Creating a Diverse Library Workforce

Inland librarians discuss diversity at their institutions and within the profession at UCR event March 14.

By Bettye Miller on March 5, 2012

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — UC Riverside librarians and Inland Empire LEADS (Librarians Educated to Advance Diversity and Service) will co-sponsor a diversity program on March 14 from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the UCR Orbach Science Library, room 240.

Gladys Brown, assistant vice chancellor of diversity and director of the Office of Faculty and Staff Affirmative Action, will discuss UCR’s diversity initiatives at the event, “Diversity — Whose  Business Is It?” Afterward, Brown will be joined on a panel by Melissa Cardenas-Dow,  University of Redlands librarian; Barbara Morrow Williams, county librarian, Riverside County Library System; and Larry Meyer, director of the San Bernardino County Law Library, for a discussion about diversity at their institutions and within the library profession.

The event is presented by the Librarians Association of the University of California Riverside Diversity Committee and IE LEADS, a program aimed at recruiting and educating librarians to advance diversity and service in inland Southern California. The event is free. Parking is $8.

The UCR Libraries received a $974,259 grant in 2010 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to recruit and educate librarians to advance diversity and service in the Inland Empire. The Laura Bush 21^st Century Librarian Program grant is designed to diversify the library profession and strengthen library services to communities with diverse language, cultural, economic and social needs.

Grant funds will help eligible non-credentialed library staff and students to realize their educational and career goals, said Patricia Smith-Hunt, head of Preservation Services for UCR Libraries and project director for Inland Empire LEADS.

For more information about the diversity event or IE LEADS grants contact Patricia Smith-Hunt, head of Preservation Services for UCR Libraries and project director for Inland Empire LEADS, at ieleads@ucr.edu or (951) 827-7702.

Archived under: Inside UCR, diversity, Diversity Initiatives, librarians association, Libraries, library profession, press release, UCR Libraries

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