Library Policies in a Time of Uncertainty and Controversy

The American Library Association's International Relations Round Table Papers and Projects Committee invites proposals for a presentation at the 2022 American Library Association Annual Conference, scheduled to take place in Washington DC from June 23-28, 2022.

The International Papers and Projects Session provides librarians with an opportunity to exchange information about library services, collections and projects throughout the world. The program also serves to stimulate the interest of U.S. librarians in international library matters. The 2022 International Papers and Projects theme is Library Policies in a Time of Uncertainty and Controversy.

As the world continues to navigate the changing landscape shaped by two years of living with the pandemic, organizations must deal with uncertainly, make difficult policy decisions that are often further complicated by controversy and opposing viewpoints. The aim of this session is to explore the role of library policies in helping to provide guidance and clarity, providing a framework for the expectation of what needs to be done. Such policies can range from short term policies to ensure continued access to information, operational changes to ensure business continuity, to longer term strategic policies that have evolved or have been accelerated because of the pandemic. These can be related to collection development the type of services libraries need to provide, the communities they serve, and new areas of concern relating to human resources.

FEATURED PRESENTATION 1: The Evolution of Course Policies and Library Instruction at the American University in Cairo during COVID-19
Presenter: Meredith K. Saba, The American University in Cairo, Egypt

The American University of Cairo (AUC) is a private liberal arts institution located in Cairo, Egypt. The Main Library at AUC serves a very diverse international research community that includes faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students, and external research scholars from Egypt and many other countries worldwide. In March 2020, during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the university made a swift transition from all courses being offered only in-person before the pandemic to all courses going fully online for the first time, marking a rapid change in our procedures and the emergence of new policies for online course development and remote teaching. These new university policies, developed by both campus-level administrators and our faculty in our Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT), directly impacted all the research courses and instructional workshops that the AUC Library offers to its students. Most notably, this affected an important 15-week, semester-long Information Literacy course (LALT 1020), which all AUC students are required to take as part of their core curriculum during the first year as a graduation requirement. The new policies affected course delivery (in-person, hybrid, and fully online), technologies used for online teaching and learning, including course delivery choices and learning management systems (LMS), and assessment of student learning. AUC also updated their “Online Learning Policy,” which will apply to all future online courses that are developed at AUC, post-pandemic. The presentation will discuss how all the COVID-era campus and library policies were first developed step-by-step. It will also discuss some of the issues that AUC faced in terms of how to best implement these new policies university-wide, particularly in the context of instruction with the sudden shift to online learning. The presentation will examine how the AUC Library handled different instructional challenges over the past two years as the campus policies on COVID-19 shifted, and also what lessons were learned throughout the process while transitioning from an in-person model to all-online to a current hybrid/DD model. Policy successes, challenges, and suggested changes for the future will be discussed – specifically changes in AUC’s COVID policies overall and in the online learning policy that was developed for all courses.

FEATURED PRESENTATION 2: Pathways to Practice
Presenters: Rae-Anne Montague, Chicago State University, Chicago, USA; Kuuleilani Reyes, Midkiff Learning Center at Kamehameha Schools – Kapālama, Hawaii, USA

According to the most recent Native Hawaiian Educational Assessment (KS, 2014), Native Hawaiians have the lowest mean income, highest incarceration rate (nearly 40%), and highest homeless population (40%) of all the major ethnic groups in Hawai‘i. This presentation explores how librarians working with young people are engaged in improving this reality. The presentation explored aspects of existing and emergent understanding, resources, policies, and effective practices, while also considering challenges and barriers that remain. The presentation looks at examples of models and resources currently in use in school and public libraries and reviews recent information literacy initiatives that have been implemented to address critical concerns, provide strategic support for diverse informational needs including working directly with students and community leaders, and enhance educational leadership efforts. The presentation also considers ongoing challenges related to policies, representation, access, literacy, and misinformation - as well as some potential options for improving approaches and augmenting future engagement.