Críticas Magazine

Loida García-Febo

Diversity in the House
February 1, 2008

Yesterday I watched a recruiting video from a library aiming to attract a diverse workforce. I promise to myself to not say it, but yes, I am talking about Queens Library. We have a video! Ours is a cosmopolitan borough located in the capital of the world, New York, where librarians serve customers coming from Buenos Aires to Uzbekistan. On any given day you can hear Spanish, Chinese, Russian, and Hindi being spoken by library staff at reference and circulation desks, lunch room, halls, and offices.

Findings of Diversity Counts, a report produced by the Office of Research and Statistics and the Office of Diversity of ALA, suggest that it will benefit the profession if libraries carefully plan to recruit diverse personnel. Factors such as “the persistent lag of diversity in our LIS schools, the number of librarians and library assistants leaving the profession prematurely, the aging of racial and ethnic minority library workers,” among others are driving libraries to actively redesign strategies to ensure that newly hired staff reflects diversity within their library service area.

Above all, employing staff from various heritage backgrounds is a win-win situation for both, libraries and communities. Libraries contribute to develop a work force comprised of qualified professionals that will carry the profession into the future. At the same time, libraries strengthen their role as heart of the community providing services by employees that have an awareness of the culture of its customers.

Librarians around the nation are actively promoting a diverse workforce at their local libraries. Many have taken this to a national level. Recently Webjunction hosted a webinar, Recruiting for Diversity, aimed to help libraries to recruit and build a multicultural workforce. Speakers from academic and public libraries shared recruitment best practices, tips and success stories.  

In my opinion, there is not a better group to turn to when looking to recruit than recently qualified librarians. As stated in International Perspectives of the New Librarian Experience, they constitute a new wave of professionals eager to find jobs within challenging environments offering avenues for professional growth. Mentoring, respect and inclusion in library’s planning will ensure the prevalence of this new force within your library system. Senior library decision makers must consider new librarians when developing recruitment strategies.

I truly hope resources shared here help you develop an action plan to continue working towards a more diverse workforce within our profession.

Posted by Loida García-Febo on February 1, 2008 | Comments (0)