Librarians from across the country convened last week to stand for increased diversity and inclusion in their workplace.
The Association of Research Libraries and the UCLA Library held the National Diversity in Libraries Conference from Aug. 10 to 13. The conference, which was held at Charles E. Young Research Library and Carnesale Commons, followed the theme “Bridges to Inclusion.”
Librarians, cataloguers, data scientists, deans and directors attended the sold-out event, said Mark Puente, the association’s director of diversity and leadership programs. The conference featured speakers such as activist and radio host Lakota Harden, Massachusetts Institute of Technology library director Chris Bourg and New York University scholarly communications librarian April Hathcock.
The ARL is a nonprofit organization that represents universities, public libraries and special libraries in the US and Canada. The ARL has held the NDLC since 2002, Puente said. This is the first time the conference, which meets in libraries across the country, was held in Los Angeles.
The UCLA Library decided to co-sponsor the event because it is aligned with the university’s mission to increase diversity and inclusion on campus, said UCLA librarian and NDLC chair Jade Alburo.
The ARL stopped holding NDLC conferences for a few years after 2010 because other organizations began hosting similar events, Puente said. But the ARL committee soon realized that there was a need for an event specifically about diversity in libraries.
Speakers at the conference discussed diversity in collections, areas of study and languages reflected in books, Puente said. He added libraries can make special collections more diverse by including authors from different ethnicities and pieces from different parts of the world. He said the ARL hopes to encourage the recruiting of historically underrepresented minorities.
“We want to create environments (in libraries) where people from all backgrounds can thrive, with regard to employees as well as consumers,” he said.
Contributing reports from Ryan Leou, National and higher education editor.