The Library Student Toolkit on the OLA website offers library and information students access to journals, job boards, conferences, professional organizations, and career resources for academic and professional success.
In Retrospect: Experiences of A Student Representative
Serving on the Ontario College & University Library Association (OCULA) Council for the past year has meant a lot to me. It is hard to believe that my time as a student representative has come to an end. It feels like only yesterday I was preparing to deliver my lightning talk at the 2024 OLA Super Conference. I remember being so excited and a bit nervous to present in front of a crowd of library professionals. It felt much different from the class presentations and workshops that I used to create and deliver in my old job as program coordinator. The OCULA members who organized the event were incredibly welcoming and friendly, which helped to calm my nerves.
The lightning talk that I presented was titled “Strengths and Shortcomings of EDI Initiatives: Recruitment, Hiring, and Retention”. It was important for me to discuss these issues as a black librarian myself because academic librarianship in North America is 86-88% white, with predictions of it dropping to 83% by 2033 (Kendrick, 2023). Despite the field being aware of its racial issues, little has been done over the last decade to create meaningful change. This is because many diversity strategies focus on recruitment and hiring, but fail to retain staff. The lack of retention is due to these historically white fields being unwelcoming and unable to properly support the needs of the racialized staff they are bringing in, coupled with issues of burnout and tokenism. It was affirming to have this lightning talk be well-received by the professionals in attendance, which in turn only increased my optimism in the future of the field.
I was fortunate enough to win the Lightning Strikes Award alongside Sahar Kasiri-Motlagh, who gave an amazing talk about Paths to Knowledge Justice through Indigenous Collections. We were then able to serve as student representatives on the OCULA Council. This was a great experience, which allowed me to get an inside look of committee norms, decision-making, collegial behaviour, conference planning, and the overall professional service expected of academic library workers. Serving on the council also allowed Sahar and me to make a lasting contribution to the academic library world through the creation of our Library Student Toolkit.
My time on the OCULA Council is something that I will never forget. I would like to thank all of my fellow council members for being so supportive and welcoming. To any students reading this, I hope you give a lightning talk about something you are passionate about, as you never know where it could lead.
Works Cited
Kendrick, Curtis. “Changing the Racial Demographics of Librarians.” Ithaka S+R. 18 April 2023. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.318717
—
Rochelle David is a Toronto Academic Library Intern (TALint) at the University of Toronto Engineering and Computer Science Library and a Graduate Student Library Assistant (GSLA) at the Ontario Institute for Studies In Education (OISE) library. Rochelle’s research interests surround the experiences of racialized staff and students in the academic library environment, as well as policy development and decision-making in libraries and government.
Related Posts
