Art Libraries Society of North America 31^st Annual Conference  
Wyndham Baltimore Inner Harbor, Baltimore, Maryland – March 20-26, 2003  

Adding Teeth: Forum on Diversity

Sun. March 23, 2003

Reported by Miguel Juarez, Art & Photography Librarian, University of Arizona

About 40 ARLIS/NA members attended the Diversity Forum organized by Allen Townsend. For issues of diversity in the organization, this meeting served as a historical point in the history of ARLIS/NA.  The following edited summary of the transcription of the forum represents an historical snapshot of the society’s effort to address issues of diversity within its organizational structure. Members in attendance included outgoing president Daniel Starr, past president Ted Goodman, incoming president Allen Townsend, Vice-president elect Jeanne Brown, several members of the executive board, members of the defunct Diversity Committee, other members. This article summarizes some of the key points from the meeting.

You are encouraged to read members’ comments in their entirety at: http://www.library.arizona.edu/users/juarezm/addingteeth.html

Allen Townsend opened the meeting by suggesting that ARLIS could sponsor a task force for the short term that would study the diversity of the organization.  Its specific charge would be to collect data over a two-year period about the status of diversity of art information professionals.  The creation of this task force would support the ARLIS/NA Strategic Plan’s Action Items for 2000-2005: The Diversity Committee’s charges from the action items are:

1. to continue to identify, assess and report to the membership other organizations’ positions and statements concerning diversity;
2. to establish a proactive program which provides examples of how to integrate diversity into all areas of ARLIS and its programming, as well as library instruction
3. to work with the membership committee to attract a culturally diverse membership and to review the membership form and suggest ways to improve collection of data reflecting the diversity of our organization

Townsend said he was open to different ideas “to begin to feel like we’re moving in a positive direction again” and wanted to hear ideas about how systematically to organize ourselves to support diversity given the reduction in membership and conference attendance.  

Every person present was given an opportunity to speak.  The opinions expressed were thoughtful, considered, often passionate, and sometimes lengthy.  They are transcribed in their entirety at the above-referenced website.  An edited sampling:

