Inclusion Action Plan

Musselman Library’s Inclusion Action Plan

December 2, 2020

Strategies marked with an asterisk ( * ) are to be addressed in FY 2021. A PDF document of this plan is available.

Action Area 1: Access and Equity – Recruitment and Retention (faculty, staff, students)

Goal: Increase diversity within our library and the greater profession of librarianship.

Objective: Expand opportunities for students from groups underrepresented in our field to explore careers in libraries, archives, and/or museums.

Strategies
  • Reimagine Holley Internship in order to create a new “pathway” to our field. *
    • A working group will bring options to department heads by 1/31/21
  • Improve recruitment practices in order to increase diversity of applicant pools and hires in higher-level student positions (internships, fellowships, etc.). *
    • Wertzberger and Library Diversity & Inclusion Committee
      • Collect demographic data about student applicants and assess how well it mirrors the diversity of the overall student body (in progress)
  • Build connections with local schools to provide job shadowing or internship opportunities.
    • Odess-Harnish and cross-department working group

Objective: Increase diversity of applicant pools and hires for support staff and administrator positions in the library.

Strategies
  • If we are permitted to fill vacancies: audit and revise job descriptions for inclusive language. *
    • Research & Instruction
      • Update job description and ad for First Year Experience Librarian, Spring 2021
  • If we are permitted to fill vacancies to hire: develop positional flexibility in order to accommodate hybrid or remote work.
    • Advocate to HR
  • Investigate possibility of joining a national library initiative devoted to increasing diversity in our profession (ex: ACRL Diversity Alliance) (would require funding). *
    • Dean and Department Heads
    • Advocate to HR

Goal: Create, preserve, and enhance access and discovery of collections that feature diverse populations.

Objective: Improve access to resources that highlight the lived experiences, interests, and priorities of diverse populations.

Strategies
  • Supplement or update descriptive metadata with inclusive language to address limitations in current Library of Congress subject headings. *
  • Evaluate collection practices to increase representation of historically underrepresented groups.* 
    • Technical Services
      • Investigate BIPOC publishers, literary awards, and prizes to add to approval plan
      • Advocate for library platforms to include more diverse publishers
      • Investigate purchasing from BIPOC-owned businesses
      • Analyze select call number ranges in order to target areas for collection development and deaccession
  • Supplement or update descriptive metadata with inclusive language to address limitations in current Library of Congress subject headings. *
    • Technical Services
  • Create end cap guides to assist with browsing the collection/classification. *
    • User Services

Objective: Broaden representation in Special Collections and College Archives.

Strategies
  • Actively collect and preserve oral history interviews with members of historically underrepresented communities at Gettysburg College. *
    • Special Collections & College Archives
      • (in progress – McKinney)
  • Prioritize collections that describe the experience of Gettysburgians from non-dominant groups (in metadata work, exhibits, guides, and active collection).
    • Special Collections & College Archives
      • Digitize negatives from 1960s-1970s in order to make more campus history events discoverable
    • Special Collections & College Archives with other partner?

Action Area 2: Campus Climate

Goal: Improve campus climate.

Objective: Ensure that our physical space is welcoming and affirming for everyone in our community. *

Strategies
  • Perform audit of our public spaces (with special attention to artwork and what is communicated by collections in high-traffic areas).
    • User Services
  • Examine placement of and language use in signage.
    • User Services
  • Establish student advisory committee and solicit that group for feedback and input.
    • User Services
  • Build connections with other groups/departments on campus to hold events in building.
    • User Services

Objective: Ensure that our virtual space is welcoming and affirming for everyone in our community.

Strategies
  • Conduct usability testing.
    • Web Advisory Committee
  • Establish student advisory committee and solicit that group for feedback and input.
    • Web Advisory Committee
    • User Services

Action Area 3: Diversity in Curriculum/Co-curriculum

Goal: Contribute to a more equitable student learning experience inside and outside of the classroom.

Objective: Employ inclusive teaching strategies when delivering information literacy instruction, workshops, or staff training in order to address the needs of individuals with a variety of backgrounds and learning differences.

