Resources for April 29 AIIP presentation: Moving Beyond Hope

Today I'm giving the Roger Summit Lecture Award lecture at the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP) Annual Conference. My topic is "Moving Beyond Hope" and I'm focusing on diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, acceptance, and belonging. Below are links to specific Digitization 101 blog posts and other resources I want the group to have. 

Blog Posts

• Digitization 101: (2020-2021)
• The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff, part 1 
• The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff, part 2 
• The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff, part 3 
  
• The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff, part 4 
  
• The Struggle to Diversify Library Staff, part 5
•  Resources about Racism.
• The Art of Listening. 
  

Other Resources

• Megan W. Gerhardt, et al. "Harnessing the Power of Age Diversity." Harvard Business Review. March 2, 2022.
• Harvard Human Resources. Glossary of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIB) Terms.
• Tufts. Anti-Racism Resource Guide.
• MSW@USC. (2020) Diversity Toolkit: A Guide to Discussing Identity, Power and Privilege.
   

AIIP Pre-conference conversation with Jennifer Burke

As part of Association of Independent Information Professionals' (AIIP) annual conference, I am giving the Roger Summit Award Lecture, where I'll be speaking on Moving Beyond Hope in terms of diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and belonging. That occurs on April 29. On April 13, I sat down with for a live online conversation with Jennifer Burke to talk about the conference and my presentation. In addition that, we had fun talking about elements of an in-person conference people might incorporate into their virtual conference attendance. The recording is below.

Jennifer used StreamYard for this interview, which I had not used before. People were able to interact with us on StreamYard itself, and the stream was also carried live on Facebook and LinkedIn. StreamYard looks like something many people and organizations could use to stream live events. I like that it does have a free option, although clearly Jennifer has a paid account!

The Art of Gathering

The book, The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (paid link), has been mentioned on recent episodes of the T is for Training podcast (which I'm a part) and has been bubbling up in other conversations, so it seems to be something I need to pay attention to.  This topic also seems important as we are holding some gatherings for the first time since the pandemic began without thinking about whether these gatherings need to change.

In our pre-pandemic world, meetings, staff retreats, conferences, weddings, retirement parties, etc., were held regularly. Often they took the form of the previous iteration of that event, because that format seemed to work well. Rarely did we have time or energy to re-imagine what that event should be. As everything moved to being held remotely, many events were held online in ways that mimicked their previous in-person versions.  For me, it was thrilling to see organizations think about what an event really should be - especially in a virtual form - and make changes, perhaps through experimentation.  As we're moving back to in-person events, some organizations are thinking about what that in-person even should be now. What was learned by being online? Who is the event for? What do people really want? What is the need? What parts of the event are unnecessary? This is where the work of author Priya Parker comes in.

What has stood out to me immediately from Parker is understanding the purpose of a gathering. In some cases, that means pushing aside the normal purpose (e.g., staff retreat) and realize the real purpose for gathering together now.  For a staff retreat, for example:

• What really needs to be achieved? 
• What do you and the staff want to get out of the time together? 
• Perhaps retreat isn't the correct word. What should it be called?
• Maybe this isn't for the entire staff or maybe its for a larger group than the staff. Who should attend?
  

All of that is driven by knowing the true why.

Besides the book, Parker has a number of YouTube videos and I've placed some of them below. They might be a good place to begin exploring this topic.  In addition, Parker has two free guides available on her website, which you may find helpful in thinking about this: (updated 10/24/2022)

• The New Rules of Gathering
• Virtual Gatherings in the Time of Corona
  

I encourage you to stop before your next event (gathering) and think about the purpose. Just that one step - out of many - could make the event more meaningful. Don't assume that what you did before is what you need to do now. And then be sure to communicate that purpose to everyone who is invited. Be blunt! Please do not assume that they will intuit the purpose or understand how the purpose has changed.

Video Resources:

• Short Book Summary of The Art of Gathering How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker (2 min.)
• 3 steps to turn everyday get-togethers into transformative gatherings (TED Talk)  by Priya Parker (10 minutes)
  
• Rethinking Gatherings In A Post-Quarantine World, interview with Priya Parker (11 minutes)
• Tips for Hosting Better Virtual Events from Priya Parker (5 minutes)
• The Art of Gathering with Priya Parker (7 minutes)
  

Diversifying your presentation images

This has come up in several conversations recently, so I think it is worthy of a post. 

It is important that the images of people we use in presentations - and on our websites - show the diversity that exists in our communities and among those that we serve.  When I can, I rely on photographs that I've taken, which means I can use them as I want. However, that is a limited set of images. Thankfully, some groups are making diverse images available using various Creative Commons licenses.

I have bookmarked several image collections in Diigo and you are welcome to explore them. As I find more, I add them to Diigo. The image on the right is from Humaans. I was able to choose from several images in their gallery, customize, and then download the resultant image for my use. Voila! 

Among the links in Diigo, the Free Stock Photos with Authentic Diversity from TGW Studio contains links to several sites. From that list, I've gotten very good use out of the Women of Color in Tech (WOCinTech). I also like the Disability Inclusive Stock Photography.

It is likely that you'll find a subset of images which you really like. In addition, you might find new relevancy in a collection that you had overlooked. So do periodically challenge yourself to find new images. That is how I finally dug into Humaans.

Bonus!

Did you know that Zoom has a catalogue of virtual backgrounds? If you're tired of the same virtual background that you've been using, or just haven't found one that you like, check out this list. The links there go to a variety of different sites and was likely compiled in spring 2020 as we all began working virtually. I particularly like the ones from Behr Paint and AutoDesk. Be aware that some background have the organization's logo or name in them, which may not be what you want. Also check to be sure that any background you select works well for you and that you do not "melt" into the background. (For me, it can seem like my hair and ear sudden disappear depending in the image.)

Addendum (05/08/2022): Check out this LinkedIn post and comments for more resources!Truly a treasure trove of sources.