The group met 1 time this reporting period.
After reviewing the current PLA Strategic Plan, please tell us:
Describe the current work of this committee and how it supports our strategic goals. Include work accomplished, decisions made, and any recommended follow-up actions.
We met once via Zoom to encourage all members to help spread the word about the call for session proposals and to go over and prepare for the proposal review process. We reviewed all proposals for educational programming at PLA Conference (each reviewer was assigned about 150 proposals to review), identified key trends, issues, and challenges currently facing public libraries as well as PLA's strategic planning goals and PLA member survey results to ensure they are represented in educational programming at the 2024 PLA Conference. We also aimed to increase equity, diversity, inclusion, and social justice at PLA Conference by selecting educational programming that represents diverse groups and points of view. We will be finalizing our selections the Friday of ALA Annual in Chicago.
Do you see opportunities to better align committee work with those goals?
It would be helpful to strategize ways to increase the # of proposals submitted by, for and including BIPOC library staff members in order to support PLA's strategic goal of increasing our commitment to EDISJ.
What recommendations do you have for in-coming committee members? Are there particular streams of
work in progress to be carried over into the new committee year? (January–June reporting period only)
This year, I created a list to help keep track of listservs that committee member shared the call for proposals with to expand our reach and to decrease duplicate efforts
In the future, I recommend asking the Board and members of the Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice to help share the call to hopefully increase the number of sessions the are by, for and include BIPOC library staff.
What specific activities will this committee undertake over the next six months to support that alignment? (July–December reporting period only)
Are there other PLA or ALA committees whose partnership and collaboration would accelerate meeting PLA strategic goals?
In the future, I recommend asking the Board and members of the Committee on Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Social Justice to help share the call to hopefully increase the number of sessions the are by, for and include BIPOC library staff. I regret not thinking of doing that for this year's call.
Is there anything else about your committee experience you’d like to share?
Thank you so much for Angela Maycock, Mary Hirsh and Megan Stewart for all of their help and support – they rock!!!
Submitted by Candice Mack on 06/15/2023