Dear List Members,

The following is a report on the meetings held on the 14th
and 15th March to mark the first anniversary of the
Diversity Council.

March 14th was an internal meeting to elect officers of the
Council and to agree a constitution and way forward.

The elected officers of the DC are:

Chair - Philip Pothen
Vice-Chair - Gulsghan Iqbal
Treasurer - Haiyan Kang
Secretary - Kalvinder Dale

The DC agreed to proceed with setting up a Diversity Group
of the LA/CILIP which will be open to all members of the LA
to join. Rules were agreed and an application to the LA
will proceed in the next week or so. The DC also agreed to
maintain the DC as a federation of orgnaisations with its
current focus, and independent of the LA/CILIP, but
possibly as an Organisation-in-Liaison (OiL) with the LA.
This will give us a level of independence to carry forward
important aspects of the agenda which an LA Group would not
be able to do.

The March 15th event was a "Change the World" seminar with
invited speakers, again held at Hounslow Library.

The seminar began with a keynote speech on "The Vision
of Diversity" from Professor Ismail Abdullahi (Clark
Atlanta University) who congratulated the Diversity Council
on its first anniversary. "Happy Birthday DC", he said, and
went on to say that visioning is a journey from the known
to the unknown. He emphasised the importance of teaching
and persuasion as a means of overcoming oppression and
discrimination and for creating agents of change. Don't ask
easy questions, ask tough questions, he said, before saying
that there had been 3 black persidents of the ALA. Only
when the UK had similar role models would real change come
about. We had, therefore, as an organisation, to confer
status on those who were bringing about progress in this
area.

Bob McKee (Chief Exec - LA) re-emphasised his personal
commitment to diversity and promised that the new CILIP
would carry on the work of the LA in this area. He
stressed, though, that diversity was one priority among many
others facing the new professional organisation.

Mark Mason (DCMS) talked about the commitment of the DCMS
to diversity both within its domains but also within the
Department and in terms of its practices, appointments,
interview panels, etc. He gave a ringing endorsement to
the formation of the DC and said he hoped to work closely
with the DC in the near future.

A statement from Resource read by Rebecca Linley stressed
the importance of the DC to encouraging diversity within the
library profession, while Hendie McNellie (Commission for
Racial Equality) also congratulated the DC on its formation.
The cause of diversity was justified, he said, by three
factors: law, ethics and business practice.

Two presentations were dedicated to initiatives designed to
promote diversity. The first was given by Shiraz Durrani
(Merton Libraries) on the Quality Leaders Project, a project
which aims to develop black library professionals into
leaders of the future through mentoring and management
training, and to enhance public library sevices through
outreach and consultation activities conducted by the
quality leaders. Resource has given money to proceed to the
next stage of the project. Other bodies have indicated that
more money might be available to extend the project.

Mary Heaney (University of Wolverhampton) spoke of a number
of initiatives that had been undertaken at the University
of Wolvehrampton, where 27% of the students are from ethnic
minorities. These initiatives include the Black and Ethinc
Minority Experience Project (BEME), the Ethnic Minority
Staff Forum and the Desired Staffing Profile. This last
initiative seeks to improve the proportion of ethnic
minority and female staff and to have a staff profile which
more accurately reflects the student communities being
served.

Geoff Mills (Birmingham), John Pateman (Merton) and Simon
Black (Thurrock) all spoke about the benefits of embracing
diversity within library services, the importance of
mainstreaming diversity, and each gave good examples of
good practice within their services.

Discussion during the day covered a number of themes: the
importance of cross-sectoral collaboration, the importance
of alliances and collaborations across key organizations,
and the importance of building on the optmimism and
cohesion gained by the formation of the Diversity Council.
A number of suggestions were made for action by the DC.
These included the DC being involved in the Annual Library
Plan steering group, on the editorial board of the LA
Record,  using the newsletter as a voice for the many
initiatives that are taking place, but often in isolation,
and to lobby the Society of Chief Librarians.

These and all other suggestions will be taken on board in
the coming weeks, and an action plan will be put forward as
a means to apply for funding from relevant bodies.

Evaluation and informal discussion indicated that this
first anniversary event was not only an important milestone
but also an enjoyable and thought-provoking day.

Philip Pothen
Chair - Diversity Council


***************************************************************
Dr Philip Pothen
JISC/RDN Communications Manager,
JISC Office,
King's College London,
Strand Bridge House,
3rd Floor,
138-142 The Strand,
London WC2R 1HH

Tel:    020 7848 2935
Mobile: 07887 564 006
Fax:    020 7848 2939
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