Enriching the Academic and Research Library Profession through Diversity and Inclusion: The University Library’s Residency Program

The Association for College and Research Libraries Diversity Alliance unites academic libraries committed to increasing the hiring pipeline of qualified and talented individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in hopes of diversifying and enriching the profession. Program participants create one or more residency positions for members of these groups in hopes of giving them the necessary environment to gain the knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary to thrive in an academic context. The Resident has opportunities to network, present, attend conferences, publish, and rotate through the library’s departments. The University Library joined the Diversity Alliance in early 2017 and the Library’s inaugural resident arrived at Iowa State University (ISU) in June 2017. We would like to share how this program is already benefitting the campus community and report on the future of the Library Residency program at ISU.</p

The HBCU Connection: A Digital Collection of Black ISU Alumni from the Early 20th Century

Iowa State University is unique in that it was always an integrated institution. However, despite this fact, the only well-known Black ISU alums are George Washington Carver and Jack Trice. Iowa State University has a long history of black alumni who are educated here and go on to serve in high-ranking and/or high-impact positions at historically black colleges & universities (HBCUs). This digital collection is an aggregation of information that highlights Black alumni from 1911-1948 and follows their prestigious careers after leaving Iowa State. The website is designed to be innovative for current and future researchers as well as a shared resource between Iowa State University and the featured HBCUs. The intent is for it to remain an ongoing partnership that can be updated as more history is uncovered. The creation of this collection is in an effort to diversify the archival holdings of Iowa State University. It also creates a pathway for future work of this type to be done that would be representative of other marginalized communities on campus. This collection is the result of innovative research methods and collaboration with HBCU archivists nationwide