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- Description
- Table of Contents
- About the authors
Academic library hiring can be a bureaucratic and exclusionary process. Inclusive hiring practices can help libraries recenter the people in the process and incorporate transparency, empathy, and accessibility.
Toward Inclusive Academic Librarian Hiring Practices, rather than focusing just on how to diversify applicant pools, breaks down the many considerations involved in hiring and the intentional, thoughtful preparation and self-examination that leads to successful recruitment and retention in three parts.
- Training for Search Committees and Stakeholders
- Removing Barriers for Candidates
- Transforming the Process for All
Throughout are practical solutions for emphasizing inclusivity and accessibility throughout the hiring process, including instructions and examples for developing the position description and job postings, tips for creating diversity statements, interview instructions and preparation lists, interview itineraries, sample candidate emails and feedback forms, evaluation rubrics, ideas for onboarding and mentorship, and more.
While you are evaluating potential hires, they are evaluating you. Toward Inclusive Academic Librarian Hiring Practices can help you center equity in your hiring, attract job seekers, and support both candidates and search committees through these time-intensive, laborious, and crucial processes.
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Tarida Anantachai, Camille Chesley, Twanna Hodge, and Jamia Williams
Part 1: Training for Search Committees and Stakeholders
Chapter 1. Launching for Search Success: Establishing and Training Search Committees in Academic Libraries
Tarida Anantachai and Nicole Westerdahl
Chapter 2. Including Voices and Mitigating Bias: Evaluative Practices for Final Interviews
Xan Arch and José Velazco
Chapter 3. Setting up Candidates for Success: Using a Library Community of Practice to Develop Screening Tools and Candidate Questions to Minimize Bias in Hiring
Claressa Slaughter, Charlotte Beyer, Chelsea Eidbo, Jaena Manson, and KatieRose McEneely
Chapter 4. Creating an Equity Advisor Program on any Scale
Paula H. Martin
Chapter 5. Discussing, Understanding, and Assessing: Moving Beyond the Performative to Examine the Candidate Diversity Statement
Breanne Crumpton, Mollie Peuler, and Kelly Rhodes
Part 2: Removing Barriers for Candidates
Chapter 6. Ensuring Empathy in Interviewing through Open Communication
Gail Betz, Hilary Kraus, and Amy Tureen
Chapter 7. I Still Don’t Fit: How Academic Libraries Create Barriers in the Profession Before Hiring Even Takes Place
Simone Williams
Chapter 8. Trans and Gender Diverse Inclusion in Academic Library Hiring
Keahi Adolpho, Stephen G. Krueger, Luke Sutherland, and Adrian Williams
Chapter 9. Beyond Compliance: Accommodating Differently in The Interview Process
Jennifer M. Jackson
Chapter 10. Improving Inclusion with Universal Design in the Academic Library Hiring Process
Katelyn Quirin Manwiller, Heather Crozier, and Samantha Peter
Chapter 11. Planning for the On-Campus Interview: Creating a Descriptive Library Accessibility Guide for Job Candidates
Kimberly A. Looby
Part 3: Transforming the Process for All
Chapter 12. Remote Interviews, Processes, and Documentation: How COVID changed Hiring at One Academic Library
Arielle Lomness, Sajni Lacey, and Donna Langille
Chapter 13. The Interview Pivot: Implementing Changes to Interview Protocols to Respond to Pandemic Restrictions and Provide Greater Inclusion
Mary Beth Lock, Elizabeth Ellis, and Summer Krstevska
Chapter 14. Reflections on a Faculty Cluster Hiring Approach at a Large PWI Academic Library
Shawnta Smith-Cruz, April M. Hathcock, and Scott Collard
Chapter 15. Disrupting the Academic Librarian Hiring Process Through Transparent Communication
Michelle Colquitt, Shamella Cromartie, Anne Grant, Kelsey Sheaffer, Megan Sheffield, and Alison Mero
Chapter 16. Walking the Walk: Searches that Demonstrate Commitment to an Inclusive, Diverse, and Equitable Library Workplace
Marlowe Bogino, Ash Lierman
Chapter 17. Approaches to Inclusive Recruitment: Practical and Hopeful
Adriana Poo, Anamika Megwalu, Nick Szydlowski, Kathryn Blackmer Reyes, Peggy Cabrera, and Ann Agee
Chapter 18. Developing Recommendations for More Inclusive Academic Librarian On-Site Interviews
Christina M. Miskey, Kathryn M. Houk, and Jason Aubin
Chapter 19. From Applicant to Employee: Developing and Evaluating an Inclusive Hiring and Onboarding Process
Gary R. Maixner, Kindra Orr, and M. Sara Lowe
Afterword
Kathryn Houk, Jordan Nielsen, and Jenny Wong-Welch
About the Authors
Kathryn M. Houk
Kathryn M. Houk (she/her) is associate professor and undergraduate medical education librarian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), School of Medicine Library. Prior to joining the UNLV Libraries in 2017, she worked in both tenure-track faculty and professional staff positions at multiple institutions across the United States, where she also participated in hiring committees. Kathryn’s professional and research interests include health literacy, health humanities, and the experiences of library workers from minoritized or historically marginalized groups in academic and medical library workplaces.
Jordan Nielsen
Jordan Nielsen is an associate professor and the Head of Access Services in the James E. Walker Library at Middle Tennessee State University. Jordan earned a BS in business administration, an MBA, and an MS in information sciences, all from the University of Tennessee. Jordan has presented and published on the topic of inclusive hiring in academic libraries, and they are committed to fostering a library environment that is caring, equitable, and inclusive.
Jenny Wong-Welch
Jenny Wong-Welch joined San Diego State University (SDSU) in 2014 as the STEM librarian and was the first tenure-track librarian hired in 7 years. Since then, she has earned many more titles and, with that, more responsibilities such as Library Faculty Chair, Head of the Research, Instruction, Outreach Unit, and Director of the build IT makerspace. After her appointment, the library hired an additional 24 librarians over a short span of years. She’s experienced the importance of more inclusive hiring practices with this many new hires. Through small and big actions, she’s changed their policies and practices to treat everyone involved in the process as humanely as possible. She holds a BA in joint mathematics and economics from the University of California, San Diego. Based on a suggestion from her academic librarian, she attended the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she earned an MS in library and information science.