The theme of the 2020 ARL Fall Forum was “Leading Libraries toward Anti-racism in a Changing World.” ARL President John Culshaw reiterated five recommendations from Safiya Noble’s Blixrud Memorial Lecture:
- Reject the neutral position as if it has no consequence
- Become deeply educated on the pressing social issues of race, gender, and economic class that structure so much of our lives
- Call for greater emphasis on critical theory and anti-racist education in iSchools and library programs
- Demand repair/restoration from “big tech”
- Help yourself and others to get educated on tech harms: organize, vote, stay active, and never give up!
The following articles, books, conferences, statements, videos, and websites were shared by participants during the 2020 ARL Fall Forum.
Articles
“Diversity Work, Interrupted,” by Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, October 7, 2020,
https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/10/07/colleges-cancel-diversity-programs-response-trump-order.
“Federal Judge Largely Blocks Trump’s Diversity Training Order,” by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Higher Ed Dive, October 7, 2020, https://www.educationdive.com/news/3-colleges-pause-diversity-efforts-over-trump-executive-order/586593/.
“Google Ad Portal Equated ‘Black Girls’ with Porn,” by Leon Yin and Aaron Sankin, The Markup, July 23, 2020, https://themarkup.org/google-the-giant/2020/07/23/google-advertising-keywords-black-girls.
“Screen New Deal: Under Cover of Mass Death, Andrew Cuomo Calls in the Billionaires to Build a High-Tech Dystopia,” by Naomi Klein, The Intercept, May 8, 2020, https://theintercept.com/2020/05/08/andrew-cuomo-eric-schmidt-coronavirus-tech-shock-doctrine/.
“Social Inequality Will Not Be Solved by an App,” by Safiya Umoja Noble, WIRED, March 4, 2018, https://www.wired.com/story/social-inequality-will-not-be-solved-by-an-app/.
“The Loss of Public Goods to Big Tech,” by Safiya Noble, Noema, July 1, 2020,
https://www.noemamag.com/the-loss-of-public-goods-to-big-tech/.
Books
Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media, by Sarah T. Roberts (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019), https://www.behindthescreen-book.com/.
From Generosity to Justice: A New Gospel of Wealth, by Darren Walker (New York: Ford Foundation, 2019), https://www.fordfoundation.org/just-matters/ford-forum/the-future-of-philanthropy/from-generosity-to-justice/.
Conferences
JCLC (Joint Conference of Librarians of Color), https://www.jclcinc.org/conference/2022/.
NCAAL (National Conference of African American Librarians), http://www.ncaal.org/.
Statements
“ALA Chapters Condemn Systemic Racism,” by Mariel Colbert, American Library Association, accessed February 9, 2021, http://www.ala.org/aboutala/ala-chapters-condemn-systemic-racism.
“ARL Member Libraries’ Statements on Systemic Racism and Oppression,” by Amy Yeager, Association of Research Libraries, June 26, 2020, https://www.arl.org/blog/arl-member-libraries-statements-on-systemic-racism-and-oppression/.
“Statements from Libraries and Library Organizations re: Racism, Black Lives Matter, and Increased Violence,” by Gary Price, infoDOCKET, June 1, 2020, https://www.infodocket.com/2020/06/01/statements-from-library-organizations-re-racism-and-increased-violence/.
“The Mellon Foundation Announces Transformation of Its Strategic Direction and New Focus on Social Justice,” by Vanessa Corrêa, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, June 30, 2020, https://mellon.org/news-blog/articles/mellon-foundation-announces-transformation-its-strategic-direction-and-new-focus-social-justice/.
Videos
“Dr. Dori Tunstall on Respectful Design: Models for Diversity, Inclusion, & Decolonization,” Mozilla YouTube channel, video, 1:05, streamed live August 18, 2020, https://youtu.be/oaesVb7O38s.
Mozilla Wiki Speaker Series, 2015– , https://wiki.mozilla.org/Speaker_Series#Upcoming_Speakers.
Websites
Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies, https://criticalracedigitalstudies.com/.
Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, https://www.cybercivilrights.org/.
Decolonizing Wealth Project, https://www.decolonizingwealth.com/.
Diversity Counts, http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/diversity/diversitycounts/divcounts.
Feminist AI, https://www.feminist.ai/.
Invisible Histories Project, https://invisiblehistory.org/.
Michelle Caswell, https://michellecaswell.org/.
National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, https://www.nadohe.org/.
Paradigm, https://www.paradigmiq.com/our-approach/.
Shift Collective: Equity by Design, https://www.shiftcollective.us/collective.
