reading prior to the #DLFteach chat: “Reimagining Primary Source Searching to Help Dismantle Institutional Racism.” Participants should review the DLF Code of Conduct prior to the event.

The chat will focus on several questions:

1. [Self-reflection] What have you uncovered in your library work (pedagogy,
   metadata, search algorithms, etc.) that could benefit from reexamination from
   an anti-racist perspective?
2. [Professional development] Who are some library folks, especially Black,
   Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), that you read/follow/recommend, and
   return to or learn from about anti-racism in libraries?
3. [Pragmatism] Acknowledging that we don’t always have the power to
   completely fix the problems we see, tell us about a time when you tried to
   mitigate institutionally racist structures around you (authority, funding,
   database design, etc.). What was the outcome?
4. [Idealism] Given unlimited money and time, what is the first change you
   would make to a digital library system that you work with often to make it
   more anti-racist?
5. [Advocacy] What advocacy step(s) can you take to encourage anti-racist
   changes in library-related digital products, whether local or 3rd party,
   including things like digital collections & library discovery tools?

Questions will be tweeted from the @CLIRDLF handle. Join in and follow by
tweeting with and looking at the #DLFteach hashtag. Tweet your responses by
indicating that your tweet is an answer and which question you’re responding
to.

Questions? Contact #DLFteach Twitter Chat Coordinator Martha Stuit
(mstuit@ucsc.edu).

The chat will be archived on the #DLFteach wiki.