Yesterday, my LIS school, Emporia State University’s School of Library and Information Management, hosted a leadership institute for the students benefiting from their Emporia Diversity Initiative scholarship program. Some of the students in this program are the coolest cats I know, including my friend Paul Mascaranes from Adams State College and the well-known Max Macias up in Portland.

For those who are unfamiliar with the EDI program, it’s an IMLS funded program that pairs students with a mentor, provides money for their MLS, and provides for further professional development throughout the program and beyond (such as this weekend’s leadership institute).

So, what was I doing there? Aren’t I one of the OVER-represented populations? Yes… it’s true. SLIM was kind enough to open up the institute to all Colorado students since it was being held here, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. Speakers included my own Dean of Libraries, James Williams; Dr. Mark Winston of the John Cotton Dana Library at Rutgers; and a panel of local library folks.

One of my favorite talks of the day was from a school librarian, Janet Damon. She was one of the most forward-thinking professionals I’d heard speak at any library event I’ve been to. She stressed the need for the profession to adopt ways of handling decisions in a much more responsive way or we will lose Millennials (not only in recruiting them to the workplace but as users of our services). She talked about applying techniques from software development, including RAD, to speed library’s response to changing user needs and expectations.

However, I don’t want to neglect the topics of the day– leadership and diversity. Dr. Winston stated clearly some of the problems with both of these subjects, and offered up real solutions for handling them.

Leadership– there are hundreds of definitions of leadership. He pointed out that this means that while many people aren’t clear on what it means, they are talking about it. It’s important. One of the best things he mentioned was the need for leaders to have PATIENCE. This is something I needed to hear. I have been learning patience since entering the library world, and the confirmation from someone who has been very successful was nice to hear. As he described it, (I’m paraphrasing) “you’ve already made the change– you’re past the scary part. But your ideas, your presence, represents a threat to the structures that people have built for their comfort. We have to have patience to allow for that.”

He also stressed that leaders lead– in any conditions, from whatever their position, and how those of us who are young or low on the organization chart can affect change through building spheres of influence, support networks, becoming experts, doing the research, and most of all– having patience.

He also described what we can do about diversity and why it is important. He first discussed the usual arguments such as “the demographics are changing” or “we must address past or current inequities”. He explained that these are emotional appeals that produce resistance, and are therefore ineffective. As someone who has put together a panel on Affirmative Action– I can attest to this. When the conversation centers around arguments like this, it just produces entrenchment and defensiveness that can also turn ugly far too quickly.

The real argument to make for diversity is that it increases the effectiveness of your organization. It makes you smarter, wiser, more efficient. That’s an argument that can be backed up with data. That’s why commercial entities encourage diversity– it helps their bottom line. That’s not to say that one can’t feel that it’s important for reasons of fairness and representation, it’s just not the basis of an effective argument for support.

So, what can we do to support diversity in our organizations?

1. First– listen. Ask people about themselves, their experience, their background, what’s important to them. This helps anyone realize that you actually have a real interest in them.

2. Don’t just listen–act. If a person from an under-represented group (or anyone new, of course) has joined your organization and has new ideas, new perspectives, new questions, new requests–then actually do something about it. For example, when I learn that one of my students has an interest in a particular subject, I will invite them to develop an exhibit on that subject. That’s a small example, but it can be applied more substantially throughout the organization.

I remember once being asked for some of the basic pages to be available in Spanish on our website because many of our students are international students and learning English while starting an academic career. This idea was rejected because “learning English is considered an important part of becoming an academic researcher.” Whether you agree with this or not, why maintain an additional hurdle for some students instead of providing tools to make that transition easier? The students who took the time to share their needs with our organization were happy that we cared enough to listen, but left more frustrated because they felt it was an empty gesture.

3. Recognize that when someone from an underrepresented group becomes part of your organization they are likely to be asked to handle a “hidden workload”. Everyone wants to be “inclusive” and so they will invite the one African-American on staff to join every committee. This is not fair. If you’re in a position to be a supervisor or manager, check in with the diverse members of your staff. Ask them if they really want the opportunities given (and the responsibility that comes with it). Make sure that in the quest to mean well, you don’t unfairly pile work on. Don’t necessarily put all the responsibility on them to have to say no.

4. Be available. Another part of being “the only one” means that they probably end up having some stupid things said to them. In fact, inadvertently I am probably saying some stupid things in this post. That’s the point, no matter how well-meaning people are, you can’t truly understand someone else’s experience or perspective, and this is that much more difficult when you add cultural differences. Sometimes people will say or do things that are hurtful, offensive, patronizing, whatever. Try to be the kind of person that your friend can come and talk to about this. Be willing to hear it when you’re guilty as well.

I can’t pretend to have any authority on this subject, but I’m glad to have attended this institute and to have had the chance to meet Dr. Winston and hear him speak. I’m also willing to step up inside and outside of my organization to try and do something about it. I hope more of us will, too.

If any of my 17 readers (you know who you are) see this and know of ways to contribute to the diversity of our profession or know of other resources, please leave a comment!

Some opportunities within the profession are:

ARL Diversity Initiatives

Spectrum Scholarships from ALA

Emporia Diversity Initiative

LEADers II Library School Scholarship Program (scholarship administered through Denver Public Library)

Diversity Web sources in higher education: Looking at our rich heritage (From: C&RL News, September 2000)

Okay, call it peer pressure, call it an inflated sense of self-importance, call it stifled creativity (yeah, that sounds better, right?) but I’ve decided to blog again. It’s true that I already write for two sporadic blogs– My Brew (B)log and Executive Power 2.0, but I don’t have a place to talk about my experiences as an MLS student or my thoughts on libraries and librarianship generally.

And I need one.

I realized this when I was at the ALA annual conference last week and got to thinking, “where do I collect my thoughts, develop ideas, share observations, reveal my excitement (and occasionally my frustration)?”

The answer, of course, is a blog.

However, I still felt undecided until today when I read Lauren Pressley’s mention of the Librarian by Day request that we write about a typical day as a librarian. Well, I do not yet have an MLS, and my position description does not include the word “librarian” but perhaps that’s a good thing. Maybe I can add something to the mix. So I’ve started this blog essentially, to participate in the meme.

My days, like most librarians, are not ever “typical”.

Today, I worked for two hours on planning an instruction session for undergraduates.

I toured the new(ish) Law Library on campus, which is separate from our library systems for ABA accreditation reasons.

I had a working lunch with a colleague, Jack Maness, of the Engineering Library at CU Boulder.

I then worked at finding missing pieces in our Government Documents collection, and identifying duplicates that could be offered up as discards.

I met with my supervisor, Deborah Fink, who has been out of the office for almost 6 weeks (and has just completed her book, congrats!). We discussed our current projects and priorities, student employees, our promotional and exhibit plans for the fall, and what I’d learned at ALA. I showed her FriendFeed and we discussed the future of librarianship and she was excited to see something like the Library Society of the World developing.

Then I worked for a couple of hours on email and content for our new LCD signage.

After this, I intended to leave but I remembered that we want to continue posting day-by-day photos of the renovation process going on in our library, so I went down and took photos of what had been done over the last 24 hours and posted them to Flickr.

Then I worked a little, but mostly procrastinated by reading blog posts and FriendFeed on my Collection Development assignment that is due tomorrow night.

And now I’m doing this. My wife is a little annoyed I haven’t spent much time with her, and I know I’m forgetting several conversations (some, not all, work or school related). But let’s face it– even librarians have gotta sleep sometime.

Right after I check my FriendFeed…. =)