Documents | Hospital Librarians' Community of Practice

Code of Conduct

About the code

The HLCoP is an informal and inclusive space where members can feel comfortable asking questions and expressing opinions about issues relating to hospital librarianship. The HLCoP is dedicated to providing a harassment-free learning environment and community for everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, or religion.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with the HLCoP Code of Conduct. If you have questions, contact the co-conveners. By taking part in any HLCoP meeting or online forum, you agree to uphold and promote the Code of Conduct.

Conduct we encourage

Be awesome. Be polite and friendly to everyone in the community. Members are encouraged to contribute to the discussion during meetings and where possible have cameras on and mute off.
Be welcoming. HLCoP is a community that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. People from all fields of inquiry are welcome.
Be respectful. Listen and support others to learn. Remember that everyone has their own field of expertise and level of experience, and we are all on a journey.
Be kind. Be careful in the words that you choose. Do not insult or put down other participants. Endeavour to make your language inclusive. Suggested readings about inclusive language are included at the end of this document.
Be forgiving. People sometimes make mistakes. Please assume that participants and organisers are acting with the best intentions. If you choose to engage with them regarding something you feel is inappropriate or unfair, aim to be diplomatic and forgiving.
Be helpful. HLCoP runs on volunteer effort. Please be cooperative. If you feel like pitching in with hosting, notetaking, speaking, or otherwise being helpful, we’d appreciate it.
Be responsible. If you see something, say something. Every member of the HLCoP has a responsibility to speak up if you notice someone is not adhering to the Code of Conduct. If you’re not sure about something or have a concern, feel free to ask a co-convener for advice.

Social Guidelines

Social Guidelines aim to help create a friendly and welcoming environment for all involved in the HLCoP community of practice. The social guidelines are lightweight and breaking one doesn’t make you a bad person.

The social guidelines are:

No well-actuallys

Jo: I just installed Linux on my computer!

Drew: It’s actually called GNU/Linux.

A well-actually is when you correct someone about something that’s not relevant to the conversation or tangential to what they’re trying to say. They’re bad because they aren’t helpful, break the flow of conversation, and focus attention on the person making the well actually.

No feigning surprise’

Taylor: What’s an eProxy?

Alex: Wait, you’ve never worked with an eProxy before?

Feigned surprise is when you act surprised when someone doesn’t know something. Responding with surprise in this situation makes people feel bad for not knowing things and less likely to ask questions in the future.

No subtle-isms

Cam: Windows is hard to use.

Jules: No way. Windows is so easy to use that even my grandad can use it.

Subtle-isms are expressions that feature bias and prejudice (e.g., racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia, transphobia). They are small things that make others feel unwelcome, things that we all sometimes do by mistake. Subtle-isms are baked into society in ways that can make them hard to recognise. And not everyone experiences subtle-isms in the same way, so it’s good to be mindful of this.

Reminder: The social rules aren’t for punishing people. They help make the HLCoP a pleasant environment where you are free to be yourself and focus on health librarianship and your professional journey.

Note: Social Rules repurposed for HLCoP from the Recurse Centre

Conduct we avoid

Harassment and discrimination

Hospital Librarians’ CoP is dedicated to providing an enjoyable, safe, and harassment-free experience for everyone in online meetings, forums and email communication. We do not tolerate harassment or discrimination in any form.

Harassment includes, but is not limited to:

offensive comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race or ethnicity, religion, or other personal attributes or identities
unwelcome comments regarding a person’s lifestyle choices and practices

sexual images without a clear content warning
deliberate intimidation
threats of violence or incitements to violence against an individual or group
sustained disruption of talks or other events
sustained attacks on someone’s project, work or idea

In case of harassment

HLCoP members take responsibility for protecting each other from harassing or discriminatory behaviour if they witness it occurring and for stepping in to enforce the code of conduct. All reports of harassment will be received without judgment or bias and will be held in confidence.

If a participant is being harassed, notices that someone else is being harassed, or has any other concerns, they should contact someone they trust from the HLCoP community, as soon as they are comfortable doing so.

Participants asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately. Any HLCoP member can issue a warning to a participant that their behaviour violates the community’s anti-harassment policy.

If further action is required, the organisers will take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender, or in extreme cases, expelling or banning them from HLCoP meetings and forums.

Photography / video / audio recording

Please do not photograph or record HLCoP participants or speakers without their explicit permission.

We will sometimes record invited speakers at HLCoP meetings, to enable us to share the sessions in our online forum. If you ask a speaker a question during the session, this may be included in the recording. If you wish to a have audio and/or video recording of yourself edited out before it is made publicly available, please speak to a HLCoP co-convener and we will do our best to accommodate your request.

Code of Conduct last reviewed: Dec 2022