We are deeply committed to fostering a welcoming, inclusive, and accountable environment for all conference participants. We value a space where participants feel the agency to collaborate, communicate, and problem-solve, regardless of identity or background.

To support this, we draw on guiding principles from our sponsoring organizations — including the Sherman Centre for Digital Scholarship and Hamilton Public Library — to cultivate an enriching environment for all participants.

How We Behave

By attending this conference, participants agree to support the agency of their fellow participants, by:

  • Being respectful: We expect everyone to treat others with dignity and fairness. Differing perspectives and disagreements are an expected and healthy part of shared learning and discourse; they should be expressed with curiosity and empathy — never through personal attacks or hostility.
  • Being considerate: Recognize and respect the diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and abilities within our conference community. Be mindful of differences in language, education, and culture.
  • Being accountable: While creating spaces that are fully safe for all participants and facilitators is admirable, it’s not realistic in learning environments where growth often requires discomfort. Safety is also partly beyond our control — we can’t predict others’ behavior or eliminate all potential threats, challenges, or biases. Instead, we aim to foster an accountable space. Participants and facilitators are expected to stay open to feedback, take responsibility for their actions, and work to repair harm when it occurs.
  • Following our health protocols: Because immunity and access to care vary among individuals, these protocols are designed to support the health and well-being of our entire conference community — regardless of existing health disparities.

Furthermore, we adopt the Digital Library Federation’s ‘How to Be’ framework, which provides practical guidance for cultivating welcoming, inclusive, and accountable spaces:

  • listening as much as you speak, and remembering that colleagues may have expertise you are unaware of;
  • encouraging and yielding the floor to those whose viewpoints may be under-represented in a group;
  • using welcoming language, for instance by using an individual’s stated pronouns and favoring gender-neutral collective nouns (“people,” not “guys”);
  • offer and ask for pronouns; if you are unsure, refer to others by their names;
  • using the name(s) people use for themselves and not names they have gone by in the past;
  • accepting critique graciously and offering it constructively;
  • giving credit where it is due;
  • seeking concrete ways to make physical spaces and online resources more universally accessible; and
  • staying alert, as Active Bystanders, to the welfare of those around you.

How We Don't Behave

Harassment, bullying, and intimidation are strictly prohibited in all our spaces. We reserve the right to remove participants who exhibit disruptive behaviour, which includes but is not limited to:

  • Discriminatory language or actions related to any personal attribute, such as age, race, gender, sexual orientation, or disability
  • Unwelcome sexual attention or imagery
  • Deliberate misgendering, doxing (publishing private information without consent), stalking, or inflammatory comments
  • Any form of physical, psychological, or cultural maltreatment
  • Violent threats, incitement to violence, or sustained disruption of events or communications

Reporting Concerns

Our conference will include Social Connector Volunteers to help facilitate connections throughout the day and serve as active bystanders.

Social Connectors will be pointed out throughout the conference so participants can easily identify them.

If you witness or experience behavior that violates our code of conduct, we encourage you to either report it to the conference co-chairs, Saman Goudarzi and Christine Homuth, or a Social Connector Volunteer. If you prefer to reach out asynchronously, please contact us via email at mapref@mcmaster.ca.