In late November, Diversity Committee Advisor Lindsay King presented the option to add to the ARLIS/NA Diversity Committee title. The change was presented to the Board who voted to support the addition for the committee to become officially known as the ARLIS/NA Diversity and Inclusion Committee! My thanks to Lindsay and the Board for making this possible.
Need For Change
According to a Google keyword search, the second definition of diversity is defined as, “the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different…” (Definitions From Oxford Languages). See what happened there (thinking face emoji)? The addition of “including or involving” highlights a responsibility or effort needed for diversity to be possible.
Focus
In placing inclusion prominently in the title, it centralizes the ARLIS/NA Diversity and Inclusion Committees commitment to create initiatives that support community building efforts that work to place library workers of color as part of a whole and not invisibly on the periphery.
Why change the name?
- To show that while libraries may have multicultural staff, resources, or initiatives, they have not historically been inclusive to library workers of color
- To highlight what is needed for diversity to occur, using this definition
- To support initiatives that place POC library workers as part of the whole of a library
- User error, as Chair, I added inclusion to the title – possibly TBI related
Natisha Harper
ARLIS/NA Diversity and Inclusion Committee Chair
The Art of Diversity 