Trauma-Informed Care: An Introduction for Libraries starts April 8!
Sign up by March 25 for a 10% discount.
Trauma-Informed Care: An Introduction for Libraries starts April 8!
Sign up by March 25 for a 10% discount.
It is an honor, though a little weird, that after all this time library staff still use my blog for field trips/tours and school outreach ideas here! I'm glad to help a little, and I intend to post more "here's something that might be useful" stuff that I'm no longer using. I know especially right now we are in an interesting spot where if you became a youth services librar* in the past three years, you may be facing a learning curve. While I hope you're able to innovate passed what I could 10 years ago, I know having some sort of starting point can mean the difference between an idea getting off the ground or staying in your head.
One thing that has happened, though, is that Google Drive updated their security settings. This means that if you ever accessed my files before around 2020, you can still access them no problem. If you click through links on my older posts for the first time now, though, it requires me to give you permission. I try to give permission ASAP, but have also been thinking about new readers who may not feel comfortable requesting. Hopefully this post will make access easy for everyone.
I figured this might also be a good opportunity to get some more favorites out of my archives for new eyes. :) I hope you find something useful!
If you find yourself taking something from the options below and running with it (new characters/books, changes to models, etc) please email me at bryce kozla at gmail so that others may benefit. Thanks!
FIELD TRIPS/LIBRARY TOURS
Tween Scavenger Hunt: based on Adventure Time (omg please update the pop culture in this), this hunt is also educational about the library. Here's the direct link to the files.
First grade room hunt script: Based on Elephant and Piggie
Interactive Field Trip Grades 2 (Spring), 3, and 4 (Fall): 2nd grade Library Stars Scripts
Interactive Field Trip Grades 4K/VPK and K: Kindergarten Library Sneakers Scripts
More explanation as to how the interactive field trip files were used can be accessed here (if "a slidedeck of Chuck Norris memes" doesn't tell you how much this stuff is begging for a refresh....)
OUTREACH TO CLASSROOMS/TABLING EVENTS
Illusionology: 3rd/4th grade outreach (direct link to files)
Tips for outreach I learned from brewfests (really)
Prizeless prize wheel: my new favorite outreach tool!
Robots vs. Aliens: 2nd grade-ish outreach : here's the direct link to the script and files
K-1 Class visit featuring The Book with No Pictures: this summer I gave my nephew, who just started first grade, his first ever reading of this book. Gotta say 6-7 is the PERFECT age for "Book w no pic" (ahem...the quote is a YS Internet Library joke from 2015 about the ubiquitousness of using and suggesting the book, but hey. What I lack in up-to-date jokes I make up for by writing in excess of one or fewer blog posts every year). Here are the direct files!
Tic-Tac-Toe/Simon Says Mashup Game
Early Literacy for Elected Officials with Research
I've written up a lot more programs through the years,which again, are debatedly outdated AF (except for my guest posters and former intern Jennifer, you are all eternal) but could be a great stepping stone for getting into event programs for your library.
This Summer, it's the return of my online course, "The Disability Community in the Library"! Join me July 11-August 21, 2022. Register by June 27, 2022 for a 10% discount!
Unsure if this course is for you? Need some help justifying this course to your admin? Read on for more information!
The goal of this course is to have students emerge as passionate advocates of the disability community, armed with actionable ways to create and maintain inclusive services, spaces, and collections. Several of my past class members identified as people with disabilities, and they communicated how empowered they were to become self advocates. A former student, Jennifer, wrote in 2020 about all the changes her library was able to make as a result of her involvement in this course. We actually did a preconference together at a state conference!
There is an increasing about of interest in accessible services and programming, and there is even a continuing ed class on designing accessible spaces through UW Madison!
So: how do you know if this class is the right one for you?
My course has some starting places for building accessible spaces, but it is much more about digging into the history of the disability community, examining why accessibility often seems like such a low priority, and challenging yourself and your workplace to work toward being more accessible and inclusive. I am not an expert in PWD except in my own lived experience and through conversations that nondisabled people are not privy to.
If you already have some knowledge about the "why" inclusion is important, and your staff seems ready to welcome disabled people in your library, I would definitely encourage you to take a class on specifically creating accessible spaces.
