Zoë McLaughlin

Disability Pride Month

Last week, MSU held the third iteration of its Disability Summit, a symposium on disability and accessibility on campus and in academia more generally. The event brings in a guest speaker to discuss their work and the summit’s theme. Then, depending on the year, there are other panels and related events.

At MSU, we celebrate Disability Pride Month during October, rather than in July, so that it falls during the school year, allowing for programming throughout the month to reach more students. Over the years, the Disability Summit has served to kick off the month before a variety of other accessibility- and disability-related events take place.

In the library, we put up a display of books in the lobby that can be checked out. As with all lobby displays that I’ve put up, I first selected eye-catching covers. I also tried to mix in authors with a variety of identities, both related to disabilities and with regard to other aspects of identity such as ethnicity or sexuality. I also like to provide a mix of traditional, “academic” books, alongside fiction and more “popular” nonfiction works. And, because I’m an area studies librarian at heart, I also like to bring in translated literature or perspectives from other countries when I can. I do a lot of lobby displays, but I’ve noticed that the displays for Disability Pride Month are particularly popular—whether because of the subject matter or the wide range of books I can showcase, I’m not sure.

At the Disability Summit, I set up a similar table, but geared toward more academic titles and especially books dealing with disabilities and access within academia. Because attendees can’t directly check out books from a display outside the library, I direct them to a LibGuide with a list of the books from both displays and a separate list of ebooks. This year, I also made a couple of mini zines showcasing recent acquisitions in the collection, which proved to be popular.

While I was manning the library’s table, my boss was in another room, running a popup sensory room. This both gave symposium attendees a space away from the hustle and bustle of the main room and also gave attendees a good idea of what our sensory room offers.

This year, the keynote speaker at was Dr. Sami Schalk, author of Black Disability Politics. There was also a panel of students reflecting on their experiences at MSU—always a highlight for me. Then, in the afternoon, there were various other concurrent talks. I was in and out during the morning sessions because I wanted to be at my table. In the afternoon, I stayed at the table and had several good conversations with passersby about accessibility and the library. Many of the symposium attendees were people who work on accessibility every day, but there were also people I met who came because they wanted to learn more and bring something back to their departments.

Ultimately, the symposium was a nice start to the month and hopefully also helped introduce people to what the accessibility unit in the library has to offer. Putting together a nice tabling set up, with books tailored to an event and mini zines, if I can manage to put them together, takes some work, but I’ve developed a system now and know what pieces I need to pull off an event. I find tabling really worthwhile, allowing me to interact with the library’s collection in a different way and giving me the opportunity to meet some new people and talk about the library.

What about you? Do you regularly attend events as a librarian and, if so, what kind of activities or set ups do you have?

A sensory room in the library

As the new semester gets ready to kick off, among other things, I’m getting ready for a new Project SEARCH intern. In preparation, we’re thinking about the work they might do at the library, including working on our sensory room.

Which brings me to the topic of this post: the sensory room itself. Before I get too deep into things, I want to add the disclaimer that I’ve only tangentially worked on the sensory room; it’s really my boss who’s done the bulk of the work, and all credit really should go to her. Now onto the post!

First of all, what is a sensory room? You can read the Wikipedia article on sensory rooms for yourself to learn more about some of the theory. The goals for our sensory room were to provide a place for library visitors to find stress relief, relax and work through emotions, and use items related to different sensory experiences.

To get this project going, we needed a combination of administrative buy-in, funding, and direction. Again, my supervisor was responsible for all of this while I mainly just looked on from afar. We luckily had a donor interested in funding a sensory room, so the preliminary phase of the project largely involved researching sensory rooms elsewhere to develop a plan for how ours would work. This included drawing up a set of guidelines for use of the room and a list of items to purchase.

You can find a complete list of what our sensory room includes online, but I’ll say here that it covers a wide range of items. There are different sorts of seating options, including a bean bug chair and the very popular egg chair (very similar to the Oberlin College Library womb chairs). There are also all sorts of lighting options, including a dimmer switch for the overhead lights, a light therapy lamp, and a hanging fiber optic light that changes colors. There are then all different kinds of sensory tools and toys, ranging from a weighted shoulder wrap to coloring books to a meditation tool in the shape of a sloth to a Bop It.

