Pride in the Profession

Dr Karen G. Schneider, Dean of the Library at Sonoma State University and a member of the American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table, will be the Keynote Speaker at the first Changing Lives Seminar on 21 July. Dr Schneider will be joined by lightning talk speakers to present on the theme of pride within the library, knowledge and information profession.

Keynote: Queering COVID: Lessons in Queer Resilience During the Pandemic
Dr Karen G. Schneider

Abstract for the talk: A growing body of research points not only to challenges experienced by LGBTQIA+ people during COVID-19, but also to ways in which people have used their queer identities to survive and even thrive during this historic crisis. Dr. Karen G. Schneider will share personal, community, and scholarly aspects of queer resilience during COVID-19, as well as perspectives on living queer identity post-COVID.

The lightning talk speakers and talks are:

Equality and Inclusion Current Awareness Bulletin
Bertha Alicia Calles Cartas

The Equality and Inclusion Current Awareness Bulletin came to life as a response to the overwhelming amount of information circulating and shared within the BAME group of my organisation.

In this lighting talk, Bertha Calles Cartas will present how knowledge management activities have led to stimulating conversations around microaggressions within the hospital leadership team. She will also show how other hospital trusts have been using this resource.

Queer Beer, Guerrilla Knitting, LGBT+ Donation Stations and the Ain Sakhri Lovers – aka Volunteering at Norfolk Libraries
Jo Foster-Murdoch

The British Museum touring exhibition Desire, Love, Identity came to Norwich in 2019 and was a catalyst for change within Norfolk Library Service, in that it offered the opportunity to look at our collections within Norfolk Heritage Centre. As a volunteer within my own workplace, I was able to help support the exhibition as part of my MA in Queer History.

• Recruited our 12-18 year old Community Curators - events programme: Zine making workshops, book displays, exhibition tours, Zine Fair, Guerrilla Knitting, creating an alternative guide, including interpretations of the Ain Sakhri lovers.
• Developed ephemera community collecting outreach efforts for our Queer History Donation Station for depositing with Norfolk Heritage Centre, which resulted in the opening of the Norfolk LGBT+ History Collection at the Heritage Centre in Feb 2020.
• 2019 LGBT History Month Somewhere Under the Rainbow Library had drag story times and daily staff led LGBT story times; and building was covered inside with rainbow and other inclusive flags
• Desire, Love, Identity exhibition launch June 2019 Speakers including Norwich Pride and Head of Libraries Local brewer and Norwich Pride to develop a ‘queer beer’ for the launch. Drag show, Singing, Green Screens, and a Glitter station.
• Created the Norfolk LGBT+ History Club.

Working on a meaningful project and developing long term relationships for the library might not have happened had I not been able to do my MA (with a student loan) and offer that time and expertise voluntarily, offering ongoing visibility, inclusivity and a welcoming atmosphere for LGBTQ+ communities in Norfolk libraries.

The CIEDA and Soria: how to connect Documentation and Environmental Law in the Spanish rural area
David Mercadal Cuesta

Soria is one of the most depopulated provinces of Spain. In 2005, the government decided to create the “Centro Internacional de Estudios de Derecho Ambiental” (CIEDA-CIEMAT, International Centre for Environmental Law Studies). However, the actual centre is quite deviated from the initial blueprint. Almost all the personnel (3 researchers and 2 documentalists) are in a temporary situation. Even then, Blanca Muyo, responsible of the Unit of Documentation and Information, has been working on the library since the beginning, all on her own. She has built a library where 75% of the collection was personally asked as a donation. A journal is published too, “Actualidad Jurídica Ambiental”, and from the library, we oversee the sections “Agenda” and “Current Bibliographic References”. We also take over administrative tasks, lay out the texts, created a thesaurus for a proper indexing, and diffuse the journal online.

Besides this, since I started here (February 2020) we are working on the renovation of the webpage and installation of an OPAC; boosting the presence in social networks; inclusion of DOIs to the journal articles; created a Weekly Informative Bulletin. What is remarkable is that Blanca has been doing this all alone for almost 15 years, and I am proud of what she has built. We must also mention that, even if Soria is a conservative city with traditional values, the CIEDA is a diverse centre with most women, different family models, and a member of the LGBT+ community.

Indigenous Knowledge Centres
John Pateman

If Truth and Reconciliation are to be meaningful then Decolonization has to be more than a metaphor. Thunder Bay Public Library (TBPL) is committed to recentering the Indigenous world view. Our work is led and guided by an Indigenous Advisory Council (IAC) which represents the needs of Thunder Bay’s Indigenous community. Working with our Indigenous staff, the IAC recommended that TBPL establish Indigenous Knowledge Centres (IKC) in all of our libraries. These collections contain materials that authentically reflect Indigenous knowledge, culture and history.

