GLAM Diversity Subgroup

Charge

Identifies a spectrum of resources and activities designed to help begin and sustain organizational DEI development and growth.

Contextual Background

We define diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) activities in the context of galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) as efforts to address issues of anti-racism, diversity, equity and inclusion across all of the organization’s activities. These activities include:

• Internal operations, e.g. staffing activities (hiring, promotion, retention, etc.)
• Strategic activities, e.g. mission, vision, strategy, and sustainability
• Functional areas, such as:
  • Collection development
  • Special collections and archives
  • Metadata creation/management and cataloging
  • Library based publishing
  • Research data management programs
  • Access services
  • Digital scholarship

Recognizing that GLAMs are at various stages of this work and that it is an ongoing component of organizational development and growth, the GLAM DEI subgroup will identify a spectrum of resources and activities designed to help begin and sustain these efforts. The GLAM DEI subgroup will focus on assembling resources and tools that organizations and individuals can use in designing, implementing and assessing efforts to achieve greater levels of diversity, equity and racial, and ethnic justice across an organization.

Outputs of this group could include:

• Annotated bibliographies documenting initiatives and outcomes
• Resource guides of organizations and consultants
• Events/mechanisms by which peer organizations could partner to support each other and provide constructive/critical feedback.

Key Contact

• Chair: Theodore Mallison
• Vice Chair: Lisa Schiff

Members

Member Responsibilities

Individual GLAM DEI subgroup membership has no term (unlike the Chair/Vice-Chair positions). Members will:

• Help determine the workplan and outputs for that year
• Volunteer to actively work on at least one GLAM DEI project
• Participate in monthly subgroup meetings, and, as desired/possible, monthly DLF CEI meetings

Chair and Vice-Chair Responsibilities

The GLAM DEI subgroup will optimally be led by a Chair and Vice-Chair. The Vice-Chair spends one (1) year in that role, assisting and learning from the Chair, before ascending to the role of Chair for one (1) year. They share the following responsibilities:

• Recruiting group members, with the support of the larger DLF CEI group
• Organizing regular monthly meetings, including sending out meeting invitations, establishing and sending out meeting agendas, and ensuring notes are recorded
• Identifying, with the group members, a feasible workplan for the year, with specific deliverables and assignments for individual members
• Managing the ongoing work of the group towards the agreed upon outputs
• Ensuring that the work of the group is documented, by the Chair/Vice-Chair or an individual member
• Reporting on GLAM DEI work at monthly DLF CEI meetings
• Recruiting a new Vice-Chair and ensuring appropriate training/hand-offs

Members

• Theodore Mallison, Chair (Georgetown University)
• Lisa Schiff, Vice-Chair (California Digital Library)
• Stephanie Birch, University of Connecticut
• Jasmine Clark, Temple University
• Sai Deng, University of Central Florida
• Jeannette Ho, Texas A&M University
• Meaghan Moody, University of Rochester
• Elaina Norlin, ASERL
• Whitney Russell, University of Texas Arlington
• Gayle Schechter, CLIR/DLF
• Kim Schroeder, Wayne State University
• Larry Wentzel, University of Michigan

Current Activities

Since the inaugural meeting in April 2021, the GLAM Diversity Subgroup has been working on two core initiatives:

• Preparing a survey instrument to gather information about DEI-related activities at organizations across the GLAM spectrum
• Preparing a Zotero library of DEI resources for GLAM organizations

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