The room is decorated with sensory artwork—designs with different textures and colors. My boss also recently added a mosaic-like piece where visitors can follow numbers (in a paint-by-numbers style) and use different colored stickers to create a design together. We also have another space on the wall where visitors can provide feedback with sticky notes—people usually leave nice messages, which are fun to read.

As for how the room runs, we specifically have left it unlocked and without a reservation system, with the idea being that you won’t be able to predict when you’ll need a moment to regroup and therefore won’t be able to make a reservation ahead of time. The room allows for use by multiple people at a time, but there’s also the option to lock the door for thirty minutes. There are also sanitizing wipes available to sanitize anything that gets used.

In terms of maintenance, student workers or our Project SEARCH intern also sanitize high-touch items in the room. They are also responsible for completing an inventory of the room and noting down anything that’s missing or broken. In general, things going missing or breaking have been the biggest challenges we’ve had. We keep the room locked during the late-night hours to try to counteract this.

Overall, the sensory room has been a success. We’ve seen a lot of use just walking by and noting whether or not the door is closed. The feedback left by visitors has been nice to receive. We also have an online feedback form for those who don’t want to leave a sticky note. This feedback can be used to make changes to the room and to know what’s working well. Again, mostly from the sidelines, it’s been a project to get the sensory room up and running, but it has been worth it and does appear to be meeting a need.

As an aside, we also have sensory kits available for check out that work on similar principles. They include things like noise cancelling headphones, fidgets, and meditation tools. These are also inventoried and charged by student workers or interns, sometimes at the same time as they’re sanitizing and reorganizing the sensory room.

Do you have any unique or innovative spaces in your library? How were they set up? How have they been received? What challenges have you dealt with?

Musings on Search Committees

Job applications and interviews are nothing new to ACRLog. Violet finished off her series on being unemployed and interviewing in February, there are older posts about how to interview, and more recent ones about AI in the job search. Lately, though, I’ve been thinking about things from the other side: how do search committees work and how do librarians get hired?

Hailley wrote about chairing search committees and how that impacted her other work. There’s also a lot of scholarly literature out there about search committees broadly and about librarian search committees specifically, including how search committees can work more effectively together and how search committees can push to integrate better interviewing practices and more diversity.

I write from a slightly different angle, wondering what the point of search committees really is. Having served on several at this point and been interviewed by a few more, I find myself with questions about the entire system.

Search committees, in theory, make the process of filling an open position at a library a group effort. To an extent that undoubtedly varies between institutions, they determine the criteria to judge candidates, conduct multiple rounds of interviews, evaluate and discuss candidates, and more. This is unquestionably a lot of work, especially if the search committee is thinking critically, properly screening candidates, and consciously working to bring in diverse and qualified candidates for interviews.

Doing this work effectively will also likely involve hard discussions and compromise. Search committees must work through how everyone on the committee perceived each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses and what these impressions mean when paired with the library’s needs. This is not easy work, nor is it clear cut. Different candidates will bring different things to a job, and it’s entirely possible that more than one would be able to do the job well.

What, then, is a search committee to do? Listen to each other, compromise, and try to work out what recommendations to make in a situation where there is no single right answer—at least if it all goes well.

But herein also lies one of the oddities of the search committee (in my experience anyway—every institution is different and I have no idea what else might be happening out there, which is partially why I’m writing this post). The search committee makes recommendations, but ultimately decision-making power likely rests elsewhere, possibly with upper library management or possibly with the university librarian or someone in a similar role. It can then very much be opaque as to how final decisions are made.

From what I’ve gathered on the subject, based on talking to people, my own experiences, and combing through the literature (though, to be honest, there isn’t a lot out there), it seems that those who make the decisions do everything from simply rubber stamping a committee’s decision, to making it clear what their preference is, to simply thanking the committee for their work. All of this is down to the institution and the individual in charge.

But it all leaves me a little troubled. Again, search committees, when they work well, are doing a lot of work. What’s the point of this work if, ultimately, the committee is only advisory? What, especially, is the point of this work when the committee has made efforts to remove biases and seek out diverse candidates if the committee are not actually the ones who can hire said diverse candidates? Are all the papers about more effective search committees missing the mark?

