This Summer: The Disability Community in the Library: the course!

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. 

Register here!

Need more help deciding if this is for you? Email me at brycekozla at gmail dot com and we can talk it through!

Anti-filicide toolkit for the Disability Day of Mourning

 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.

I wanted to be sure to share this Anti-filicide toolkit created by the Autistic Self Advocacy Network. As trusted members of our communities, library staff and other information professionals can help as a support for the disability community and caregivers. I've written about some small ways we can be inclusive and disrupt isolation in the past:

Responding the Caregivers Looking for Information on Disability

I Have the Mind of an Infant: Mental Age Theory in Libraries

Accommodations and the ADA: Writing Policy to Exception

How Can I Tell if This is a Harmful Representation of Disability?

Related, I wanted to share this recent video by Ask a Mortician about the considerations made-or not- for architecture vs. human lives. It names a library in New York, and I couldn't help but make additional connections between library concerns for aesthetic rather than accessibility.

 

Apologies for not being around lately. It's been A Time. Will check in again soon.

Join Me: Trauma-Informed Care in Libraries Starts Sept 13

 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.

Like my past, well-reviewed courses, this course is designed to have an extremely reasonable workload and will be a mix of reflection, action, and tips you can use right away. The class is asynchronous, which means we won't be meeting live and you can engage with each week's content when you can. Each week there will be one or two discussion questions. There will be final project that will consist of anything that will help you going forward (a presentation to your board, a letter to your director, a blue print, something else? It's up to you!).

As always with my courses, you're welcome to download all the material to share among others in your library, so I hope you will see this as a good investment. Trauma-Informed Care: An Introduction for Libraries is steeped in my lived experience and so may be different from other training you may have gotten about these concepts.

NOTE: This course has been well-reviewed by students who have lived experience in trauma. While I do have some tips that work for me peppered in the content, this course is not a therapy support group and I am not a medical professional. This course can give you some insight into what might be going on with your brain/central nervous system right now, but it is not a cure for your stress. I say this not to be mean but to manage expectations. If you are looking for more things like mindfulness practices, I'd like to suggest you look into activities related to dialectical behavioral therapy. It covers mindfulness as well as interpersonal effectiveness, distress tolerance, and emotional regulation.

Ready to register? Sign up here. Last time my roster and the waitlist filled quickly!

Want to read more about my take on trauma-informed care? Click here to check out the "trauma" tag.

How Can I Tell If This is a Harmful Representation of Disability?

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.

Talking Trauma and Libraries on the Library Leadership Podcast

 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

Beyond the Cliff

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.

Trauma-Informed Communication: webinar recording and bonus links!

 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.

Trauma informed communication from S Bryce Kozla

Here's the recording. 

There's a part in the middle where it cuts out for a minute, but it comes back, don't worry!

I wanted to make sure to share some links related to this presentation:

Trauma Informed Oregon: COVID response

Trauma Stewardship Institute

Grounding/Safety Box example (I like this one because it gets into explanations)

I also wanted to be sure to highlight some other wonderful resources:

BLOSSOM: FREE virtual summit on wellness and libraries with a promising list of speakers

The Healing Hype: Newsletter and Community by Nisha Mody

"Putting the Care Back in Self-Care" Webinar

Renewals: Promoting Civility and Self-Care in the Workplace

"Pandemic! Productivity! Life! Hacks!" (the title is a little tongue-and-cheek)

Thank you so much for your interest in this webinar. Hang in there.

WTF Is Happening to Your Brain and What You Can Do About It

There's been something I've been thinking about a lot lately but haven't really had the energy to talk about it in any comprehensive way.

I still don't think I'm going to, because investing energy where it needs to go is incredibly important right now. But I will say this:

Visiting this blog, right here, right now, I am allowing you the space to admit and accept that what we're going through is a stressful and potentially traumatizing situation.

People are different. Two people can experience the exact same thing and one can emerge traumatized and the other unscathed.

One thing that might help right now is knowing what might be going on with your brain and central nervous system. The following is something I shared yesterday with friends and family. It's based on the training I received from Trauma-Informed Oregon, which led to me to create a unique introductory course in Trauma-Informed Care that is library-specific. It's not a lot but I hope it helps.

