The transformational speaker program in How To Build an Antiracist Library Culture has given thousands of librarians the tools and vision for meaningful change. Don’t miss the opportunity to make important updates to your library to better serve your library culture and community in 2022.

Here’s what one past participant said about the course:

“Everything in this course was exceptional. The speakers, moderators, and facilitators were professional, enthusiastic, and engaging. The content was relevant, informative, educational, and thought provoking. The assigned coursework was helpful and provided guidance for me to better assess and analyze our library staffing hiring practices, programming, and collection with a more informed lens. Thank you LJ and SLJ for developing this course.”

- Karen Liu, MLIS Youth Services / Teen Librarian

In this course, you will learn about the concrete actions library leaders are taking to help cultivate an antiracist, inclusive library culture—from reflecting on their own implicit biases, to evaluating spaces, programs, and services and examining policies and practices through an antiracist lens.

Over 3 weeks, you will create an equity-based initiative and get feedback from an expert in the field.

The speaker program runs on Tuesdays, February 15, 22, and March 1, from 2:00-4:30 pm ET (recordings available for on-demand viewing) with an ongoing facilitator-led workshop over 3 weeks.

We thank the following course advisors who have helped shape the program and course work.

Michelle Khuu, Experiential Learning Specialist at Skokie Public Library

Christina Fuller-Gregory, Assistant Director of Libraries, South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville

Klem-Marí Cajigas, Family Literacy Coordinator, Bringing Books to Life, Nashville Public Library

Sandra Farag, Head of Youth Services at Kalamazoo Public Library

Nikhat Ghouse, Associate Librarian for the Social Sciences and Coordinator of the Diversity Alliance Residency Program, American University (DC) and Organization Development Consultant and Facilitator, Jehan Consulting

Program

Week 1: Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Session 1 | 2:00-2:45 pm ET

Critical Conversations: Addressing the “Elephants” in the Library
In this session, we’ll discuss the process of conducting a diversity audit of both your collections and your ordering processes. You’ll learn how to plan a diversity audit, which salient data points should be included, how to gather the requisite information, how to set goals to address gaps, and how to make diversity and inclusion natural and ongoing parts of collection management and promotion. You’ll come away with an understanding of what to do with your data once you have it, how to create a plan of implementation, and where to go next.

Session 2 | 3:00-3:45 pm ET

Using Local History to Combat Racism
Learn how connecting to your community’s past and confronting its racist history can open up rich conversations about the future in this inspiring session. Angel Jewel Tucker, Youth Services Manager at the Johnson County Library will share how Race Project KC has opened up awareness of the systemic injustices of redlining, racially restrictive covenants, and more among the young people of Kansas City. This session provides a deep dive into how librarians can use their institutions’ historical collections and resources to help patrons, students, and community members explore, critically analyze, and combat systemic racism.

Speakers:

Week 2: Tuesday, February 22, 2022

Session 1 | 2:00-2:45 pm ET

Antiracist Collection Development
In this session, you’ll hear from an expert collection development librarian on how to take an antiracist approach to your collection development strategies. They’ll discuss how conducting regular audits of collections, displays, and ordering will help you keep track of how equitable and diverse your collections are. This vital work will help you align offerings to community needs, identify gaps in service, and set benchmarks for equity, inclusion, and diversity. You’ll hear about key considerations for ordering, weeding, handling challenges to materials, dealing with problematic titles, and how to make diversity and inclusion integral parts of collection management and promotion.

Session 2 | 3:00-3:45 pm ET

Building Antiracist Programming for Your Library

Learn how to develop antiracist programming for your library in this practical and inspiring session. We’ll discuss how to assess your current library programs and services and develop a proactive plan of action for the future. We’ll take you through examples of antiracist library programs, how they were conceived and how they were executed in this session designed to help you tackle gaps in your programming and address barriers to access in your community.

Speakers:

Week 3: Tuesday, March 1, 2022

Session 1 | 2:00-2:45 pm ET

Antibias/Antiracist Hiring Practices and Recruitment

The work of creating more antiracist library organizations also involves reframing our approach to staff hiring and development. In this session, you’ll learn some approaches for implementing more equitable and antibiased recruiting and hiring practices, and how to further align such efforts towards building more inclusive workplaces, developing talent management strategies, and fostering staff retention.

Session 2 | 3:00-3:45 pm ET

Your Sphere of Influence: Doing the Work From Where You Are

In this closing session of our course, you’ll learn how to make valuable change from within your sphere of influence, regardless of your institutional support system or lack thereof. You’ll learn about what you can do as an individual to tap into your power to combat racism and promote antiracism in your library and community. You’ll also learn practical ways to navigate organizational politics and power structures, and come away with ideas for where to go next, now that you have the tools you need to dig deeper into cultivating actively antiracist practices at your library.

Speaker:

Course Format

Inspiring Live Guest Speakers + Facilitated Group Workshop for Project-Based Learning

Engage with presenters via live video stream, visual presentations, and chats, and workshop practical solutions in groups, with guidance from an advisor, to map out your own equity and inclusion initiatives. You’ll leave with well-developed strategies designed to make a lasting impact on your community.

Online Course Features

• Instructor-led online course features personalized interaction over 3+ weeks
• Real-time guest speakers and conversation via live video stream (with recordings available afterward)
• Workshop assignments to help you make progress on your goals
• Individualized attention from course facilitators who work with you in a coaching environment in the workshop to help sort out challenges
• Ongoing group conversation via discussion forums
• Supporting resources (articles, videos, worksheets) in the online classroom to provide a foundation for your work
• Access all course content for six months after the course ends
• Bonus: Register early and get immediate access to archival video recordings from related courses and other bonus content

Register early and save!