Wednesday at PLA was the first full day of the conference and I did something at every session. This post is a recap of the main points and resources from what I learned today.
The opening session was Luvvie Ajayi Jones, Professional Troublemaker. Ms Jones gave a talk that reminded the group assembled that the things we all must do are way more important than our fears. Here are a few of the things she said--paraphrased-- that I want to share:
- Professional troublemakers disrupt. They don't take it and they challenge people to do better.
- We hear the word trouble and we think it is bad, but we live in a world that is deeply unjust and trouble is required to challenge unjust systems.
- How are we operating in a world where telling the truth is extraordinary?
- Fear often keeps us from doing the things we should be doing. But what are you actually afraid of? What is the apocalyptic situation? What is actually at stake? And can you deal with that worst case scenario?
- Understand the power you bring when you walk in a room.
- When you speak up, when you ask questions to challenge:
- Do I mean it?
- Can I defend it?
- Can I say it thoughtfully?
- Will my silence convict me?
Anyone who follows my blog or the training programs I give can clearly see that Luvvie was articulating how I function in the library world. I challenge every one and every thing. I speak up at meetings, I call people out even when they are above me. I do not keep my mouth shut. And I make people uncomfortable.
I mean it, I defend it, and I choose my words VERY carefully.
And there are many people who don't like me. They all respect me, some only spitefully, but they do not like me. And now I understand why. I make them uncomfortable because I do what they are too afraid to do.
I know Luvvie inspired many there to start acting, but for me, she helped me to understand why I am often left out on a limb alone.
Next I went to "Queering the Library," presented by Teresa Miller, Librarian I [she/her/hers] and Rebecca Oxley, Librarian III (she/they). This was a program about how the Prince George's County Library in Maryland created an LGBTQ+ work team to make sure that PRIDE was a 365 day thing at the library because "queer people are queer all year long." Also they found that in neighboring DC and Baltimore, the gay pride events were open to families but not geared toward families, so they filled many gaps by centering rainbow families.
They talked about a lot more as well, and you can see it all on their excellent slides which you can access here.
Their focus was very practical, which I appreciated. For example, they approached this work by aligning it with their establish strategic goals and values. They also has a few ironclad points for when there was pushback:
- LGBTQ+ people are part of every service area
- LGBTQ+ content is not inherently "adult" or sexual [This got applause].
- Positive representation improves mental health and reduces bullying and hate
- Queer families exist-- the kids need to see themselves and other kids need to see it.
Again, the slides have all of the links to the wonderful things they did. I am not going to repeat it all. You can click through. But I will add one last thing. During the questions and answer section, someone asked the presenters how they handled making sure the straight people were comfortable with all of this and they said...."We didn't have time to worry about how the straight people felt. They weren't important here."
Next, I went to a real life, old fashioned Book Buzz where the publishers were up on the stage and not Zooming from their living rooms. It was so wonderful to be back in a room listening to them book talk the upcoming titles to all of us, in the same room.
I sat back and enjoyed the show knowing that Booklist would come thought with the slides, slides that contain the appeal of these titles and, in many cases, readalikes. And of course, right after the event, this email came:
Booklist's Book Buzz
Whether you weren't able to make #PLA2022 or you got a chance to see the live event, we have all the important information from our Book Buzz!
We'd like to once again thank our panelists:
Annie Mazes, Senior Manager, Adult Library Marketing, Workman Publishing
Virginia Stanley, Director of Library Marketing, HarperCollins Publishers
Amanda Crimarco, Library Marketing Manager, Macmillan Library Marketing
Melissa Nicholas, Director, Account Marketing, Hachette Book Group
Margaret Coffee, Director of Sales-Schools, Libraries, and Independent Bookstores, Sourcebooks
And finally, I ended my day with a program I had high hopes for, and it exceeded it-- Removing Bias and Barriers From Your Cataloging, a case study from the River Forest [IL] Public Library by Megan O'Keefe.
First, here are her excellent handouts and slides:
- RFPL Audit and Reclassification Project.pdf
- Meghan's RFPL 900s Call Number Notes.pdf
- Removing Bias and Barriers from Your Cataloging.pdf
This project was based on the fact that there is bias and flaws in common cataloging approaches specifically toward marginalized communities.
In this case she explained how the 900s are supposed to represent "history" but if you go to the Dewey area for American history, for example, you would never see books on slavery. Why? Because slavery is considered a social science. So "American History" in the DDC version of the world is devoid of slavery. Yeah, this is clearly not okay.
She then explained in plain, how-to language, how she, and it was mostly just she, went through the 300s [but you want to especially focus on 305, 306, and the 320s] doing a digital audit first, pulled the titles to consider moving, along the way weeding those that are outdated and offensive, and reclassifies those that needed it.
The handouts go over the details of what Dewey numbers she assigned and how she decided that. And again, she used her best judgment to make these titles fit. She used cataloging principles to ground her but she did not allow the systemic oppression inherent in DDC to drive her decision making. She used her desire to remove as much bias as she could in her slice of the library world.
I was transfixed by how obvious and easy she made it all seem. She was living what I always say-- you can't dismantle systemic racism by making excuses on how hard it will be, you just have to start doing it. She started with 2 sections 300s and 900s and made real and meaningful change that tries to rectify some systemic marginalization.
A couple of pieces of advice she gave-- begin with the lowest level of authority you need to begin the process. In general she suggested this for any change and I agree.
She also encouraged everyone in the room to use all of her ideas, her handouts, her processes, and make them better, improve them, and let her know so she can do better too.
And finally, and this I think was the perfect cap to my day as it harkened back to Luvvie, she reminded everyone that if they were waiting for all of the Dewey Decimal Classification System to be changed before they could begin fixing the problems, well you would be waiting a long time. But if all you need is permission to start making changes, changes, as Luvvie said, that will challenge our unjust systems, well O'Keefe proclaimed to the room, "Permission Granted!"
This is something Robin and I say all of the time-- Just start acting. Stop making excuses for why you can't. With cataloging, the excuse is always that if you don't follow the rules perfectly, libraries will no longer be standard and research will be impossible. But I am done with this argument. The harm we are doing by upholding unjust systems is too great. It is way greater than the chaos some "rogue" cataloging will cause.
As you can see, yesterday was a good day of learning. I got appropriately fired up. And I am starting to find my people who are done standing-by. We are coming for you status quo library people. I think there are enough of us now that you cannot stop the progress we are bringing right at you, head on.
Back at it today. I have fewer sessions but more meetings. Look for today's report to post tomorrow morning.
