Monica Cabarcas, librarian & former VAASL Shenandoah Regional Director chats about the goals of VAASL's new Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
The Diversity and Inclusion Committee focuses on fostering diversity and inclusivity in (1) school library collections, (2) the school workforce, and (3) school-based systemic structures. One of our first steps as a committee was to learn more about our current membership and how it is distributed across various regions. Using the criteria outlined in the ALA Spectrum Scholarship, we asked members if they identified with one of the following groups: American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Middle Eastern and North African, and/or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander. The survey was voluntary and distributed through E-News on two occasions. Results currently indicate that 1% of our total membership of 1,156 school librarians identify with one or more of the following groups. The committee hopes to broaden the scope of this survey and embed questions in the annual registration process to increase the accuracy of our membership data.
