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As I think all of us learned in library school, the privacy of library users is a foundational professional ethic, and is reflected across almost all of our library practices. I believe we should extend our respect for privacy of thought to the people who work in our libraries, and the typical DEI training does not do that.

Freedom of thought is an irreducible philosophical and moral proposition about the meaning of freedom itself. As Richard Boire writes,

“the right to control one’s own consciousness is the quintessence of freedom. If freedom is to mean anything, it must mean that each person has an inviolable right to think for him or herself.”^[1]

Privacy of thought, of course, extends beyond the ethics of librarianship. It is a core human right. Freedom of thought and conscience were introduced as universal human rights in the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.^[2] Freedom of thought is also a foundational concept for the First Amendment. Freedom of thought, which protects the inner sphere, and freedom of speech, which protects the expression of our thoughts, are complementary rights. In 1890, Warren and Brandeis defined privacy as the right to be let alone,^[3] which is an essential legal concept in a democracy because it defines the boundary between our public and private lives. Our work lives are in this public sphere, and our personal political views and our religious beliefs reside in the private sphere. Boire also enumerates the rights that make up privacy of thought:

• the right to keep your thoughts and opinions private,
• the right not to have your thoughts and opinions manipulated, and
• the right not to be penalized for your thoughts and opinions.

Violating any one of these rights violates a person’s privacy of thought.

How are library organizations supporting the violation of privacy of thought? ALA implemented a significant pivot between its conception of cultural competency between 2012 and 2022. In 2012 ACRL had created this document, Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries.^[4] In 2019, ALA and ARL charged a working group to update these guidelines, and when the new guidelines, which are called Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity Framework,^[5] were published in 2022, the diversity statements were rescinded.

What did we lose with the rescinding of the diversity standards from 2012? We lost a philosophy of cultural competence skills development in libraries that was closely grounded in both real-world library communities and library work. You can see in all of these competencies from that document the reflection of library work. What did we get with its replacement, Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity? We got a greatly constrained vision of cultural competency focused nearly exclusively on race. We also got a broad canvas for staff training and development, which they call a framework, that encompasses a variety of topics that are not related to libraries or library work, such as imperialism and colonialism, mass incarceration, disparities in access to health care, among many other topics. The document introduces four new core competencies: awareness of racial identity, manifestations of racism, commitment to countering racism and analysis of racialized outcomes. And the framework goes through guidance on how you use these competencies to develop DEI related trainings in your library.

How are libraries endorsing violations of privacy of thought? James Bacon tells the story of a University of Virginia library staff member, Michelle Vermillion, who was so uncomfortable with the mandatory DEI training at her library, as well as the internal stifling of any non-conforming ideas, that she quit her job.^[6] The ninety-six question self-assessment instrument that was used in UVA’s DEI training, which was mandatory, included many violations of library workers’ privacy of thought. These are just two examples from the so-called self work and healing section of the self-assessment:

• I continuously use race as a lens to self reflect and examine my behaviors, thoughts, feelings, biases, and attitudes, as well as my
  impact on others.
• I’m aware of how my beliefs about what is effective or professional have been influenced by my racist socialization and dominant white culture.

At the UNC Chapel Hill Library, like many others in the summer of 2020, library staff were invited to participate in 21-day racial equity programs. Many of the activities in these programs violated workers’ privacy of thought, but this one was particularly surprising: Asking library staff what books they’re reading, and the race of the authors of those books. The implication being that if the authors you read were not diverse you were insufficiently anti-racist in your personal life. Apart from that, library administrators should not be asking library staff what they are reading in their private lives.

Any training program that asks you to look within yourself and to change your beliefs or alleged prejudices is entering a worker’s private mental space. The most prevalent example in our universities and libraries is unconscious or implicit bias training. It’s based on a series of dubious assumptions, but leaving those aside, an employee’s unconscious beliefs are not an appropriate concern for an employer.

What should a DEI training look like? It should engage behavior, not beliefs. It should be related to library practice, as was the 2012 ACRL diversity guidelines. You should not assume a moral concern for your employees. Each person has moral autonomy and the right to privacy about their views and beliefs. And you should stay away from contested topics in society.

The first question to ask of a DEI training is not does it work, but is it the right thing to do?

Libraries stand for privacy of thought. It shouldn’t be an afterthought as we think about core activities like staff training in our libraries. The library is an emergent space for everyone who enters. Library users and library workers walk through the same doors every day and librarians shouldn’t tell either our library users or our library workers what to think. Everybody is invited into the library to figure out what they think and then to share that if they choose to or not. Everyone in our libraries should be accorded the same respect for their privacy.

Respecting Privacy of Thought in DEI Training by Kristin Antelman

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