As announced in November, I am using my tenure as ACRL President to engage with the important topic of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) work in libraries. This decision was in coordination with the effort at ACRL to include EDI as a core commitment of the association. To foster a wider conversation and give the topic more attention, I expanded my President’s Program beyond the traditional single event at the ALA Annual Conference. In addition to the event in Washington D.C., ACRL will be hosting a Discussion Forum at the 2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle and launching a blog series tackling various topics related to EDI issues.
I am pleased to announce that the blog series, as well as information on the upcoming events, will now be hosted on its own ACRL LibGuide. We will have guest authors you may recognize from the recent 2018 Joint Conference of Librarians of Color, summaries of the events at Midwinter and Annual, and more! Our first post, contributed by Ione T. Damasco, discusses the concept of Intergroup Dialogue and how it can be implemented in equity and antiracism work.
Through this series we aim to provide tools for learning, growth, and conversation, and above all we hope that you will join us in this endeavor.