Cultural Responsiveness in the Library: Centering Equity Beyond Collection Development

As Chicago Public Schools prioritized equity at the core of its educational work, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for the Chicago Public School Libraries team to immediately amplify our connections to equity work in the following areas: collection development policies, access, metadata, and content.

From designing and implementing an updated collection development policy that is rooted in equity, identifying internal and external partnerships to amplify the work, strategic curricular collection development strategies, and engaging in professional development strategies of ebook use with different district stakeholders including vendors, principals, coaches, and teachers. Finally, we will share tips and tricks, what to do and what not to do when developing systemic competencies around a resource that has historically been rejected by the librarian world.

By the time we close our session, librarians, school or district administrators, university and public librarian leaders, and partnering vendors will be inspired and prepared to build a successful and robust ebook collection that can be accessed by all learners at all times, leading the way in equitable digital resources. Participants will learn the first steps to designing collection development policies with equity at their core, updating metadata to accurately and authentically reflect the communities the catalog represents, selecting and circulating digital resources, and more.