What this course is:
A deep dive into imbedded beliefs about people with disabilities, and a guide forward to adjust your lens.
A possible way forward. Once you rework your personal framing of PWD (or work on your internalized ableism if you are disabled) through exposing the abled narrative and learning the history of the ADA, you'll: get an introduction to design thinking to support all patrons including disabled patrons and workers; evaluate books for good (okay, decent and not completely harmful. We have a long way to go) representation of disability; and how to start advocating for PWD in your library, including resources to find organizations to partner with in order to create programs and services that will actually be meaningful to PWD.
A support network and access to a disabled perspective you may not otherwise get. Every week, you engage with the material along with your classmates, in the discussion forums. These forums are places for you to explore the material together. I will provide gentle guidance and resources to help dispel misconceptions. As long as the conversations are in good faith and do not break my course's cardinal rule ("The humanity of disabled people, and our right and desire to pursue work in and to patronize public libraries are not up for debate in this course"), they will be carefully considered and responded to with links, information, and personal anecdotes to clarify things.
Some examples of things that have come up in past classes that I probably wouldn't otherwise spend time clarifying are:
-that disabled people are childlike and need to be coddled
-that disabled people are lazy if they don't "overcome" their disability/anecdotes about relatives that "use their disability as an excuse"
-"I can't imagine that happening"/ "that article was obviously an extreme case"
-debunking disability simulations
...and more!
If you're ready to take the leap and advocate for your library as a welcoming space that disabled people can and want to be, it would be great to see you Join me July 11-August 21, 2022.
Need more help deciding if this is for you? Email me at brycekozla at gmail dot com and we can talk it through!
March 1st of every year is observed as the Disability Day of Mourning to remember disabled victims of filicide–disabled people murdered by their family members or caregivers. The memorial site can be found here.
WE GOT A NEW KITTEN
This is Hacksaw. Stubbins (19) and Larry (11) are still around; Caleb and I just figured it was good timing. Caleb has always wanted an orange manx!
Okay, so now I got that out of the way:
Trauma-Informed Care: An Introduction for Libraries starts September 13!
Sign up by August 30 for a 10% discount.
A few weeks ago, I was honored to present a preconference on disability justice in libraries with a former student, Jennifer. It was awesome to talk about the overarching lies that the abled narrative tells us and having Jennifer talk about the ways that her library is countering these lies right now.
As I continue to learn and grow in my understanding of disability justice, my preconference (Inspirations, Burdens, and Other Lies: The Disability Community in the Library) continues to grow with me through many iterations, from the confronting name change to the examples I cover to how I cover it. The following is information that didn't make it into the presentation this time, but it was referenced and provided afterward.
This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, but is definitely a starting off point. I hope you find it helpful!
When evaluating titles to recommend about disability, here are some things you’ll want to consider:
-Does the book focus on the experiences of a disabled character, or does it focus more on an abled sibling or friend and experiences of the disabled character from their perspective? A lot of media has been created from the perspective of abled people, leaving disabled people acutely aware of how we’re viewed and what society expects from us. Our self-esteem can consequently be formed around other people rather than our own self worth.
-Is the disabled character as fleshed out as other characters, or do they seem to not have thoughts or experiences independent of the abled characters? Besides having few disabled main characters, disabled side characters often are a metaphor or a tool through which an abled main character grows as a person. A clear message to disabled people here is that we aren’t people in the same way abled people are people. This is untrue. Disabled people are people, just like abled people are people, and we deserve our own stories.
-Does the disabled character have special abilities, extraordinary wisdom, otherworldly patience and kindness, or another quality to “make up” for the disability and increase their worth to abled characters? It can be great to see superheroes with disabilities, don’t get me wrong. But if a character is given powers so that it somehow compensates for their disability and makes them “good enough” to exist, disabled readers without superpowers can learn that they aren’t “good enough” just as they are.
-Are any good traits of the disabled character qualified in terms of their disability? (examples: “She was so stunning I hardly noticed her crutches”; “she was surprisingly smart for someone with her condition”) Disabled people have plenty of good qualities that don’t need to be couched in relation to disability; but lines like this tell disabled people plenty about how our worth will be measured.
