Reconnect, Rebuild and Rebrand: CALA Members’ Initiatives to Help Move Our Institutions Above & Beyond the Pandemic

Abstract

Raising awareness, understanding biases around us is only the first step in fighting systematic racism that is rooted deep in society and in the library professional field. Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) recognizes that the success of all EDI education comes from the next steps: our actions to dismantle racism at members' institutions, whether they are public, academic, special libraries or library schools. We're very proud to report that our members have responded to our calls. For this poster session, we will introduce you to the programs that help advance our EDI movement to the next level. We will cover CALA's initiatives to enhance members' professional development to grow a more diverse leadership workforce and to advocate more voices by providing channels for open access publishing from underrepresented groups. We will also recount the successful launch of two new virtual program series on world religions and religious diversity in a large public library system that literature created a virtual community. This presentation will also showcase advocacy and implementation of global library initiatives at major research libraries.