Strategies
  • Prioritize professional development opportunities for library staff about inclusive and anti-racist teaching practices with applications for in and outside the classroom. *
    • Department Heads and Diversity & Inclusion Committee
      • Provide at least two workshops or webinars for library staff per academic year (facilitated by Gettysburg staff or from national organizations)
  • Revise the Teaching Square program (teaching development program) to include a goal for all participants around inclusive and anti-racist teaching. *
    • Research & Instruction
      • Provide an opportunity each semester for teaching librarians to participate in a teaching square
  • Ensure that examples used in class visits, instruction sessions, exhibits, LibGuides, and online tutorials feature diverse lived experiences and are discussed in the context of the historical era and present-day reflections. *
    • Research & Instruction & Special Collections
      • Ongoing, but someone should audit existing LibGuides and tutorials

Objective: Create flexible and accessible teaching and learning spaces in order to support all learners and current teaching practices.

Strategies
  • Complete updates to the library classroom (room 014) to improve accessibility, promote active teaching practices, and incorporate flexible technology for multi-modal instruction post COVID-19. *
    • Research & Instruction
      • Complete an assessment of the renovated classroom’s impact on student learning and teaching in AY 2021-22
  • Develop other spaces in the library that support the post-COVID 19 diverse learning needs for all students, including spaces that can facilitate individual or small group work in person or remotely.
    • User Services
      • Complete a space assessment and consult relevant professional literature for how students use existing library space post-COVID 19 and articulate their needs for study, collaboration, etc.

Objective: Ensure that collections of online tutorials and other digital learning objects are accessible to all learners and follow best practices for accessibility and inclusive design.

Strategies
  • Provide training and support for librarians and staff to create online learning objects (e.g. tutorials, video, LibGuides) that are accessible and inclusive. *
    • Research & Instruction
      • Conduct a formal accessibility audit of newly created digital learning objects at the end of each semester

Objective: Explore interest in and develop a campus wide Textbook Affordability Initiative.

Strategies
  • Reconceive library services as a spectrum of support for textbook affordability. *
    • Scholarly Communications & others
      • Update website and other public-facing materials to clearly communicate our range of services
  • Educate and support faculty who eliminate or reduce course costs through using Open Educational Resources (OER), library-licensed materials, and Course Reserves. *
    • Scholarly Communications

Objective: Reexamine library policies that impact students unevenly.

Strategies
  • Evaluate student loan policies and fines, which disproportionately impact BIPOC (currently, employees are not charged fines).
    • User Services

Objective: Focus library programming and exhibits/displays on promoting dialogue for social change and bridging difference.

Strategies
  • Reconceptualize longstanding programming and develop new initiatives with key campus partners that highlight voices and experiences of underrepresented groups.
    • Library leadership
    • Marketing Committee
    • Exhibits Committee
  • Highlight experiences of diverse populations and include contextual discussions of historical and current events in library exhibits.
    • Technical Services
  • Use main floor thematic micro-collections to promote awareness of current events and highlight diverse collections.
    • Technical Services

Action Area 4: Organizational Learning

Goal: Prioritize on-going professional development for library staff about diversity, equity, and inclusion in libraries and higher education.

Objective: Encourage and support intercultural learning for every library employee.

Strategies
  • Require library-wide IDI participation (note: it will be required of all new hires beginning Jan 2021).
    • Library Dean
      • Track in annual report
  • Create more local opportunities to talk about anti-racist library practices, critical librarianship, feminist practices in librarianship, etc. Small groups, etc.*
    • Department Heads
    • Diversity & Inclusion Committee
  • Provide on-going opportunities for reading, viewing, discussions. *
    • Diversity & Inclusion Committee
  • Share conference learnings
    • Dean & Department Heads

Goal: Promote the library as a learning resource for everyone on campus.

Objective: Support individual intercultural development

Note: many goals in Action Area 3: Diversity in Curriculum/Co-curriculum also support this action area

Strategies
  • Continue updating and promoting the Antiracism reading list and resources in OverDrive/MUSCAT Plus.
    • Technical Services