PDA Event: Anti-racist/Anti-bias Recruitment and Hiring Practices

Monday, June 7, 2021 - 1:00pm to 2:00pm

Presented by Dr. Kawanna Bright, East Carolina University

Most library and information organizations (LIOs) are striving for diversity among their employees, but often struggle to retain diverse employees. This retention issue may be due to the workplace itself, where issues of racism and bias often stifle retention efforts. But the process of creating and sustaining an anti-racist, anti-bias culture in your organization should not begin with retention efforts, but rather with recruitment and hiring practices. It is often in these practices that we identify factors that negatively influence an organization's ability to not only identify, recruit, and hire diverse employees, but subsequently retain them. In this webinar, Dr. Kawanna Bright will discuss the concepts of anti-racism and anti-bias as they relate to hiring in LIOs. Information on aspects of recruitment and hiring practices that should be reviewed will be shared, in order to identify aspects that might negatively impact efforts to recruit and retain diverse employees. Additionally, steps for supporting and implementing anti-racist/anti-bias recruitment and hiring practices, including interviewing and candidate selection, will be shared.

Dr. Kawanna Bright is an Assistant Professor of Library Science at East Carolina University where she teaches courses in Library Administration & Management, Services to Diverse Populations, Academic Librarianship, and Collection Development. Dr. Bright earned her doctorate in Research Methods & Statistics from the University of Denver in 2018 and her MLIS from the University of Washington iSchool in 2003. Prior to earning her doctorate, Dr. Bright worked as an academic librarian specializing in public services. Her research focuses on assessment in libraries, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in libraries, the application of research methodology to the study of library and information science, and the importance of the liaison librarianship role in academic libraries.

Register for this event.

Sponsored by ASERL