Creating a Trauma-Informed Presentation

Back in April of last year, I was one of 17 participants selected as part of a community cohort to be trained by Trauma-Informed Oregon on trauma-informed care. The intent of these train-the-trainer workshops was for participants to take the material and make it specifically relevant to our organizations/industries. Knowing that libraries are "a helping profession" and that many of us come into with backgrounds in trauma, I wanted to make my delivery of this content as trauma-informed as possible.

Last week, I held two "countywide conversation" sessions to introduce the concept of trauma-informed care to local staff. It was an in-person iteration of some of the internal Trauma-Informed Care training modules I created and posted on our extranet. A flipped-classroom model, I reasoned, would help staff process the material on their own before having to talk to anyone about it, and the sessions would allow room for discussion for those who'd want to talk about. I also prepared a presentation to introduce the material for these sessions, in the likely event that a staff person would want to attend but not have time to view the referenced modules beforehand (or would need an in-person intro to understand how trauma-informed care is meaningful to our work).

Having attended plenty of conference sessions that didn't take their own advice over the years, I set out to make this presentation as trauma-informed as possible.

Here are some considerations I made in order to achieve this goal. You might want to try them out for even unrelated presentations!

Registration recommended, not required: It's trauma-informed to have registration, so I could anticipate how many people would attend and plan accordingly. I also wanted to make it okay, however, for staff to feel like they could drop in without crashing the party (also trauma-informed). We got 30 registrations, and we ended up with 30 participants-- though, some registrants couldn't attend in the end, and some attendees didn't register. At the time I started planning, I had 22 registered and planned for 40 (so maybe +25-75% attendance if you wanted to try this).

• I also sent out a Doodle Poll before I opened registration so I could gauge the interest in all parts of the county. The hope was that the highest amount of people who wanted to attend could be able to, and not have to travel across the county to do so. I didn't catch everyone this way, but I was able to do my best to make sure the locations were equitably chosen around the county.
• Registration was open for two weeks, with a reminder a week before. The registration email included a registration link, location and links to Google Maps of the locations, and the agenda with approximate times. If we had the time I might have opened the registration for longer, but we were butting up against local summer planning as it was.
• Reminder email to attendees: I collected the email addresses of registered attendees, and sent out an email to them the Monday of the sessions. I thanked them for registering, and then set out some expectations: there will be snacks but feel free to bring your favorite snack or drink; knitting and other fidgeting is welcome; and to dress however they felt best (whether that be sneakers or a suit).

Coloring sheets and fidget toys: I had ordered a box of assorted fidget toys online, but they hadn't arrived in time for the sessions. So I printed off some coloring sheets and brought some crayons to help attendees mitigate stress and process information. The coloring sheets and fidget toys now live in a basket in our conference room, and I'm intending to bring them to every meeting I can remember to bring them to!

Voice Amplifier: A few months ago I got a voice amplifier and I thought this would be a great place to try it out-- in meeting rooms with possible ambient noise. I'm blown away by how inexpensive it was and how good it works. I get not wanting to hook yourself up to a surround sound system for a few people (and yes, social anxiety is a real thing and no, introversion and social anxiety are not the same). Not only it is an accessible practice to wear a mic (calm down, abled people, please don't be self-righteous about the one thing you're actually committing to); once you do get into practice of it you'll realize just how noisy the rest of the world inside meeting rooms truly is. Best part about a voice amplifier for small gatherings is you just have to hook yourself and go, and if you DO have social anxiety you can turn it up enough to where everyone can hear but you don't "sound like you're on a mic", which could help with comfort.

Housekeeping at the beginning of the presentation: Things like duration, reminders, or behavior expectations (it's okay to stand or walk around, etc). Apologies but I do not care at all if the same Library Thought Leaders who hate powerpoint find a short introduction that includes housekeeping boring and I "lose" them. I care more about "losing" staff who may literally not be able to process information without knowing where the exits are and it's okay to leave; or staff whose stress response is activated and are at risk of disassociating and take solace in knowing the exact amount of time remaining before they don't have to heavily employ coping mechanisms if they want to stay. People with backgrounds in trauma are in your presentations too.

• Icebreakers: if you have to have one, send it ahead of time. That way everyone is listening to everyone else and not worrying about what they'll say when it's their turn.

