 Hello, I'm Leanne George, Coordinator of the Spec Survey Program at the Association of Research Libraries, and I'd like to thank you for joining us for this Spec Survey Webcast. Today we'll hear about the results of the survey on diversity inclusion, and these results have been published in Spec Kit 356, which is freely available at publications.arl.org. Before we begin the presentation, there are just a couple of announcements. First, everyone but the presenters has been muted to cut down on background noise, so if you are part of a group today, feel free to speak among yourselves. And we do want you to join the conversation by typing questions in the chat box in the lower left corner of your screen. We'll answer as many questions as possible at the end of the presentation, and I will read questions aloud and the presenters will answer them. This webcast is being recorded, and we will send all registrants the slides and a link to the recording within the next week. Now, let me introduce today's presenters from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. Tony and Nia is the Instruction Coordinator, and Charlene Maxie Harris is the Research and Instructional Services Chair. You can use this hashtag, ARL Spec Kit 356, to continue the conversation with us on Twitter. And now, let me turn the presentation over to Tony. Thanks, Leanne, and thanks for everyone joining us today. We're excited to discuss the results and hear your questions, so let us get started. I wanted to provide some reasoning as to why we proposed this topic. Back in 2010, Charlene and I co-authored Spec Kit 319, which was Diversity Plans and Programs, which focused on changes to diversity plans as well as recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce. Since the original publications in 1990, Spec Kit's 165, which was Cultural Diversity Programming in ARL Libraries, and Spec Kit 167, which was Minority Recruitment and Retention in ARL Libraries. Diversity and Inclusion is an area with rapid change, and we were interested in learning how diversity programs as well as recruitment had changed in the last seven years. The scope of the survey was not only covered some of the recruitment and retention issues from 2010, but we expanded it to take into account the growing definition of diversity, the increased efforts of programming not only for the public, but for library employees, and also to explore how libraries funded these efforts. Over the last several years, we've been seeing an increase in published literature and conference programming, exploring topics dealing with diversity inclusion, such as cultural competencies as well as microaggressions and assessments. Most recently, we've witnessed the inclusion of social justice movements in libraries and on campuses across the United States, and this surge in activities really does highlight changes to the diversity and inclusion landscape since 2010. 68 of the 123 ARL Libraries responded to our survey, although not everyone responded to every question. And as a side note, the topic was fairly similar to number 319, and we were surprised to see that only 22 of the original 49 responding institutions participated in the 2017 survey. However, this does provide us an opportunity to see the diversity inclusion plans of these 46 new organizations as well as revisit what changes have been made at the original 22. Speaking about definitions, I wanted to note that the definition of diversity and inclusion we focused on went beyond the basic definition in traditional venues. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines diversity and inclusion, which you see there on the screen, much more narrowly than we as the authors, as well as many others in the profession do in a professional setting. Today diversity is defined beyond racial and gender ethnic groups and includes a variety of other issues such as gender sexual orientation, national origin, and age, just to name a few factors. And inclusion is much more than just making sure people are seated at the table. It's recognizing, acknowledging, and inviting those differences, as well as including and providing opportunity for topics to be discussed by members of those communities. For this survey, we did provide an overview of components that could be included in a diversity inclusion plan, and we received a variety of representative documents which were included in the spec kit. Many organizations had statements of diversity values or goals for the library. There were descriptions of the strategies for recruiting ethnically and culturally diverse staff to the library and then retaining them once they were hired. We received outlines of programs to create a to promote competencies, outlines created to promote ethic and cultural sensitivity in the workplace. The use of and subsequent development of programming based off the results from workplace time and assessments and other similar elements. And then speaking of representative documents, I wanted to make sure to thank all the respondents who included their materials. It was really challenging to select the sampling of what we received. I also wanted to mention that one of the challenges that we faced with this particular survey was that respondents may have mentioned an initiative or a document in a response, but they did not provide a URL or a copy of the document. And then for some reason we were actually unable to locate some of these that were mentioned. Interestingly, we had some institutions say no, we do not have a diversity inclusion plan, then went on to discuss campus initiatives. So when we went and looked at what was available online at these libraries, we discovered that they had extensive material which guided their programs, but they chose not to submit those campus level diversity and inclusion plans. This could