#125: Do a diversity audit (even a small one)

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Lots of libraries are working on doing diversity audits of their collections. The American Library Association has a good starting point article here: https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2020/09/how-to-conduct-a-diversity-audit/. If a full collection audit isn’t feasible for you at the moment, do a scaled-down version in an area you can influence. Maybe it’s not collection items—maybe it’s who is featured on the flyers and marketing materials that your library has produced in the last three months, or what characters have been showcased in the last 10 storytime books you used, or what posters you have on the wall in your teen section. There is somewhere in your library where you can evaluate how you are doing on representation.

#124: Admit your own mistakes to your coworkers

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If you’re reading this blog, you probably feel strongly about making the library welcoming and inclusive, and you’re probably an advocate for that with your coworkers. That’s vital and important, but be aware that it runs the risk of making you too intimidating to ask questions of. If people see you as ‘the person who always gets that PC stuff right',’ they may be afraid to admit things that they don’t understand or areas where they know they need help. When you goof up, mention it to your coworkers—”Hey, I had an embarrasing moment on the desk this morning. I was registering a new patron and called them ‘Sir.’ Turns out the patron is a woman and definitely prefers ‘Ma’am.’ I was just trying to be polite but I ended up making her feel bad during her very first interaction with the library, ugh. I forgot my own advice that you can totally convey respect to someone without using those gendered terms.”

Not only is discussing these mistakes a learning opportunity for them on its own, it also shows your coworkers that you won’t jump down their throats for asking a question that comes from a place of ignorance.

#123: Age-restricted zones are cool and all...

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Many libraries have policies designating certain areas of the building as exclusively for children and caregivers or exclusively for teens. These policies can be useful in making the targeted groups feel welcome and safe in ‘their’ part of the library, but make sure staff handle other visitors sensibly and kindly. The 20-year-old autistic young man should be able to come look at junior nonfiction about trains without being chased off by overzealous staff, and the elderly English-as-a-second-language reader who isn’t quite proficient enough to read adult books in English should be able to browse the teen section for a book at her reading level without being interrogated about whether or not she has a teenage child at home.

#122 Include the right people in purchasing decisions

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Many libraries write accessibility features into their specifications for purchasing new technologies or new services. For example, a library might want a fax/scan service with on-screen instructions available in three languages, or a self-checkout machine that can comfortably be used by someone in a wheelchair. Unfortunately, it’s very easy for vendors to include a feature that increases accessibility on paper but not in practice. If that fax/scan purchasing committee doesn’t include a staff member (or volunteer) who speaks Vietnamese, how will they discover that the ‘Vietnamese version’ presented by the vendor is simply the English version run ineffectually through Google Translate? If no one participating in the tour of other libraries’ self-check machines is actually in a wheelchair, how will the team realize that the add-on shelf that everyone recommends negates the ability of a wheelchair user to pull up close enough to the screen to touch it?

#119: Modernize your subject headings

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You have probably heard about how the Library of Congress still uses subject headings like “Illegal Aliens” for undocumented immigrants and “Sexual minorities” for LGBTQ+ people. If your library gets its bib records from an external source rather than doing in-house original cataloging, which is almost certainly the case, these subject headings and other problematic ones probably appear in your public catalog. Consider doing a project to identify these subject headings and update them to something modern and appropriate. If you’re not familiar with this issue, the American Historical Association has an article which I thought was a good starting point: https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/march-2022/search-terms-up-for-debate-the-politics-and-purpose-of-library-subject-headings

#117: Create a social story

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Consider creating a social story for your library. A social story shows step-by-step what a visitor will experience when they visit. They are helpful for some people on the autism spectrum who may be better able to cope with sensory overload at the library if they know specifically what to expect, and who may need to be explicitly told what to do in an unfamiliar situation.

#113: Ask for a family name

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Since many languages structure people’s names different than the English [personal name] [extra name] [family name] format, watch for this when registering patrons for library cards. Your application, if you have one, might be better asking for “personal name” and “family name” instead of “first name” and “last name.” As much as possible, incorporate this in your ILS, so that notifications aren’t going out to “Mr. Min Su” while informal staff members are saying, “Hi, Kim!” when Kim Min Su comes in. Mr Kim’s American ID may have Kim listed as his “first” name and “Min” or “Min Su” listed as his last name, but in Korean the family name comes before the personal name.

#112: Wait for a reply

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If you’ve ever tried to talk to someone in a second language, you’ve probably had the experience of having to think of exactly what you want to say, word for word, before you can say it. If you are talking to a patron who you suspect speaks English as a second language, wait a while for them to formulate a reply to something you’ve said before jumping into repeat or rephrase your statement or question. Rephrasing can be helpful if the person wasn’t able to parse what you said, but it’s a distraction and confusion if they understood it, but are still working on their reply.

#108: Don't take two weeks to arrange accomodations

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I have worked at more than one library that has included text like this on their advertisements for upcoming programs: “If you require a disability accommodation to attend this program, contact us at least two weeks before the event.” While it’s great that these libraries wanted to indicate that they were willing to make arrangements, two weeks is a long time. Presumably these libraries wanted to avoid a situation where a patron asked for acomodations at short notice, the library failed to accommodate them, and the patron got mad, but it’s a problematic message. Not only does it set up the expectation that the library will be able to provide accommodation with two weeks’ notice, which may just not be the case, it also suggests to patrons that if the program they would like to attend is less than two weeks away, they are simply out of luck. The reality is that many patrons decide only days before a program that they want to attend, not weeks.

