Review of University Librarian Nancy L. Baker
Appendix F
Libraries’ Diversity Efforts since August of 2000*
- As of 9-12-05, 11.11% of our P&S staff are members of ethnic minority groups; as of 8-11-05, 5.45% of our Merit staff are members of ethnic minority groups
- A newly established Diversity Committee began work in September of 2004 seeking ways to further diversify our staff and to develop and promote programs and other activities to expand awareness of diversity issues among our staff. The Committee is currently involved in a number of recruitment-related efforts.
- In the spring of 2005, the Libraries approved the establishment of a 2nd Librarian Residency Program position. These are 2-year positions designed to interest members of historically underrepresented groups – who are recent graduates of masters programs in library and information science – in a professional career in university libraries. Our two current residents are Rachel Carreon, a woman who identifies herself as Latina, from Texas, and Stephanie Joseph, a woman who identifies herself as White Mountain Apache, from Arizona.
- In February of 2005, the Librari es was awarded a $2000 Seed Grant from the Provost’s Office (via the UI Diversity Committee) in order to produce a video aimed at recruiting out-of-state librarians, specifically targeting those from historically underrepresented groups. The grant was one of 5 selected from among 17 applications.
- The Libraries offered a variety of diversity-related staff development sessions:
- Ghana Project (Fall, 2002)
- The Color of Fear (Summer, 2002)
- Building Bridges: Creating Environments Inclusive of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/ Transgender People (Spring, 2003)
- Chicano Stereotypes, Identities and Community (Fall, 2003)
- Dragons, Doormats, and Dynamic Staff: Helping Your Office Staff Become More Culturally Competent (Fall, 2004)
- Diversity Dialog and Film: The Color of Fear (Fall 2003)
- Cross Cultural Body Language (Spring, 2005)
- Removing Barriers to People with Disabilities (Spring, 2005)
- Addressing Racial Diversity/Divisiveness (Spring, 2005)
- Library staff members have been funded to attend a number of diversity-related programs not sponsored by the Libraries. For example, three staff members attended the annual White Privilege Conference in Pella, IA, Spring 2005. One attended a similar conference in Dubuque, Summer, 2005.
- Susan Marks, our Coordinator of Human Resources and Diversity Programs, currently serves as co-chair of the Library Administration and Management Association’s Diversity Officer’s Discussion Group (within the American Libr ary Association).
- We recently established librarian liaisons to the UI learning communities including, for example, the Women in Science & Engineering (WISE) Learning Community.
*not included are the various recruitment efforts for P&S positions already described in the self study narrative.
