Stanford Medicine
leah4@stanford.edu

Rachel Whitney, MLIS
MUSC Libraries|Medical University 
of South Carolina 
whitnera@musc.edu

Associate Dean, Library and Information Services

Director, Harrell Health Sciences Library: Research and Learning Commons

Penn State University

College of Medicine

kthormodson@pennstatehealth.psu.edu

Cathy Pepper MLIS, MPH (she/her/hers)

Regional Services Coordinator
Medical Sciences Library
Texas A&M University

cpepper@tamu.edu

catherine.lockmiller@nau.edu

required committee work at University and library levels which takes too much time away from research and other job duties

children at home - must leave work at a certain time so can’t participate in late afternoon committees

if you are a person of color you might be overly extended on diversity committees if there is a limited number of people of color in the community

service load is overly extended by women on committees and such

think about the structures of P&T do they need to be redone

can we give credit to DEIA work and have it count towards P&T (performance and evaluation metrics)

what is the value (metrics) of DEIA work that could be put into our dossiers to be counted towards P&T

mentors for different aspects can help with P&T process - writing, service, leadership, etc

could DEIA be built into the strategic plan so it is easier to assess for P & T

some work is more important than others according to the institution/government/board of regents (Nichole Hannah-Jones)

change is very slow

standards are from 30 years or ago
Shared Example from one institutions policy: The candidate..

    Is committed to engaging in service with underrepresented populations within the discipline
    Has demonstrated knowledge of barriers for underrepresented students and faculty within the discipline
    Has experience or has demonstrated commitment to teaching and mentoring underrepresented students
    Has experience or has demonstrated commitment to integrating understanding of underrepresented populations and communities into research
    Has experience in or has demonstrated commitment to extending knowledge of opportunities and challenges in achieving artistic/scholarly success to members of an underrepresented group
    Has experience in or has demonstrated commitment to research that engages underrepresented communities
    Has expertise or demonstrated commitment to developing expertise in cross-cultural communication and collaboration
    Has research interests that contribute to diversity

Our norms—librarianship substitutes for teaching, so it fits in.

Unionized. Removing students’ ranking of professors from tenure process because so much bias. 

 

 

-- Retreats for all staff (not just librarians):  Not common but a great way to share and communicate.

-- Employee Awards:  Recognize achievements and milestones; have colleagues nominate coworkers.
-- Birthday Celebrations:  An opportunity to connect, be seen and heard, learn about each other.
-- Cultural Events:  Bring outside (like wider university events) into the library for staff; A way to learn about each other’s cultural heritage.
-- Safe Zone Training as a group:  Can do it as an entire library; departments; or other groups; opportunity to learn together

-- Book Clubs:  An especially good technique in a virtual work settings.  A book club can help open up communication and learning about each other and their personal journeys.

-- Fun Meetings:  A chance to connect as coworkers

-- Holiday Celebrations:  Learn and value other cultural holiday celebrations.

-- Building Community group:  Available to all library staff from all campus libraries; a way to build connections among colleagues.  They often do fun activities like a pet parade.

-- Hallway Chats:  Virtual meet up with coworkers to build connections

--  Watercooler Chats:  Virtual meet up with coworkers to build connections

--  Social Hour:  Virtual meet up with coworkers to build connections

--  Shout Out Page:  Internal-only webpage recognizing library staff contributions from all libraries across campus.  Staff recognitions are submitted by fellow employees; there is an option for the submitter’s name to be shared with the employee being recognized or to remain anonymous.  A committee reviews submissions to determine which are to be shared on the Shout Out page.

--  Library Check-In:  In their healthcare system environment, all the librarians/library staff from hospitals in the system meet virtually on zoom to check-in with each other personally and professionally.

--  Dr Tweedy suggests that library’s create displays and programming to recognize groups all year around, not just in one month (e.g. May = Nurses Month).

-- Highlighting BIPOC staff, faculty, alumni in health sciences fields (within/outside the university) on the library’s social media.  They receive good engagement from the university community.  Also have a presentation about it at MLA: “Highlighting Contributions of BIPOC Students, Faculty, and Staff through Library Social Media,” https://www.eventscribe.net/2021/MLA/agenda.asp?pfp=VideoChatSessions

-- Employee of the Month:  A library staff member is profiled each month on the library’s public website.  The staff member’s role at the library is explained and answers to fun questions.

-- Share a “Win”:  At the beginning of large or small group meetings in the library, staff are asked if they want to share a recent “win.”

-- Use the “Mood Elevator:”  Derived from the techniques from a Senn Delaney program, their library staff use the concept of the mood elevator when discussing how they are feeling about work, personal challenges.  When the mood elevator is low, a person may feel unsure, insecure, overwhelmed, etc.  When the elevator is high, a person may feel successful, good about an accomplishment, etc.

-- Participating at community outreach events

-- Marketing open positions to diverse groups and organizations

-- Partnering and mentoring programs for new staff.

-- Ask colleagues who they recommend for open positions.

-- Career Fairs and High School Presentations:  Promote health sciences librarianship at these events.  Make students aware that there is more to librarianship than reading books.  It is a good way to connect to the community.

-- High School Presentations:  Their healthcare system also regularly presents to high schools to discuss all kinds of career possibilities, and health sciences librarianship can be included.

-- Collaborate with Local Public Libraries:  Their library had an online program during the COVID-19 shutdown that focused on staff mental health.  They invited public librarians from the NY area.  Over 140 public librarians attended.

Question Posed:  

-- Does any library have a pipeline in place for staff to get their MLS?  Our library support staff are often more diverse in libraries, and we should be trying to encourage/assist education in librarianship.