Building a Better Party: Using Librarian Character Sheets to Build Diverse Teams and Inclusive Projects

Short session description

The first step on any great adventure is building the right party.

With support from IMLS (LG-36-19-0021-19), we’re developing a community resource for teaching scholarly communication, and our first job is to make sure we’re inviting players with a diverse and inclusive set of skills, roles, institutions, and identities. This workshop invites you to roll up your own character and think creatively about how to make a project, whether it's ours, yours, or someone else's, that meets their needs, goals, and aspirations.

You’ll be armed with a library-themed character sheet to fill out based on yourself or on personas from underrepresented participants. Then we’ll work together to build a diverse party of contributors and consider what kind of quest would get their imaginations firing.

Session format & style

Participants will fill out custom character sheets and then build a party with others in the room with the aim of building empathy for the needs of librarians and library users and better-understanding how to build projects, programs, and services that meet their needs.

Takeaways

Participants will leave with a library-themed character sheet and a model for using the sheet for design thinking work that encourages empathy and inclusive project design.

Organization

We have a fully-formed team, but would be open to working with other presenters as well.

Contact information

Will Cross, NC State University Libraries, wmcross@ncsu.edu