have stemmed from the language used in the survey question itself. One comment in particular stood out which stated, our plans don't really fit your questions, we have initiatives and programs, but they don't necessarily fit in your categories. So we are really interested in seeing and discovering what those were. Now when we're talking about diversity, a good example of how institutions are framing the conversation we felt could be found at Duke University and they do a good job at defining these terms. This example in particular on this slide is representative of the verbiage we found when looking at a variety of other definitions from responding institutions. Now Charlene will discuss some of the major discoveries we identified in the study. So we wanted to start out talking about the survey finding from a broad view. Respondents to the survey reported the most influential factors to diversity and inclusion plans at their institutions are changes in both library and campus administration. According to a recent article discussing college diversity officers in the Chronicle, which quoted, dozens of campuses have created such positions in the last 15 years, often in response to pressure from student activities, but the role is still relatively new. These changes to leadership, both in the library and on campus, has impacted diversity and inclusion initiatives and were very often spurred on by strategic planning and or in reaction to demands of students after racially charged incidents on campus. Based on the information collected from the 2010 survey, libraries have been taking the lead in focusing on diversity and inclusion issues on campus and continue to be leaders. One of the biggest shifts we noticed was the increase in the number of diversity plans initiated by parent institutions. This reveals that some plans are now a part of the campus strategic planning document and outline specific initiatives. These initiatives include components of responsibility and accountability at a broad campus level, often coming directly from campus high, campus administrators. More libraries have reported diversity committees or groups that are working with HR and others in this area. So really there is a clear increase in the ways libraries and campuses are looking at and approaching these issues. Examples of this change can be seen in statements from senior campus administrators, such as the provost, chancellor, or president addressing current events related to DNI. We also received information from libraries HR and diversity and inclusion groups providing new training not seen in 2010. So as Tony already talked about, we saw some of these trainings on implicit bias and microaggressions, libraries are conducting climate surveys, or have appointed committees and groups to work in this area, both within the library and campus-wide. So as we move on to kind of talk a little bit about some of these examples from libraries, we do notice that they stand alone. There are parent plans in which our diversity plans are part of. And libraries that incorporate campus values, the mission, and then develop their own goals that are unique to their library. This chart shows that library administration has initiated these plans at 67% of the responding libraries, followed by the campus or parent institutions at 47%, and other entities. And you'll see that a pretty large group of 31%. The comments revealed that grassroots interest groups within the library really took the initiative to develop the plan. And some of these libraries have moved beyond just the separate documents for diversity to include their components interspersed throughout their strategic plan. And Penn State is an example of the library that has done that. A new question regarding funding was added to determine the investment libraries are making to support and encourage initiatives and programs. Library's investment in funding is mainly directed towards professional development, as you can see in the chart. This can be further broken down into these specific areas, workshops, which is kind of funny because it really isn't clearly defined if the workshops are offered to staff or to library users. Leadership, you'll notice outreach, programming, travel, especially to diversity conferences and events, and recruitment. Some library groups have their own budget, but the majority of the funding is supported within the main operating budget. Overall, responses to a question about whether the library has dedicated funding to support D&I efforts were split fairly evenly between libraries who reported they do, which was about 35 libraries, or 52%, and those who do not, 32, or 48%. 12 libraries reported they received funding from their parent institution. Over the past five years, 46% of the responding libraries have increased their funding over this time, and 49 claim funding to remain the same. We noticed in the comments field, libraries with increases to their funding pointed to the residency or similar programs. Moving on to the programming and events, this chart shows that there is a widespread program throughout the library. New areas noted this year are social justice, mental health issues, and veteran status. Different in this survey are those planning and delivering these programs, which are library staff, which includes both staff, librarians, and administrators, and instead of just the HR or diversity librarian. The bottom line, more individuals are taking responsibility and ownership for improving their organization. The results also show the ways libraries are collaborating with campus partners to host and offer programming on a variety of topics. Moreover, libraries are taking advantage of training opportunities on campus and from national organizations such as ALA, ACRL, and ARL. So if you're looking for great ideas, they are shared in the comments, so please use that spec kit. So for example, you'll see librarians are hosting poster sessions with them in the gender studies, and one library has an interesting topic every other week for their diversity, TEA, conversations. So that's just some of those examples that you'll find. Before Tony moves on to recruitment strategies, let's pause to remind everyone that you can enter questions in the chat box at any time. Thanks, Charlene. So now I want to focus our attention on recruitment and retention. 