On Paperwork - by S. Anderson
Before we called it DEI many of us worked to recruit a more diverse library work force. - In 1987 the American Library Association, Office for Library Personnel Resources (OLPR) under the legendary Margaret Myers received the World Book/ALA Goal Award for "Recruiting Tomorrow's Leaders: An Invitational Pre-Conference to Promote Diversity." In 1989 - OLPR produced the Handbook, "Each One Reach One: Recruiting for the Professional Action." - OLPR produced "Occupational Entry: Library and Information Science Students' Attitudes, Demographics and Aspirations Survey." During this time, I worked on these projects. In 1992 the ALA Recruitment Assembly was formed, with emphasis on recruitment for diversity. Some of this work provided the data for the ALA SPECTRUM scholarship program which was launched in 1998.
Of course, I took this work to my home campus where I taught LIS and used the results to make a case for scholarships and attendance to support and recruit students. I was able to visit HBCUs to make my case. I was able to attend HACU conferences.
Nearly 40 years later my campus has expanded its DEI commitment to such an extent that we now have a Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We also have DEI Officers in each College. As a unit in the College we --at the School of Information--also have a DEI Committee.
All I want--and all I have ever wanted--was a modest amount of funding to attend conferences to recruit; have $$$ for student scholarships, and work with faculty to modify and evolve our unit's curricular commitment. to DEI. There are many more people and units to report to now. That takes time from doing the work with people. The time spent crafting policies and hiring DEI staff takes me from doing the work.
Maybe it will all even out with the bigger units and the more comprehensive policies, and maybe as new people enter the university, they need to have the importance of DEI work underscored. But I would hope that there is some recognition and appreciation to those working on DEI now that there has been much effort and commitment to these principles for many years in librarianship.
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