In Pursuit of Diversity in the CUNY Library Profession: An Effective Approach to Leadership in Academic Libraries

Abstract

Maximizing the current organizational culture and diversity/inclusion practices within CUNY libraries is crucial to retaining highly talented support staff with significant potential for future leadership roles. This research explores equity, diversity, and inclusion within the library profession, with the intention of implementing strategic frameworks to attract, recruit, and retain underrepresented groups within the University. To spotlight areas of upward mobility within CUNY academic libraries, a CUNY-wide Library Workplace Climate survey on the perceptions of diversity, universal inclusion, and career progression was conducted. The scope of the survey study compares the different perspectives of CUNY librarians, full-time library classified paraprofessionals, and part-time classified staff to measure CUNY's commitment to addressing the diversity gap in the library profession. CUNY-wide, 141 library employees participated in a survey study to uncover professional development opportunities in support of career advancement and upward mobility. Nearly 2 in 5 African American/Black library staff-members are paraprofessionals, while 13.5% are faculty. A stark contrast to 3 in 5 or 64% CUNY library faculty, which identified as White/Caucasian. The findings reinforce the need for measures to maximize workplace diversity through support-staff mentoring, guidance, and recruitment.Workplace mentorship and career development-across all levels within CUNY librariescultivate skills for a better work environment that can lead to promotion and successful plans for succession. Investing and sustaining structured library professional development opportunities geared towards underrepresented groups-generally in paraprofessional and student-worker roles-will help identify next generation CUNY library leadership.

Analysis of anti-racism, equity, inclusion and social justice initiatives in library and information science literature

“…training related to the concept and presence of micro-aggressions) and critical librarianship (Barnett and Witenstein, 2020; Barr-Walker and Sharifi, 2019; Blackburn, 2020; Daniel, 2013; Gosselin and Goodsett, 2019; Lazzaro et al. , 2014; Leung and López-McKnight, 2020; Sanchez-Rodriguez, 2021; Zhang and Roy, 2011). How administrators and managers engage future prospects and current staff in libraries necessitates an examination of how job postings and interview questions are crafted, how onboarding is integrated, provision of mentoring and community engagement and how training and professional development are offered to support individuals and groups.…”

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors Associated with Succession Planning and Management (SP&M) Process: A PRISMA Systematic Review

“…Another most studied intrinsic factor was diversity, acknowledging that employees from various backgrounds have enriched the organization's culture, which could possibly engender appreciation of differences. Therefore, a better of understanding of the different talents and abilities can help with the training of future successors (Kumaran, 2015;Sanchez-Rodriguez, 2020;Virick & Greer, 2012). Although some studies addressing diversity had used a broader approach by including race and ethnicity, very few emphasized on implications for women or the minority group as less favorable to be nominated as successors (Kwan & Shen, 2015;Kumaran, 2015;Virick & Greer, 2012).…”

Gender and racial bias in email reference services

“…The lack of racial diversity in librarianship (Hathcock and Sendaula, 2017; Riley-Reid, 2017; Sanchez-Rodriguez, 2021; VanScoy and Bright, 2019) may play a role in equality of library services. While there have been calls for increasing diversity in library and information science (LIS), neither the library profession (Alabi, 2018) nor library education (Ndumu, 2021) reflects it.…”