80% of respondents reported they have employed strategies specifically to increase the diversity of their job applicants. And the most successful strategies mentioned for recruitment are training search committee members on how to develop a diverse candidate pool, targeting job ads and personal recruiting of participants from diversity enhancement recruitment programs, and not surprising supporting ARL diversity initiatives. Many mentioned providing support to diverse employees to attend library schools, so to grow your own model or recruiting from within. Partnering with area libraries and changing requirements on job descriptions to encourage early career librarians and recent graduates to apply. 29 of the 55 who answered the question reported that they felt their applicant pools had become more diverse but an almost equal amount said they had not. Challenges in answering this question actually stem from a lack of assessment or access to how this information is tracked from the comments we've received, and if this information is tracked at all, especially when applications are first funneled through campus HR offices. So overall, when we looked at the challenges expressed to the recruitment of diverse candidates, we found that the results to be virtually unchanged in the last seven years. Most identified geographic barriers. They don't want to live in Lincoln, Nebraska, for example, salary and a lack of qualified diverse applicants applying for positions. Increase this year were mentions of stake politics, campus, climate, and high costs of living as barriers. So what we've known and what we've all witnessed is that there aren't many kids who grow up wanting to be a librarian. And many people actually make librarianship their second profession. Speaking from personal experience, I know that the development of targeted recruitment programs such as ARL's initiative to recruit a diverse workforce, Knowledge River, which I'm an alumni of, and ARL's spectrum scholar program has served as an avenue for diverse library students to pursue a career in librarianship. And these types of programs have expanded to include not only the traditional past, but also now focus on specialized areas such as archives, music, and digital humanities. Others have continued to support an undergraduate program and offer dual degrees so students can obtain both bachelor's and master's degrees concurrently. As we looked at LIS schools, we noticed that they are taking the lead to incorporate curriculum changes and develop more culturally competent students overall. Most notable are programs at Simmons, Illinois, and Maryland. What we have been seeing is not only is the curriculum changing, but student groups are more actively engaging in diversity and inclusion activities, including hosting student-focused and student-organized conferences and symposia focused on these issues. But going hand-in-hand with recruitment is retention of staff. Forty-eight of the responding libraries, or 71%, have developed strategies for retaining a diverse group of employees. The most used strategies are onboarding and orientation programs for new staff, leadership development and training, mentoring programs to help librarians attain advancement and or tenure, and supporting membership or engagement in parent institution diversity affinity groups. Also, ALA ethnic caucuses. For more formal mentoring programs have increased in workplace, professional organizations, and have always been present in scholarship programs. Visibility of these opportunities is limited really compared to the demand for the support. Parent institutions are also providing affinity groups that mentor and build on these skills. For residencies, there's been a rise and a fall of the post-MILIS residencies for many years. However, ACRL has revived and reorganized the Diversity Alliance Residency Program for Academic Libraries. According to the website, 35 academic libraries are members, and the goal is for libraries to create one or more residency positions that will expand the opportunities available to individuals from underrepresented groups to gain the knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary to thrive in academic context. I particularly like the following goal that articulates that library leaders are committed to opening doors, sharing their networks, and preparing residents for success in scholarship, professional service, and leadership. You may notice that leadership development and training was the second most mentioned retention strategy used in libraries. There are opportunities for all levels of librarians from early career on, with conferences like the Minnesota Institute for Early Career Librarians to the ARL Leadership Fellows Program and the Harvard Institute for Future Senior Level Librarians. An area we feel there is space for some development is in the mid-career stage. ARL's LCBP program, or the Leadership and Career Development Program, is a program focused on providing librarians the opportunity to gain new skills and be intentional about seeking promotion in our organization. However, there seems to be a gap in other opportunities providing support to those students who are stuck in the middle. Keep in mind these programs are targeting research libraries, which is a narrow