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Significant progress — and room for much more
Recruitment of underrepresented ethnic and racial groups to the profession continued in 2007, with heightened emphasis on increasing the ranks of minority doctoral students to train the next generation.
The ALA’s principal minority recruitment tool is its Spectrum Scholarship Program, which is designed to address the specific issue of underrepresentation of critically needed ethnic librarians within the profession while serving as a model for ways to bring attention to larger diversity issues in the future.
Since its establishment in 1997, the Spectrum Scholarship Program has awarded 495 scholarships to help graduate students from racially and ethnically underrepresented groups become librarians. Spectrum’s professional development and leadership components draw together diversity advocacy efforts across most library organizations, providing a mechanism by which these organizations can diversify their membership and involve proven new leaders with diverse perspectives in their programs and initiatives. The 80 Spectrum Scholarships awarded in 2007 marked the largest cohort to date.
The program received a boost during the year from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), an independent federal grant-making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities. Through its three-year “New Voices, New Visions” grant, the IMLS funded more than 35 Spectrum scholarships a year in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
The ALA Office for Diversity will be able to extend these efforts thanks to a new IMLS grant, received in response to a proposal titled “Reach21: Preparing the Next Generation of Librarians for 21st Century Library Leadership.” The IMLS award was for $872,920 to double the number of annual Spectrum Scholarship awards for the next three years and to expand Spectrum’s reach and leverage its impact by providing support to other diversity recruitment initiatives and LIS institutions.
The IMLS is also providing nearly $1 million to fund the Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship, which is intended to prepare all librarians to work in a global economy characterized by multi-nationalism, multi-culturalism, and layered identities. The ALA and the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences announced the first six recipients of doctoral fellowships in June 2007. At least four doctoral fellowships also will be available for the fall of 2008; for details, visit the Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship Web site.
Still, the profession has its work cut out for it in terms of diversifying its ranks. “There is growing evidence of higher-than-average attrition among ethnic minorities in the profession due to limited opportunities for professional mobility and access to positions of leadership, according to the ALA Office for Research & Statistics: “Rather than tangibly multiplying the numbers of librarians of color, existing minority recruitment programs have simply provided for the replacement of retirees and those leaving the profession prematurely.” (ORS 2007 slide presentation, citing Reese, Gregory L., and Hawkins, Ernestine L., Stop Talking Start Doing! Attracting People of Color to the Library Profession, ALA, 1999; and DeEtta Jones, 2003.
Credentialed librarians by race/ethnicity, 2001-2005,
vs. U.S. population estimates, 2005.
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White |
African
American |
Latino |
Other* |
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U.S. population |
67% |
13% |
14% |
7% |
|
Credentialed librarians |
89% |
5% |
3% |
4% |
Librarians see Spanish as top-priority non-English language
The key findings of the study:
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The majority of libraries serving non-English speakers are in communities with fewer than 100,000 residents (484 of all responding libraries). The majority (53.6 percent) of residents in these communities travel one to three miles to reach a library, and another 21 percent travel four to six miles.
Libraries reported the most successful library programs and services developed for non-English speakers were: English as a second language, language-specific materials and collections, computer use and computer classes, story time, and special programs. The study was conducted by Dr. Christie Koontz and Dean Jue for the ALA Office for Research & Statistics and supported by a 2006 World Book Goal Award, the ORS, and the ALA’s Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, Office for Diversity, and Public Programs Office.
Small and rural libraries form an organization of their own
Small libraries occasionally feel left out, even though libraries serving populations of fewer than 25,000 people comprise almost 80 percent of all public libraries (see table, below). In 2007, the Association for Rural and Small Libraries (ARSL) began its work, under the leadership of Donald B. Reynolds Jr., director of the Nolichucky Regional Library in Morristown, Tenn., who serves as its president.
The association elected a board of directors and adopted a mission of providing “a network of people and materials to support rural- and small-library staff, volunteers, and trustees to integrate the library thoroughly with the life and work of the community it serves.” The names of the directors and documents of interest are available on the ARSL wiki.
Small-library facts
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· Of the 9,198 public libraries in the U.S., 78 percent (7,194) serve populations up to 24,999.
· They have an average of 3.9 FTE paid staff; 32 percent (2,359) have an ALA/MLS degreed librarian.
· Average total operating income in FY04 was $53,800, of which 5.6 percent was spent on electronic materials.
· The average total circulation was 52,139 items.
· There were an average of 36,879 library visits, and an average of 7,194 children attended programs.
· The average number of public computer terminals available was 2.3.
Source: Chute, A. and Kroe, E., Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2005: First Look. (NCES 2008-301). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2007 and Supplemental Tables.
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The ARSL’s objectives are to advocate for rural and small libraries at the local, state, and national levels; to provide opportunities for continuing education and communication; to serve as a source of information about trends, issues, and strategies; and to partner with other library and non-library organizations serving rural and small library communities.
The ALA, through its Committee on Rural, Native, and Tribal Libraries of All Kinds, its Office for Literacy and Outreach Services, and the Campaign for America’s Libraries, also continued its efforts in this area, distributing more than 10,000 rural library advocacy toolkits in 2007. (These are also available on line.)
Even in a world of libraries that can be very high-tech, or low-tech, or even no-tech, the number of bookmobiles continues to increase (there were more than 825 nationwide in 2005, according to the National Center for Education Statistics). Visits to schools are still common, but bookmobiles now circulate a wider variety of materials and have more varied destinations — program sites for very young children, senior citizen homes, shopping centers, adult education centers, sheltered workshops, drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities, and even community events and parades (for a little PR exposure).
Many bookmobiles have low floors for easy entry, and many also provide Internet access. Manufacturers of bookmobiles have also begun to respond, designing vehicles that are more user-friendly in specific ways. And there remain many places in the United States
where “your father’s bookmobile” is still the best way to serve people, traveling out to a rural setting.
Membership in the three-year-old Association of Bookmobile and Outreach Services, begun under the auspices of Clarion University of Pennsylvania, also continued to increase in 2007, reaching 286 by year’s end. The ABOS annual conference, the first that the organization ran independently, drew about 275 people to St. Louis, with participants coming from as far away as Australia (where bookmobiles sometimes trade in wheels for wings).
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outreachdiversity
