Dear Diversity Council List members First of all let me introduce myself. I am Director of Learning Centres at the University of Wolverhampton responsible for library, information, open access IT and central learning support for a population of 23k students based on 5 campuses and 4 hospitals in the West Midlands. I joined your email discussion list some weeks ago having read about the council and its work over the past year or so in the LAR. Our university is concerned to improve the ethnic profile of its staff to match more closely the diversity of our student population across 10 academic schools. Ethnic minority entrants to these schools range from over 50% in the case of Legal Studies to 11% in the case of Sports, Performing Arts & Leisure. In 5 of the schools 30% or more entrants come from ethnic minority backgrounds. To help progress us on the route to reflecting our student population better in our staffing, the university has set up a Desired Staffing Profile initiative which aims to assist service areas and schools in addressing the diversity agenda . The ethnic profile of Learning Centre staff has been significantly lower than other service areas and this has led me to set up a project within the service to examine the issues and identify ways of addressing them . We recently commissioned a study to support the project from a company called People Matters and they reported toward the end of last year. One if the significant issues which People Matters report confirmed for us was that the LIS profession does not appeal strongly to candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK and that this is particularly marked in the case of jobs outside the public library sector, where some success is being achieved. While People Matters identified areas for action within our service and within the university it is clear that we cannot change the position on our own. We conclude this not in a defeatist way but in the context that the most recent figures I have seen of LA members from ethnic minority backgrounds is 2.2%. I am interested in ideas from the Diversity Council on how colleagues from different parts of the profession can pull together to place this issue more at the forefront of those who can influence progress. I have talked to Bob McKee about the issues and know that he is very supportive. I have also discussed the agenda with Professor Judith Elkin, Dean of Faculty of Computing, Information and English at our neighbour institution,the University of Central England in Birmingham, which offers courses in Information & Library Management and Studies. I am currently a member of the Executive Board of SCONUL, the Society of College, National and University Libraries and through that body would be happy to seek to promote ideas for change in the HE LIS sector. I look forward to hearing ideas and comment from members of the list. regards Mary ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mary Heaney, Director of Learning Centres University of Wolverhampton ML Block, 54 Stafford St Wolverhampton WV1 1NJ, UK Tel: +44 (0)1902 322302 (direct) or +44 (0) 1902 32100 (PABX) Fax: +44 (0)1902 322668 Learning Centres homepage: http://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~