As many parents struggle with how to share an ongoing climate of racist violence with our children and how to change it so that they might live in a different world, I turn to 3 books for librarians to recommend that manage to carve out a landscape of joy for children while not shying away from the urgent need for education on QT/BIPOC issues for young children.
Ling Lam is an assistant department head at the Toronto Reference Library.
Tiffany Miller is the Indigenous Library Liaison at Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Cecilia Tellis is the Head of Design and Outreach at the University of Ottawa Library
Harneet Kukreja works as a Research Librarian at Goodmans LLP.
Suzanne Fernando works as a Services Specialist at the Toronto Public Library (TPL) in the Children’s Services Department.
Are there hard-and-fast rules for libraries engaged with LGBTQ+ communities? While there are areas where there should be clear guidance, there are others where context is more important.
I have been waiting for a statement from my local library on the recent protests aimed at confronting systemic anti-black racism in our North American society and across the Western world. It has been weeks and I am still waiting.
Your Council stands against anti-Black racism and commits to helping eradicate it from Canadian academic libraries.
There is a strong need to explicitly acknowledge deeply embedded racist thinking in order to move towards systemic change in public libraries.
Acknowledging that colonialism and systemic racism exist and working towards developing more inclusive and welcoming practices doesn’t imply that our work is inherently bad. Public libraries are good places.
Finnish public libraries are mandated to provide equal access to materials and services for all citizens, and staff are pushing the boundaries of how access is defined, by widening the scope of service offerings.
Angela Henshilwood, OCULA President, introduces herself and discusses the need for more conversations about white supremacy and the lack of diversity in librarianship.