Articulate the importance of designing programs and services supportive of diversity, inclusion, and equity for clientele and employees
Introduction
In order to better understand and serve our various communities, those in librarianship need to be able to understand and uphold Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) work. The concept of EDI, or diversity, work has been a part of the library and information science (LIS) field for the past twenty plus years (Cooke, 2018). This is an important aspect of librarianship because libraries are a representation of the communities they serve, and when there is an industry-level lack of representation, it is the communities that suffer. While the diversification of American society has grown exponentially, there is an obvious lack of diverse librarians in the field today (Bright, 2022; Cooke, 2018). In fact, over the past decade, there has only been a five percent increase in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) librarians, leaving communities to not see themselves represented in their librarians (Bright, 2022). While diversity has been a common topic in librarianship, it also has become almost performative and what is referred to as “happy talk” (Cooke, 2018, p. 40). Performativity occurs when people openly discuss and support diversity and EDI work to appear well intentioned, but never practice the work in their actions. While there are many in the field who are diligently working towards removing barriers to librarianship for marginalized community members and working to improve the equity of access, diversity, and inclusion, there is a lot more work that needs to be done to ensure a diverse environment.
What is EDI?
Equity, diversity, and inclusion is often lumped together to form acronyms, typically EDI or DEI, which often encompasses concepts such as anti-racism and social justice (Bright, 2022). It is important to break down the acronym and identify the individual definitions to fully understand the concept of EDI work. Equity refers to freedom from bias or favoritism, and in the context of the LIS profession, is referred to as the equity of information access (Bright, 2022). Equity of access is a key action area identified by the American Library Association (ALA), specifically in providing proactive actions that ensure communities have access to needed resources. ALA recognizes that equity is needed because there are people that are disadvantaged and are often underrepresented and marginalized in many organizations (ALA, 2017). Diversity means the various ways by which individuals can be seen as similar or different based on various factors such as race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, etc. (Bright, 2022, p. 69). Inclusion is the act or state of individuals being included, treated fairly, and feeling valued. Diversity and inclusion are key areas where the LIS profession should focus their efforts to ensure diverse perspectives and people feel included and that efforts of exclusions are acknowledged.
Social Justice and Critical Race Theory
Another aspect to the EDI conversation is the concepts of social justice and Critical Race Theory (CRT). Social justice means the fair and equal rights of individuals in society regardless of their identity (Cardenas-Dow, 2022). Social justice is one of three frameworks offered by ALA’s Office of Diversity, Literacy and Outreach Services (ALA-ODLOS) along with diversity and cultural competency, in order to influence demonstrable change in the LIS profession (Cardenas-Dow, 2022). Critical Race Theory brings into the conversation that acknowledgement of a power imbalance is needed by the profession, and the need to identify and actively work to change the current status of this situation. CRT argues that the efforts directed by ALA and EDI work movements would be more effective when this imbalance, white supremacy, is discussed and dismantled (Leung & Lopez-McKnight, 2021). CRT is a conceptual construct and methodology that sets out to critically examine the structures and systems maintaining white supremacy and how we can create policies, laws, and enact change at an industry level to dismantle the oppressive system that EDI work is aimed toward (Leung & Lopez-McKnight, 2021, p. 7). Over the past decade, some people in the LIS profession began a critical movement to discuss CRT and enact lasting change through more aggressive policy challenging and changing ways. Social justice and CRT acknowledge the power imbalance and use it to enact anti-racist policies and create social justice services to ensure marginalized communities have equitable access to information, feel welcome, and can see themselves in the professionals working in their communities.
Policies and Programs to Promote EDI
There are many areas to focus in order to enact change and provide a more welcoming and equitable environment for our communities. Academic libraries, for instance, serve a diverse community of students, faculty, staff, and researchers. EDI work and social justice are often applied in academic libraries to ensure equitable access to resources including textbook collections, computer and printing access, and various other services and resources. In an academic setting, actions can be taken to ensure marginalized students have equitable access to information through staff training, policy change, cultural competence, assessment and planning, community assistance, and collection development practices.
Employees
The biggest step to ensuring community equity to access, diversity, and inclusion is to ensure LIS professionals are understanding of EDI work and actively participating in it. Training in EDI, social justice, or CRT is an integral part of cultural humility and understanding and can create a huge impact on the library community. Leading training programs through various avenues is a standard way of promoting EDI (Bright, 2022). Policy change is the most effective way to ensure an equitable, diverse, and inclusive community. Changing policy is not an easy step, and it takes a lot of work, particularly in ensuring leadership buy-in and understanding. Academic libraries often work from a hierarchical structure and enacting policy change from the top down will ensure every LIS professional is creating a diverse and equitable environment. Assessment and planning, such as a diversity audit, can lead to success in EDI work by analyzing current practices to see where marginalized and diverse perspectives are needed, particularly in the area of collection development. Enacting these changes and working towards equitable goals will allow library users and the library communities to be equitable, diverse, and inclusive.