focus of the library profession, however it is in keeping with the purpose of the spec survey program and prioritizing the interests of ARL members. We didn't really have time to explore other opportunities for public librarians as well as other college and university organizations. However, one commenter summed up their experience with retention success. Having a diverse staff helps retain a diverse staff. Well, as we were looking into researching the literature, we were definitely impressed with expanding body of articles documenting the experiences of marginalized individuals. As our stories are being told, we know that microaggressions are real, right? These are the casual, subtle, everyday slights and insults where the conscious or unconscious actions, which really speak to the health of the organizational climate and do impact recruitment and retention. Librarians are sharing these examples of microaggressions more and more in social media for others to see. In the Selected Resources section of the spec kit, you'll find articles on promotion and tenure issues, microaggressions, and residency programs, just to name a few of those topics that we pulled out. As we're looking at what is trending in libraries, we know it's social justice now. It really does unite librarians on a totally different level. Social justice, inclusion, equality, and equity are broadening the conversation beyond race and gender and are more inclusive of groups of those marginalized or on the fringe. Over the last five years, changes in the national political climate, as well as changes in the campus and library leadership, have greatly influenced and heightened awareness of diversity and inclusion activities as survey respondents' institutions. Many state that the quantity and depth of diversity activities and trainings have increased, increasing, including increased engagement by more faculty and staff. So, diversity and inclusion is woven into the fabric of all we do and less as standalone initiatives. So, social media has been an outlet to garner support, share in scholarly dialogue, and increase our awareness of movements, issues, and progress throughout the country. It is increasing the visibility of librarianship, I think. So, when we're looking at evaluation and assessment, we really know that it's a reality check, it's an ongoing challenge on how to evaluate and assess our efforts. Perhaps this is an area where we can develop a community of practice to evaluate success, since only 15% of respondents reported that they found a way to measure success. We're hopeful and we're glad that we don't have to do this alone because a number of campuses are also defining inclusion as excellence. But there is the ongoing challenge of changing our attitude about when we will be done, so to speak, and work towards incorporating diversity and inclusion themes into the organizational climate, so it is a part of how we manage our libraries. Therefore, you know, we will never be done. This is our new normal, and we're not alone, again because we're working with our parent institutions to determine our success and progress. And if our campuses are addressing these values, the assessment will also be built in to the process. Based on new campus leadership in DNI, this is a new era, and I'm really excited to see how this information will be used in the future. Let's talk about the elephant in the room, which is assessment. When it comes to the evaluation of diversity and inclusion efforts, libraries are still facing challenges of how to define, establish measurable goals, and work with their parent institutions. Responses to this question were very similar to the 2010 spec survey, where measuring the recruitment and retention of diverse staff continues to fall behind the assessment of workplace climate. A surprising 86% of respondents have either assessed workplace climate or planned to in the future. Commons provided examples of Waze libraries are collecting data to benchmark efforts, which include hiring assessment coordinators and working with internal library and campus groups to assist with the development of strategic goals around these areas, measurable goals, and assessment strategies. So as our parent institutions are taking the lead for these efforts, it will be interesting to see what data they are requesting from units and what libraries will collect. For example, Penn State distributes diversity activity forms that are completed through their evaluation process. Well, at Cornell University, they have a complex matrix that is divided into the composition, engagement, inclusion, and achievement for all of their constituents. So undergraduates, graduates, professionals, staff, administration, tenure faculty, and it even extends to the community. On this page are not in any order of importance, but I personally feel the most important goal is to really work hard as a profession on assessment and developing measurable goals. My most pressing question when reviewing the work people are doing is asking, how will measure success from campus in the unit level? How will our campuses measure our success and then give us credit? Right, and I think as Tony has already talked about that, how will what the library is doing fit into their strategic plans? Some organizations are intentionally transitioning away from a diversity plan altogether, and these components are built into the organization's values, missions, and structure to make sure that everyone's at the table. And even in the management literature, inclusive practice is really defined as noticing who's not at the table and including their voice. So in closing, both Tony and I have worked on the ACRL diversity standards for academic libraries. And we noticed that that wasn't mentioned too much in the comments of this survey, but it does serve as