Library Support Staff and Diversity

By Cristina Hernandez

“Diversity is a fundamental value of the Association and its members, and is reflected in its commitment to recruiting people of color and people with disabilities to the profession and to the promotion and development of library collections and services for all people.”—ALA’s Five Key Action Areas¹

The American Library Association designated diversity and the recruitment of a diverse workforce as a key action area in 1997. At that time, diversity became one of five “guiding principles for investment of energies and resources.”² Since then, recruitment efforts on the national and local levels have successfully attracted minorities to the profession. Having ethnically diverse MLIS-degreed librarians is essential to the equitable development of programs, collections and services. The Office for Diversity’s Web page best explains the importance of a diverse workforce: “Library patrons ... need to see themselves when they walk into the library. They need to see themselves in the displays, collections, websites, and staff, because to see yourself is the first human connection, the first human invitation to become a lifelong user of libraries.”³

A Diverse Workforce?

Library support staff act as the front line of service to the public on a daily basis, often being the first and maybe only person with whom the patron interacts. According to the Census 2000 Special Equal Employment Opportunity Tabulation , paraprofessionals comprise over 50% of the library work force.⁴ Other estimates raise the number to 60%-70%.⁵ Yet, our profession often neglects the fact that the library workforce extends beyond MLIS-degreed librarians. The support staff’s place in the “diverse workforce” can be equally neglected. When support staff are mentioned in articles on diversity, they are most often included as one of the many to receive diversity training. While statistics on support staff began to appear regularly in the 1990’s, these statistics focus primarily on issues of job satisfaction and salaries.

However, in the past two years one begins to find evidence of a more expansive understanding of diversity recruitment. The most direct statement ALA has issued on the recruiting of a diverse support staff appears in the 2002 document, Library and Information Studies and Human Resource Utilization. Section 22 states, “In the selection of applicants for positions at any level. ... Importance should be placed on the education and employment of individuals with diverse ethnic backgrounds who are multilingual and, additionally, on those who possess a multicultural perspective.”⁶ Then, in May 2003, ALA held the Third Congress on Professional Education (COPE III) with the theme “Focus on Library Support Staff.” The Steering Committee’s final recommendations included sections on recruitment and professional development. Although diversity issues did not make it into the first list of recommendations, recruitment of a more diverse support staff appears as a relevant issue in the appendix for future actions.⁷

Current Statistics

To incorporate support staff into the discussion of ethnic diversity requires a better understanding of where the library workforce currently stands. The Census 2000 Special Equal Employment Opportunity Tabulation includes detailed race and gender information on librarians, library technicians and library assistants. Combining the two support staff categories, one finds that 24.4% of the library paraprofessionals belong to a protected race or ethnic group, compared to 14.0% of librarians. This is compared to the U.S. general population, of which 29.5% belonged to a US protected racial or ethnic group in 2000.

The following table provides a breakdown of the presence of the various minority groups within library staff compared to the general population of the United States. Data for the general population is gathered from Annual Estimates of the Population by Sex, Race and Hispanic or Latino Origin for the United States.⁸ While both sources of data for the table below are based on Census 2000 results, it is important to note that different methods were employed to tabulate the published data. This comparison is offered only to give a general perspective into where libraries stand within our diverse society.

Table 1. Race and Ethnic Groups within the Library Staff Compared to the General Population of the United States

(Race data represents the non-Hispanic population. Data for Hispanics includes all races.)

Data gathered for the first two columns from The Census 2000 Special Equal Employment Opportunity Tabulation, 2003 . Data for third column gathered from Annual Estimates of the Population by Sex, Race and Hispanic or Latino Origin for the United States, 2004.

The above statistics are merely a starting point for assessment. Focused surveys and statistics, initiated within the profession, are needed. Data that addresses the differences between the various types of libraries and U.S. regions would provide more insight. During ALA 2004, the Committee on Diversity passed the Resolution on the Gathering of Diversity Statistics . However, this resolution does not specifically mention the need for statistics on the diversity of support staff.

An Informal Survey

Upon realizing the lack of detailed statistics about library support staff, I submitted a short survey to various library electronic discussion lists and discussion boards, including the Spectrum Scholars electronic discussion list, LAMAs Diversity-L, LSSIRTs electronic discussion list, and the “libraries” community on livejournal.com. It is important to note that since two of these electronic discussion lists focus on diversity issues, results may be skewed. Although the following results are based on only twenty-five responses to a very informal survey, they begin to show the type of information that can be solicited from a more rigorous and formal survey. Information for the categories that received less than four responses are not included here. A more useful set of data would include the ethnic make-up of the specific communities these libraries serve.

Table 2. The Percentage of Minority Staff in Libraries: An Informal Survey

(Number within parenthesis indicates the number of responses included in tabulation)

Conclusion

Once we know how ethnic diversity manifests itself within all levels of library staff, we can then begin to explore how this might affect future diversity initiatives at national and local levels. We can begin to answer questions such as:

“Should individual libraries initiate programs to recruit minorities into support staff positions?”

“What tools do libraries need to recruit and retain a truly diverse workforce of librarians and support staff?”

“Since library support staff tends to have a higher concentration of minorities than the MLIS-degreed librarian ranks, can supporting all paraprofessionals who wish to enter MLIS programs consequently contribute to the ethnic diversity of the profession?”

A commitment to diversity demands a commitment to inclusive thinking. We must not unnecessarily limit our understanding of this “diverse workforce” that we have been so ardently pursuing. As we call for others to join the profession, we must remember to embrace those who are working with us and beside us on a daily basis. Valuing the role library support staff play in diversity initiatives is essential to the continued provision of equitable service in today’s society.

References

1. American Library Association, Five Key Action Areas, 1997. Accessed Aug. 17, 2004, www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governingdocs/keyactionareas/keyactionareas.htm.

2. American Library Association, Key Action Areas. Accessed Aug. 23, 2004, www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/governingdocs/keyactionareas/keyactionareas.htm.

3. Office for Diversity, American Library Association, "Why Diversity?" Recruitment for Diversity. Accessed Aug. 2, 2004, www.ala.org/ala/diversity/divrecruitment/recruitmentdiversity.htm.

4. United States Census Bureau, Census 2000 Special Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Tabulation, 2003. Accessed Aug. 25, 2004, www.census.gov/hhes/www/eeoindex/page_c.html.

5. Evan St. Lifer, "We Are the Library!" Library Journal 120, no. 18 (Nov. 1, 1995): 30.

6. American Library Association, Library and Information Studies and Human Resource Utilization, 2002. Accessed Aug. 23, 2004, www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/educprofdev/lepu.pdf.

7. American Library Association,3rd Congress on Professional Education: Report of the Steering Committee, 2003. Accessed Aug. 17, 2004, www.ala.org/ala/hrdrbucket/3rdcongressonpro/COPE3Final_Report.pdf.

8. Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Estimates of the Population by Sex, Race and Hispanic or Latino Origin for the United States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2003 (NC-EST2003-03), 2004. Accessed Aug. 22, 2004, www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/NC-EST2003/NC-EST2003-03.pdf.

9. Committee on Diversity, American Library Association, Report to Council—Annual Orlando June 2004. Accessed Aug. 22, 2004, www.ala.org/ala/diversity/commondiversity/codrtcan04.htm.

Cristina Hernandez is a 2003 Spectrum Scholar. She has also written for Versed, the Office for Diversity’s newsletter.

Copyright 2004–2008 ALA-APA. Contact Jenifer Grady, 50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 60611, 312-280-2424, jgrady@ala.org for more information.