• A new member asked why there was such a lack of diversity in the organization. Townsend stated the lack of diversity is endemic in the profession, “ . . . there’s a recruitment problem in terms of diverse populations for librarianship itself . . . ARLIS/NA before this year had an ad hoc committee devoted to diversity . . . We decided [to] do away with that and address the concerns that the former ad hoc committees had dealt with in other ways."
• Suggestion: a workshop to talk about diversity.  “. . .we need to look at what it means to each of us and try to work as a whole group to bring about a way that we can actually promote it within our group. . . I don’t think it’s something that we can ignore.”
• The group welcomed Maria Sanpang, the recipient of a travel award by the Maryland/Virginia chapter as an attempt to begin to address issues of recruitment on a local scale.  Ms. Sanpang thanked the local chapter and said she felt the opportunity would benefit her because she works at the National Gallery of Art. The award was not costly for the local chapter.
• “I think we should have more contact with [ALA's] diversity initiatives.”
• “REFORMA, in particular, was saying, ‘Don’t reinvent the wheel, we’re there ready to help you with any recruiting you want to do.’  I’m sure that closer contact with any of these other groups would be a very valuable way of following through with some of these goals and action items.”
• “For some of us, ARLIS is the only organization we belong to or attend.  For those people that only belong to ARLIS and only go to this annual meeting, I think it’s important to have minorities recognized.”
• “[a diversity task force] is essential, no matter how strongly the board feels about it at any particular time; I don’t think we should have to rely solely on whoever is Board president at a particular time.”
• “It’s critical to have people of color represented in the hierarchical levels of ARLIS.”
• “A task force would be time-sensitive and presidential.  The charge of the committee was from the Board.  But the task force could be a presidential charge:  pull people together to do the research and eventually publish a paper. . . saying, this is where we are in terms of diversity, at this time in history. . . it is something that we can actually put out there so that people know that we care enough about the issue to actually take a look at where we are and it will be a lasting representation of the historical situation. . . And I think as an organization this will put us in a stronger position. . .The travel awards idea . . . is one that I really think is a good one for the local chapter to be involved with the library schools and try to find those kinds of recruits.”
• “I would not be here if there had not been a Diversity Committee in this organization. . . why should I pay a lot of money to belong to an organization. . .unless it’s going to show me that it’s dynamic and addresses issues such as diversity in our profession?  I needed to see that public face.  In order to attract new members, your commitment needs to be visible.”
• “Many people told me that ARLIS disbanded its Diversity Committee—it’s not welcoming. . . There are many ways to look at the committee structure that might solve your problem in the same manner but would not give the impression to the outside world that ARLIS does not care about being a diverse organization.”
• “I think it was important to have a Diversity Committee but that committee had no teeth!”
• “How is diversity going to be implemented organizational-wide?  One example is programming. . .These are issues that we really have to look at because in New York, there are many universities and young people who may be drawn to the profession but if you don’t create those bridges, they are not going to come.”
• “As far as recruitment goes, I think we are missing a level by not being visible in the art and design schools.”
• "I must say that the Diversity Committee was a very good committee because it was one of the first committees that I was in on a national level." 
• “Maybe at the local chapter level there may be some solutions.”
• “. . . we really haven’t penetrated Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico or the Caribbean, considered to be part of North America, and that’s really the issue which we need to deal with.”
• “I would be in favor of a group that has permanent a status as any group would have and it certainly should have teeth . . ."
• “I think some structure needs to be given to a committee or task force that will have an on-going presence in this society . . . also that group needs to be represented by those of you that aren’t minorities . . .  So it takes all of us, each one of you, to be a part of that group.”
• “I must say that I have probably learned more about diversity in ARLIS in the last 45 minutes than in the last 20 years.”
• “ . . . I think it would make sense for it to be a standing committee and not an ad hoc committee, but I think the biggest issue really is 'teeth', because any committee, I’m realizing now, will fulfill some need in terms of welcoming members and signaling the society’s commitment. . .but the idea of Board representation is a very important issue.”
• “What about an idea like a scholarship or some way of helping people attend library school and become librarians?”
• “. . . why not a Diversity Committee that . . . advises the president?. . . I think . . . the Diversity Committee having close connection with the Board, meeting with the Board, is the only way to have teeth, really.”
• “I would like to see perhaps more mentoring of up and coming young [minority] librarians on the chapter level. . . That’s where you get to learn who our peers are and then when we come to ARLIS they already have a little cluster of support networks around us and then we start moving into other networks.”
• “When I moved to New York City, the chapter was so active and so supportive that I really wanted to go to a national conference.  I was encouraged.”
• “. . . that is something that is not true of every chapter.  And that’s not an indictment, it’s just a fact.”
• “. . .if Allen is willing to lead a discussion to come up with a proposal to implement some of these ideas in the structure of ARLIS—that the Board could discuss and vote on in its mid-year board meeting in August. . .we had a lot of ideas put forward here, I think we are going to need a focused group to come up with a proposal that will work.”
• “I think I hear a consensus that Allen’s taskforce is a good idea but that doesn’t have to be the only thing that we do . . . the Board could discuss and vote on in its mid-year meeting in August.”
• “Maybe the Diversity Committee can give you a commitment to be responsible and investigate the avenues . . . it needs to be a more vocal year-long process.”
• “Is it too simpleminded to suggest that we have a Diversity Committee where the chairperson serves on the Board? That puts teeth on.  That sure keeps the Board informed.”
• “. . . perhaps the task force might have as one of its bullet items a review of the governance documents, the organizational structure as it takes shape and look towards a proposal that might regularize, or insinuate diversity as a point or an issue or an acknowledgement wherever [appropriate] within the governance documents, so it is . . . very visible, not shifted off to the side.”
• Allen Townsend:  Are we all in agreement that to have a past president taking this forward to the Board would be sufficiently toothy enough in the coming months?”  Assent was indicated by the members present.
• Daniel Starr: Can I suggest that Marilyn, Lucie, and I work out the details of how we move ahead  with this discussion?
• “ I would encourage you all to suggest programs for New York that are culturally diverse.”
•  “Compliments to the board for being so responsive for this issue and [for having] this meeting.”