We had an excellent Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL/NY) symposium this year at Baruch College on December 7, 2018. (If you missed it, there is another opportunity to attend this great training event. Save the date: December 6, 2019.) As usual, the symposium committee did a great job, with Gina Levitan at the helm. I was so pleased with the cultural diversity on the panels and the discussions surrounding the idea of equity in our literary institutions. We heard frank thoughts about the disenfranchisement of certain groups and concrete steps we can take to right the wrongs of yesteryear. 

To start off the program, ACRL/NY conducted its business meeting and Gina Levitan gave her opening remarks. She read the remarks of current ACRL/NY President Thomas Keenan who, unfortunately, could not attend the event. As a reminder, any librarians or library staff who would like to become a member of the ACRL/NY and get involved with their events and committees, should visit their website for more information.

Including Minorities in Research and Teaching

The first panel of the day featured Danielle Cooper from Ithaka S & R, and Eric Acree, Tony Cosgrave, and Tom Ottaviano from Cornell University. Committee member Ian Beilin moderated this discussion.

Cooper discussed how her research institute works with librarians who support researchers. She participated in a project about indigenous studies and native people, and stressed that much outreach and encouragement was needed to elicit the participation of historically disenfranchised communities. She opined that simply following Institutional Review Board (IRB) guidelines was not sufficient to conclude that a study was ethical. Also, examining the constraints of research that typically guide the peer-reviewed scholarly research process need to be examined to be inclusive to all groups. Aspects of research such as the number of required participants and lengths of interviews may need to change to make the process more inviting to all.

Acree is a professor of Africana and Latino studies, and he discussed how W.E.B. Du Bois referred to color lines and mentioned that "whiteness" is a social construct. There is no gene or gene cluster that makes people black or white. Acree invited one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement to speak to his class on African studies to open the students' eyes to the role that race plays in our society.

Cosgrave, another professor, mentioned that Cornell University has a summer program designed to help prepare disadvantaged students of color for the college research environment, a program similar to the CUNY ASAP (Accelerated Studies in Associate Programs). Ottaviano allows his students to choose any topic for further research in his class; he mentioned that race often enters the conversation on a number of topics such as sports and employment practices. Although the course these professionals teach is an elective worth one credit, students who have taken it wish it were three credits long and a requirement. The teachers mentioned that they could delve more into anthropological research design methods that are more inclusive to minorities if they had more teaching time in the course.

Reclassifying Materials For Inclusion

The second panel included discussions about the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) system and Library of Congress (LC) classification system. Committee member Kate Adler was the moderator. 

Jess deCourcy Hinds, librarian, and students Rachelle Monteau, Layla Ralekhetho, and Khadij Tandja of Bard High School Early College, Queens Campus spoke about their Dewey reclassification project. Hinds is a solo librarian at the school, which allows students to graduate in four years with an associate's degree. She has 25 student interns including her three co-panelists.

Monteau came up with the reclassification idea as she was shelving books in the school library one day. She wondered why activist books about black history and women's history were shelved in the 300s; she believes they should be shelved in the 900s with the other history books. Placing books that feature minorities in a separate section interferes with serendipitous discoveries that occur when people are browsing the history books. It effectively prevents women and racial minorities from exposure, and can perpetuate the myth of history as solely consisting of white male history. 

As precedent, Ralekhetho brought up the fact that Nella Larson was a woman-of-color librarian at the Schomburg Center in the 20th century, who headed the 326 slavery reclassification project. Larson pushed for books on slavery, which were cataloged as 326 in the Dewey run to be reclassfied to the 900s, the general history section. Similarly, Dorothy Porter of Howard University wanted colonization books to be changed from 325 to the 900s.

Tandja also assisted with reclassifying books from the 300s to the 900s. The words used to index and catalog works can lead to inclusivity or exclusivity, and there are many options as to which number to assign to items. She wishes that books could be cataloged in more than one section. 

Hinds added that they discussed methods of reclassification with Violet Fox from the Online Computer Library Center (OCLC), which controls and manages the current expression of the Dewey Decimal Classification System. Fox suggested they had the option of using 1000s, which is not currently used by the DDC. It is important to leave room for future options and the ability to add more groups that we do not foresee now, to inject more fluidity into DDC. 

