BCLA Releases Update on Anti-Racism Work

October 6, 2023

The British Columbia Library Association (BCLA) this week shared an update on the Association’s anti-racism work, including a current state assessment report prepared with The Common Consulting.

The report outlines the Association’s current state and provide recommendations to guide BCLA’s future and ongoing equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism work.

BCLA anti-racism update and BCLA Current State Assessment Report

As President and Incoming President of BCLA, we are pleased to share an update on BCLA’s anti-racism work, including the BCLA Current State Assessment Report.

Since March 2022, BCLA has been working with The Commons Consulting on the first phase of our journey to become and anti-racist organization. This work is a direct result of advocacy and efforts from Indigenous, Black and people of colour who have and continue to invest significant levels of time and energy to addressing racism in the library and broader community.

A key deliverable for this initial phase was the completion of a current state assessment to outline BCLA’s current state and provide recommendations to guide the future and ongoing equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism work. The BCLA Current State Assessment Report is now available in HTML and PDF.

We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to this first phase, and want to acknowledge the Indigenous, Black, and people of colour who have shared their personal experiences. We also want to express our thanks to the Project Advisory Group, who co-led the current state assessment process.

Our next step is to prioritize the recommendations in the report and develop a roadmap.  The BCLA Board will be having a retreat with The Commons in November to begin this process and will share the results with you.

We know there is a lot to do, and that we will likely make mistakes as we go, but BCLA Board and staff are committed to this ongoing work. We look forward to working with all of you to make BCLA an anti-racist organization.

You can find more information about BCLA’s anti-racism work on our website, and updates will be shared via the BCLA Main Discussion on Branches: BCLA’s online forum.

With thanks,

Tracey Therrien, BCLA President, and Suzanne Rackover, BCLA Incoming President

(Via British Columbia Library Association)