Reference Services Review

Purpose – Considering the shortage of minority representation in the library profession, this paper aims to examine minority students' awareness of librarianship and investigates the impact of marketing academic librarianship to students at the campus' cultural centers as a recruitment method.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses previous studies and provides results from a survey distributed to minority students at two of the cultural centers and at the Summer Research Opportunities Program, a program that prepares minority students for graduate studies.

Findings – Results indicate a connection between presentations to students about academic librarianship and their interest in pursuing the profession. Findings highlight students' lack of awareness of librarian job responsibilities and the findings also highlight students' preferred methods for continued mentorship and support.

Research limitations/implications – More qualitative research would prove valuable to gain in-depth feedback from students about their understanding of the library profession and what factors are most and least likely to attract them to the profession. A second paper is planned to investigate the number of students who pursued a library degree that attended one of these sessions.

Practical implications – The paper highlights a simple, affordable and replicable alternative to time-intensive and heavily subsidized recruitment programs.

Social implications – As the population becomes more diverse and patron needs change, the library profession, which is predominantly white, will need to diversify to reflect patrons' increasingly diverse needs.

Originality/value – Many large-scale recruitment initiatives recruit minority students to academic librarianship. This paper describes a small-scale and effective approach to minority student recruitment.