-Can the character be happy living with their disability, or does their happiness increase when they do things that may be medically ill-advised in order to be more like abled people? Does a disabled person go against medical advice to show how brave or spontaneous they are? This is a common trope where a disability is a metaphor for something “holding back” an abled person. Abled people can read books with this theme and feel inspired. What disabled people learn is that we’ll never live a full life because we are disabled. This is untrue, and harmful.
-Does the character need to “overcome” their disability to achieve success, or is success possible with a disability? Disabled people are under no obligation to overcome their disability; living with a disability in itself is pretty badass. Unfortunately, media rarely teaches this message. Instead, we’re taught that we need a narrative of overcoming disability in order to claim space among abled people, or to explain and then minimize our disabilities in order to fit in.
-Are analogies made about abled characters “overcoming” negative traits like meanness and disabled characters “overcoming” disability, as if disability and meanness are the same?
One way media uses disability as a metaphor is for a disabled character to overcome their disability while an abled character overcomes their past as a bully, for instance, being forever changed by the disabled character. Aside from the disabled person being used as a prop, it’s a tall order to burden disabled readers with the expectation that their disability means they need to have superhuman kindness and compassion. The world can be frustrating for disabled people, and there should be room for us to display anger and annoyance as well as gratitude. It’s not our job to teach abled people to be basically decent humans. These types of tropes, however, teach us that we shouldn’t automatically expect respect or even basic human decency from abled people, and any negative interaction is up to us to rectify.
-Does the disabled character spend a lot of time wishing they were abled? Just because it’s difficult for abled writers to imagine being content with living as a disabled person, doesn’t mean that disabled people constantly curse their luck. If we do, it’s mostly because of reminders that abled people don’t have to plan as much as we do, and can generally expect their basic access needs will be met at any given time. A disabled person could learn through media that we are expected to dislike our disabilities, which can be detrimental to our self-esteem.
-Are there any anti-disability slurs in the book? Do characters use the r-word? What about words like “m*ron” or “cr*zy”? There are lots of imaginative negative words to use without resorting to shortcuts to describe antagonists in a story, even if these words are used in dialogue to demonstrate how “mean” a character is.
-As a reader, how do you feel about the disabled character in general? As a whole, what does this book communicate to the reader about disability? What would this book add to a disabled reader’s self-concept? This is basically what it boils down to. Admittedly, it can be difficult to gauge whether a book or movie is a good representation of disability. But it can help to try to answer the question of what this media told you about the disabled experience. If you’re left feeling grateful you’re not the disabled character, that’s not a good sign.
The truth is, decent representation--and especially #ownvoices titles -- are so few and far between that if you recognize the above tropes, a piece of media may still be an important piece of your collection until a time when it can be weeded and replaced by a more worthy representation, lest disabled children don't see themselves on your shelves at all (this is a point I would make about disability specifically, and only in some cases. It is possible for nothing to be better than something if that something is harmful to a child's fragile and growing sense of self). But promotion, obviously, is different.
I know that we can't always know everything about a book before we order it, and we rely on reviews a lot. One more way the abled narrative finds its way into publishing is in reviews themselves. Here is an article by Nicola Griffith on spotting ableism in a book review.
A few weeks ago, Adriane Herrick Juarez at the Library Leadership Podcast reached out to me to be a guest on the show and talk about trauma-informed libraries. It was my first ever podcast! This conversation gave me the opportunity to give a quick run-down of trauma-informed basics in a way that I hadn't before outside of my course and training materials I made locally.
I recorded this on a Friday evening, after I had facilitated a 2-hour meeting and attended one more. As such, I broke one of my personal cardinal rules of presenting and had about 4,000 cups of coffee that day. I stutter and mispronounce words I write but barely say. But, the content! The content is there!
New here?
If you're here because of the podcast, nice to meet you! I'm Bryce. I started this blog in 2011 with easy reader book reviews. They were terrible, so I quickly switched it up to talking about field trips and youth programming and reading research. A few years ago, I turned tides again and started using this space to be vocal about trauma and disability justice in libraries. What a bait-and-switch, eh? I swear I used to be funny, even!
Old here?
Head on over to listen to my episode of the Library Leadership Podcast. I emphasize workforce wellness and quote Uncle Ben from Superman. I don't know if transcripts are ready yet, but I will send you the Q&A list (which is basically the transcript) if you email me at brycekozla at gmail.
