 Good afternoon. I'm Emily Daley, Head of Assessment and User Experience at Duke University Libraries, and I'm pleased to be presenting with my colleague Joyce Chapman, Assessment Analyst and Consultant. Joyce and I are going to share information about the in-depth mixed method study of Black undergraduate and graduate students that our department led last fall. During this recording, please post your questions or observations in the chat and I'll answer them in a live Q&A at the end of our session. First, I want to mention the bitly of our full report. We won't be able to go over all aspects of the study or findings today, so I encourage you to look at the full report if you'd like more information. Now let's talk about how this study came about. In 2016, we noticed differences in the responses from particular user groups to survey questions. We were limited by what we could learn from the survey data, but we could see that something was going on and we wanted to know more about how these particular user groups experienced the library. So we developed a series of in-depth user studies beginning with first generation college students, then moving to Black students, and then to international students, a study we have just begun planning. For each of these populations, we reviewed the literature, talked to campus stakeholders, developed research questions, and then mapped out our methodology. An important aspect of these studies is that we don't limit our research questions to the library. In order to develop a complete and accurate rendering of our students' experiences on campus, we must understand the greater context for their library experience. Clearly, of course, the library comes up naturally during our discussion groups, but we always have a library-specific question or two in our script just in case it doesn't come up on its own. In order to answer our research questions, we used three methods and sources of data, the Duke Library's biennial student survey, discussion groups, and the photo voice methodology, which I'll talk more about in just a moment. We led a total of five discussion groups with 32 undergraduate and graduate students during the fall 2019 semester. We also analyzed Black and non-Black students' responses to our biennial student satisfaction survey, which we developed in-house and conducted in January and February of this year. Photo voice is a community-based participatory research method where participants take photos in response to prompts. We then spend our time in the follow-up session viewing participants' photos and discussing their responses to the prompts. Here are a few of the prompts that we gave to photo voice participants. Participants took pictures and captions, shared those in advance of the discussions, and then those became the basis for our sessions. You'll see here that our prompts asked students to think about both their campus experiences and their library experiences. Some of the images students submitted were directly related to their experience as Black students at Duke, like this image of the program of the 2019 Black convocation on the right side of the screen. Other images, like the one on the left, were not specific to Black students, like this photo of furniture and a student space on campus. Our non-photo voice discussion groups included similar questions to those we used as the ones that we used in our photo voice. Again, we included a mix of library-specific questions and questions about students' experiences on campus. You'll find all the photo voice prompts and our full discussion group script in the appendix of our report. We gave a lot of thought to who would moderate the five photo voice and discussion groups. Duke library staff trained in moderating qualitative discussion groups are all white. Additionally, it detracts from an unbiased discussion to have library staff in the room. We knew students' conversations would not be as rich or candid if moderators or note-takers were white people or library staff, so we explored ways around this. At the recommendation of a faculty member at a nearby institution, we hired two Black graduate students to moderate the discussion groups, and we asked our AUX graduate student assistant, who is herself a person of color, to take notes. Recruiting Black graduate students to moderate was extremely successful. In fact, one of our graduate student moderators became so interested in this study that she offered to be involved even after the discussion sessions ended. We were able to hire Pamela Zabala to analyze the photo voice and discussion group transcripts. Pamela developed a report of findings that is linked here and in our full report. The research team then conducted its own analysis of the findings and used Pamela's report to supplement our work. For the team's analysis, we used a method called affinity mapping, where we closely read and tagged interesting quotes and identified themes in the transcripts. Many of these overarching themes appear as sections in our report. We also developed recommendations for improvement based on our affinity mapping and on Pamela's analysis. Let's talk briefly about recruitment. We worked with Duke's institutional research office to recruit participants. We also posted information about our study to several student group listservs. And because we hope to talk with both US students and international Black students, we worked with Duke's international student support office to recruit participants. And yes, we provided incentives, $10 gift cards for discussion group participants and $20 or $35 gift cards for photo voice