Diversity in librarianship: The United States perspective

Abstract

This paper aims to explain how the concept of diversity has been covered in the professional literature and discusses how diversity has been understood and implemented in the context of tribal community libraries, public libraries, academic libraries and school libraries and the diversity statistics of library professionals. The paper highlights some prominent issues of diversity in libraries, such as: staffing; recruitment and retention; recruitment of students and faculty of color to library schools; library services and organization climate. The paper concludes by mentioning some challenges the library profession is facing, such as lack of representation of minorities among students and faculty, and makes recommendations to overcome these challenges.

European Union Librarians on the Move? An Exploration of Potential Impacts of Brexit on Workforce Diversity

“…literature regularly includes best practices on managing diversity and implementing diversity initiatives (Hanna et al, 2011;Kreitz, 2008). This goal has been presented as a necessary response to increased user diversity, in the light of globalisation and internationalisation (Gulati, 2010;Hanna et al, 2011;Kreitz, 2008). Literature on recruitment stresses the value of diverse staff to better service provision through their cultural and language knowledge (Dewey & Keally, 2008;Kim, Chiu, Sin, & Robbins, 2007).…”

“…The importance of mirroring user diversity in the workforce (Gulati, 2010;Hanna et al, 2011;Kreitz, 2008), was echoed by senior staff participants, who recognised diversity as an important organisational goal and asset to a library. Academic librarians from the EU have been recognised…”

The Equity Collection: Analysis and transformation of the Monash University Design Collection

“…7 In reviewing the literature of librarianship, it appears that inclusive collection development is not often at the heart of research on diversity in libraries. Articles have drawn attention to the importance of recruitment and retention of staff from a variety of backgrounds 8 and to outreach and access for diverse communities. 9 A notable exception is the work of Ciszek and Young, who used approaches including investigation of circulation and use statistics, WorldCat collection analysis, comparison to standard bibliographies, focus groups, patron interviews and surveys to assess the collection of a large university library.…”

The Reach of a Long-Arm Stapler: Calling in Microaggressions in the LIS Field through Zine Work

“…Despite diversity being listed as one of the core values of the American Library Association (2004), there has overall been infrequent and limited discussion of diversity in LIS literature. What has been published on diversity typically centers on the topic of recruiting more people from underrepresented ethnic and racial backgrounds into librarianship (Dewey and Keally 2008;Gulati 2010;Josey and Abdullahi 2002;Kim and Sin 2008;Love 2010). This numbers-focused approach to diversity has provided little discussion on retention in the profession or how everyday workplace behaviors relating to race, racism, or antiracism affect sustained diversity in the LIS profession.…”