a strong starting point to help libraries craft their diversity and inclusion goals. So we do welcome your questions and please join the conversation by typing questions in the chat box in the lower left corner of your screen. We have some questions already, I will read them. John, I want to know if there's any idea how most successful strategies were assessed or selected. If we go back to this slide, I'm going to answer that. In the survey, we asked first, if the library had developed any strategies that assist in the retention of diverse groups of employees, and those that answered yes, we asked them which strategies they had used and check all that apply, and then we asked them to pick up to three that had been most successful. So they self-selected what they thought worked best for their library efforts. Teresa wants to know, she has an iSchool question, how are folks assessing the coursework in iSchool for diversity, and what methods are being used to ensure that the entire program is taking these considerations into account? Tony and Charlene, can you address that? So I know that there's some work that's being done through some of the symposium and the conferences at iMaryland School, for example. And they are looking at that. We didn't have a chance to really go into any depth to be able to see how they're assessing, but they're definitely focusing their curriculum on making sure that the whole student body is culturally competent. There's been a lot of work by Paul Yeager and Nicole Cook in this area as well. We've picked out their books to actually see how they're making those changes with their curriculum and their activities to see how their students are doing. Great question. Errol asked, has anything been done relative to hidden disabilities, or did you find any insights on that issue in the survey responses? Not that I recall from the comments. Although I know that there is research being done on... I know one person is actually doing research on autism in the workplace and in librarianship, but I don't recall any specific comments in the survey regarding that work. I will turn participants back to the spec kit. Question 11 looks at the topics that are being addressed in librarian presentations. There's a list there that they chose from, and then a whole list of other topics. There might be some more insights there. Manuel asked, can you share with the switched libraries that participated in the survey did not participate in this one? I don't know if you have that information. So there's a long list of them. There's 22 people who actually responded in this one that did not participate in the other. So it'd be easier to do who responded as opposed to who didn't. University of Albany, SUNY, University of British Columbia, University of Calgary, California Irvine, California Sandy, oh no, California Irvine, University of Delaware, University of Florida, University of Georgia, Illinois, Urbana, Champaign, Iowa State, University of Kansas, Library of Congress, University of Louisville, University of Maryland, MIT, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, North Carolina State, Northwestern, Ohio, Oklahoma State, Penn State, University of Rochester, Rutgers, Syracuse, Virginia Tech, University of Waterloo, and Yale. Split about half and half. Those are the ones that responded to both surveys in 2010 and 2017. Ohio University to clarify which Ohio school, Ohio University responded to both. Errol had a follow-up question of did the survey look at disabilities in general, not just hidden disabilities? Was one of the things that came out as far as other groups? Looking at it, in question 11 from the survey, it does mention we asked what types of topics have been addressed in presentations, and of the 64 respondents, 44 or 69% did mention physical disabilities as one of the topics that they presented something on. Sarah, you can tell us more about the institutions that have hired a diversity specialist. One thing that I noticed is that the individuals have doubled. So the number of people that responded, there's been an increase in the number from over the last time that we looked at this area of who's actually doing this. So we know that there's more diversity officers. We also noticed that there's variability in what those positions are called. I know at MIT they have a office of staff development type of position that's also working on diversity issues. And a lot of those diversity specialists were mentioned at a campus level, or even the development of diversity. There's like associate vice provosts, as well as diversity specialists done at a campus level that they're mentioning, as opposed to the library level. Tracy has a question related to recruitment. She says, libraries take up leadership roles in social justice. Do you think this will have an impact on recruitment to the profession? Possibly. That could be taken into account as far as the types of jobs that are available in librarianship that could really influence the people that are really interested in archiving these types of movements. I think that would be a really great way to start recruiting people who are involved and who want to make sure it's documented and reserved. I think that would be a really influential recruitment tool, strategy to do. We'll see. I mean, we'll just have to see if that is indeed why people might be coming back into the profession or be recruited to a certain library because of the activities that are going on. We know that it is definitely helping for us to take an active role in what we can do to make a difference. Jordan has a related question. He said, how many of the era libraries that responded to the survey have leadership for underrepresented minority groups? The survey didn't ask that. I'm looking at 319. But it's usually those types of responses