Diversity Now: People, Collections, and Services in Academic Libraries

Citation

Boyle, D. (2003), "Diversity Now: People, Collections, and Services in Academic Libraries", Library Review, Vol. 52 No. 8, pp. 403-403. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242530310493815

Demographic change has brought about an increasingly diverse society. This is evident both in education and in the workplace, environments where people of all backgrounds must be accommodated. Librarians have inevitably felt the impact of increasing diversity, and this set of conference proceedings is a timely reflection of an important new dimension in our work.

This book gathers selected papers from “The Big 12 Plus Libraries Consortium Diversity Conference” hosted by the University of Texas in April 2000. The conference drew attention to the issue of diversity in libraries and academic institutions, highlighting best diversity practices in the areas of people, collections and services. Taking 16 papers from the conference, the major themes looked at included: employee retention, organisational partnership, cultural and gender issues, communication, teaching methods and library collections and access.

The first two sections of this book therefore deal with people specifically – and in particular, with ideas of bringing people of diverse backgrounds closer together. Methods of partnerships and social interaction, such as mentoring and networking are highlighted; recruitment and retention programmes, better education and the challenge of generally increasing awareness of diversity issues are also discussed.

This awareness of what others are doing is seen as important, and practical ideas are presented such as the upward bound model that encourages students from low‐income backgrounds to participate in higher education. Taking another perspective, there is an examination of how librarians can lobby for domestic partner benefits for university employees who are unmarried, same‐ and opposite‐sex couples. These benchmarks, the book argues, need to be established, thus providing models and standards of measurement against which performance can be assessed. However the book also warns of the dangers of going too far the other way, that is, employing a minority for the sake of it and not because they are the best for the job. It is important that these methods are inclusive to everyone.

The third section highlights the African‐American tradition in the educational system through its library collections and university and college presence. Establishing a diverse collection can only serve to encourage others from diverse and minority backgrounds to come in to the educational system and maintain these important traditions.

The final section stresses the importance of education at an early age in relation to attitudes towards diversity. Discussion should be encouraged not closed off and the classroom is an arena in which a better understanding of the issues can be formed. Learning about diversity at an early age increases awareness that may have been lacking before. Knowing about other cultures can bring an appreciation of them and with this a better interaction and acceptance of diversity. Education may prove to be the best tool in combating diversity.

The topic of diversity is an established one in modern society. At the moment, however, many of the papers suggest that society’s responses are not very encouraging and the literature generally indicates that diversity is still a problem that must be dealt with. In the past ideas and practices on tackling these issues may have been seen as mere tokens. This publication offers useful ways of addressing the real challenges of diversity head on. Society is changing all the time and diversity issues, this book suggests, will have to be tackled continually and in innovative ways.

Although based in the USA these issues do mirror those of the UK and other parts of the “developed” world, and so this book is helpful in looking at the diversity issue globally. Most importantly this publication provides an excellent and unique source in a subject area where material is relatively limited.