Inclusive Representation in Hyperlinked Communities

While exploring Hyperlinked Communities I came to the conclusion that they cannot function well without a thriving community where its members feel heard and represented authentically. A space cannot expect to be connected to its people unless they have a genuine understanding of them and their needs. In order to do this services such as libraries must engage with their members regularly asking for their input, interests, and challenges. These communities also need to feel they can trust these systems to have their best interest at heart. A library that exemplifies this model is the Multnomah County Library in Portland Oregon who strives to give all members of its community a voice through representation, equity, and inclusion. The staff within this library acknowledge that their city is populated with majority white people and they also strongly value sharing and uplifting the people of color within their community. The library staff also share that diversity is often not enough without equity and inclusion and can lead to further excluding groups of people. This stuck out to me because at times we so quickly turn to diversity as the answer without understanding that equity and inclusion are also vital to the whole picture of servicing communities. 

So how do we implement equity and inclusion into our work? It seems there is not a one size fits all approach to this topic as every culture, community, and person has its own unique set of wants, needs, and challenges. I believe that the first step is to embrace how different we all are and acknowledge that systems are often built without equity and inclusion in mind. The next step is to get to know who you are serving and ensure that they are being represented in a way that they feel comfortable and included. These components are necessary to continue building trust with patrons so that they feel welcomed and want to come back to these spaces. 

I feel that without equity, inclusion, and diversity communities would never build to becoming hyperlinked as there would be much disconnect between professionals serving individuals and the individuals seeking services. The priority of the library should always be to meet the needs of those they serve which requires embracing different and similar needs. As Loida Garcia-Febo shares in her article “librarians must continue to move forward to embed humanity, compassion, empathy, awareness, and understanding into our library services nationwide”. Information professionals will always face challenges and oftentimes become champions of change and understanding for their hyperlinked community.