Open to All: Serving the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Community in your Library
Saturday, April 9, 2016, 10:45 AM - 11:45 AM
Colorado Convention Center, Room 108/110/112
Serving gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) customers can often be challenging for public librarians, particularly in small and rural libraries. This session will help library staff work with a new toolkit from ALA’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table – “Open to All: Serving the GLBT Community in your Library.” This session will teach best practices, how to find local partnerships, and how to make your library open to all.
At the end of this session, participants will:
1: Be equipped and able to train staff to better serve GLBT customers.
2: Understand partnerships available in your area.
3: Know best practices from other libraries.
The session organizer(s) identified this session as appropriate for:
Level 1: People with no previous knowledge of the topic.
This session will have: Medium interaction: single speaker/panel with questions or audience participation throughout
Handouts: Download 1
Track: Imagine
Tags: Marketing/Advocacy, Advocacy, Diversity, Equity of Access, Hot Topics, Other GLBT Issues
Presenters
Deborah Sica, Principal Librarian, The Learning Group
Alameda County Library, Fremont, CA
Deb Sica, MFA, MLIS, has worked in Research & Education since ?93. Prior to Public Libraries, her focus was historical preservation of GLBT, feminist and genocidal history. For the past ten years, she has managed Public Libraries; both in Harris County, TX and Alameda County, CA where she is currently the Principal Librarian of the Learning Group. She and her wife of 17 years returned to the Bay Area after the overturn of Proposition 8.
Ann Symons, ALA Past President
Symons et al., Portland, OR
Ann Symons, Immediate Past-Chair of ALA's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table (GLBTRT), served as ALA President (1998-1999), and is the 2014 recipient of the ALA Equality Award. Symons has recently presented "Serving GLBT Families" at WLA/OLA, AkLA, and the Texas Library Association. She has is the author of "Protecting the Right to Read", a book based on a GLBT censorship challenge in her Juneau, Alaska community.
Peter Coyl, District Manager
Dallas Public Library, Dallas, TX
Peter Coyl is a District Manager with the Dallas Public Library where he manages the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library. He is active with Dallas Library Pride, the staff-led GLBT programming committee. He is currently Chair of the American Library Association's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Round Table (GLBTRT) and was previously Chair of the Stonewall Book Awards Committee. He has worked in Public Libraries for over 15 years.