Achieving racial and ethnic diversity among academic and research librarians: The recruitment, retention, and advancement of librarians of color—A white paper

In Pursuit of Antiracist Social Justice: Denaturalizing Whiteness in the Academic Library

“…The library profession is amply aware that White librarians are over-represented among its workers (Neely & Peterson, 2007). While this racial gap is striking, focusing solely on these numbers in and of themselves ignores both the causes and the implications of the situation.…”

“…Library and information scholars and practitioners have attempted to bring the concepts of diversity and multiculturalism to a more central place in the profession. Beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, these terms became buzzwords in efforts to attract more people of color to the profession and better serve the increasing number of racial and ethnic minorities in library user communities (Neely & Peterson, 2007). However, the ways in which these discussions have taken place are problematic.…”

Information practices of immigrants

“…Most of this literature is beyond the scope of this review. For example, we do not address research in the following areas: multiculturalism in LIS schools or among library staff (Abdullahi, 2007; Alexander, 2008; Allard, Mehra, & Qayyym, 2007; Greiner, 2008; Hall‐Ellis, 2007); specific service provision to immigrants at public libraries (Berry, 2007; Bober, 2008; Hammond‐Todd, 2008; Winkel, 2007); multilingual service provision to international students in academic libraries (Zhuo, Emanuel, & Jiao, 2007); representations of multiculturalism in various media such as children's books (Bowen, 2007; Bradford & Huang, 2007); the merits or demerits of diversity, multiculturalism, or multilingual services in libraries (Cooper, 2008; Neely & Peterson, 2007); and technical systems issues such as multilingual searching or retrieval, interface design, or subject headings (Alpert, 2006; Beall, 2006; Bjorner, 2008; Booth, 2006; Daumke, Marku, Poprat, Schulz & Klar, 2007; Notess, 2008; Ravid, Bar‐Ilan, Baruchson‐Arbib, & Rafaeli, 2007). Exceptions are made to the extent that articles within any of these bodies of literature specifically address how immigrants, themselves, seek or use information in the contexts of their daily lives.…”

Promoting Racial and Ethnic Diversity among Canadian Academic Librarians

“…The objectives of the White Paper are also to "discuss efforts to promote, develop, and foster workforces that are representative of a diverse population and address the development of a climate that supports and encourages advancement." 12 While there is a large body of literature relating to racial and ethnic diversity and academic librarians in the United States, the same does not hold true for Canada. In 2010, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) published SPEC Kit 319 Diversity Plans and Programs.…”