“Only a small number of LIS programs have committed to diversity as a key educational focus. While the American Library Association accreditation guidelines for MLS programs include language that issues of diversity need to be covered to some extent in instruction, few LIS programs have made diversity an explicit pedagogical focus” (p. 179).
Authors Jaeger, Bertot, and Franklin (2010) highlight the imbalance between librarianship’s professional commitment to deliver services and outreach to increasingly diverse communities, and the actual amount of diversity within the librarian profession – specifically, the lack of diversity among librarians, library administrators, and library and information science students. Latinos and African Americans account for less than 10 percent of practicing librarians and LIS full-time faculty. As for other diverse groups – those with disabilities, individuals that are socioeconomically disadvantaged, and individuals representing gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender groups – the authors note a distinct gap in studies that attempt to track the representation of these diverse groups within the LIS profession.
The findings in this article are consistent with the results of the American Library Association (ALA) study titled Diversity Counts. Released in 2006, this “comprehensive study of gender, race and age in the library profession” (ALA, 2010) used 1990 and 2000 census data to survey the diversity of almost 110,000 librarians. The result: a majority of the librarians were between the ages of 45-54, female, and white. While the data used in Diversity Counts is a decade old at this point, Jaeger, Bertot, and Franklin’s article cites studies from the past four years, studies that continue to point to the lack of diversity in the LIS profession.
Besides turning the spotlight on diversity within the LIS profession, this article also focuses on the importance of LIS research about underrepresented populations, and the seemingly endless opportunities to research this topic in relation to LIS. Pick an underrepresented social group and explore their information needs. Research the affects of a study on a social group. Connect a diverse population to an LIS issue or policy. The article gives numerous examples of possible research topics relating to diversity and LIS (SLIS students, take note), giving the reader the impression that many of these topics have been and are currently being pursued by LIS scholars. The problem, according to the authors, is that LIS scholars are doing the exact opposite: they are not researching diversity.
There are no negatives in promoting the importance of increased LIS research about diversity and underrepresented groups. If librarians are to continue to provide quality services to diverse populations (and the United States is not getting any less diverse), then they need to increase their knowledge of diversity-based research. Likewise, LIS students would better serve their future patrons by including some form of diversity research in their studies – this also means that directors of ALA-accredited LIS programs must do their part by including and emphasizing research about diversity in their MLIS curriculum. Finally, increased research about diversity has a direct affect on increasing diversity within the profession – if individuals from underrepresented groups see themselves as important in LIS research, then they might begin to identify with the field. A lack of research about diversity and inclusion tells underrepresented groups that they are unimportant and invisible, which is something that should not happen at the hands of LIS scholars.
The focus on diversity within the LIS profession at the staffing and research level poses a number of questions for the reader to consider. For LIS students, both past and present, think about the diversity of the faculty and the emphasis of the courses at your school – how many course readings covered topics related to diversity? Did your program help you become more comfortable with meeting the information needs of diverse populations? Did the courses help you become more comfortable with diversity in general? It is time for LIS scholars and schools to move faster in terms of diversity research and education, as the article states, in order to keep up with our nation’s diverse population and ever-changing needs.
Sources:
American Library Association. (2010). Diversity counts. Retrieved from http://www.pla.org/ala/aboutala/offices/diversity/diversitycounts/divcounts.cfm
Jaeger, P. T., Bertot, J. C., & Franklin, R. E. (2010). Diversity, inclusion, and underrepresented populations in LIS research. Library Quarterly, 80, 175-181.
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