Northeast Ohio Regional Library System - Event Information
Event Name:
Policing In Libraries and the Fog of Implicit Bias
Competency:
Safety and Security
Description:
Presenters Jarrett Dapier and Dr. Emily Knox will present information regarding how/why to reduce police presence in libraries, how to change white supremacist library policies, and how "the fog of implicit bias" influences who is considered a threat and who is not in our spaces.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the session, attendees will be able to:
Identify how police presence in the library can threaten patron safety, harm patrons, and cause lasting, unintended and traumatizing consequences for patrons
See how anticipatory action, preventive practices and expanded resources are needed to avoid future situations that commonly lead to police calls
To understand how the "fog of implicit bias" clouds judgment with regards to determining who is and who is not a threat worthy of police presence in your library and how to work to unlearn that bias
Presenters:
Jarrett Dapier has worked as a young adult librarian for over 10 years at Evanston Public Library and, most recently, at Skokie Public Library, both just outside Chicago, IL. He has written about policing and libraries for American Libraries and Library Journal and in 2019 was named a Library Journal Mover & Shaker for his years of work producing teen theater in libraries. Also a children’s book author, his debut picture book, JAZZ FOR LUNCH!, was released by Simon & Schuster on September 7, 2021 and was followed by another, MR. WATSON'S CHICKENS, which was released by Chronicle Books on October 5, 2021. Both are available for purchase wherever you buy books.
Emily Knox is Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and an associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Her book, Book Banning in 21st Century America (Rowman & Littlefield) is the first monograph in the Beta Phi Mu Scholars’ Series. Emily's articles have been published in the Library Quarterly, Library and Information Science Research, and the Journal of Intellectual Freedom and Privacy. She is president of the Board of Trustees of the Freedom to Read Foundation (FTRF) and serves on the boards of Beta Phi Mu and the National Coalition Against Censorship.