Join us to talk about “Engaging in the work of anti-racism in your library” for our next #DLFteach Twitter chat on Tuesday, October 20, from 8-9 p.m. Eastern / 7-8 p.m. Central.

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. Co-hosts are Iris Jastram and Sarah Calhoun of Carleton College.

The Digital Library Pedagogy working group, also known as #DLFteach, is part of the Digital Library Federation (DLF). For this and all our work, we follow the DLF Code of Conduct. Please review it prior to this online event and adhere to it during it.

Optional reading prior to the #DLFteach chat: Reimagining Primary Source Searching to Help Dismantle Institutional Racism

The chat questions will be:

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. A sample tweet in response to Q1 may look like this: "A1: At my institution, we respond by doing XYZ #DLFteach"). All are welcome to participate in and/or follow the chat!

Not available next Tuesday? You can read the conversation afterwards! We’ll create archived versions of the chat and share them in the days afterward on the #DLFteach wiki page.

Questions? Contact #DLFteach Twitter Chat Coordinator Martha Stuit ([log in to unmask]).