Activities and Resources

ACRL Diversity Standards: Cultural Competencies for Academic Libraries (2012)
http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/diversity

Recruitment, Retention, Mentoring and the Pipeline to the Library Profession

Examples of activities:

  • Mentoring: all new librarians assigned a mentor
  • Mentoring: Librarians mentoring staff 
  • New Librarians brown bag lunches (new librarians present their recent work)
  • Work with Human Resources to examine some of the infrastructure surrounding recruitment of librarians including the language of position announcements, where job postings are listed (listservs and websites), interview questions, search committee composition, and any other aspects of the recruitment and hiring process for any explicit or implicit bias. This includes conducting exit interviews when librarians leave employment 
  • Create “Recommendations to Support Diversity & Inclusion in Recruitment” document for HR and hiring committees
  • Host ARL Diversity Fellows 
  • Outreach to advisors in targeted departments (to encourage students to consider librarianship as a career)
  • Working with the campus Career Center (to encourage students to consider librarianship as a career)
  • Speaker from a local library school 
  • Job shadowing program 
  • Student assistant buttons for Bobcat Day advertising Library tours in different languages (worn by student assistants who spoke those languages)
  • Presentations/panels/lectures:
    • Director of San Jose Library School speaking about employment landscape

Staff Development/Education

  • programming/films/exhibits 
  • Screen webinars on relevant issues
  • Article/book/film discussions 
  • Outreach to campus entities engaged in diversity and inclusion work
  • Co-sponsor conferences 
  • Diversity blog: contains information on campus and community events related to diversity, and posts about diversity-related topics

Library services and climate

  • Critically examine our policies, procedures and practices for any explicit or implicit exclusionary language or practices 
  • Create Safe Spaces recommendation 
  • Survey students and faculty about the climate they encounter at campus libraries 
  • Presentations/panels/lectures

Contribute to the library profession’s conversations about diversity and inclusion

  • Co-sponsor conferences 
  • Poster sessions and speaking at conferences 
  • Sponsor staff to attend diversity related conferences or workshops

Case Studies

  • UCB: Committee on Diversity
    • UCB Library’s Committee on Diversity has been hosting a series of microaggressions workshops for the Library with campus partner Julie Shackford-Bradley from the Restorative Justice Center. The Committee’s other activities include its Librarian/Staff Mentorship Program, workshops on "Cripping the Library: Exploring the Intersections of Access, Privilege and Text through Disability, Sexuality, and Race" and "Trans: Gender Identity Inclusion Workshop for the Library." The Committee also held film screenings and discussions in partnership with the Media Resources Center of the documentaries And Then They Came for Us, The Pushouts, Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart, Exiled: America's Deported Veterans, and Warrior Women.
  • UCI: Transforming Knowledge/Transforming Libraries
    • Transforming Knowledge/Transforming Libraries (TKTL) is a three-year IMLS funded research project in which UCI Libraries is partnering with the UCI departments of Asian American Studies, Chicano/Latino Studies, and African American Studies, as well as stakeholders representing organizations throughout Orange County, California to connect library and information studies practice with the ethnic studies curriculum and provide undergraduates with first-hand experience in building and providing access to the digital cultural heritage of the under-documented. We seek to research how libraries might become essential partners in providing ethnic studies students with the tools and language to articulate, present, preserve, and disseminate community history. This research explores the ways in which foregrounding students’ lived experience and presenting opportunities for learning skills in community archives can inform professional trajectory and, ultimately, the profession itself.
  • UCLA: Library Diversity Committee (LDC)

    • Library Diversity Committee (LDC), in coordination with two Equity Advisors from the Library serving on campus-wide advisory council on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. They organize activities and programs targeting the library and campus communities.

      • Professional Development Webinars: “Beyond Library Diversity Residencies: Strategies to Recruit, Retain, and Promote Librarians of Color;” “I Didn't Mean Anything By It: How Racial Microaggressions are Perceived” (ACRL ULS-PDC); “ALA Microaggressions and Wellness Strategies Webinar;” and “The Importance of Being Inclusive: Diversity in Collection Development for Academic Libraries.”
      • Professional Development Workshops: LGBTQ Allyship Training; Disabilities and Inclusive Design Training; Web Accessibility Workshop for Content Editors and Staff; and “Redescription as Potential: Navigating Representation and Ethical Description in the Collections on Japanese American Incarceration.”
      • EDI Training Sessions for Library Search Committees.
      • Ongoing LDC Projects: Draft of (public-facing) Library EDI Statement; Creating and promoting expanded outreach through cultivated web presences.
  • UCR: Outreach and programming
    • In 2017, the LAUC-R Diversity Committee organized a discussion panel with key campus leaders who work with different student groups.  Leadership from Chicano Student Programs, the LGBTQ Resource Center, the Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion, and a librarian whose who has long focused on various aspects of diversity participated.  As a follow-up the committee co-hosted a talk on the Multigenerational Library Workplace, which sought to address issues of age and diversity in the information professions.  Further, UCR’s University Librarian established a library-wide Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (knows as CODEI), which the chair of the LAUC-R Diversity Committee serves on.  CODEI has sponsored events such as brown-bag discussions on diversity topics, a workshop facilitated by ARL’s Director of Diversity and Leadership Programs Mark Puente, and, more recently, an event co-sponsored with the LAUC-R Diversity Committee that showcased how library departments are putting DEI principles into practice.
  • UCSB: Committee on Equity Diversity and Inclusion, (CEDI)
    • CEDI is a reincarnation of the Library Diversity Committee.  It was revised two years ago.  The committee voted to change its name to the current title to reflect better the committee's charge.  CEDI has accomplished several projects such as draft and submit a set of recommendations to the library administration.  Organize numerous programs in the library related to inclusive and safe spaces, cultural competencies, microaggression workshops, and other related topics. 
  • UCSD: Resources and events
    • The UC San Diego Library provides diversity and inclusion resources and collaborates with various library programs to support and celebrate diversity and inclusion activities. Maintained and coordinated by the library's Diversity & Inclusion Committee, resources are accessible online and events are promoted through a library blog.
  • UCSF: Diversity and Inclusion
    • UCSF Library's Diversity and Inclusion Workgroup (all staff)
      • The DI group has arranged events such as 7-Minutes Stories, a staff training on unconscious bias, and created a set of tips for inclusive recruitment and hiring
      • An occasional feature in the Library's staff blog, Off the Shelf, spotlights Library staff who contribute to the campus' PRIDE values. PRIDE stands for professionalism, respect, integrity, diversity, and excellence. The first post was on 29 May 2019, and subsequent posts are linked at the bottom of the page.
      • The Library previously held a monthly diversity discussion group, hosted by a library staff member on a topic of their choosing, with readings and/or videos to help inform and support the discussion. Topics included first generation professionals, environmental racism, safe spaces, and allyship.

Campus Library Diversity Resources