These collections are not classified by the Dewey Decimal Scheme which represents a European linear interpretation of knowledge in which every book can have only one place on the shelves. Instead they are categorized using subject headings such as Land, Water and Women which reflect an Indigenous circular view of the world in which everything is interconnected. The purpose of these IKC’s is to ensure that Indigenous culture and history is reflected in the collection of TBPL. They are places where Indigenous people can learn about their traditional customs and languages. Many Indigenous people were cut off from their past by colonial practices such as Residential Schools which were intended to ‘kill the Indian within the child’. The consequence of these genocidal policies has become evident with the discovery of unmarked graves at Residential Schools across Canada. In addition, the IKCs are a resource that non Indigenous people can use to learn about the history of Canada that they were not taught in school.

CILIP’s LGBTQ+ Network are proud to host this first Changing Lives seminar, which will be chaired by Deborah Varenna.

The Changing Lives Seminar Series is a programme of free, virtual events celebrating innovation and thought leadership in the library, knowledge and information sector. Curated alongside CILIP’s Diversity Networks and Community, Diversity and Equality Group (CDEG), the Series invites ‘lightning talks’ from new and diverse voices in the library, information and knowledge sector and a keynote from an established professional. More information at https://www.cilip.org.uk/page/changinglivesseminars

The Changing Lives Seminar Series are virtual events on Zoom with auto-captioning enabled for delegates to access. The seminars will be recorded and made available on CILIP’s Vimeo Channel shortly after the live event with auto-transcription available.

PKSB Subject Headings

This webinar supports the following PKSB headings:

• Ethics and Values
• Wider Library Information & Knowledge sector Context
  
  

Speakers:

Chair: Deborah Varenna

Deborah is a part time Library Advisor at a public library, and has had previous experience of FE College and Third Sector Libraries. After graduating with an MA Librarianship from the University of Sheffield, she joined the Steering Group for the CILIP LGBTQ+ Network, to help build an inclusive and supportive space for LGBTQ+ Library, Knowledge and Information workers. Having written multiple essays on queerness, representation, and intersectionality in current media and in medieval literature, she is passionate about ensuring that all voices are heard. Deborah identifies as a queer, cis woman and uses she/her pronouns.

Keynote: Dr Karen G. Schneider

Karen is a thirty-year member of the American Library Association, and throughout that time has also been an active member of ALA’s Rainbow Round Table. She has been Dean of the Library at Sonoma State University since 2015, her fifth senior executive role in libraries. She has published two books, three peer-reviewed articles, and over 100 popular articles for the library press. Her dissertation was the second academic study of the lived experiences of openly queer academic library leaders (she also wrote the first study). A native San Franciscan who has lived worldwide (including a two-year tour of duty at RAF Lakenheath), she now resides in Santa Rosa, California with her wife Sandy and their cat, Squeak.

Bertha A. Calles Cartas

Bertha A. Calles Cartas has been a CILIP member since 2013 when she joined her distance learning MSc in Information and Library studies at Robert Gordon University. She became a Clinical and Outreach Librarian at Southend Hospital Trust in 2019. Prior to that, she was privileged to work as library and archive assistant for the Norfolk Library Service and the Norfolk Record Office in Norwich. Her former academic education in Philosophy in Mexico and Development Studies at the University of East Anglia have provided her with a theoretical background to appreciate complex social settings, especially those around inequalities, for which she has a keen interest. She also enjoy gardening, specially tomatoes, chillies and beans.

Jo Foster-Murdoch

Jo Foster-Murdoch is a single, working parent, and has been employed by Norfolk Library & Information Service since 2001. She has a keen interest in equalities and diversity and has recently become an equalities representative for Unison. She graduated as a mature student with a BA in Anthropology a in 2012 and recently completed an MA in Queer History, both from Goldsmiths College. In 2019 she volunteered to support the British Museum touring exhibition Desire, Love, Identity, winning a Marsh Award for her contribution. She is a proud ally and recently set up the Norfolk LGBT+ History Club.


David Mercadal Cuesta

David Mercadal Cuesta graduated in Information Sciences on the University of Zaragoza in 2016. Since then, he has worked on several archives and libraries, from the Archive of the Cathedral of the Pillar (Zaragoza) to the Documentation Centre of Water and Environment (Zaragoza), passing through the Library of the Cervantes Institute in London, or the Central Archive of the Ministry of Education (Madrid). Currently, he works as a documentalist in the International Centre for Environmental Law Studies (CIEDA, for its acronym in Spanish), in the small town of Soria. He is passionate about arts, nature and, of course, information sciences.

John Pateman

John Pateman has worked in public libraries for 43 years in a number of different roles ranging from Library Assistant to Chief Librarian. He was Chief Librarian of three library systems in the UK: Hackney, a diverse inner London borough; Merton, a multicultural London suburb; and Lincolnshire, a large rural county. He is currently Chief Librarian and Chief Executive Officer at Thunder Bay Public Library. His publications include Developing a Needs Based Library Service (2003), Public Libraries and Social Justice (2010), Developing Community-Led Public Libraries (2013), Managing Cultural Change in Public Libraries: Marx, Maslow and Management (2019) and Marxism and Public Libraries (2021).

This webinar is free and open to all. 

Register now