participants. We also provided snacks and gave each participant a handwritten note thanking them for their time. We were also able to pay our two graduate student moderators at the same hourly rate that we pay the graduate student assistant in our department. And with that, I will hand things over to Joyce to discuss findings. Okay, I'm going to whiz through some high level findings and we hope you will go and read our full report to learn more. Our participants praised a lot of services programs and spaces at Duke University that contribute to a welcoming environment. But at the same time, participants agreed that Duke provides a less inclusive space for Black students than it does for white students. Duke is a predominantly white institution and a historically white space. Duke's past continues to shape the culture of our campus. Black students contend with campus culture, curricula and physical spaces that still largely reflect and center white experiences, history and values. Participants reported systemic bias and instructors behavior and the scholarship assigned and discussed in class. They experienced microaggressions in almost every area of life at Duke. And these instances of bias reinforce the idea that their belonging at Duke is qualified. So, participants had a positive view of the libraries. Black students largely view the libraries as inclusive spaces in the sense that they meet their diverse learning needs. When asked whether they feel safe, welcome and supported at the libraries, students listed numerous services and resources that they value. They reported some negative interactions with library staff and peers in the libraries. They also perceive aspects of library spaces to be unwelcoming, specifically because they center white history. They have recommended improvements, especially for our physical spaces and shared valuable insights that can help library staff, staff understand what it means to be black at Duke and ways that the libraries can make our spaces more welcoming. Students reported a general feeling that both Duke and Duke libraries will not actively hostile or racist or complicit in their silence. Participants are not convinced that Duke cares about racist incidents and believe that Duke and Duke libraries will not take meaningful action if they complain about a report instances of prejudice or microaggression. So let's dive deeper into some of the issues and I'll loosely follow the structure of our report. Beginning with, what does it mean to be black at Duke. As indicated by this quote, the validity of black students presence at Duke is constantly challenged. Many discussed how demoralizing it is when white people make the frequent assumption that they were admitted to Duke as part of an athletic program, or tell them that they were accepted as part of a racial quota, instead of on the same basis that Duke merits as other students. At the same time, black students are often unable to fade into a crowd and are forced to be perennially conscious of their race identity in a way that white students at Duke are not. Despite the time that has passed and the number of students of color who have been admitted. Duke remains a historically white space and this history continues to permeate and shape the culture of the campus. In our study were very aware of this history. And as exemplified by this quote, feel that they are surrounded by white peers who are often ignorant of an oblivious to American racial realities of racism. Undergraduate participants perceive that Duke's curriculum does not prioritize ensuring that all students will be exposed to diverse points of view, and talked about how interdisciplinary courses tend to be racially sacred. Students believe that if campus spaces in the libraries want to make minorities feel welcome, they need more visible signs or statements about inclusion and diversity, particularly because the default Duke spaces is overwhelmingly visible, visible representations of white people and western art and architecture. Students from survey respondents echoed those themes asking the libraries to post more visuals about being a discrimination free zone in support for various communities. In our survey, the 2020 library survey asked students whether they feel safe from discrimination, harassment and emotional and physical harm at Duke libraries as well as at Duke University in general. There were stark differences by race among the 2600 students who responded. Students do not feel as safe as white students either on campus or in the libraries. Only 34% of black students strongly agree that they feel safe at Duke University versus 71% of white students. A quarter of all black students do not feel safe to some extent versus only 7% of white students at Duke University. More black and white students feel safe in the libraries than on campus in general but fewer black students strongly agree with that statement than white students for the libraries as well. There are many examples of systemic injustice perpetuated through the curriculum. Academics at Duke are often a space where black students do not see themselves highly represented or valued. From the arts and sciences to statistics and economics, our participants reported systemic bias in a variety of areas ranging from instructors behavior to the scholarship assigned in class. In the words of one student reflected back on their experience at Duke, we were absent the scholarship and when it was there it was highly problematized. In addition to many instances of racial biases and scholarship assigned, participants discussed the behavior of