 Hello. Hello. My name is Esther De Leon. I'm an associate librarian at Texas Tech University Library and co-lead of the TT research team. Our team consists of myself, James Sabaton as lead, Sarah Schumacher, Kimberly Bartiman and Donnell Callender. We'd also like to acknowledge phase one contributors, Marina Oliver, Hillary Veter and Laura Heinz. My co-presenter today is Sarah Schumacher, architecture image librarian at the architecture library here on campus. Our research and presentation is entitled educating and empowering a diverse student body, supporting diversity equity inclusion research to library collections. And so for the most part we like the way we are going to present today is more of an organic kind of feel. We'll start off by talking a little bit about what we were trying to do. And so what our team tried to do was try to explore methods for assessing the collections related to DEI and discoverability by the users within our own library within the main library because we have two other sections. The two part project surveyed user needs, collections, usage, cataloging and discoverability, user behavior and researching for and evaluating DEI resources. And although it was a lengthy process, we were not able to really grasp a good way to assess our collections. And so for large, because we have a large scale collection, we have over 40,000 students here at Texas Tech and so our collection reflects that. So the key findings indicate a potential for partnering with various colleges and departments. And we also had a need for, showed a need for increased intention on cataloging and metadata particularly the table of contents and abstract summary fields which sometimes are not included in the records whenever you're downloading those records for cataloging. So our objectives, I guess, were to explore methods for measuring library collections to support curricular goals and DEI related courses, better understand our users behavior when searching and evaluating libraries resources related to DEI, identify successes, challenges and areas for improvement related to libraries, DEI related collections and their usability. And our hypothesis was the library's collector provides necessary resources for teaching and study of DEI across disciplines and so this is some of the things that we've tried to accomplish and find out if we really do need those, meet those needs. Users can effectively find and evaluate DEI research resources from the teach you library website. And so Sarah's going to continue with our phases. So I'm going to go over our findings and some of our recommendations and conclusions. So in phase one, we really tried to take a very holistic approach kind of attack it from various aspects, trying to figure out our collection and how it supports the study of diversity equity and inclusion. We encountered a lot of problems and in, you know, our literature review we saw a lot of other librarians encountered some of these same issues and problems. But the kind of two key findings I wanted to bring up is one thing we did is looked at ILL requests and ebook usage and really tried to see if there were any trends in there that were linking to specific disciplines. So the two disciplines we kind of saw some trends for were women's agenda studies and Mexican American and Latino studies. So kind of looking at their usage and requests and then kind of looking at kind of their population within the university as a whole and we kind of identified them as areas that may want to collaborate with libraries that would be a good source for that. Now, a lot of the literature and a lot of the problems we faced was because of the discoverability of these resources, you know, DI titles are, you know, kind of hard to track because they can come from, you know, various disciplines they can be looking at a whole wide range of ideas and topics. And so one thing we did do is look at award lists for DI related awards, tracked which ones we had, but then also looked at our catalog records to see if they were robust enough. So two things we looked at was the 505 at the table contents field and the 520 which is the abstract summary field. And we were, you know, not happy with the percentage of the records that especially had both the 505 and the 520 fields, and that was for both print and electronic resources. So that really shows an impediment to discovery from our users. And we used those findings as we went into phase two. Originally, we were going to do more of an instruction focus, but we put it to do kind of an online Zoom user experience study. And so we had 32 participants, and we asked them from the library page to conduct searches from their field of study, looking at topics on diversity equity and inclusion. So some of the findings we had was, we actually had a lot of grad students in this study, which I think does may impact that they were doing multiple searches for these items. However, a lot of them still kind of were a bit confused about what was a DEI topic in their area. So 10 out of the 32, you know, basically just put, you know, their major and the words diversity equity and or inclusion. I also asked them for recommendations for ways that we could make things easier for them to search and evaluate. So a lot of them talked about search enhancement, you know, like filters, and other tags within the search that would be helpful. But a lot of them also asked for help from librarians, things like specific areas on the library website, or research guides or even just help with them try to identify what is DEI in their field of study, or even just like promotion of resources that they may not be aware of. So we did ask them at the end to gather kind of three resources that they thought would be good for them, and then ask them, how did they evaluate the suitability of those resources. So 17 out of the 32 we're looking for that description abstract or abstract. So that kind of goes back to that earlier finding where we weren't seeing often that description abstract so that really does go back to that discoverability potential issue. So overall the recommendations for both phases is, you know, looking to in the future, setting up some mutually beneficial partnerships with faculty, you know, having them help us look at some better ways of developing criteria or identifying gaps in the DEI research, and then building, you know, curated research guides, looking at better strategies for helping faculty and students search and identify DEI resources, you know, improving that suit engagement and having more targeted instruction. We would love to rerun the UX testing kind of after we've implemented some of these recommendations like the