We called for an issue on Resilience and Resolve, and the deadline for submissions came at the end of May. Before the senseless deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Manuel Ellis, and others. The context of Black Lives Matter matters, and there will be future issues devoted to accountability and antiracist efforts in our libraries in Washington. As a start, you will see reprinted the WLA’s statement on anti-racism. And Alki is launching a regular column on Anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, with rotating columnists, to maintain a dedicated space to drive conversations forward. This column comes in addition to our belief that every Alki issue will have ongoing content about social justice work, which is so deeply entwined with our profession's values of equity and inclusion.
The articles you find here are primarily about COVID-19, and they center your experiences in libraries of resolve, but also of struggle. There are anonymous submissions that share the raw responses to lockdown and quarantine, and its effects on library workers. There is a call for disaster planning in libraries rooted in an examination of historical calls of the same nature. There are personal reflections that raise the questions of health and equity, and how libraries might reenvision themselves. There are pivots in programming, and reflections on what access means during a pandemic. There is poetry.
And there is emotion. As Editor, I chose to let the feelings speak for themselves, and took a very light hand to editing this issue. We need spaces to process feelings, and it is humbling that folks have chosen Alki as a place to do so. Thank you.
