Dear Diversity List members,
Many thanks to Mary for her very interesting message about
the efforts of Uni of Wolverhampton to improve the ethnic
profile of its staff to match its student population. In my
experience of education, this is a major challenge in
general. I agree with you, Mary, that the way forward must
be to look at profession-wide issues of recruitment. The LA
clearly has a major role to play in this, as do library
schools, and I think the DC, when it becomes a full group
of the LA will have important leverage here. I think too,
as you say, that within the profession and perhaps at some
stage within the DC too, we need to be addressing the
serious under-representation of Black and Minority Ethnic
library and learning resource staff within the academic
sector, and possibly other sectors, for example, special
libraries, and wider afield, the museum and archives
sectors. When it becomes more established, I hope the DC
will begin to think about some of these broader questions.
The Quality Leaders Project is an excellent example of how
positive action might begin to address some of the
challenges you mention. I wonder if any list members
directly involved in the QLP might like to respond about
what we've learnt from the project about these questions
and how it might, in time and with the right support from
the right organisations, be broadened to include BME
quality leaders in other sectors than the public library
field. It might be good to get the list talking about these
important questions.
Best wishes,
Philip
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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/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***************************************************************
Dr Philip Pothen
DNER/RDN Communications Manager,
JISC DNER 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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