Improving Ourselves and Improving Care: A Hands-On Workshop to Address Unconscious Bias in Health Sciences Literature and Health Sciences Library Systems

The live session took place on Thursday, August 13. You can access the recording of the session by selecting the "Access recording" button and using password: 81n1%oh.

Session Format: A workshop that combines lecture with active learning activities.

Objective: This session will define implicit bias and identify bias with a focus on racial disparities in scholarly health sciences research, help attendees identify implicit bias in health sciences libraries systems and services. The active learning activities will help attendees learn how to identify resources to craft research questions and search queries that address implicit bias in Health Sciences literature and research. The workshop will provide a foundation for information professionals to better serve and address the needs of the diverse communities that their institutions serve.
Instructional

Methods: We will have a short list of suggested readings for participants to complete before the sessions, as well as an online, free to access, implicit bias test to complete before the session. During the workshop, participants will break for a number of active learning activities with pairs, small group, and large groups. Along with personal growth focused activities, participants will be invited to engage with the presenters and each other in information skill building experiences.
Participant Engagement: There will be an introduction of the terms and agreement on definitions in the workshop, a small group discussion followed by a large group discussion on the Harvard Implicit Association Test will provide attendees with background and opportunities to engage with their table and the larger group. To target different learning styles and different skill levels, our first activity involves writing experiences on sticky notes and later activities are group based learning exercises for skill improvement using various tools and databases.
Sponsors: Social Justice Section
African American Medical Librarians Alliance