Code4Lib seeks to provide a welcoming, fun, and safe community and conference experience as well as an ongoing community for everyone. We do not tolerate harassment in any form. Discriminatory language and imagery (including sexual) is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks, or any community channel such as the chatroom or mailing list.

Harassment is understood as any behavior that threatens another person or group, or produces an unsafe environment. It includes offensive verbal comments or non-verbal expressions related to gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religious beliefs, sexual or discriminatory images in public spaces (including online), deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Conflict Resolution

  1. Initial Incident

    If you are being harassed, notice that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, and you feel comfortable speaking with the offender, please inform the offender that he/she/ze has affected you negatively. Oftentimes, the offending behavior is unintentional, and the accidental offender and offended will resolve the incident by having that initial discussion.

    Code4Lib recognizes that there are many reasons speaking directly to the offender may not be workable for you (including but not limited to unfamiliarity with the conference or its participants, lack of spoons, and concerns for personal safety). If you don’t feel comfortable speaking directly with the offender for any reason, skip straight to step 2.

  2. Escalation

    If the offender insists that he/she/ze did not offend, if offender is actively harassing you, or if direct engagement is not a good option for you at this time, then you will need a third party to step in.

    If you are at a conference or other event, find an event organizer or staff person, who should be listed on the wiki. If you can’t find an event organizer, there will be other staff available to help if the situation calls for immediate action.

    If you are in the #code4lib IRC, the zoia command to list people designated as channel helpers is @helpers. At most times, there is at least one helper in the channel.

    For the listserv, you have a free-for-all for public messages; however, the listserv does have a maintainer, Eric Lease Morgan.

  3. Wider community response to Incident:

    If the incident doesn’t pass the first step (discussion reveals offense was unintentional, apologies said, public note or community is informed of resolution), then there’s not much the community can do at this point since the incident was resolved without outside intervention.

    If incident results in corrective action, the community should support the decision made by the Help in Step 2 if they choose corrective action, like ending a talk early or banning from the listserv, as well as support those harmed by the incident, either publicly or privately (whatever individuals are comfortable with).

    If the Help in Step 2 run into issues implementing the CoC, then the Help should come to the community with these issues and the community should revise the CoC as they see fit.

    In Real Life people will have opinions about how the CoC is enforced. People will argue that a particular decision was unfair, and others will say that it didn’t go far enough. We can’t stop people having opinions, but what we could do is have constructive discussions that lead to something tangible (affirmation of decision, change in CoC, modify decision, etc,).

Sanctions

Participants asked to stop any harassing behavior are expected to comply immediately. If a participant engages in harassing behavior, organizers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender, expulsion from the Code4Lib event, or banning the offender from a chatroom or mailing list.

Specific sanctions may include but are not limited to:

  • warning the harasser to cease their behavior and that any further reports will result in other sanctions
  • requiring that the harasser avoid any interaction with, and physical proximity to, their victim for the remainder of the event
  • early termination of a talk that violates the policy
  • not publishing the video or slides of a talk that violated the policy
  • not allowing a speaker who violated the policy to give (further) talks at the event
  • immediately ending any event volunteer responsibilities and privileges the harasser holds requiring that the harasser not volunteer for future Code4lib events (either indefinitely or for a certain time period)
  • requiring that the harasser immediately leave the event and not return
  • banning the harasser from future events (either indefinitely or for a certain time period)
  • publishing an account of the harassment

Code4Lib event organizers can be identified by their name badges, and will help participants contact hotel/venue security or local law enforcement, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the event. Code4Lib IRC volunteers can be identified by issuing the @helpers command to the #code4lib bot named “zoia”.

If an incident occurs, please use the following contact information:

  • Conference organizers: Tom Johnson, 360-961-7721 or Evviva Weinraub, 617-909-2913
  • Hilton Portland & Executive Tower: 503-226-1611
  • Portland Police Department: 503-823-0000
  • Portland Women’s Crisis Line (24/7): 503-235-5333 (or toll-free: 888-235-5333) 24/7
  • Radio Cab: 503-227-1212
  • IRC channel administrators: anarchivist, mistym, mjgiarlo, ruebot; or enter @helpers in the IRC channel

We expect participants to follow these rules at all conference venues, conference-related social events, community gatherings, and online communication channels.

We value your participation in the Code4Lib community, and your efforts to keep Code4Lib a safe and friendly space for all participants!

CC0 Licensed under CC0

Based on the example policy from the Geek Feminism wiki, created by the Ada Initiative and other volunteers.