Northern Illinois University will be represented at the biennial Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) conference in Pittsburgh next week via three conference sessions. In one session, NIU Libraries’ Assistant Professor and Acquisitions Librarian Michele Hunt, Assistant Professor and Student Success Librarian Kimberly Shotick, Preservation Coordinator Sata Prescott, and Assistant Professor and Education and Social Sciences Librarian Alissa Droog will facilitate a workshop on library policy evaluation through a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) lens. The workshop, titled DEI in Action: Dismantling Oppressive Library Policies, will engage conference attendees with a process for identifying the diverse communities at their institutions and evaluating library policies to identify areas where they act as barriers to accessibility, equity, and inclusion. Their workshop will take place on March 17 from 9:00 AM-11:00 AM ET.
Professor Shotick will also present a panel discussion with Associate Professor and STEM Librarian Kelly Getz from Eastern Michigan University on inclusive research design for research involving neurodiverse students titled Neurodiversity and Inclusive Design. Their work was informed by research funded in part by an NIU Research and Artistry award given to Professor Shotick in 2022 for her research on the experiences of neurodiverse students interacting with library websites. Their panel will take place on March 18, from 9:45 AM-10:45 AM ET.
Professor Droog will also discuss best practices for accessible video captioning in her lightning talk Intentional Line Breaks for Accessible Video Captions. Professor Droog’s work with accessible captioning was published in Project Enable, co-authored by Professor Shotick and Amylin Hendrix-Ziegelbauer, Closed Caption Video Editor at NIU’s Disability Resource Center. Project Enable is a professional development library that provides resources for library workers engaged with accessibility efforts. Her lightning talk will take place on March 16 from 11:25 AM-11:30 AM ET.
ACRL is a competitive and peer-reviewed conference that focuses on issues relevant to academic libraries. This year’s conference theme is Forging the Future. The three conference sessions from NIU faculty and staff reflect the NIU Libraries’ dedication to accessibility, diversity, equity, and inclusion.