Choice, choice choice: Plan participatory options into your session and refer to them. No mandatory participation. No "you have to work with someone you don't know very well." Make it okay to say "pass."

These tips are more poignant for heavier topics, but could be useful for any presentations. As trauma-informed care tells us:

-we have no idea what it took (in the day, in the life) to get a person in front of us, and plenty of people have acute stress responses we might not even guess

-EVERY consideration we make is an opportunity for re-traumatization or healing. We may as well try to be healing!

(also, creating a presentation that's accessible can also be trauma-informed.)

"Becoming Trauma-Informed: Why Should We Care?" from S Bryce Kozla

Responding to Caregivers Looking for Information on Disability

Saturday night I returned from a whirlwind 19 hours in Las Vegas for #NVLA18, where I presented on how library staff need to examine the lessons they've internalized about disability if we really want to get serious about accessibility and welcoming the disability community in the library.

My thoughts on how to talk about the disability community in the library continue to evolve as I learn and grow as a self-advocate. I'm realizing that for multiple reasons we can't talk about disability in the same frame as other marginalization, though it's important to acknowledge that particularly the intersection of race makes a member of the disability community more vulnerable to the societal effects of the abled narrative (follow Vilissa Thompson at Ramp Your Voice for more on the intersection of race and disability). There are specific challenges in regards to accessibility that disabled people face in society and the workplace; and often un-examined feelings about the disability can lead to a neglect of basic access needs.

So at #NVLA18 I tried my hand at a way to talk about accessibility and the way the abled narrative inserts itself into the framework in our profession. I framed the presentation through three overarching lies the abled narrative tells us; how each plays out in libraries; and some things we can do to counter and rebalance our thinking. A tall order for 50 minutes! But hey, I had a lot to say.

One part of the presentation was not only particularly difficult to write but also prompted some discussion afterward, and I thought it might make a good post for everyone to consider:

Reshaping Summer Reading: Questions to Guide the Conversation

Does everyone have their Summer Reading 2019 folder created yet? I had mine on 8/20, beating the creation of my Summer Reading 2018 folder by a whole 7 weeks (yaay?).

SRP (or SLP, or whatever you call it*) continues to barrel through the years. A program of the magnitude, impact, and history  that SRP is seems to be best left How It Is, mostly because it is easiest. But also because it's a ton of work and we put a lot of thought and heart into it. There's lots of Feelings and ownership wrapped up in SRP for a lot of us. For instance, when approaching the conversations this post is about with others on my team, I used the example of myself: the Summer Reading Game Cards I developed are my favorite and no one can convince that anything is better. And I mean, sure, there are so many people doing so many great things when it comes to SRP, but given the opportunity and without the guideposts I'll address here, I would probably run SRP with them until I was done in libraries.

But that doesn't mean What's Easiest doesn't ever come with a healthy dose of overwhelming dread.

Youth Services representatives at our local libraries expressed interest in revisiting countywide support from central services for SRP, and this support involves a lot of people and a ton of moving pieces. Big picture conversations, therefore, need to happen at the administrative and the local level. My coworker Katie and I decided to turn this into a fiscal year priority project (I keep meaning to write about these, they changed my life) and map out the conversation. I'm not going to share a lot about this process, or update about it as the conversation happens, in the interest of preserving the psychological safety of my team and local staff. But I did want to share to the questions we're asking. Because here's the thing: much has been written about the need to reshape SRP, or specific things people have tried, but what I haven't seen is the how: whose buy-in is needed? How do you advocate for change? How do you make sure no one on your team feels left behind or experiences burnout?

My answers to these questions:
1. your entire team, to help with the next question when speaking to higher ups
2. basically, make no assumptions and try to know your sh** (for instance: redemption stats for incentives, historical knowledge, staff time/resource analysis, preliminary conversations; observations; I've been meaning to write THIS post for awhile too. To demonstrate the extent to which I attempted to prepare for these conversations, I reached out to Angela who held my position--er, what was my position 3 people ago-- to ask for anything she remembered about the history of support)
3. involve your entire team in the following conversations. Even the "pearl-clutchers".

