Community NotesBeyond standard diversity trainings, low level adventurer librarians need a more robust skill set to battle our society’s Beholders -- racism, sexism, homophobia, and other discrimination. Anti-oppressive practices (AOP) grapple with power inequities that uphold discriminatory structural forces. This session will discuss libraries’ existing efforts towards AOP, which currently focus on the individual level, and participants will explore ideological and institutional possibilities.
This workshop will start with an introduction to new concepts, but will mostly focus on small group breakouts. Participants will use a zine-style workbook that supplements the discussion and personal reflection in order to relate these concepts to their specific environment. The take aways for this workshop are not solutions that can be easily realized, as culture change is a slow and arduous process. The first steps in moving forward are recognizing the issues, building a community on shared values, and exploring ideas and solutions, all of which are the goals of the session. While the adventurers will not be able to slay the Beholder after this workshop, we aim to shine a light on the monsters so each player can go back to their home base and start talking about it.