Alexandra de Luise from Queens College and Yoko Inagi Ferguson of George Mason University joined in to discuss changes that would be helpful to the Library of Congress classification system. de Luise mentioned that the LC system started in 1897, around the same time the DDC was invented. Both systems were started without much of a diverse focus. Unfortunately, there are glaring omissions of certain groups in parts of the LC system. 

For example, in the E classification (Elements in population, which refers to races), certain races are omitted (e.g. Hispanic). Some books could be classified as either E184 (Elements in the population) or PS153 (under American Literature), and this decision directly affects how much exposure certain books and ideas get with library patrons. PS153 has a much higher circulation that E184. 

Ferguson is a cataloger who believes the Library of Congress should be more inclusive. She has communicated with them about adding and changing classification numbers. Some may not exist because there are books on a particular topic that have not been acquired by academic institutions. Underrepresentions in exist, for instance, in the areas of same-sex relations and gender fluidity. There are no categories listed for non-heteronormative behavior and identity expression. Librarians bringing these issues to the attention of staff at the LC and DDC can help contribute to a comprehensive overhaul that can make the classification systems more reflective of the reality of America now.

Immigration and Archival Collections

The day's third panel included conversations about immigration and archival collection, moderated by committee member Maureen Clements.

In talking about archive work, Kathryn Shaughnessy from St. John's University mentioned the need to teach students to think like historians. Nancy Godoy and Lorrie McAllister from Arizona University informed us that kids in Arizona are not learning about local history, even though half of them are Latino. Primary sources for the genealogy of people of color are conspicuously absent, with familysearch.org offering information for minorities.

One point discussed about collecting research on indigenous communities is the importance of communicating the research results with the people involved. Not doing so simply leads to the perpetuation of mistrust of such communities towards the predominately white establishment. 

Adding More Librarians of Color

The fourth panel featured Quetzalli Barrientos of Tufts University, who spoke about minorities and residency programs. The following individuals addressed the issue of minority paraprofessionals transitioning to librarianship: Naomi Binnie, University of Michigan; Alyssa Brissett, University of Southern California; Kenya Flash, Yale University; Kelleen Malusky, Sarah Lawrence College; and Diana Moronta of NY Institute of Technology.

Barrientos mentioned that librarian residencies started in the 1960s. Residents are basically interns at their institutions, with the libraries wanting to give them a test drive before hiring them permanently; simultaneously, the residents are evaluating the colleges. Residents need to document their professional activities on an ongoing basis in order to pad their CVs. Since residencies only last two or three years, these new professionals should market themselves for future jobs.

Maluski, Binnie, Brissett, Flash, and Moronta and friends discussed how difficult it is for paraprofessionals in the library field (who tend to be women of color) to transition into professional roles. Maluski opined that library literature does not contain information about such a change; what could be useful is information about the barriers to becoming professionals and statistics about how many librarians start as paraprofessionals. 

Binnie stressed that intellect is required for non-professional, clerical work. Too often, paraprofessionals are perceived as not smart or not interested in further career development. While some clerical and other library staff do not wish to pursue librarianship, some are interested. We need to nurture and develop that interest and desire to further the profession and help patrons on a different level. 

Brissett does not appreciate how, in some instances, managers or institutions "move the finish line," requiring prospective professionals to take on additional tasks after achieving certain requirements. Moronta appreciated a previous supervisor's information that he wanted to get her a librarian position, but there were none available at the college. Flash mentioned that some paraprofessionals have professional degrees. Binnie wants people to include non-librarians in conversations about library issues. Maluski opined that peer mentorship is vital and very helpful to new librarians. None of these five panelists was able to make the jump to professional careers without moving on to new institutions. 

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I loved this conference so much. It was one of the best training events I have attended in my 15 years in the field. There was technical service information to balance out the public services that so often dominate librarian conferences.

I hope you will join us in December 2019 for another ACRL/NY symposium. If you have ideas or feedback about any aspect of ACRL/NY, please feel free to share them with me via the comments below.