ACRL EBSS Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)

Charge

The ACRL.EBSS Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force worked from spring 2021-spring 2022, with the following charge:

To identify best practices and advocate for actions related to issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion in academic librarianship, especially as related to education and behavioral sciences librarianship, including: recruitment, advancement, engagement, and retention of underrepresented groups in education and behavioral science roles and within the work of EBSS; collaborate with EBSS committees to develop strategies for integrating anti-oppressive and anti-racist practices into the work of their committees; and advise the EBSS Executive Committee on programming, practices, and actions in support of these equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts.

Recommendations

Note: The reasoning behind and further information on each of these recommendations is provided in the task force's final report, linked below. 

The EBSS EDI Task Force recommends that EBSS:

1. Establish a standing EDI committee, 
2. Improve communication about EDI-related work and actions in the section, 
3. Provide committee chairs with resources to empower them to be EDI-minded leaders, 
4. Examine committee charges and facilitate discussions with chairs to identify EDI-related priorities for each committee, 
5. Identify tangible ways to alleviate financial barriers to participation, and
6. Improve recruitment and retention to increase the diversity of EBSS membership.

Final Report

This report provides detailed findings from our 2021 meetings with chairs and survey of the EBSS membership as well as more detailed recommendations for future actions that would position EBSS to be a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive organization. This report was submitted the EBSS Executive Committee in March 2022.