I share these questions with the caveat that there is a likelihood--possibly a high one-- that your staff doesn't feel psychologically safe enough to share their thoughts on these questions with a supervisor or another in a position of perceived power, especially if the supervisor has historically been the main creator of the program. It might be good to get a facilitator from another department or an outside source. Facilitation isn't for everyone. Feel free to reach out if you need help with figuring out this crucial aspect.

Because of how BIG countywide support for SRP is, we decided on two conversations: one at the central level, and one that spans multiple meetings of the county's Youth Services Committee. I changed some of them slightly to make them more general. Feel free to use these questions when planning your own changes to SRP with your team!

Librarians with Disabilities: Accessibility in Action

Accessibility Series logo

Amanda M. Leftwich is currently a Circulation Supervisor at a small fine arts college in Philadelphia, PA. She tweets as @thelibmaven. 

As a person of color with visible and invisible disabilities, navigating librarianship has been a complex and oftentimes frustrating experience. Most conversations about equity and diversity in librarianship solely involve race or gender, but exclude people living with disabilities or chronic illness. Dealing with health concerns in a rigid environment such as libraries can seem impossible; however there are ways to thrive in the field with disability.

Understand your rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1991 & ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA)! Although these protections set in place by law they are under attack due to H.R. 620. It’s still important to learn about both laws. The ADA is the original law granting people with disabilities civil rights protections. The ADAAA expanded the terms of “disability” which previously had not counted learning disabilities under civil rights protections. Your disability may be under the protected class, but you have to learn the basics of the laws first.

Reasonable accommodation exists for a reason; use it. Under the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) policy employees with a disability have the legal right to request accommodations to perform their job duties. For example, employers providing changes to schedules, assistive technology, an interpreter, removing job duties that are deemed harmful to one’s disability, and moving office space are all examples of reasonable accommodations. Employees may request reasonable accommodation at any time (including the interview process). One must provide written notification of outlined restrictions from a medical professional. Although most librarians shyaway from the topic of reasonable accommodation, it shouldn’t be avoided if it’s needed to complete job tasks! Most requests can be filled cheaply and without much hassle to employers.

Don’t feel the need to apologize for your disability. Most librarians are used to working with few colleagues. This can create familiarity in the workplace. However, this doesn’t mean that anyone has to give detailed information about their health issues. The only person who should be concerned about your disability is your health care professional. Others will frequently ask questions (to the point of harassment) about your illness, especially those that are invisible. Quite frankly, it’s none of their business. You don’t have to prove nor should you feel guilty about having an illness while “looking perfectly healthy”. You do not need to explain anything related to your health to your colleagues, friends, neighbors, or anyone that you aren’t comfortable with providing.

Save your Spoons. Spoonies (anyone suffering from a chronic invisible illness) understand the importance of pacing themselves. I suffer from Meniere's Disease, an invisible chronic illness that impacts balance and hearing. Some days, I have enough spoons to complete all of my duties and tasks. Others, I only have one spoon just to get out of bed. For me, saving my spoons means not completing certain balance-heavy library projects (shifting, moving heavy carts, or anything that requires lots of walking around the Library, etc.) and on my “drop attack” days; it means calling out sick. Prior to being diagnosed with Meniere’s, I had to call out frequently due to issues with vertigo. I felt like a failure until my parents reminded me that “sick days are there for a reason”. I never used sick days prior, simply because I wasn’t sick. Not even for mental health days; this was a mistake. Sick days (and personal days) are there for a reason- they aid in you allowing your body time to recover from an episode, if necessary. If you need them due to illness (or mental health), TAKE THEM. Never be afraid to put your health ahead of your job.

Have compassion for yourself. We all know that one librarian that’s been with the Library since they “graduated from Library school”. The super dedicated, always dependable person ready to answer a reference question in a jiff. Most importantly, never called out sick a day in their career! As a spoonie, this will not be your testimony. Perfection does not exist. You’ll need to accept yourself at whatever stage in life you’re in. This will mean accepting the fact you won’t be able to control your illness. You are more than your illness! Remind yourself every day that your self-worth doesn’t revolve around your profession, but life outside of work.

