"Diversity, inclusion, and underrepresented populations in LIS research"

“Librarianship is a profession that has embraced the inclusive creed of helping all those who enter the library and of providing materials that reflect the diverse range of perspectives and groups in society.” (175)

“Many library services are designed to reach specific underrepresented populations.” (175)

“The professional commitment to serving diverse patron communities, however, has never translated into librarianship truly becoming a diverse profession.” (175)

The previous three statements are all true statements that apply to the library and information science profession.  In their article entitled “Diversity, Inclusion and Underrepresented Populations in LIS Research,” Jaeger, Bertot and Franklin discuss the need to diversify the library profession, from LIS students to librarians and library administrators.  While it is well documented that the profession is not ethnically diverse (particularly amongst African Americans and Latinos), there isn’t any meaningful research about the representation of other groups of people such as people with disabilities or people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or questioning (GLBTQ).  Furthermore, while there have been some attempts to ethnically diversify librarianship through recruitment into a master’s program, no attempts have been made to attract members of other groups of people such as those already mentioned.

While perhaps it doesn’t seem that important, in reality there are far-reaching implications for this lack of diversity.  It’s extremely important the librarians in a community are as diverse as the community itself.  Not only is this important because it could make the patrons of that community more comfortable, which would raise the effectiveness of the library, but it could also encourage and inspire members of minority groups to become librarians themselves. 

The research opportunities associated with diversity in librarianship are endless.  Research can be done on any population group and on any aspect within that population group; the library and information science profession is inclusive in this respect.  Jaeger, Bertot and Franklin discuss several different research opportunities.  One example they discussed is to examine a population in conjunction with a LIS issue.  An example of this sort of research could include an examination of better ways to accommodate library professionals with disabilities while they are at their place of work.  Another research opportunity the authors discussed was framing issues of diversity in larger topics.  An example of this could be comparing the services offered at a library (such as databases, computer classes, Internet access) and geographic location of the library to see if there are any correlations.  In short, there is a plethora of research opportunities; the issue is that LIS scholars generally aren’t utilizing these opportunities.

The final issue that the authors discuss is diversity education in LIS programs.  There are guidelines for accreditation from the American Library Association (ALA) that say that diversity issues need to be covered in a LIS program but these guidelines don’t really specify how much students need to study diversity issues.  As a result, only a few LIS programs really focus on diversity issues.  The three programs explicitly mentioned are the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Maryland.  As a side note, I’d be interested in knowing how Wayne State University would rank in this respect as that’s the school I go to.  But the authors stress that if there is more education about diversity issues in an LIS program, graduates will be better equipped to serve their patrons and, in general, be more culturally aware.

While the librarian profession is striving to serve their multicultural and diverse communities to the best of their ability, it does not seem to be striving to diversify the profession itself.  But diversifying the library and information science profession can only be good.  If librarians themselves were to be a more diverse group, they would be better able to serve their communities effectively and they would better be able to remain a more diverse group of individuals.

Sources:

Jaeger, P. T., Bertot, J. C., & Franklin, R. E. (2010). Diversity, inclusion, and underrepresented populations in LIS research. Library Quarterly, 80, 175-181.