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

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

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.

#122 Include the right people in purchasing decisions

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?

#121 Have a plan for divorced families

June is the season of summer reading, and also the season of both parents separately bringing a child into the library and wanting to get them a library card. Most libraries have a method for linking a single parent or guardian to a child’s card based on who signs for it, which is usually not a problem for families where two parents live together and communicate. However, this becomes a problem when Parent B visits the library with Kid, only to be told that Parent A signed Kid up for a library card six months ago so they can’t do anything. ‘First come, first served’ isn’t necessarily a terrible policy, but if you are going to go with that, make sure everyone on your staff knows and can be forthright with parents about how things work.

#119: Modernize your subject headings

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

#118: Support notifications in languages other than English

Most modern integrated library systems and patron notification management systems are able to track a patron’s preference about what language they would like to receive notices in. Email and text notices are usually built of modular strings of text. Your ILS or notification system may not provide strings in languages other than English, but it probably does provide a place for you to submit them. See if you can invest in a one-time set of translations that will serve your patrons for years to come. If you need technical assistance, your ILS vendor can probably help you.

#117: Create a social story

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.

#116: Take care of your "handicapped" bathroom stall

The larger size of handicap-accessible bathroom stalls makes them attractive targets for the kinds of bad behavior that are common in public library bathrooms, meaning they are more likely than the rest of the bathroom to get into an unusable condition. It can be tempting to slap an out-of-order sign on and figure ‘people can just use the other ones until the custodian comes tomorrow.’ That may work for a lone adult with no physical disabilities, but it won’t work for a patron in a wheelchair or a patron with two small children who needs to keep them in sight. Make the call to get these stalls in usable condition, and point out that it’s an accessibility issue if whoever is responsible for maintaining your bathrooms pushes back.

#114: Get tech at the right height

If you are purchasing a new technology that has a screen or keyboard that patrons need to interact with, put it the right height from the floor. The ADA requires the ‘operable parts’ of an interactive device to be between 15” and 48” from the floor. This includes everything from self-check touchscreens to the string hanging off the bottom of your projector screen. Here’s a federal government page with more information: https://www.access-board.gov/ada/guides/chapter-3-operable-parts/

#113: Ask for a family name

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

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.

#111: If you do a survey, don't set it up to let you off the hook

If your library surveys patrons on the effectiveness or the accessibility of library services, be thoughtful about where you offer the survey. If you’re only offering a paper survey inside the library, you are only capturing patrons who have made it in. If you only offer it at service desks, you’re only capturing patrons who are comfortable enough to come up and talk to a staff member. If you offer it online via the library website, you’re again missing non-users. Consider taking your survey outside a grocery store or laundromat and talking to patrons who don’t use the library about what would help them use it.

#109: Captions vs. ASL

If you were watching something in a language you didn’t understand well (and cared more about understanding than about the art of it), would you prefer a dub in your own language or written captions in the language of the performance? Probably the former, right? While captions are certainly helpful to people who are hard of hearing or D/deaf, those captions are in the second language (English) of people who grew up speaking ASL. If you can make it happen, live ASL interpretation provides a translation into the first language of many D/deaf patrons.

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

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.

#107: Make it easy to dispose of sharps

Someone who is diabetic may find themselves in the unenviable position of having to give themselves an insulin injection in your public restroom. You can make it slightly less inconvenient for them by providing a sharps container for them to dispose of their used syringes. Not only is this better for people who are diabetic, it’s better for your staff as well--it protects the person emptying the trash from accidental needle sticks and decreases the likelihood that someone will cause problems to your plumbing by attempting to flush a used syringe instead.

#104: Pick the right light switch

If you’re looking at adding or replacing a light switch in a room, get one that’s easy to manipulate. You may think of a ‘standard’ light switch as being a toggle switch like this one:

‘Toggle’ style light switch, photo by Freekhou5 from WikiMedia Commons.

However, you can also get a ‘rocker’ light switch that requires less pressure to operate. These are the ones with a wider, larger switch that lies flatter against the switch plate. They look like this:

‘Rocker’ style light switch, photo by DemonDays64 from WikiMedia Commons.

Not only are the rocker switches easier to operate, they’re also a lot easier to clean.

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

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/

#101: Name your files something helpful

Many screen readers read file names aloud. If you are uploading an image or a document to a website or to the library’s social media, name it something short and descriptive—’3DPrinterPhoto.jpg,’ not ‘DSC0039948 emily’s printer photo for Facebook.'.jpg.’

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

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.

#98: Check your PAC's settings for captioning

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.