Humanizing LIS Education and Practice: Diversity by Design

Humanizing LIS Education and Practice: Diversity by Design demonstrates that diversity concerns are relevant to all and need to be approached in a systematic way. Developing the Diversity by Design concept articulated by Dali and Caidi in 2017, the book promotes the notion of the diversity mindset. Grouped into three parts, the chapters within this volume have been written by an international team of seasoned academics and practitioners who make diversity integral to their professional and scholarly activities. Building on the Diversity by Design approach, the book presents case studies with practice models for two primary audiences: LIS educators and LIS practitioners. Chapters cover a range of issues, including, but not limited to, academic promotion and tenure; the decolonization of LIS education; engaging Indigenous and multicultural communities; librarians’ professional development in diversity and social justice; and the decolonization of library access practices and policies. As a collection, the book illustrates a systems-thinking approach to fostering diversity and inclusion in LIS, integrating it by design into the LIS curriculum and professional practice. Calling on individuals, organizations, policymakers, and LIS educators to make diversity integral to their daily activities and curriculum, Humanizing LIS Education and Practice: Diversity by Design will be of interest to anyone engaged in research and professional practice in Library and Information Science.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Looking Beyond the "Us Versus Them" and Retrofitting Part I. Diversity by Design: Evolution and Applications 1. Diversity by Design 2. Can we talk? Perceptions of Diversity Issues by Students with Diverse Backgrounds and a Rumination on Personal Roads to Systemic Change Part II. Diversity by Design in Library and Information Science Education 3. Making the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Mindset Indispensable in the LIS Classroom Through Design, Content, Communication, and Assessment 4. Prioritizing Diversity in Library and Information Science (LIS) Education 5. Designing for a Diverse Classroom 6. Overcoming Interrelated Challenges to "Diversity by Design" in the LIS Tenure and Promotion Process in the American Academy Part III. Diversity by Design in Library and Information Science Practice 7. Accessible by Design: Creating an Equitable Reading Landscape 8. Professional Development in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: From Add-On to "Separate, But Equal" to Diversity by Design 9. Library Publishing for an Inclusive Education 10. Academic Library Initiatives "For the Public Good": Diversity by Design or Retrofitting?

About the Author :
Keren Dali is an award-winning Library and Information Science (LIS) researcher and a faculty member at the University of Denver, USA; her research and teaching focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion; disabilities and workplace; the intersection of social work and LIS; reading practices of adults; and immigration. Nadia Caidi is a Professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, Canada. Her research focuses on human information behavior and information policy. Her contributions aim to inform and promote a critical LIS lens and a public interest approach to the information fields. She was the 2016 President of the International Association for Information Science & Technology. In 2019, ALISE awarded her the Pratt-Severn Faculty Innovation Award.

Review :
"In a discipline that seems to have lost its focus on the human in favour of systems, it is incredibly encouraging to read a book that prioritises the 'humanising' of our work above all. This is a well-constructed, critical and convincing reminder of the fundamental issues of diversity discourse and action that underpin LIS research and practice, which I will be happy to read with my LIS students in the UK." - Briony Birdi, University of Sheffield, UK "Given the increasing awareness of long-standing inequities in our society, especially in light of social injustices in 2020, Humanizing LIS Education and Practice: Diversity by Design could not come at a better time for the LIS field. This book not only contributes a new way to conceptualize diversity in LIS education and practice, but also importantly gives our field tangible ways to integrate diversity and inclusive thinking into LIS curriculum, hiring, and other practices. This book should be required reading for all LIS educators and practitioners." - Sandra Hirsh, San Jose State University, USA "As a researcher practitioner, I’ve never read a book that so clearly spells out how much our system of learning needs to grow in how we ‘do’ diversity. From the authors of our field being a study in men, to the white domination of a profession which grimaces at an intern of colour, to the alt text we add to our images only when we remember to - we have seen diversity as a ‘value add’, not diversity by design. This book positions diversity not as a static concept to unpick in a thirty minute lecture but as embedded into every choice: a note woven through every element from choosing our examples, to incorporating experiences, to naming units, to dismounting barriers. Invaluable!" - Rebecca Muir, Charles Sturt University, Australia "LIS scholars and practitioners have struggled with the field's "diversity problem" for decades. Dali and Caidi's collection rejects the assumption that diversity is a problem to be solved. They offer LIS researchers, practitioners, educators, and students an approach that recognizes diversity as a valued part of our lived experience. The field of LIS will benefit from the editors' description of DbD, along with the contributions by fellow travellers: an array of researchers and practitioners whose work shares the nuance and sensitivity of DbD." - Lisa P. Nathan, University of British Columbia, Canada "In this timely book, we begin to understand why LIS education and practice have not yet seen the improved diversity climate they seek. As we are introduced to the editors’ holistic conceptual framework of "diversity by design" and discover, through the chapter authors, how this framework may be broadly applied, we are provided with a promising pathway to achieving higher levels of diversity in all aspects of the LIS profession." --- Ruth V. Small, Syracuse University, USA