Cynically, I might say yes, but I understand that there’s nuance. For the diversity question, inclusion has to start at the bottom—in this case the search committee—and rise up through all levels of the organization. It is not a waste of time for search committees to make interviews more accessible and to interview diverse candidates. University librarians are also not constantly placing their thumbs on the scales and making their own decisions. Or, when they are, perhaps they have good reason to do so.

But still—is this a good system? This is a question that, in the land of academia in which we exist, can probably only be answered at the level of an individual institution: are search committees working well in this individual library? And, if not, what would librarians at this institution want to see improved?

Change, of course, is hard. In this case, any sort of change or even analysis of the situation should likely come from conversations about how things are working, including what’s going well. Any proposals for change would eventually need to go through the proper channels, be that a working group, a steering committee, or something else.

I’m not advocating for a complete overhaul of the system (unless we think collectively that’s a good idea), but there might be small changes that could have a positive impact. For example, the role of the search committee could be made clear to candidates during their interview—are they making the decision or is someone else? To the extent it’s possible, other factors impacting a decision could be shared with the search committee, bearing in mind, of course, that there are things that need to remain confidential. All it might take is setting clear expectations for the search committee, those making hiring decisions, and the candidates. To me, it seems that much is left unspoken, but as so many of the details vary from library to library, being more explicit does not seem unwarranted.

What about you? How do search committees work at your institution? How have they worked when you’ve interviewed? What’s worked well? Is there anything you’d change?

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and the Library

At Michigan State University, we observe Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (Asian Pacific Islander Desi American and Asian Heritage Month on campus) from mid-March to mid-April because by the time May, the official month, rolls around, most students have left campus for the summer. This makes for an event-filled few weeks leading up to finals, but luckily besides a presentation in Hindi class, I don’t have to worry about finals and can focus on programming around APIDA/A Heritage Month events.

I’m the librarian for South and Southeast Asian studies, so technically don’t cover Asian American studies at all. That said, I do participate in activities with the APIDA/A staff organization and over time one thing has led to another and I’ve started doing more Asian American and Pasifika outreach. There’s obviously a lot of crossover between Asian studies and Asian American studies already, and I’ve also found that students really aren’t concerned with the divide between the two. This means that APIDA/A Heritage Month is a good outreach time for me, because there are events readily available for me to attend as a representative of the library and because I can get face-to-face time with people who might not otherwise be coming into the library or contacting me when I might be able to help.

Here’s what I’ve worked on so far this month, which is actually only a fraction of the slate of events and activities happening around campus:

Asian Pacific American Studies Annual Symposium

This is an annual event organized by the academic program on campus where students, faculty, and outside speakers share their research on Asian American and Pacific studies. I’ve tabled at the event for two years now.

At Asian and Asian American studies events where I table, I typically bring some books to give away, since I like to get Asian books back to the community. At any event where I table, I also bring handouts from the library either about what I can do to help library users or about other applicable library services (such as our library accessibility initiatives when I table at disability pride events). I usually make a themed reading list of some sort for the event, so I bring a sign with a link to that. If I have the time, I also like to make minizines with book recommendations around a theme: APALA Literature Award winners, for example, or recent Pasifika-authored books in the collection. Sometimes I also bring other small library giveaways, but usually by this point my table is pretty full.

This event is fun because I get to hear about current research projects and get to meet a lot of students. This year, I was scheduled to table for both days of the symposium and ended up bringing a whole different set of books the second day because I met some students with specific research interests that I could definitely cover.

APIDA/A Heritage Month Book Display

At the MSU library, we regularly have week-long book displays in the lobby featuring books that visitors passing by can pick up and check out. The idea is that they’re based around interesting and timely topics and don’t necessarily include dense academic works. In between topics such as cryptozoology and ancient astronauts, I slip in displays timed for various heritage or pride months, including APIDA/A Heritage Month. As with my tabling, I try to make an accompanying LibGuide that people can reference year-round. I also sometimes break out the minizines if I have any that are particularly relevant.

