Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity: A Framework

Frame 3: Building Cross-Sector Cultural Proficiency – Influencing and Affecting Change in Other Professional, Civic, Political Spheres

¶ 1 Leave a comment on paragraph 1 0 Libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage organizations do not operate in a vacuum, or in silos. They are inextricably connected to communities whether neighborhoods, schools, colleges and universities, corporations, civic entities and beyond. They serve as microcosms of broader systems and structures and, therefore, can and should serve as models for developing and implementing transformative policies and practices that will lead to greater racial equity.

3.1 – Civic

¶ 2 Leave a comment on paragraph 2 1 Public libraries, for example, can serve as models for civic entities with respect to the hiring and retention of a diverse workforce. Academic libraries can take the lead on campuses for developing transformative practices in climate assessment, as well as analysis of institutional policies for their impact on minoritized employees. Moreover, libraries and adjacent professional sectors should seek out opportunities to collaborate with other professional sectors such as corporations, K-12 education, health and human services sectors, and governmental agencies to develop strategies for addressing inequities, whether that be in employment opportunities, representation in collections and programming, or other intersecting domains. Cross-sector collaborations will have greater impact on communities of color and will develop champions for the LIS profession from a broad range of stake-holder groups. 

¶ 3 Leave a comment on paragraph 3 0 Framework Implementation Example: Public libraries provide a space and resources for community discussions on racism and racial equity, inviting civic leaders, K-12 educators, religious leaders, those from the health services sector, and others who serve communities of color.

3.2 – Information

¶ 4 Leave a comment on paragraph 4 0 As leaders in collecting, storing, and disseminating information, librarians and library workers must support all patrons by building inclusive collections, classifying materials appropriately by centering minoritized communities, and disseminating useful information to under-resourced communities. This set of best practices, however, must also be proactively shared and encouraged among other sectors.

¶ 5 Leave a comment on paragraph 5 0 Framework Implementation Example: Libraries of all types are developing and conducting diversity audits to ensure that their collections or resources represent a broad range of authors from diverse racial/ethnic identities. Numerous are conducting these audits in tandem with analysis of subject headings and metadata to ensure that resources are classified appropriately. 

3.3 – Corporations

¶ 6 Leave a comment on paragraph 6 0 Libraries and library consortia spend millions of dollars on services and products provided by vendors. Libraries can use their purchasing power to promote cross-sector collaboration in racial equity by refusing to engage in business with companies whose practices are antithetical to racial equity.

¶ 7 Leave a comment on paragraph 7 0 Examples of this include: 

• ¶ 8 Leave a comment on paragraph 8 1
• Vendors profiting from the work of incarcerated or detained individuals.
• Companies that engage in user surveillance. 
• Businesses whose products could cause harm to BIPOC individuals (i.e. artificial intelligence solutions that are mainly “trained” with white individuals). 

¶ 9 Leave a comment on paragraph 9 0 Framework Implementation Example: Libraries can create and apply ethical and sustainable vendor guidelines and checklists when deciding to purchase new products and services.