Acknowledge that others won’t get it. Others will question your illness. What’s wrong with you? Are you really sick? You look fine to me. Unfortunately, questions and statements like these will continue to occur. In the face of chronic illness, most people have no idea what to say. This is not your problem. Only you understand how your disability affects you. Don’t concern yourself with the thoughts of others.

Get involved in the conversations about accessibility. Unfortunately, the conversations about inclusiveness and access oftentimes exclude librarians with disabilities. Organizations like the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) and ADA Center aim to train and promote scholarship for disability justice. Although these organizations don’t fall under librarianship, we can carry the conversations had in those spaces into our field. Write about your experiences as a disabled librarian to library blogs (this one), chats, discussion boards, etc. Follow disability justice leaders such as Mia Mingus, Emily Ladua, Lydia Brown, and Haben Girma to get involved in a larger discussion about accessibility to bring these ideas into the libraries.

Compassion in libraries shouldn’t only be directed towards patrons we serve, but also the librarians and paraprofessionals working in these settings. Don’t be afraid to challenge the norm and fight for your place in the field. There’s more than enough room for all of us, including those with disabilities.

Want more on accessibility? Click here for more in the Accessibility Series.

Are you a disabled/neurodivergent/chronically ill library staff member who would like to guest post? Click here for more information on writing a post of the accessibility. Posts on accessibility by abled members of the library community are not accepted.

The Accessibility Series was made possible by a grant from Awesome Without Borders.

Youth Services in Action: Here's What We Do

Black text on a green background: "Youth Services: Here's What We Do"

When libraries consider disbanding age-specific departments, it particularly affects youth services in a way that it might not in other sections of the library. This tweet at Librarian Problems, which right now has 700 engagements between Twitter and Tumbler, plays on this idea: Homer Simpson gasps as he's met with a room full of babies; this GIF is accompanied by the phrase, "When a reference librarian wanders into storytime". In the episode this GIF comes from, the room full of babies is silent save for their pacifiers; in storytime, as we know, this is not the case.

 It's a funny concept, which is why so many liked, retweeted, and reblogged it. But those engagements and the comments it's garnered definitely tell me: it's funny because it's true. 

I have no doubt that plenty of libraries disband age-specific departments in a supportive way that values the strengths of all staff, and I've even seen it happen at libraries in my cooperative. Heck, my program is doing this when we soon on-board our new Youth Services Librarian, as the two positions were originally conceived as "Early Literacy" and "School Services" but will now work in a more collaborative, project-based way. The pearl clutcher in me, however, is ever the cynic and the skeptic.

There are lots of things to consider when thinking about the design of services to youth in your public librarian, and librarians much smarter than me have already begun to tackle them. Karen Jensen of Teen Librarian Toolbox and Melissa Depper of Mel's Desk have some awesome, required reading threads. Kendra Jones started a Facebook conversation about a recently announced PLA Conference session; the post and comments are edifying and worth a read. Tess Prendergast wrote an open letter to PLA  about it complete with a citation list, and was able to get the title changed, at least. Please follow those links. I'll be here.

I am so grateful that my cooperative has a position like mine, and that it's valued so much we are expanding our program. I do coordinating things, but I also take advocating for youth services and our youth services library staff seriously. I try my best to help our library staff break down barriers to youth access and provide the highest quality services to youth possible. It's a job that can be tough but I'm honored that the trust has been bestowed upon me to do it.

Perspective of an Autistic Children's Librarian at the ALSC Blog

Accessibility series logo

I am so, so excited to share that there is an #actuallyautistic perspective on the ALSC blog. This has been a nearly a decades-old wish come true. I want to thank ALSC blog coordinator Mary Voors for her thoughtful consideration through this process, and the autistic librarian contributor--writing under the name Justin Spectrum-- for sharing their story.

"There Goes Your Hero": An Accessibility Series Post

Accessibility series logo

Chris Frantz is the artistic mastermind behind my blog design and the Accessibility Series logo (check out her amazing business, On a Roll Designs). I've known Chris Frantz for 20 years, mostly as an acquaintance; but it wasn't until we reconnected on Facebook that we became closer. I found out over Facebook that she has cerebral palsy, like me-- or, as people with cerebral palsy on the Internet call it, we're both "ceeps"*. When I first thought of the Accessibility Series, the very first post I ever wanted was this one, originally published by her  on her personal website in November 2013.

