If you’ll be attending OLA’s Super Conference this year, here’s a list of sessions that support diversity in librarianship:

How to Lead White People
Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 10:30 am – 12:00 pm
This is a workshop specifically for Indigenous and racialized minorities. Join us for a conversation on the following topics: As women and men of colour, how can we effectively lead subordinates and colleagues who are white? As racialized minorities working in colonial institutions, what are some best practices for self-care? As Indigenous professionals, how can we effectively lead people through change without tip-toeing around the fragility of white folks?

Talking About Whiteness and Racism: The Development of the White Fragility Book Club
Wednesday, January 29, 2020 at 1:00 pm – 2:15 pm
Are you interested in creating programming that gets your staff and community thinking, learning, and talking about whiteness and racism? In 2019, the Ryerson University Library did just that for their library staff. This session will explore the developmental process and the lessons learned from this endeavour.

Cultural Diversity in Library Leadership
Thursday, January 30, 2020 at 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Becoming a library leader can be challenging. The additional barriers experienced by culturally diverse librarians may make the challenge seem insurmountable. In this interactive workshop, learn about the skills required for library leadership, mentorship programs that support culturally diverse librarians, and experiences of successful culturally diverse leaders. If you attended this session, please complete a brief session evaluation here.
*This session is presented by a ViMLoC member and includes some leadership experiences from other ViMLoCers.

How White is Your Collection?
Thursday, January 30, 2020 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm
Speakers will reflect on their recent experience tackling a diversity audit of adult collections at a mid-sized rural public library, in an open discussion on the lack of diversity in public library collections and recent trends in collection development.

How We Recruit Academic Librarians: Hiring Policies and Practices that Promote (or Don’t) a More Diverse and Inclusive Workforce
Thursday, January 30, 2020 2:50 pm – 3:30 pm
Diversity and inclusion have long been core values in academic librarianship, yet the profession continues to lack in diversity. Which hiring policies and practices promote a more diverse and inclusive workforce? Which create barriers? We will share initial findings from interviews conducted with HR professionals at CARL institutions.

Canadian-Sikh Heritage Resources
Thursday, January 30, 2020 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
This session is to highlight the OLA project with the Sikh Museum of Canada in which the OLA created a resource list and detailed lessons plans to support collection development in school libraries and to support libraries for Sikh Heritage Month and beyond. Furthermore, this session will highlight 13 lessons written for grades K-8 using the various resources and with clear connections to the Ontario Curriculum. If you attended this session, please complete a brief session evaluation here.

Designing a Library Learning Commons Through an Equity Lens and Becoming an Equity Leader
Friday, January 31, 2020 at 9:00 am – 9:40 am
In this session, attendees will reaffirm their belief in the importance of libraries in a community. We will critically think about how to design and create a library through an equity lens. Opportunities will be provided to reflect on our role as equity leaders and critical book selection. If you attended this session, please complete a brief session evaluation here.

The Diversity Audit: A Systematic Approach to Creating Diverse Collections
Friday, January 31, 2020 at 9:50 am – 10:30 am
Are you committed to creating an inclusive library that represents and inspires the full diversity of your patrons? Learn how to plan and complete a diversity audit, how to assess the results, and how to use that information to make diversity an everyday part of your collections policies and priorities.