Diversity

PLA releases first Staff and Diversity Survey report

(CHICAGO) - The Public Library Association (PLA) today published the 2021 Public Library Staff and Diversity Survey report. The national survey updates information on beginning librarian and library director salaries; documents traditional and emerging staff roles; explores staff diversity, recruitment, and retention efforts; and captures information about public library equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) goals and activities.

ALA/ARL approve Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity: A Framework

CHICAGO; WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Joint ALA/ARL Building Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity Framework Task Force’s final draft of the Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity: A Framework was approved by the boards of directors of the four partner organizations, the American Library Association (ALA), Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and Public Library Association (PLA), during summer 2022. 

ALA Editions Special Report explores cultural humility as a component of DEI efforts

CHICAGO — Cultural humility is emerging as a preferred approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts within librarianship. At a time when library workers are critically examining their professional practices, cultural humility offers a potentially transformative framework of compassionate accountability; it asks us to recognize the limits to our knowledge, reckon with our ongoing fallibility, educate ourselves about the power imbalances in our organizations, and commit to making change.

Core Classroom: Designed with You in Mind: Welcoming Patrons and Staff with Disabilities in Your Library Spaces

CHICAGOJoin Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures this September for the Core Classroom "Designed with You in Mind: Welcoming Patrons and Staff with Disabilities to Your Library." This four-week virtual workshop with videos, discussion forums, scenarios for practical application and real-world resources focuses on navigating the many facets libraries can employ to serve patrons of all ages with disabilities of all kinds.

Preconference registration opens for Core Forum

CHICAGOEven before the 2022 Core Forum officially kicks off with an evening welcome reception on Thursday, October 13, attendees can register to participate in one of three all-day library buildings tours or one of three workshops offered that same day. Full preconference descriptions, presenters, and registration rates can be found at www.coreforum.org.

ALA Editions Special Report examines Black and African Americans’ experiences in libraries

CHICAGO — Still a predominantly white profession, librarianship has a legacy of racial discrimination, and it is essential that we face the ways that race impacts how we meet the needs of diverse user communities. Identifying and acknowledging implicit and learned bias is a necessary step toward transforming not only our professional practice but also our scholarship, assessment, and evaluation practices.

Core Event: 2022 Online AvramCamp

CHICAGOCore is pleased to once again sponsor AvramCamp, an AdaCamp-inspired event that is named in honor of library innovator Henriette D. Avram.

New book spotlights ways to advance entrepreneurship in public libraries

CHICAGO — Libraries have a distinctive role to play in the small business ecosystem and can effectively partner to complement existing business services in the community. A nationwide initiative that launched in 2020, Libraries Build Business (LBB) aims to build capacity in libraries offering programming or services to local entrepreneurs and the small business community, prioritizing low-income and underrepresented entrepreneurs. And libraries have already begun to transform communities.

Core President's Program features Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty

CHICAGOJoin Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures on Saturday, June 25 at 4 pm ET during ALA Annual for the Core President's Program featuring Tamar Evangelestia-Dougherty, Director of the Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. The recently integrated Smithsonian Libraries and Archives contains nearly 3 million library volumes and over 44,000 cubic feet