 “What are you going to call me?”

I looked up, probably from reading celebrity gossip. “What’s that?”

“On the blog,” my husband clarified. “What are you going to call me?”

It was a fair question, and one I’d been posing to myself since I’d decided to start this project. See, in my years on LiveJournal he came to be known as Mr. Beets, a takeoff on my nom de pixels “Bears Eat Beets.” (FACT.) On Facebook I usually refer to him as “my better half,” “mah boo,” and other similarly corny titles. In real life he gets tagged with all sorts of affectionate nicknames, most of ‘em scatological in nature.

His query prompted all sorts of suggestions from both of us, and eventually devolved into us reciting the epic list of David Ryder’s many monikers from Mystery Science Theater 3000 (which tends to happen with more discussions in our house than it probably should HAHA IF THAT'S POSSIBLE).

By the end we still didn’t really have an answer. I couldn’t come up with anything good on my own, either.

I’m going to call him Brandon. Because that’s his name.

Brandon is a lot of things. He’s a dork of the highest order. He’s a pub trivia dream teammate. He’s a sabermetrics devotee. An engineer. A borderline socialist. He’s the owner of an insanely good head of hair and he’s our fat cat’s favorite cuddle buddy. He’s both a mature appreciator of meta humor and a giggly seven-year-old when it comes to fart jokes. For me personally, he’s a lover (as much as I hate that word), a protector, a fan, and a support. He’s a caretaker - I don't just mean he hugs me when I'm down or makes me soup when I’m  sick; my well-being and the fulfillment of just about every basic need is essentially in his hands. Most of all he’s the best best friend - he listens, he makes me laugh harder than anyone else, and he calls me on my shit.

What he is not is a hero. 

Let's Talk About the Future at ALA Midwinter

Remember a few weeks ago, when I talked about librarianing is a political act and how some work I had been involved in lately has encouraged me to remain an ALA member for the time being?

Remember how I had my reservations about accepting an appointment to the Center for the Future of Libraries Advisory Group?

Well, I am here to tell you how stoked I am about something that the Center for the Future of Libraries has in store for the ALA Midwinter Meeting this January in Atlanta:

The Symposium on the Future of Libraries.

Yes, I know. But check it out: this Symposium is jam-packed full of meaningful and doable learning experiences and calls to action. Here are a few of the sessions I'm going to drag you to if you're ever in my general vicinity at the Midwinter Meeting... er, may be of interest to you, Reader:

The Future of Librarian Labor
Emily Drabinski, Coordinator of Library Instruction, LIU Brooklyn
Eamon Tewell, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Long Island University, Brooklyn
In an era of unprecedented attacks on teaching and learning in higher education, how can librarians mobilize to advocate for their own wages and working conditions, which can be understood as the learning conditions of students? This session will explore labor issues in academic libraries in the context of a future marked by increasing management control. Participants will explore strategies including union struggle and cross-sector organizing as modes for working against transfers of institutional power from libraries and classrooms to administration. This session will be of interest to academic librarians in both public and private sectors.

Think Universal…To Design Accessible Services for All
Patrice Johnson, Librarian, Chicago Public Library
Pat Herndon, Director, Georgia Library for Accessible Statewide Services at Georgia Public Library Service
Jill Rothstein, Managing Librarian, Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, New York Public Library
The most popular technologies (Apple’s iPhone and iPad) build accessibility into the beginning of their design, creating experiences that are beneficial to all users. When it comes to our own future planning, libraries need to design innovative programs and accessible services that are inclusive of people with disabilities from the first stages of planning. This session will explore insights, strategies, partnerships, and resources that libraries can implement with a focus on serving those with visual and physical disabilities.

Building Civic Engagement with a Civic Lab
Amy Koester, Youth & Family Program Supervisor, Skokie Public Library
Amita Lonial, Learning Experiences Manager, Skokie Public Library
Disappearing local news sources and today’s polarized political landscape mean the library’s role as a space for civic engagement is increasingly important. The Civic Lab at Skokie Public Library is a pop-up library that encourages dialogue and engagement on the issues that affect our community. Featuring all-ages collections and resources on major and emerging issues, including climate change and Black Lives Matter, the flexible, mobile space is used for formal and informal programming for families, teens, and adults. Learn about how this type of pop-up space can invigorate civic discourse and literacy in the library and the community.

