equity – OPEN SHELF

On Anti-racism and Indigenous Resurgence

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.

Read More→

Features, Limited Series, Picturebooks to heal the heart

Things are not fine: Fines in the library

In the past, late fees were seen as a method of ensuring that our books were returned and that people were responsible when borrowing materials. It is, however, more complex than that—fines neither raise funds nor align with public libraries’ purpose. In fact, charging late fees for overdue materials is doing more harm than good.

Read More→

Features

What we talk about when we talk about algorithms*

Words create reality; what we say and write makes ideas concrete. The explosion of research about algorithms has resulted in specific descriptive phrases about their nature and characteristics. Let’s take a brief tour through some of them to see how they reflect our hopes and concerns.

Read More→

Features

Not too fine a point: COVID-19 reveals the origins of public libraries as agents of social control

In Library Land, the pandemic has exposed inherent fragilities including discriminatory class and race based practices. In turn, these praxis reveal that public libraries have a history of being agents of social control and exclusion.

Read More→

Open for All?

Amplifying the voices of school libraries: Spotlight on Rabia Khokhar

This month features the work of Rabia Khokhar, a teacher-librarian with the Toronto District School Board. Rabi's focus is culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy.

Read More→

It's Elementary: Thoughts About School Libraries

Theory in practice: Moving from systemic racism to anti-racism in Ontario 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.

Read More→

Features

Finnish public libraries integrate diverse services to support equity & inclusion

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.

Read More→

Features

Building Better Libraries Through Diversity, Equity & Inclusion: 2018 OCULA Spring Conference

by Catherine Fournier and Helen Tang Diversity, equity, and inclusion are core values in librarianship … in theory, at least. But what are libraries…

Read More→

InsideOCULA

Gathering with the voices of Canadian school libraries: Treasure Mountain Canada 5

As a teacher librarian in a busy K-to-8 school it would be easy to get lost in the day to day operations of my…

Read More→

It's Elementary: Thoughts About School Libraries

Safe spaces: Library values in the cultural wars

Headlines today scream about highly charged debates in the sociological and cultural sphere: Whose voices need to be heard? How do we create equity?…

Read More→

Safe spaces

Welcoming LGBTQ+ people

How can we demonstrate, through action, that LGBTQ+ people are welcome in libraries? In the first article in this limited series of conversations, Amanda…

Read More→

LGBTQ+

Equity & Social Justice in the Library Learning Commons

I read an interesting tweet recently about transforming the perception of school libraries from a warehouse for books to houses of student learning. The…

Read More→

It's Elementary: Thoughts About School Libraries

Public Libraries and Inequality

Can public libraries make society more equal? Inequality has become a dominant concern and focus of public policy discourse at international, national, regional and…

Read More→

Open for All?