Toward Inclusive Academic Librarian Hiring Practices - Paperback

by Kathryn Houk (Editor), Jordan Nielsen (Editor), Jenny Wong-Welch (Editor)

Academic library hiring can be a bureaucratic and exclusionary process. Inclusive hiring practices can help libraries recenter the people in the process and incorporate transparency, empathy, and accessibility.

Toward Inclusive Academic Librarian Hiring Practices, rather than focusing just on how to diversify applicant pools, breaks down the many considerations involved in hiring and the intentional, thoughtful preparation and self-examination that leads to successful recruitment and retention in three parts.

• Training for Search Committees and Stakeholders
• Removing Barriers for Candidates
• Transforming the Process for All

Throughout are practical solutions for emphasizing inclusivity and accessibility throughout the hiring process, including instructions and examples for developing the position description and job postings, tips for creating diversity statements, interview instructions and preparation lists, interview itineraries, sample candidate emails and feedback forms, evaluation rubrics, ideas for onboarding and mentorship, and more.

While you are evaluating potential hires, they are evaluating you. Toward Inclusive Academic Librarian Hiring Practices can help you center equity in your hiring, attract job seekers, and support both candidates and search committees through these time-intensive, laborious, and crucial processes.

Author Biography

Kathryn M. Houk (she/her) is associate professor and undergraduate medical education librarian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), School of Medicine Library. Prior to joining the UNLV Libraries in 2017, she worked in both tenure-track faculty and professional staff positions at multiple institutions across the United States, where she also participated in hiring committees. Kathryn's professional and research interests include health literacy, health humanities, and the experiences of library workers from minoritized or historically marginalized groups in academic and medical library workplaces.

Jordan Nielsen is an associate professor and the Head of Access Services in the James E. Walker Library at Middle Tennessee State University. Jordan earned a BS in business administration, an MBA, and an MS in information sciences, all from the University of Tennessee. Jordan has presented and published on the topic of inclusive hiring in academic libraries, and they are committed to fostering a library environment that is caring, equitable, and inclusive.

Jenny Wong-Welch joined San Diego State University (SDSU) in 2014 as the STEM librarian and was the first tenure-track librarian hired in 7 years. Since then, she has earned many more titles and, with that, more responsibilities such as Library Faculty Chair, Head of the Research, Instruction, Outreach Unit, and Director of the build IT makerspace. After her appointment, the library hired an additional 24 librarians over a short span of years. She's experienced the importance of more inclusive hiring practices with this many new hires. Through small and big actions, she's changed their policies and practices to treat everyone involved in the process as humanely as possible. She holds a BA in joint mathematics and economics from the University of California, San Diego. Based on a suggestion from her academic librarian, she attended the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where she earned an MS in library and information science.