Towards A Less Normative Future in Library Services to Children/Teens
Angie Manfredi, Head of Youth Services, Los Alamos County Library System
When we envision the future of libraries, youth services librarians must actively push for de-centralizing Whiteness, particularly in our collection development. This session will help librarians critically evaluate not just the media they purchase for their youth patrons but also the sources that review it. The future of libraries, and of library collections, must reflect the reality of the communities we serve and we, as gatekeepers, need to be advocates for change.

Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Recommendations: An Equitable Future for ALA and the Profession
Leslie Scott, Library Director, Prosper Community Library (Texas)
Melissa Cardenas-Dow
Martin Garnar, Dean, Kraemer Family Library, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
Lessa Pelayo-Lozada, Young Readers Librarian, Palos Verdes Library District
LaJuan Pringle, Branch Manager, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library
ALA’s Task Force on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion has developed a plan and strategic actions to build more equity, diversity, and inclusion among our members, the field of librarianship, and our communities. As these recommendations shift to an Implementation Working Group in 2016-2018, we will need to continue the public and honest conversations that help keep these issues at the forefront. Task Force and Working Group members will present the recommendations in the context of the future of the United States and will ask for participation from attendees to help advance our profession to reflect and represent our nation’s ever-increasing diversity. All library workers will benefit from learning how they can contribute to this important work.

21st Century Library Ethics
Sarah Houghton, Director, San Rafael Public Library
As the world goes increasingly digital, the climate surrounding information politics becomes increasingly convoluted. Libraries are caught in the heart of these tangled issues. When was the last time you looked at the ethical statements of our profession? When you sign contracts and revise policies are you keeping those ethics in mind? As you develop programs for your users are you thinking about how to fold in the ethics of freedom of information and privacy? If not, now's a great time to start.

Crafting Successful Youth Civic Engagement in Information Spaces
Chaebong Nam, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Government, Harvard University
Danielle Allen, Professor, Department of Government/Graduate School of Education, Director, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University
Libraries are the key information space for young people to engage in a range of connected digital experiences. How can information professionals help young people leverage libraries to craft successful civic engagement—not only physical space but human, organizational, and social resources¬¬? To address this issue, in part, participants will learn of an action-reflection frame for youth participation developed by MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on Youth Participatory Politics. Then, they can discuss practical steps to infuse the frame into practice. Library professionals who closely work with youth are welcome, especially youth services librarians and school librarians.

...Right?! Right?!
The whole schedule is online here.

If you missed a chance to submit a proposal for Midwinter, never fear! Another Symposium is in the works for Annual.

One more thing:

Interested in exploring a project that will result in a deliverable to help inform the future of libraries? Apply for the Center for the Future of Libraries fellowship. Deadline is January 15, 2017!

Holidays and Libraries: Rethinking Our Programming

UPDATE 11/2019 to address some related comments:
One thing I want to make clear, and may add this to the post, is that it isn't intended to, say, shame a library asst who's been told they'll lose their job if they don't have a Santa program.


Safety =/= comfort, but stay safe.

There are small things we can all do to work toward/into inclusion. It's important that fear of a little pushback doesn't immobilize us. It's important to distinguish feelings of discomfort and literally placing yourself in an unsafe scenario--which can be difficult, especially if you've have a background in trauma. We all need to find our own way forward. These are just some ideas of mine.


This week I was honored to present at the New Jersey Library Association Conference in Atlantic City. I have a few posts mulling around in my head about it, including at least one more really heavy one. For ease of posting something soon, however, I'd like to share my contribution to the panel "Rethinking Holidays & Cultural Celebrations in Libraries" that I presented with the lovely Dr. LaShauna Dean, Assistant Professor of Mental Health and Addiction Counseling at William Paterson University. 

This will probably read harsher than many of my other posts, but understand I am very passionate about the topic of inclusion.

I do not celebrate holidays in the library and do not suggest running holiday programming.

I know how I sound to some of you: I’m no fun, and I don’t like whimsy, and I Scrooge around shushing carolers.

