Urban Libraries Council - 2022 Summit Award
Addressing key trigger terms in the current media, social and political climates, the Urban Libraries Council Trigger Terms: Harmful Detours and Healing Redirects framework is designed to help leaders grow alignment, surface misunderstandings and find paths forward through difficult conversations. “Trigger Terms” are words or phrases that spur polarization and conflict due to negative connotations, misunderstandings and competing definitions. With the language developed with the expert guidance of ULC's Anti-Racism Action Team, ULC’s framework names these terms as well as interpretations that can derail productive conversations (“harmful detours”) and suggested translations to foster mutual respect and understanding (“healing redirects”). Representing diverse perspectives from libraries across North America, ULC’s Anti-Racism action team is dedicated to identifying and helping to create actionable steps and key resources that can help all libraries achieve tangible, immediate progress in shaping an anti-racist future. This team was first formed in 2020 as part of ULC’s Going Forward from the Pandemic strategic initiative, established by the ULC Executive Board Leaders on this action team are committed to dismantling structural racism and advancing race and social equity to ensure a more inclusive, just and equitable future for our communities.
Trigger Terms: Harmful Detours and Healing Redirects is available to all ULC members, which represents 165 public libraries in the United States and Canada and more than 7,500 individual staff members who have access to this online resource housed on the ULC website. These libraries, library members and leaders leverage the web page’s language to define key terms for use in policies, MOUs, strategic plans and other documents or web pages. Member libraries and leaders can structure conversations and self-reflection among staff teams and program participants, build alignment and shared language with partners (government and school leaders) and provide talking points to prepare staff for challenging conversations with external and internal stakeholders. Since its launch in August 2021, the Trigger Terms: Harmful Detours and Healing Redirects resource web page has garnered more than 10,000 views.