During these frenetic times, it’s easy to miss an email or overlook an article you’d normally love to see. And while it’s the weekend.. almost… before our brains check out for the week, we wanted to highlight a few recent must-sees from the Springy community. If you have ten, or better yet, 30 minutes, we highly, highly recommend taking a look!
Must-Read: SpringyNews Article by Twanna Hodge
In case you missed it, last week’s edition of SpringyNews included an extra special guest. Written by Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Librarian Twanna Hodge from the University of Florida, it addresses an important point – LibGuides are much more than resource webpages. They are part of how we represent our communities online. How can we engage our guide readers, cultivate inclusivity, support anti-racism, and move them to act?
Guides can provide necessary and helpful information and resources, but the work does not stop at creating a guide. Fighting for racial justice and creating inclusive communities is a consistent, life-long journey that takes time, effort, and resources. Racism is pervasive and permeates all areas of society, including libraries. Libraries do not operate outside of society, and isms and phobias are inherent in the people who work within them and the very structures of our organizations. Lean into your discomfort. Fail forward.
In her piece, Twanna continues to answer three important questions:
- What are resources that guide owners can provide that non-BIPOC creators tend to overlook?
- How can guides be built to make all users welcome and promote inclusivity?
- How can guides be used to start, continue, and move the conversation forward and to action?
Along the way, she points readers to some helpful resources, including:
- The Conscious Style Guide for removing outdated or offensive terminology
- As Non-Black POC, We Need to Address Anti-Blackness and Let’s Talk About Anti-Blackness from YES! Magazine
Her article isn’t to be missed. To read it, head on over to the LibGuides Tricks page of July’s SpringyNews edition: Communities Reimagined.
Must-Watch: SpringyCamp Presentations on Amplifying Black Voices with Springshare Tools
In light of recent events, this year’s SpringyCamp added a special subtheme, Connections: Your Library & Social Justice – Amplify Black Voices with Springshare Tools. And while SpringyCamp wrapped up its two-day camp just yesterday, its recorded videos are already live!
We were thrilled to hear from Shaina V. Destine and Allison L. Sharp from the University of Tennessee Libraries and Lorin Jackson and Naja Smith from Swarthmore College.
They brought their own experiences and expertise to the table to present on creating LibGuides to recognize and include diversity, provide new opportunities to work with and engage students and faculty, and build and share collection materials from marginalized voices.
Head on over to the SpringyCamp 2020 guide to watch both days of presentations.
Here at Springshare, we’re committed to amplifying Black voices and using our tools to support anti-racism and foster inclusivity. We thank our recent contributors for lending their voices, and we hope they’ll be widely shared within the Springy community!