research guides, you know, and maybe targeting different things to discover and intrigle that we would be able to do that the participants suggested. But also there's some kind of higher level ideas about research advocacy to improve discoverability specifically for DEI related materials that would definitely have to go beyond just Texas tech. And I think the two common threads really identified are these kind of big overarching questions. You know, how does the complexity of DEI research stymie researchers, because it manifests differently according to the field of study. And then the second, how does current collect cataloging practices impact effective access and discoverability of DEI library resources. And then to wrap up, I'm going to have Esther go over some of the challenges and lessons learned that I think really come back to those concluding questions as well. Yeah, so we had a lot of challenges. One, the for the first phase was we had low survey participation no matter what iteration of the survey, which I think we tried to three iterations of the survey targeting specific emails specific areas and we still had low participation with our faculty who were DEI, who represent underrepresented areas and or we're teaching anything related to DEI. And then the other iteration, or one of the iterations was targeting the department chair so that way we could get the DEI faculty to participate, participate, and that was very low. And so I don't know. It was because it was during the beginning of the fall. If they were not understanding what we needed or lack of, I don't know. I don't know what it could have been but it was, it was kind of I wouldn't say in my own words depressing because you know we want we want our faculty we want to do do good for our faculty want to give them resources that they need for the for for teaching. Another challenge was identification searchability of the resources materials. Even, even to this day, it's hard to find the I just because you don't know what you're looking for if you're looking for, you know, do those words need to specifically be in those cataloging records. Or what, how do we go about doing that lack of DEI subject headings, many records without added descriptive fields. We, we are in Alma right now. And I know when I was in, in that area at the time, a lot of the records are up, whatever records they get, whenever we get new ebooks or whenever we get new items in. You just grab whatever is in, you know, Alma the, the, the community where you just grab the records and a lot of those records do not have, you know, descriptions or descriptive subject headings or, or any of those things. And we are not in the, that I know of, since I changed over to Rio. And I know that, you know, they're including those, or asking those are, are people to do do it manually, because I know that's a lot of work. IRB process the navigation of IRB process and campus policies procedures training involved. We just had a lot we just hit a lot of challenges along the way. And then of course our funding was not included at the start of research. We thought that we needed funding until after COVID and we had to switch gears and then you know to get funding after the fact was, you know, a little bit taxing because just just having to reach out to our, our IRB people and getting you know in the middle of the process is like, you know, it's a big long process that you have to do. And then changes in direction of research of course we had to stop where we were at because we're not getting anywhere and then jump on to the face to, and then even change that direction to from instruction to doing, working with Kimberly Varderman and with UX, a user usability. So that way we can get our survey done. And that pretty much wraps up what we did. Sarah, did you have any last minute remarks. No, just happy to take any questions about what we found and kind of some of our, our conclusions and recommendations. So I'm happy to read out any questions in the chat if, if you would like to put a question in the chat. I did have a couple of questions for you guys if, if you don't mind. I'd like to remember, I think the survey was before the pandemic. At least the first time that you were trying to implement it, is that correct. Yeah, that that is correct we tried it pre pandemic. Kind of. Yeah, it must have been ball. As I remember, yeah, I think I was talking about it. We did get some responses that even in a lot of the responses. There was some confusion about, you know, what was the I in their area even because we were even asking kind of those fascinating kind of maybe identify some topics or would you like to talk to us about kind of the resources you use in the field. And I mean, even we got low participants so we couldn't really say anything generalizable about because we had digital participation, but the responses we got back we did get a lot of, I don't I don't know, or I'm not the person to ask that. You know, that may have changed intervening years as di has gained a bit of traction. Right. So it might be worth trying again, but it was a very frustrating process. How, how, how fascinating though, I think that that kind of speaks to some of your like lessons learned so when you were describing that that user that user study where students are having trouble kind of expressing what or or identifying what even is a di topic and and maybe leveraging a library instruction to help with that as well as the catalog. I mean that the, it seems like that's might also be the case with with with faculty at least at the moment but that's kind of an interesting thing to witness. Yeah, I had not been expecting that that amount of kind of hesitancy about being able to identify something that is di related. Yeah, I would have thought like after after COVID, something like that would have been, you know, hesitant. I'm interested to find out whether or not they would be more willing to participate now. Everything that's going on. Yes, like I want my voice to be heard or and or be the same, like I'm scared I don't want to, I don't want to put my foot in the, you know, in there and then just get dragged along because I asked this question or I wanted this input. So I would, I wouldn't know. Yeah, it was interesting. Great. That's a great observation I interested in that as well. I have actually I have a question for you asked or so I know you've, you've transitioned from two different parts in the library. So I think when you started you're in, it looks like that that systems area and then you're transition you've transitioned into that reference and instruction. Has that changed your perspective on this particular, this particular