come through under the question of what group or individual is responsible for. The type of programming. It was number 16. Here it is. So it would be responsible, but we didn't really get a lot of numbers as to someone who is responsible for those. Although we did have, what else? Yeah, 17 diversity officers. Well, and then there was another seven multicultural diversity library librarians that also work in this area. I'm not sure I really understood the question. Yeah. Lisa asked, did the survey have any comments or insights regarding LBGT identities and related issues? We do know that there are several areas in which we're working to be able to provide training for librarians and programming with LGBT issues. There was quite a bit in the comments that really do talk about different types of programs. You know, you can get at that also with the microaggressions and the implicit bias as well in the training. And that is actually listed in question 13 of that kit where it kind of talks about some of the external training opportunities that are being offered. It includes ally training, project safe ally, trans 101. There's been hosted library workshops for that as well. So there has been some training listed in the comments regarding LGBTQ communities as well as programming and events that libraries are hosting and providing. Adam asked if you can share any additional information about promotional opportunities for librarians of color. Was that captured in the survey? So we did talk about the leadership and career development programs that ARL provides. That is more of being able to prepare big career librarians to be able to move into leadership positions, also giving them skills for strategic planning, writing, research. So that is one place that we know of. And Tony talked really about their being we'd like to see more of those types of programs available. So there was something with Early Careers which was the Minnesota program that's been going on and that happens every two years. And then the leadership and career development program. But again, that's a growing need. We know that and maybe some of the parent institutions are also providing some of that leadership opportunities as well. Jordan had a follow-up clarification to his question on leadership from underrepresented minority groups. And he met deans and directors. And I would direct you to the ARL annual salary survey which does probably have the information you're looking for there. And I don't think we specifically asked for it in this spec survey. We don't have that type of demographic information. No. So John asked, what were some of the most innovative approaches or programs for workplace inclusion in your opinion? There were several different comments that were listed and suggested. And there were quite a we're trying to see if we can come up with some creative ones that we can share. I don't really feel that people shared specific creative ways they've done it. The questions were asked in a way that we asked if they had done it. Not necessarily creative things. I think the newly created upswing of diversity and inclusion and then the expansion of what those definitions were has really helped people expand what that looked like and what types of programming were offered. So I think that is probably the most interesting part is that expansion of the definition and then how that has grown to include a variety of different groups in what is defined and what is being supported by libraries. So as we were looking at one of the questions we have this changes in diversity initiatives and programs over the last five years. So we are seeing libraries developing these groups supporting these grassroots groups in the library and so the creativity part still may be evolving in that area and how do we define that creative piece of that. I think we were asked before a little bit earlier to kind of see what is being out there. I think the involvement with the Diversity Alliance is definitely with the residency program, but just our involvement with that libraries are making that investment as well. We have time for about one more question and Errol has one on if any guidance on creating training materials or a toolkit on diversity inclusion for libraries. Well I am so glad that you asked. We do have both Tony and I worked at ACRL Diversity Racial Diversity Group in 2012 between 2011 and 2012 and we created the ACRL Diversity Standards for Academic Libraries and it really is a great starting place to kind of give you a feel for how we as librarians of color have been over the years talking about this, but we all came together to be able to base these cultural competencies based on the social workers group and organization to be able to kind of map out what that would look like at an institution. So that is available on the website and you can be able to get some more information as to get started on those. And there was talk about revising those and making their more inclusive language in that and that is probably still in the works. And just a last comment Sarah was wondering how to get in touch with other folks who either responded to the survey or interested in these issues and you did Tony and Charlene mention developing a community of practice around diversity and inclusion and building communities of practice is something that the association is interested in so I would encourage those of you who are interested to drop me an e-mail or feel free Tony and Charlene I'm going to volunteer you to and if there is interest there we will see what we can develop. Perfect, thank you. So now it's time for me to thank all of you for joining us to discuss the results of this diversity and inclusion specs survey and to remind you that you will receive the slides and a link to the recording in about a week. Thank you all.