PDA Event: Intentionally Recruiting for Diversity in Librarianship: Reflections on a Year Later

The Diverse Librarianship Career Training and Education Program, launched in 2021, is a call to action in response to the serious lack of diverse representation in library and information science professions. This grant project aims to create a pathway model for breaking down barriers in recruitment and retention of diverse librarians by introducing high school seniors to librarianship. With the program now in its second year, program staff return to reflect on what they have learned and to highlight the work that has been completed on the forthcoming toolkit.

Presenters:

Tammie Busch has over twenty years of experience working in public, school, and academic libraries. She received her MLIS from University of Missouri in Columbia and her MA in History from Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. She is currently an Assistant Professor, Catalog and Metadata Librarian at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her research interests include cataloging ethics, value of enhanced cataloging on student success, and diversity in librarianship.

Lora Del Rio has over twenty years of experience working in university, community college, and law libraries. She received her MSLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently Director of Research, Teaching, & Learning and an Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her research interests include Her research interests include library marketing & communications, librarian burnout, mentoring, DEI, digital humanities, information literacy, and library instruction.

Jacob Del Rio is the Electronic Resources Librarian at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Before this ERL role, he worked for 21 years in public libraries, focusing on adult and reference services, programming, and outreach. His previous grant work includes two successful community-wide book clubs, funded by Illinois Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts. He received his MLS from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2011.

Elizabeth Kamper has been teaching information literacy in libraries for 10 years. They received their MSLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and are currently the Information Literacy Librarian and an Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Elizabeth also teaches in the University Honors Program. Their research interests include critical information literacy, LGBTQIA+ self-identification in the classroom, wonder-led inquiry for research and writing, as well as using tabletop gaming to roleplay empathy in the classroom.

Shelly McDavid is the Director for Access, Discovery & Systems, STEM Librarian, and Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  Her research areas include assessment of library data and services, evidence-based decision making and strategic planning, information literacy instruction, and STEM education.  Prior to this position, Shelly served as the Head of Access Services and Learning Commons Librarian at the Missouri University of Science and Technology.  In the past 7 years, Shelly has worked at four different STEM focused libraries engaging and imparting information literacy skills to all users.

Simone Williams MA, MLIS is the Diversity and Engagement Librarian and Assistant Professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.  She is a first-year librarian.  Before her position at SIUE, she spent several years working at cultural institutions in the St. Louis metropolitan region in numerous positions. Additionally, she has an extensive history of working with students from historically underrepresented backgrounds, especially those from low-income, black, LGBTQIA+, and immigrant communities. Her research interests are Cultural Informatics and Heritage, Digital Humanities, Digital Libraries, Diversity and Social Justice, Information Access, Information Literacy, Social Media, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Community Informatics.

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