NEWS (see also Archives)

Diversity Recruitment Summit, Monday, September 18, 2006. For more information, see: http://isdiversity.gseis.ucla.edu/summit06.

CONGRATULATIONS to our incoming Spectrum Scholars.  Please welcome them this Fall.

CONFERENCE: Librarians' Associations of Color http://www.ala.org/ala/olos/libassocofcolor/librariansassociations.htm “Gathering at the Waters: Embracing Our Spirits, Telling Our Stories,” the first ever Joint Conference of Librarians of Color (JCLC) will be held on October 11-15, 2006, at the Adams Mark in Dallas, Texas. 

 

The Diversity Recruitment and Mentoring Committee is made up of UCLA faculty, students, staff, and leaders from the local library community who want to increase the number of culturally diverse students eventually graduating from the Information Studies program at UCLA with an MLIS degree. The Committee's goals are to:

  • recruit new applicants to the IS program,
  • increase the visibility of the IS program at UCLA (through conferences and in working with professional library organizations),
  • help to ensure a more diverse student and faculty population,
  • help to identify and encourage the Department's participation in supporting scholarship opportunities (such as the ALA Spectrum Initiative),
  • increase the number of Ph.D. applicants to the IS program, and
  • promote mentoring activities for new and continuing students

Co-Chairs: Silvia Calzada :: Clara M. Chu :: Norma Corral :: Albert Tovar
Archivist: Yolanda Retter

RECOMMENDATIONS, Cultural Diversity Summit, March 6, 2002
Attendance: 50 people including faculty, students, alumni, employers and representatives of ethnic library associationsIncrease faculty diversity
> Offer opportunity for a professionals to share their expertise for an extended time that would be less commitment than a course but longer than a guest lecture, e.g., a faculty in-residence program, workshop Research on diversity issues
> Identify way to highlight research on cultural diversity issues, such as a forum, announcements of diversity conferences and events (research and non-research)
> Have students, esp. doctoral students, work with the faculty in-residence Support for students
> Work with employers to encourage their support of library staff to attend MLIS [or Ph.D.]
> Financial support for students may be available from the California State Library - check and make information available
> Sponsor student travel to conferences as well as work with organizations to secure funding for student conference travel
> Continue to revisit ways to make schedule flexible for students who are working full-time Professional Education
> Offer workshops to assist librarians and others to serve a culturally diverse population, such as a Friday Forum on gathering census and other data to determine the diversity of one's service community, design of user-centered library and information services
> Consider cultural diversity in all information institutions, not just libraries, e.g,, archives Interdisciplinary connection
> Work with other departments to encourage applications from their students
> Have our students take courses in other departments and encourage them to bring to the attention of our students the LIS field Adopt cultural diversity as a theme for the department and identify ways and activities which would reflect this.

Retention issues and recommendations from the Diversity Recruitment and Mentoring Committee (DRMC) were submitted in its annual report.

revised 8/22/05 cmc