Moving the Needle: An Examination of Diversity in LIS in Three Acts

What are the options for library and information studies education reform in addressing racial inequity in the library profession in the UK?

“…Is cultural competence the easy way out of a tricky racial conundrum, where a more challenging but arguably more effective alternative would be to diversify the profession through ensuring staff represent all the protected characteristics? A recent update to the environmental domain of the framework was suggested, to address criticisms of ‘obscuring racism and power structures in librarianship and society’ (Blackburn, 2020: 229), and an alternative ‘Campus racial climate model’ (historical, psychological, behavioural, organisational and compositional dimensions) was suggested as a more critical alternative (Gollop and Hughes-Hassell, 2017: 54–55). In a recent review of Southeast Asian LIS schools, it was found that adopting cultural competences was ‘important and necessary to produce culturally competent and culturally sensitive graduates who can serve diverse communities and develop inclusive services for all users’ (Maestro et al, 2018: 111).…”