Library Users
Academic libraries can ensure equitable, diverse, and inclusive services and resources by providing technological access such as computers, printers, laptops, and even hotspots to work with library users that may not have these resources at home. The digital divide in the United States affects many (Bright, 2022), providing these services will bridge the gap and allow students to better succeed in their courses through these critical services and resources. Doing a diversity audit on the library collection and ensuring diverse perspectives are readily available, particularly those reflective of the community, will assist in promoting a diverse and welcoming environment. One of the primary efforts of EDI activists and workers in the LIS profession is ensuring future diversity being represented in the librarian field. Creating programs allowing a pathway for marginalized community members to pursue an MLIS and become a librarian is one of the best ways to grow the number of BIPOC librarians and ensure a more diverse community.
Evidence
Info 210 Discussion #7 - Discussing Diversity Scenario
My first piece of evidence is a discussion post from Info 210 Reference and Information Services. This discusses a scenario provided detailing a poor handling of a public library patron situation and three perspectives of how the situation should have been handled. The scenario consisted of a patron causing a disturbance outside and bringing it inside, where a library manager handled the situation poorly. This discussion post shows my knowledge of common public library instances of working with various patrons and ensuring they feel comfortable and welcome. I discuss the importance of equity and fair treatment in the LIS profession, and the public’s freedom to access the library as a core value of the public library. I also discuss the importance of training how to handle these situations, which is one of the many ways libraries can work with their staff to ensure they are providing an equitable environment for their communities.
My second piece of evidence is an essay written for Info 281 Building a Critical Culture: Information Ethics, Diverse Communities, and Critical Librarianship. In this essay I discussed the importance of creating a critical culture to uplift marginalized perspectives. I discuss the importance of understanding the performative nature of EDI work done in current organizations and libraries and how BIPOC employees are unfairly leaned on to enact EDI work. I provide practices and options critical librarians can take to work towards creating an equitable environment such as introducing critical race theory in training, discussions, and workshops and working to analyze library collections to ensure it represents the community. This essay shows my knowledge in EDI work, the importance of critical librarianship, and how to enact change in an academic library setting.
Info 281 Issue Brief - Libraries Can Never Be Neutral
My third piece of evidence is a research paper titled Libraries Can Never Be Neutral from Info 281 Building a Critical Culture: Information Ethics, Diverse Communities, and Critical Librarianship. In this paper I discuss the topic of neutrality and how it relates to intellectual freedom, primarily from a perspective against the preservation of a neutral stance. This paper discusses the connection between neutrality and upholding the status quo, which in the context of the LIS profession is inequitable social systems and a power imbalance built into the structure of the United States. I discuss the importance of uplifting marginalized perspectives to support the needs of the community. This paper shows my understanding of equitable access, diversity, and inclusion specifically in the context of ensuring an equitable and diverse library collection. I provide recommendations for ALA to take a stance against neutrality and LIS professionals to pursue advocating for social justice initiatives.
Work Experience - Fighting for Equity in the LIS Profession Staff Day Presentation
My fourth piece of evidence is a slideshow presentation titled Breaking Barriers: Fighting for Equity in the LIS Profession that I co-presented at the CSN Libraries Staff Day 2023. The EDI team lead and I worked closely to research and create a training program to give to all CSN Library faculty and staff. This training presentation included definitions reflective of EDI advocacy work and research and an explanation of the need for equity of access. We examined whiteness and white privilege as a social construct and the role it plays on the history of the LIS profession. We presented how to bring care and belonging as a part of radical empathy and EDI advocacy into our daily interactions with the library community. The final output of the training was to create an EDI statement for the library which would guide daily work, policies, and projects library faculty and staff are involved in. This training presentation shows my understanding of the importance of EDI work, and exemplifies one of the primary tools (EDI training) libraries can use to build a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment for our communities.
Conclusion
As a future academic librarian I am dedicated to actively pushing EDI work to the forefront of everything I work on. It is important to ensure library communities are reflected in library services and resources and I plan to continue to work towards creating and ensuring an equitable, diverse, and inclusive library environment. As someone working in an academic library setting, I am currently a member of the EDI team which is dedicated to ensuring these practices are enacted at our library including a project I’m leading piloting a diversity audit for one of the campus libraries main collections. I plan to pursue continued education and professional development in this field from any and all resources available including ALA and ACRL.
References
American Library Association. (2017, July 5). Equity, diversity, inclusion: An interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/EDI
Bright, K. (2022). Equity of access, diversity, and inclusion. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information Services Today (3rd ed., pp. 66-79). Rowman & Littlefield
Cardenas-Dow, M. L. (2022). Social Justice. In S. Hirsh (Ed.), Information Services Today (3rd ed., pp. 80-87). Rowman & Littlefield
Cooke, N. A. (2018). Librarians as active bystanders: Centering social justice in LIS practice. In K. Haycock & M.J. Romaniuk (Eds.), The Portable MLIS. (2nd ed., pp. 39-47). Libraries Unlimited.
Leung, S. Y. & Lopez-McKnight, J. R. (2021). Knowledge Justice: Disrupting Library and Information Studies through Critical Race Theory. The MIT Press.