Bonus Links:
I mention in the podcast that I recommend reading/watching Laura van Dernoot Lipsky. Here are the resources I mention:
The Age of Overwhelm: Strategies for the Long Haul
I couldn't have a post like this without a shout-out to Renewals: Promoting Empathy and Self-Preservation in the Workplace. I really admire Kaetrena Davis Kendrick's award-winning work.
A couple weeks ago I got an email from my landlord with no context (just "please see attached" and a generically-named attachment. It was information about my utility bill. It looked like I had to pay something, but turns out I didn't.
Now, I know there's no way of them knowing that something like this would activate my stress response; but also, realistically, this is a pandemic. A time when we hear news stories everyday of people being evicted. A time when the housing and jobs crunch here in my area has only been exasperated by income loss across the community.
Did this notice activate my stress response? Yes. But did it also make me reflect on other interactions and inspire me to write to Emporia State with an idea for a new webinar? Also yes.
This webinar was tough to develop and present and I'm actually taking two days off work as a result (I did this without knowing how I'd feel just in case but: Thanks, Past-Bryce. You're the best. Love, Bryce). I share this just so you know where I'm at; I may not have the best time replying to emails right now. Thanks for understanding.
Here's the blurb for it for some more info:
2020 was quite the year, to put it mildly. 2021 promises new opportunities and challenges amid continued demands for normalcy against the backdrop of a collective traumatic event. Oh, by the way, did you respond to that email from a few weeks ago? No, the other one. There’s no doubt the pandemic and other high-profile crises are affecting our brains and our lives. How can we effectively communicate with one another in order to maintain trust and transparency for our staff and patrons?
Bryce Kozla, presenter of “Being Trauma-Informed During a Pandemic” is back with some go-to tips for successful interactions when possibly everyone involved is affected by prolonged, toxic stress.
I'm delighted to share this awesome opportunity from Dr. Amelia Anderson and Dr. Abigail Phillips!:
"We are preparing a study about accessibility in public library makerspaces. This study will help to inform public librarians how to make their spaces more accessible for all, creating more inclusive libraries. We want to know about your experiences in public libraries and in makerspaces. We will be conducting a series of focus groups with disability self-advocates and public librarians across the United States.
We would like to invite you to take part in this process, to share your knowledge and experiences with us. For your participation, you will receive a $30 Amazon gift card. Your involvement is voluntary. Any information you share with us will be kept private and confidential. If you want to participate, please complete this brief online form"
If you have any questions, please contact the principal investigators, Dr. Amelia Anderson and Dr. Abigail Phillips: amanders AT odu DOT edu ; abileigh AT uwm DOT edu"
Accessibility in Making: Perspectives from Disability Self-Advocates is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the National Leadership Grants for Libraries.
UPDATE 9/25/2020: The class is now full! Here goes nothing...
Trauma-Informed Care: An Introduction for Libraries, Oct 5-Nov 15 through UW-Madison iSchool.
So. Things are interesting, to say the least.
For instance, Larry attends Zoom meetings. |
When I last taught "Trauma-Informed Care: An Introduction for Libraries," one of my main objectives was to build empathy for people with backgrounds in trauma through sharing real-life experiences as myself, a person with a brain rewired to expect stress due to trauma. The course was approached with the assumption that there would be a mix of people who would see themselves in the content, people who had some familiarity with the content, and people who possibly needed some convincing that trauma isn't just some buzzword or excuse.
Well, times have changed since *checks post date* last September. My April 30 webinar on trauma responses during a pandemic has been viewed over THREE THOUSAND times. Only like 5 of those were my parents (Twenty, tops). Every day there's new evidence of a population whose brains are overflowing with stress and are acting on ill-planned, counter-intuitive, and counterproductive attempts at self-preservation (to be clear, I'm talking about people who ignore reasonable health guidelines and/or are violent about their need for a haircut, for instance; and not people protesting police brutality). Amid this backdrop public-facing service workers are being met with vitriol for trying to keep themselves and the community safe.
The need for a commitment to trauma-informed principles is, I'd say, pretty clear.
My course on this topic is not the do-all-end-all in healing the world, but it can help you and your colleagues approach work in a way that is helpful for everyone (including yourselves).
Topics I'll cover include: