UC Libraries Forum 2021: Leading with Innovation, Stronger through Collaboration

This presentation will discuss the history of redlining, explore how it shaped and continues to shape the contours of interconnected inequalities (wealth, racial, environmental, and health), and analyze the persistent connections between race, real estate, and health. The Mapping Inequality site provides researchers with a presentation of redlining policies in a geographic area, and a window to the policies that shape community demographics to this day.

https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=10/32.953/-117.438&city=san-diego-ca

A panel discussion with the Council of University Librarians of UC Libraries Systemwide Plans and Priorities.  

In the wake of a series of events, including the death of George Floyd last summer, the entire country yet again, started to discuss the challenges of racial justice in our communities. In response to this ongoing conversation was the decision by the UC Berkeley Library leadership to formally create a taskforce to look into the issue of racial justice in our Library environment, services and practices. The Task Force on Racial Justice is composed of 13 members of the UC Berkeley Library community, representing a wide range of departments, and inclusive of staff, librarians and a faculty member.

The task force convenes this panel as an opportunity to share insights into the process, challenges and opportunities inherent in doing this sort of work in a Library organizational structure. We will provide staff and librarians to discuss the issues we identified in our work; the challenges we faced and the strategies we used in narrowing our focus with such a large and complicated topic. Given the novelty of returning to campus in-person and rebooting Library services, we will also discuss the impacts of general overcommitment to projects and the additional emotional labor of working on this sort of reform work amidst other competing obligations. We hope sharing our experiences can be educational to our fellow UC colleagues, and recommendations will inspire others to adopt similar approaches and continue the advance of racial justice work in their own communities; and/or partner with parallel efforts across campuses, and throughout the UC System.

How are early-career researchers using Zotero? Which features do they consider to be advanced and would our including them in a future workshop be helpful? What common features are they not using? What are the differences and similarities across the disciplines?

These are the questions we sought to answer by interviewing a dozen of our campus graduate students with the help of a LAUC mini-grant to fund small incentives. We will share our recommendations for Zotero workshops based on our research.

This presentation will distill a book length study on this topic by the presenter that was published in 2020. The topic deals with library services for those with ID, a population whose case has large implications for the profession as a whole. ID is defined as a condition of intelligence quotient (IQ) of 70 or below together with significant difficulties in learning, communication, and self-care. Insofar as diversity, equity, and inclusion involve redressing disadvantages, no population is more deserving of attention than those with ID. However, they also represent almost insuperable challenges to serve. Notwithstanding technological change, the mission of libraries remains to provide textual information: reading. So how does one serve individuals who not only have limited or nonexistent reading skills but face large obstacles to acquiring those skills? Coupled with a lack of training in special education together with a pervasive strain imposed by reduced budgets, the difficulties facing the library are considerable. On the other hand, ignoring this population implies that diversity has a limit and that certain groups fall outside the library’s area of responsibility. This dilemma promises to define the profession’s capabilities and values. After reviewing both the history of library services and the social and educational plight of those with ID, the presentation will summarize a case study of the first book club for those with ID at an academic library. This club has modeled itself on a grass-roots initiative in special education called The Next Chapter Book Club. Its rationale will appear familiar to librarians as a version of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a prominent topic of library conferences and literature, which promotes different learning styles. The talk will provide a detailed history, methodology, assessment methods, data, and best practices derived from the experience. These practices, spanning issues of collection, pedagogy, and research practice will appear surprisingly familiar to librarians. They underscore the conclusion that despite a history of underperformance in this area, librarians are well-equipped to serve this historically marginalized population and, in doing so, validate their core principles of service and their expanded commitment to instruction.

Presentation on archiving email records using ePADD.

Tens of thousands of HathiTrust volumes are closed for reading access simply because they lack the metadata necessary for HathiTrust’s automated rights algorithm to make a confident assessment. In the spring of 2020, HathiTrust’s Copyright Review Manager eyed an opportunity and stepped into gear to create a simple project that would enable volunteers from HathiTrust’s member institutions to open up more HathiTrust volumes for reading access while working from home due to Covid19 closures. And the Publication Date Project was born!

Three staff from the UC Santa Cruz library volunteered to join the project and were trained by a CDL staff member who is an expert reviewer in HathiTrust’s Copyright Review program.

Our lightning talk will focus on our experience working on this project.

Presentation on usage data for HathiTrust's Emergency Temporary Access Service (ETAS).