Community Informatics Multimedia Archive

There are many ways of looking at diversity within an LIS program and a few are:
1. The students themselves-how many are enrolled and what are their demographic
2. The curriculum-what is taught and how it is taught
3. The faculty-the demographic of the professors who are teaching the future librarians, archivists, and other information professionals
4. The activities that the LIS programs are or are not engaged in-what communities and libraries are being reached

Thus, when one is talking about diversity within LIS it is important to consider what dimension of diversity one is referring. Most of the time, it refers to the students who are enrolled within and what kind of background they come from. Specifically, it is in relation to their skin color and gender, and ignores other types of diversity such as age, mobility, geographic, religion, etc. Diversity within these areas is important, as they are reflective of the American population. The population is not all White, male, and young and therefore the profession cannot be this either. In addition, by having a diverse student body, students learn about each other. This will allow them to discuss the issues that are facing communities from different perspectives. Moreover, each student can share with each other the priorities and goals that one has, that someone may not have deemed important before talking with this person.

I think that one of the concerns LIS administrative heads have is if the profession is reflective of those who they serve. This is a serious concern because community members themselves may feel more comfortable with people who they identify with. Although this issue seems to be more significant to those who are public librarians, it can also be significant to any institution, where a Black patron may not feel comfortable talking to a White female because he or she comes from a place where Whites and Blacks were not in close contact.

The curriculum of the program is significant as well because, if all that is taught in the classroom is theory without suggestions for practical application in society, the curriculum can become problematic. It is important for people to be aware of the societal issues that are at play in the field-such as inequality, poverty, unemployment, etc; thus librarians cannot be thinking within a bubble only about collections, metadata, and information retrieval and not be aware of the conditions that face the people they serve. Therefore, the classes need to consider this. In addition, when professors are providing examples for their students they should provide examples from various categories to appeal to the students.

The diversity of the faculty is important because the professors need to come from diverse backgrounds in order to bring different experiences to the table. Those from a marginalized portion of society can speak from a position from outside the sites of privilege, are not afraid to critique, and make suggestions about how to change libraries and the field of librarianship. In addition, by having a diverse faculty it can attract more of the same people because they can see an example of a person who “made” it. Although I am not planning to be a faculty member at a university, I see myself as a “model,” for youth when I become a librarian in an archive or museum that serves the Black community.

The activities that the LIS program is involved with are important because it demonstrates whom the LIS program values. If they are only serving historically privileged communities it shows that those who are being affected by the digital divide are being ignored. The emphasis on the communities that already provide the better resources to their population most likely do not need as much guidance and support as those in underprivileged communities. This is not to say that these communities may not need help and if they do then they need to be helped, but not at the exclusion of others. Furthermore, at GSLIS, we have a strong connection with the UFL, but the Douglass Library in Champaign, which serves a predominately-Black community, does not seem to get much support. Is it because there is a divide between U of I and the library or because it was not thought about? I did not know about the library until Professor Alkalimat discussed it in class.

The conversation surrounding diversity and LIS will be a continuing one and one that has important implications for the future of the profession.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2009 at 12:09 pm and is filed under All Posts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.