Grappling with Unconscious Bias in the Library Setting

The STAR Library Network is thrilled to welcome Ava Holliday and Aparna Rajagopal, Founding Partners of The Avarna Group (theavarnagroup.com), to help us kick-off the 2020 STAR Net Webinar Series with a special 90 minute webinar on a very important topic: unconscious (or implicit) bias. No matter how good our intentions may be, we are all susceptible to forming social stereotypes about certain groups of people outside of our own conscious awareness. The library setting is a place of equitable and inclusive lifelong learning, and by better understanding unconscious bias and the role it plays in our libraries, we can better serve our communities.

In this 90 minute webinar, guest presenters from The Avarna Group will introduce the framework of unconscious bias to describe some of the challenges that well-intentioned people who are doing good JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, inclusion) work face. This webinar will examine ways that bias manifests in two lenses: our individual thoughts and actions, and also within specific aspects of your library, including programming, the built environment, collections, and more. Webinar participants will walk away with a more clear understanding of how unconscious bias functions and how to identify and mitigate it.

This webinar will be recorded and available, along with the slides and a resource list, shortly after it concludes on starnetlibraries.org/resources/webinars/. A closed caption version will be available on our YouTube channel (youtube.com/starnetlibraries).

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