What is a Librarian: An Unsolicited Rant

Yesterday I checked my phone in the morning to find that Book Riot posted an article on non-degreed librarians, and how they have value as humans.

As I read it, that’s what this article was about.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, at the number of negative comments that this article received.

I could write here the many arguments I’ve had when this topic comes up and the comment section explodes: about the process to become a brewmaster and how there are people who run breweries or make beer who are NOT brewmasters, technically (they are usually called head brewers). Or I could talk about the one time a child ran me down in a grocery store calling for her “library teacher” and how I said hi to her rather than explaining that my teacher certification lapsed years ago (and even then, I was never certified to teach in THAT state). Or even how people who are nurses for their entire careers have to take an updated test every few years to prove that they can still Be a Nurse Good; so please stop with “librarians are the doctors/para-professionals are the nurses” because last time I checked it was not a universal requirement for even librarians to keep up with certifications (I mean, it may be that April will arrive and I will have spent 5 years in libraries and I will be summoned to engage in a Hunger Games-style competition using only the Dublin Core, so stay tuned). But instead I want to hit a bit closer to home here, parking this officially in Unsolicited Rant territory.

This was not the only thing I saw shared on social media yesterday. Another widely shared link was to a Libraries Transform post. The supporting text, when shared by ALA, that accompanies this post is “Librarians are early literacy experts!” This was shared on Facebook, at the time of this writing, 496 times. That many shares tells me that a lot of librarians agree with it. And before I recognized the funny juxtaposition that inspired this post, I was kinda pissed.

Building Relationships from the Ground Up: An Interview with a Natural

In my last post, I came to the conclusion that one foundation of self-care is creating and maintaining healthy boundaries in working relationships.

Having moved across the country in the past year, I’m in the process of creating and maintaining an all-new set of relationships. And if my social media newsfeeds are to be believed, making IRL friends as an adult is something that a lot of people struggle with.

Three people throwing their fists in the air in unison.
Text reads, "Team friendship!"

To help me start with this reflection, I looked to the person in my life that is probably the best relationship-builder I know: my spouse, Caleb. Nearly all the people I now call friends are people I’ve met through Caleb. He has been asked to stand at weddings several times and he’s a godfather to two. His best friends are those he’s been friends with since FOREVER. And their friendships are not just of convenience, since we’ve moved so far from his hometown in Florida and they still keep in touch frequently. He tells basically every FB friend “happy birthday” and while I don’t understand it he sees is as an important Facebook Friend Role.

Valentines for Homebound Outreach

I share an office with 8 other people spanning two departments. Funnily enough (or “understandably enough”, still undecided) three people who are technically in the same library department as me make up Homebound Services. Together, seven of us are Outreach and Youth Services (or “Outreach”, for short).

If you were to visit our office on any given day, you might catch one of our Homebound staff members reading aloud a list of available romance novels, describing each cover. Or they might read summary after summary of movies a patron might want (I like to play the game of “guess the title” to myself). Their reader’s advisory phone calls are peppered with conversations about their patron’s daily lives.

And sometimes, you might overhear them say something that sparks this particularly popular, caps-locked tweet.

5 Simple Questions to Inspire Your Service

I'm in my fourth week on the new job, and am really starting to feel like 1) I'm part of something great, and more importantly 2) I CAN DO THIS. Oh and also 3) holy-crap-I-live-in-Oregon-how-did-that-even-happen. That last feeling is mostly on my drives through the county when I actually take in the incomparable beauty of my new home. It will probably last for awhile.

One of the things I had planned to do from the beginning was try to meet every one of the youth librarians I'll work alongside and tour their space. In the middle of summer reading. I know: I'm already The Worst; it can only go up from here! But truthfully, I have been so fortunate to be welcomed warmly and have scheduled sit-down chats with nearly all of the member youth librarians, with a last few ironing out a time.

I wanted to share the questions I'm asking to see which member librarians I haven't met yet read my blog and will be prepared when I see them. Just kidding. Clearly. I actually wanted to share them because I've found them to produce such a wealth of information and have inspired so many ideas that I think everyone should do this with their own colleagues immediately, whether you've known each other for decades or if you're just starting out; if you're a student or unemployed, you can ask these of your mentors or squirrel them away for when you're a new hire.