If you have an up-to-date plan and contact list for arranging possible accommodations, it’s likely that you’ll often be able to provide whatever resource is needed with less than two weeks’ of notice, especially if you are mindful when designing programs to be as accessible as possible in the first place. If your library puts a notice like this on your program advertising, consider removing the time frame to show patrons that you’ll work with them whenever they contact you.

#106: Make accessbility someone's job

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It’s easy to let barriers slip into your services when there isn’t anyone who is explicitly responsible for stopping that from happening. You may not have the power to convince your library to hire a diversity and inclusion librarian, but there is probably something you can do to codify accessibility in your library. For example, are you involved in creating a form that will be used by library staff to plan programs? Add a question where the staff person should list potential barriers to participation in the program and how they plan to address those barriers. Are you involved in collection development? Advocate for accessible formats to be addressed in your library’s collection development policy, or suggest setting aside a certain amount of the collection budget for materials in accessible formats.

#103: Be aware of mask challenges for D/deaf people

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Many people who are hard or hearing or fully D/deaf rely on lip reading as part of communicating with hearing people, along with facial expressions. Lip reading is impossible when everyone is wearing a mask, and reading facial expressions is much more challenging. The National Association of the Deaf has put out a useful article on options for communication in pandemic times : https://www.nad.org/best-practices-for-wearing-masks-when-communicating-with-dhh/

#100: Find (or make) a name pronunciation guide

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If you have a large patron population with a cultural or linguistic background not shared by your staff, take some time to learn how to pronounce common names among those patrons. You don’t need a highly scholarly, educational source for this—you can often find a YouTube video of a native speaker pronouncing individual names from their language. It’s less about making sure your pronunciation is perfect than showing you made an effort—saying ‘ber-mun’ instead of ‘ber-man’ for the common North Indian name Burman isn’t how Mr. or Ms. Burman would likely pronounce it themselves, but it shows you care about trying to get it right and makes people feel welcome.

#99: Ask for vendor training while there's an incentive

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Often, the first time anyone at a library tries to figure out how to change the color contrast on a third-party app, get a screenreader to work with a vendor’s database, etc. is after the service has been purchased and the first frustrated patron has gotten in touch with the library with a complaint. At this point, the vendor may be slow to respond to requests for help or never respond at all. If you are in the process of purchasing a new service, ask then for the vendor to provide training materials on how to use any accessibility features of their product and where to go for more help. At this point your money is on the line for the vendor, and getting these tools means you might be able to provide a frustrated patron with help immediately.

#98: Check your PAC's settings for captioning

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Try to make it easy for someone who needs captioned video to find what they are looking for in your online catalog. Most bibliographic records for audiovisual materials purchased from major vendors include information about the existence and extent of captioning, but often those lines in the MARC records aren’t even displayed in the public catalog except under the MARC or ‘librarian’s’ view, and if they are, they are still not searchable even in the advanced search functions. Look at your ILS’s settings and talk to your tech services people (if you aren’t one) to see if it’s possible to make it easier for people who only want captioned video to limit their searches in your catalog.

#97: Create an accessibility advisory board

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Many public library staff will be familiar with teen advisory boards and the formal library boards that provide oversight of library activities, but some libraries have created teams of patrons specifically focused on accessibility (see for example the Forbes Library in Northampton, MA: https://forbeslibrary.org/accessibility/disability-advisory-board/). This board might not need to be a permanent feature of your library, but it’s an excellent way to hear from patrons themselves about the barriers they are running into and the accessibility improvements they most want to see. The middle of a pandemic may feel like a strange time for this, but such a board could meet virtually and many people are looking for ways to connect with others (not to mention volunteer hours) right now.

#95: When you can't help, document it

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A common reason that requests for resources or policy changes to make the library more accessible are denied is a belief that ‘no one will use it’ or that ‘we don’t get any complaints, so it must not be a problem.’ Obviously in a perfect world we wouldn’t have to make a case that barriers should be removed before they stop people, but given that we don’t live in that world, gather your ammunition for this argument. If you have to tell a patron no, if you see a patron give up, if you hear a patron complain to another patron about a barrier even though they don’t tell their complaint to you, write it down, save it somewhere, and tell someone with authority when you have a good opportunity.

#94: Plan for exceptions to COVID guidelines

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As libraries start letting patrons back in the building with new safety precautions, reasonable service modifications sometimes raise extra access barriers. Make sure you’re thought about how you’ll minimize those. For example, if you’ve removed all your tables and chairs to discourage people from lingering, keep one chair at the front desk to take out for people with physical limitations who might legitimately need to sit for the few minutes it takes them to look something up on a catalog. If you’ve decided not to provide in-person help at public computers and have patrons call the service desk from their cell phones for over-the-phone help, think about what you’ll do for patrons who don’t own a cell phone. If you are closing periodically for extra cleaning and you’ve added a prerecorded announcement over your PA system warning patrons, make sure you’ve recorded it in all the necessary languages, and that visual reminders alert people who are hard of hearing or Deaf.