Asian Pacific American Student Organization’s Speculative Futures Event

This was another standard tabling experience for me, but I was particularly excited about it because the student organization invited me to come—this time it wasn’t a case of me cold emailing organizers and hoping for the best. This event was also fun because it was held at the campus museum, right across the street from the library, so I got to wheel my supplies across the road and didn’t have to worry about lugging all my supplies to and from my car. It’s also always really fun to see what kind of an event the students pull together.

Upcoming Events

I have a few more events on the horizon: a study break organized by the Asian Pacific American Studies Program and another lobby display in May for the national Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. And then it will be time to regroup for the APALA Literature Awards Banquet, but more on that later.

Do you incorporate any campus events into your outreach work or other library programming? Do you have any tips to share?

A bit about ADA Title II preparations

It’s March, which means the ADA Title II deadline for large institutions is looming near. I’m mainly the South and Southeast Asia librarian here at Michigan State, but I also spend roughly 25% of my time on accessibility, meaning that Title II is top of mind for me right now.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects people with disabilities from discrimination. In places like libraries, this means making collections and services available and accessible to all users. The ADA has been in place since 1990—it isn’t new—but there have been some recent changes, especially with regard to electronic resources, that we’ve been paying attention to.

I plan to talk about my own experiences here, so note that this post isn’t an all-inclusive guide. For more on Title II and libraries that isn’t from me, see these other articles and resources:

Electronic Resources Accessibility

At MSU, one facet of our response to Title II has been focusing on web accessibility. This means making sure that library users can access, read, and use library webpages and other electronic materials. Perhaps the most obvious example is making sure that screen readers can properly process webpages, but this covers a lot more, including captions on videos, color contrast in diagrams, and more.

And this doesn’t cover only library webpages; it includes anything that the library links to, meaning databases and other sorts of electronic materials. While the accessibility team as a whole has been focusing on much more than just e-resources vendors, this has been my big focus: trying to get language about accessibility into our licenses, ideally covering what would happen if a library user finds that a resource is inaccessible.

The BTAA’s Library Accessibility Working Group has some sample license language to use with vendors, which is what we start with. Then comes a process of negotiation, taking into account many factors including how critical a resource is and what, exactly, the vendor wants to change about our originally proposed license language. Lately, we’ve ended some negotiations by agreeing to revised license language and informing vendors that we’ll be revisiting accessibility when it comes time to renew a product.

The second part of all this negotiation is keeping track of the licenses and other information about accessibility that the vendor provides, such as a specific contact person or a VPAT. To do this, we’re storing information in our ILS. We use FOLIO, which is not without its hiccups but has been very useful for our purposes. In FOLIO, we’ve been able to create internal fields where we can record different types of accessibility information including current license terms. This is helpful when a remediation request does come up: we can easily check on our options instead of searching through multiple different people’s inboxes.

International Vendors

I have contacted a fair number of US-based vendors, who are aware of the changes to the ADA, but, because of the other 75% of my job, I have also taken on contacting international vendors. The ADA is an American law, but there are analogous laws in other regions, one of which is the European Accessibility Act (EAA). This act also covers online accessibility and applies to all of the European Union, so it has been useful to refer to when talking to vendors.

Of course, we also have vendors that are located neither in the US nor the EU, and negotiating with them often involves a back and forth. Being able to point to both the ADA and the EAA has been helpful in explaining to vendors why working on accessibility is important and how many potential customers this impacts.

How it’s Going

These sorts of conversations and negotiations are not something we started recently. We’ve been doing very similar work for years, going through our high-impact vendors, but the changes to the ADA have heightened our focus. Comparing recent responses to those from a few years ago, particularly from international vendors, there has been a marked shift. Many more vendors are receptive to discussing accessibility and to including accessibility in license language. There have even been vendors who refused to add in anything about accessibility a few years ago that have now accepted our proposed language without comment.

I won’t pretend that this hasn’t been a lot of work, both figuring out where licenses and subscriptions stand and then working with each individual vendor, but I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made. Most importantly, this directly impacts users, making library resources accessible and more usable for all, both those with disabilities and those without.

Are you also working on reactions to Title II at your library? How have things been going? Do you have any tips that you’d like to share?