Diversity Never Happens: The Story of Minority Hiring Doesn’t Seem To Change Much; Library Journal, 2/20/13

Michael Kelley, Library Journal; Diversity Never Happens: The Story of Minority Hiring Doesn’t Seem To Change Much: "African Americans and Hispanics are some of the strongest supporters of libraries, and yet they continue to be thinly represented among the ranks of librarians. It’s a familiar story and always a bad trade-off that hurts the profession and, more important, hurts our society... However, as usual, the most disfavored group is African American males, who number only 563 among the credentialed librarian ranks, or 0.5 percent of the total. There are 2,865 library assistants who are African American males; still a small number but not a fully tapped pool, nonetheless. Why? There are untold well-intentioned programs, such as ALA’s Spectrum Scholarships or the Association of Research Libraries’ Initiative To Create a Diverse Workforce, that do help, without a doubt. Equally doubtless, and without casting an aspersion, is that the results fall short, year after year. We need to do more (including LJ), even if that may mean rethinking aspects of credentialization—a third rail of library politics."