Humanizing LIS Education and Practice

Humanizing LIS Education and Practice: Diversity by Design demonstrates that diversity concerns are relevant to all and need to be approached in a systematic way. Developing the Diversity by Design concept articulated by Dali and Caidi in 2017, the book promotes the notion of the diversity mindset.

Grouped into three parts, the chapters within this volume have been written by an international team of seasoned academics and practitioners who make diversity integral to their professional and scholarly activities. Building on the Diversity by Design approach, the book presents case studies with practice models for two primary audiences: LIS educators and LIS practitioners. Chapters cover a range of issues, including, but not limited to, academic promotion and tenure; the decolonization of LIS education; engaging Indigenous and multicultural communities; librarians’ professional development in diversity and social justice; and the decolonization of library access practices and policies. As a collection, the book illustrates a systems-thinking approach to fostering diversity and inclusion in LIS, integrating it by design into the LIS curriculum and professional practice.

Calling on individuals, organizations, policymakers, and LIS educators to make diversity integral to their daily activities and curriculum, Humanizing LIS Education and Practice: Diversity by Design will be of interest to anyone engaged in research and professional practice in Library and Information Science.

Keren Dali is an award-winning Library and Information Science (LIS) researcher and a faculty member at the University of Denver, USA; her research and teaching focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion; disabilities and workplace; the intersection of social work and LIS; reading practices of adults; and immigration.

Nadia Caidi is a Professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, Canada. Her research focuses on human information behavior and information policy. Her contributions aim to inform and promote a critical LIS lens and a public interest approach to the information fields. She was the 2016 President of the International Association for Information Science & Technology. In 2019, ALISE awarded her the Pratt-Severn Faculty Innovation Award.