Equity & Social Justice Advisory Group Resources: Recruiting and Retaining Librarians of Color

"The ACRL Diversity Alliance program unites academic libraries committed to increasing the hiring pipeline of qualified and talented individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. By working together and thinking more broadly, ACRL Diversity Alliance institutions will help diversify and thereby enrich the profession."

"Academic libraries operate under the assumption that there is one “right candidate” for a multi-layered position and that a search committee... is the fairest and most equitable approach to hiring academic librarians. That assumption is running up against the fact that libraries and academic libraries in particular have an acknowledged a problem with recruiting and retaining librarians of color."

This was originally streamed on July 9, 2020, as part of Denver Public Library's Workplace Racial Equity Symposium. It specifically discusses inclusive hiring practices and how to recruit, retain, and advance staff of color.

What does it mean to keep diversity and equity at the forefront of selecting a great candidate?

"The primary objective of these guidelines is to outline the overall recruitment process and serve as a framework for managing librarian recruitments in a strategic, proactive, and consistent manner."

"Kendrick’s recent research into low morale quantifies the experiences of many academic librarians who are not getting the support that they need for success in the field. Taking a deeper dive into the subject, Kendrick has now documented behavior and cultures that specifically enable the low morale experiences of racial and ethnic minority academic librarians."

"Library and information science (LIS) literature about workplace bullying and burnout in academic libraries continues to grow, and a recent study has revealed the experience of low morale in the same environment. Concomitantly, research focusing on continuing recruitment, promotion, advancement, and retention problems for ethnic and minority librarians; links between North American library values and workplace abuse; and historiographies on the historic marginalization of minority librarians has also appeared in LIS literature. Citing aforementioned developments in LIS literature and the racially homogenous participant make-up of Kendrick's 2017 study of low morale in academic libraries, this follow-up qualitative study focuses on racial and ethnic minority academic librarians to understand this group's experience of low morale. Emerging data validate the development, trajectory, and health-related consequences of low morale; center the load of additional impact factors; and highlight the impact of low morale on recruitment and retention efforts of racial and ethnic minority librarians employed in North American colleges and universities."

"This article provides recommendations and strategies for those seeking to either establish or strengthen a Library Diversity Residency program. As the coordinator of a residency program, it is vital to widely discuss and share information about the program with other library personnel. It is important that you understand the work that must occur before the search committee begins their work to hire the resident."

n Brief: Despite our ongoing quest for diversity and a growing number of initiatives to increase it, the demographics of the professional librarian population haven’t changed in any significant way. We are starkly lacking in diversity based on race and ethnicity (we are overwhelmingly white), age (librarianship is an aging profession), disability, economic status, educational background, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other demographic and identity markers of difference. This lack of diversity should be seen as a signal, an invitation to us to look critically at our culture, our practices, and our assumptions, and investigate what it is about ourselves and our profession that is preventing underrepresented people from being able to, or even wanting to, enter and stay. We need an awareness of how privilege, bias, and the attendant power differentials and oppression play out at the individual and the systemic levels of our profession. And we must consider how these affect the experiences of underrepresented and marginalized people within our dominant (white, heterosexual, cisgender, and patriarchal) culture. In this article I consider the meaning of diversity in librarianship. Then, using the ClimateQUAL Organizational Climate and Diversity Assessment as an example, I analyze the potential problems with our data collection and analysis related to diversity and organizational culture. I conclude by suggesting some practical steps for library leadership and by identifying future directions for research.

"By identifying and interrogating the body of white, middle class values inherent to both librarianship and professional job searching, I offer suggestions to encourage an authentically diverse pool of applicants."

"This SPEC Kit gathers information about current recruitment and retention strategies that aim to increase the number of minority librarians in research libraries, staff development programs that foster an inclusive workplace and climate, how diversity programs have changed, and how libraries assess these efforts."

The literature on academic librarian morale is burgeoning, yet less attention has been paid to the workplace experiences of staff. This research team, which included library staff and librarians, conducted 34 structured online interviews with academic library staff across the United States. A theoretical model and interview findings are presented, which reveal the ways in which organizational culture, library hierarchies, and management style affect staff morale.

"The purpose of this article is to offer insight to administrators and human resource professionals at Traditionally White Institutions (TWIs) about developing action plans that provide meaningful support to Black administrators and faculty who are coping with racial trauma."

"Despite stated commitments to diversity, predominantly White academic institutions still have not increased racial diversity among their faculty. In this article Robin DiAngelo and Özlem Sensoy focus on one entry point for doing so—the faculty hiring process. They analyze a typical faculty hiring scenario and identify the most common practices that block the hiring of diverse faculty and protect Whiteness and offer constructive alternative practices to guide hiring committees in their work to realize the institution's commitment to diversity."