project. You know, I've always worked. I've always worked with diversity and always pushed for for things like this. I just didn't realize how bad it was with regards to actually teaching people that there is a library that we do have books. Like I knew, but I didn't really know until I came over to this side and, and met with people and faculty that don't use the library and you're like what. And so I don't know if that also you know that they know that there's a library, but, you know, once a lot of the times faculty or some faculty now faculty. Once you can't help them with something they're like, I don't want to work with library at all. I'm going to do my own thing. And, or they just they're so busy they're so you know high level thinkers that they just don't even realize that that we exist and that we have these resources and they don't we've you know they don't know to come and check us out. So, yeah, I mean, there's it's been the same thread of thought for myself like I always I always believe that the library can do a lot better. We do good, but we could do better. That's, that's fascinating I love that kind of insight. It looks like we do have a question in the chat. So, where would you recommend your institution begin addressing some of the issues that you outlined, and are some of these being addressed in the larger institution. And I know in your draft report you've, you've a little bit about that so I wanted to, to throw that out to you. So our institution. More recently, and especially after. No, it was during COVID because during COVID there was a lot of things happening as well. There's been a more push for diversity di efforts. We do have the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. And there, they began just separated so that way there's people who focus on the students and there's people who focus on the faculty and staff. And then created these lead fellows which I, which I am, I represent the library in that. And what they were, I think what they're trying to do is, is have that feed, you know, this is the diversity and then we're going to feed through and bleed through so that hopefully it will represent everybody and everybody's represented. It's slow going. If you know those are my thoughts. Nobody else is my thoughts to me it's kind of slow going. However, I think for myself, I would recommend that our institution, you know, if, if you are a supporter of the library be a supporter of the library. Give us that funding help us with funding help us find funding. So that way we can meet your needs. You know, don't just say oh we're diversity where you know you're doing diversity work. No, like give us have that backbone give us that backbone give us that money, so that way we can provide the resources and materials and the spaces that you know are underrepresented representative minorities need. And that, you know, all of that would be bleed through everybody would you know, I don't say we would be all happy, but you know it's, it would be a start, you know have that backbone give us that funding help us with whatever that we need to that way we can help you. Here here. I agree. I mean I could go on, but Sarah did you want to say something. I can say is kind of from my perspective working in the architecture library. And with with the lead fellow so you know architecture has its own kind of diversity committee and I have, I've been invited to speak with that group, which was great. And that was kind of my own initiative I created a research guide on social justice in the built environment that was trying to kind of from some of the things I saw from the study about faculty and students not really understanding what topics were available so I kind of started with some broader questions and pulling together resources. And I think that that has been a good outreach and engagement with both faculty and students and for courses. And I've used that in instruction as well. I think that that has has really helped me as library to help us help college as well. One of the things that I really love about your project is using you've got that that catalog kind of technical services piece and then you have that reference and instruction piece together. You pull these two facets together to kind of help with that. De I work that discover ability. And one of the things that I really enjoyed is is your recommendation to go back to the catalog and and implement some kind of tagging or some sort of work in the catalog to help with that de I work. I, I love that it's not. It is not just instruction, but it is also that kind of technical services piece coming together. Yeah, I think we had a lot of former catalogers including me on this group. It's great. Yeah, but I think that's been a fight for a little while now that you know, to change the language first. And then, you know, that's one that's just even one aspect of it just to change some of the terminology that is used when you're cataloging. And then to include more, you know, robust descriptions. You know, certain words, you know, people are looking for certain things that will pop up. But again, these are things that we have to work on and work on with different people within the library and then to get admin and then not just admin, you know, it all starts to you know with. It's just to just, you know, it's a lot of work, and then to include, you know, this is LC cataloging and so it's just a lot of work to be done with record and it's never it's never done the work is never finished. So yeah, I love that. That's such a great summative thought that it truly does never end. So, I think we are approaching the end of our time. So, I just want to say thank you again. Your entire team has worked so hard on this and I've seen your, your, your work where you have gone back to the, to the drawing board and yet you persist. Thank you so much. I was so honored to kind of be witness to that journey. And I really appreciate your work. I'm so glad that we're able to to celebrate the work that you've done as well. So thank you to you and thank you for the opportunity to do this kind of research. All right. So, thank you so much. I hope that this kind of inspires all of us to to also engage in this work. I've got one kind of concluding thought. A lot of these projects were started prior to the murder of George Floyd and this crescendo of black lives matter movements in the summer of 2020. I know we're asking different kinds of questions now than we were a couple of years ago. I love that our teams are brave enough to continue to persist in these questions. And it's definitely inspired me to persist as well. So, thank you again. I'll hand it back to you soon. Thank you.