Located in California, within the United States, San José State University (SJSU) School of Information has been highly involved with diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice initiatives. We have recently held some unique events that spotlight multicultural populations:

Our User Experience Student Group and REFORMA Student & Alumni Group leaders collaborated for an event to dialogue with experienced library professionals on the intersection of user experience and working with Latinx and diverse communities. The event welcomed panellists from various roles, institutions, and backgrounds:

  • Sharesly Rodriguez– User Experience Librarian at San Jose State University King Library
  • April Ibarra Siqueiros – User Experience Librarian at California State University San Marcos Library
  • Kay Cadena – Head of Outreach and User Experience at the Robert Crown Law Library of Stanford University
  • Mario A. Ascencio – Library Director at ArtCenter College of Design
  • Edwin Rodarte– Senior Librarian of Emerging Technologies at Los Angeles Public Libraries

Watch the recording!

Cross-Campus Interdisciplinary Responsible Computing Learning Experience (CIRCLE) Project brings students, faculty, and staff from all disciplines and backgrounds at SJSU – Silicon Valley’s public university, and one of the most diverse universities in the United States – into meaningful conversations about and engagement with digital technologies and their broader social impacts. Our Cafe series recordings will be made available on the SJSU School of Information YouTube. As part of our CIRCLE Project funded by the Mozilla Foundation, we hosted two recent Cafe speaker series talks:

  • Dr. Alex Hanna, Director of Research at DAIR (Distributed AI Research Institute), joined us to share in dialogue on shifting the Frame: the Labors of ImageNet and AI Data. Dr. Hanna combines her background in Computer Science and Sociology to explore the social impact of data in computational technologies.
  • Jerrid Lee Miller, a Cherokee Nation citizen, US Army veteran, and the current Language Archivist for the Cherokee Nation Language Department joined us in a discussion on how archival best practices are currently being applied and indigenised at Cherokee Nation’s Language Department with the mindfulness that digital assets are more than just worthy of digital preservation; they are an irreplaceable cultural resource that act as one of the greatest tools for language revitalization efforts.

As part of our Heritage Month series, we hosted our Black History Month Symposium, “From Curation and Preservation to Showcasing, the Role of Libraries in African Americans and the Arts,” presented in partnership with the California Black Librarians Caucus. Our Heritage symposiums are available on the EDI Symposia YouTube.

Dr. Michele A. L. Villagran, San José State University, School of Information – Member IFLA MCULTP