Creating the E-Buzz around Collaborative and Collective DEI Efforts in Academic Libraries

Abstract

Like many academic libraries, the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University (USA) is committed to supporting and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for students, faculty, researchers, and staff and has increased its efforts in the last several years to reflect that commitment through its resources, services, and outreach activities. However, in the wider literature, the efforts of scholarly communication librarians in DEI initiatives outside of open-access advocacy are less discussed. Nevertheless, precisely because scholarly communication librarians are concerned with advancing the dissemination of knowledge, they fit naturally into DEI efforts that seek to elevate new or historically marginalized voices and can and should work with library marketing teams to increase the reach and impact of those efforts. This paper focuses on several collaborations between the DEI and marketing librarian and the scholarly communication librarian and invites all library workers to imagine new and unique collaborative opportunities to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within their institutions.