Lightning Talks:- Collective Wisdom, Common Practice: Standardizing Equity in Library Hiring
How does a library turn successful but ad hoc equity initiatives into standard hiring practices? At Davidson College Library, a recent diversity, equity, and inclusion audit inspired us to transform these disparate approaches into a comprehensive framework all hiring committees and managers can follow. This presentation will explore how we collaborated with library staff and campus partners to develop standardized hiring practices from limited documentation, while simultaneously consolidating scattered onboarding materials into streamlined resources. Through this work, we aim to create equitable, welcoming experiences for all candidates and new employees. Attendees will learn practical strategies for auditing existing practices and engaging library staff, and receive adaptable templates to transform their own hiring and onboarding processes.
About the PresentersSydney Adams is the Outreach and Engagement Librarian at Davidson College. Sydney strives to work with the Davidson community to ensure our library remains a vibrant hub of learning and discovery for everyone.
Ashley Mills is the Special Projects and Assessment Librarian at Davidson College. Currently, she serves as library project manager for a comprehensive renovation project, coordinating building closure logistics and interim space planning while shaping the new building design and preparing for uninterrupted library services during transitions.
- Creating Community: Inclusive Collections & Where to Find Them
Libraries can only anchor communities if everyone in those communities feels at home there. Unfortunately, many library collections at higher-education institutions tend to skew white, male, and western, and the curricula tend to match. To students, especially students of color attending primarily white institutions, this can be alienating. At Davidson College, we have created a series of Affinity Capsule Collections in an effort to make our collection more inclusive. These collections currently work in partnership with our largest student affinity organizations: our Pan-Asian Student Association, our Black Student Coalition, and our Organization of Latin American Students. Not only is a physical collection placed in their dedicated meeting spaces, but each group can select new titles for acquisition every year. These titles then live permanently in the organization's collection alongside a rotating series of existing library titles from authors sharing their background. This presentation will explore the development of these collections, engaging student organizations, libraries as a “third space,” and lessons learned during the process.
About Michael ChapinMichael is a recent graduate of Davidson College, where he studied English with a focus on creative writing and currently works in a fellowship position at the E.H. Little Library. Following a position as a co-chair of the Student Initiative for Academic Diversity where he worked to ensure equitable hiring practices for tenure-track faculty, he is continuing to foster inclusive safe spaces and uplift marginalized voices.
- Piecing Together: Collaborative Makerspace Outreach
The University Libraries system is at the center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus, supporting students in all disciplines, including ‘making.’ The Library MakerSpace, located in the Undergraduate Library, is open to all to support coursework, research, and recreational projects alike. We provide additional facilitation of making on campus by hosting workshops and special events, such as our annual spring Seed Library event.
In a collaboration with the BeAM Network of makerspaces at Carolina, the Library MakerSpace invited attendees of a biannual campus-wide event, MakerFest, to participate in an interactive craft activity to create a collaborative data visualization. Participants selected patterned fabric squares that corresponded to their favorite aspect of making and were invited to sew the squares together into a community quilt design.
MakerFest included makers who used any of the campus’ makerspaces throughout the 2024 fall semester, but many were unfamiliar with the library’s space. The event brought the library to a community of makers and introduced new users to the Library MakerSpace. The library’s collaborative activity showcased the connections between making, data visualization, and the library, while inviting participants to reflect on their own experiences as makers. This outreach activity also provided the opportunity for event participants to ask questions about the Library MakerSpace, producing valuable insight on participants’ areas of interest and potential future directions of the space.
Our talk will cover how the data visualization idea was developed, the process of completing the craft, showcasing the quilt, and future plans for similar programming.
About the Presenters
Jordan Green is a librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her responsibilities include liaison work in the sciences and managing the Library MakerSpace.
Abi is a Carolina Academic Library Associate and master’s student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She works in the Library MakerSpace, she supports patrons with their creative projects and helps design and lead workshops.
Therese is the Head of Science, Academic and Research Engagement librarians at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries. She is also the chemistry liaison librarian.