faculty and instructors as it contributes to systemic injustice in the classroom. Several students provided examples such as the one in this quote. This example reflects on the damage done by professors who will be attitudes of Duke's international student population towards African Americans. Faculty are both mentors and authority figures who represent the face of Duke to their students. Their silence can speak as loudly as their words and shaping students' perceptions of the extent to which Duke, as well as academic fields more broadly, valued them. Next I'll talk about physical spaces. They communicate priorities, expectations and cultural values both implicitly and explicitly. They do this via architecture, materials in the spaces such as books, art, signs and decorations, and social groupings within a space. Students across discussion groups listed example after example of spaces at Duke, including many of our libraries, where art and architecture cause physical spaces to feel exclusionary. The photo voice submission you see here is a room in our main library with many portraits of white men that stare down from the walls. In this quote, a student reflects a general feeling among participants that if Duke wanted to do something about this, it could, but it chooses not to, which speaks just as loudly as the presence of the art and portraits in the first place. Another aspect of library spaces that students discussed was the visibility of collections and public spaces, specifically a lack of balance in the cultural relevance of materials and areas that students must constantly walk by in order to reach bathrooms or library services, or that are located in study areas. Quite a few of our discussion groups touched on a related topic, which is the lack of a library or a room or study area within our libraries dedicated to black studies. And indicating a library space to black scholarship and culture was a primary recommendation from students coming out of this study. We found that affinity spaces are critical and signal what Duke values. Additionally, person to person interactions can be critical contributors to whether black students at Duke feel welcome and supportive. We've discussed many positive interactions on campus and in the libraries with library service desk staff, librarians assisting with research, friendly security guards, housekeeping staff, academic program office staff and more. Students listed many spaces on campus that make them feel welcome and valued at Duke, but one space that is particularly welcoming and supportive is the Mary Lou Williams Center for black culture. There are a lot of voice submissions for library security guard stand out as a group that can help students feel safe and supported with just a friendly word or wave, though we found the security guards can also make black students feel and welcome. Several students made comments such as the one you see here. Participants discussed many positive interactions with library staff exemplified by the comment here. Participants value friendliness and good customer service as well as subject expertise discussions highlighted the fact that there is a delicate balance between our roles as teachers and a service providers. While many library staff are trained to teach research skills, students often approach the service desk expecting staff to help them complete their tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible. Efforts to teach them how to complete this action by themselves when they have not asked for instruction instead of just assisting them can be interpreted as patronizing or as a review for having bothered the staff or as poor customer service. And that brings us to recommendations for these in depth user studies implementing recommendations for improvement is equally important if not more important than in conducting the study and reporting what we learn. The research team developed recommendations that fall into four general categories spaces services library staff and marketing opportunities. Here are a few examples of the recommendations that we feel will have a particularly high impact on black students at Duke. Here are a few more recommendations from our report to give you a sense of the variety of suggestions. I'll move through these quickly in the interest of time but they are all listed in the full report. So what have we done since we completed this study. We shared the report first with library staff at campus partners in April. After George Floyd's death we were motivated to post our report to Duke's institutional repository and promote the study through national listservs and to share it again with campus partners. Those posts generated a lot of interest and led to numerous discussions with Duke library staff and campus stakeholders. Finally we formed an implementation team of six library staff to move forward the 40 recommendations that came out of this report and the follow up discussions. In closing, we are holding ourselves accountable to do this important work, and we have assured our colleagues that we will keep them well informed of the changes and improvements we're able to make as a result of what we learned through this study. We owe that to ourselves, our colleagues and especially to the 32 black undergraduate and graduate student participants and black student survey respondents who entrusted us with their stories about what it means to be black at a highly selective predominantly white institution in the south. And with that we'll go ahead and stop the recording and take any questions or comments you might have about the study.