We're launching a National Workforce Study of Minoritized Academic Library Support Staff.

Here's why:

Minoritized representation within the professional librarian workforce has held steady at 10-12% for decades. In comparison, the percentage of underrepresented groups as a percentage of the U.S. population has increased to nearly 40% during the same period. (Citations 7,8)

 

This is a problem across all types of libraries, but the American Library Association’s “Diversity Counts” and other studies demonstrated that it is more pronounced in academic libraries. (Citations 9,10) With minimal improvements despite more than two decades of national efforts to diversify the professional librarian workforce, what more can be done? One promising idea for more successful diversity recruiting can be found within the same data that confirms the problem. Previous studies showed that library “paraprofessionals” (non-librarian clerical and support staff) are more diverse than their professional librarian counterparts. While only 11% of degreed academic librarians are non-white, almost 25% of paraprofessionals in academic libraries identify as members of underrepresented groups. This data raises exciting possibilities for research to inform future recruiting efforts to diversify the profession; perhaps this group is the missing piece of the puzzle.