> My take on the travel awards is that few persons of color who live and
> work
> in the United States and work as art librarians or in art libraries in the
> past have received those awards. I know of several persons of color
> (including myself) who have applied twice and have been denied both times.
> In a recent case, I heard a person applied three times before she was
> given
> the award! In addition, I know committee chairs appoint their committees
> (usually persons they feel comfortable with, people who are like them and
> look like them). My question, how much of the appointment process stifles
> committee processes and produces biases? I guess there is no easy answer
> to
> this question.
>
Miguel,
I am really sorry to hear that you feel this way. I would hope that this is
not really true. As a former board member and chair and member of many
committees over the years, it is true that we tend to appoint members we
feel comfortable with - generally people we know or have worked with in
ARLIS in the past but personally, I have always based these considerations
on what the person's strengths are, their knowledge, their experiences and
sometimes their type of personality (out-going or serious, inwardly focused)
- it depends on the position. I consider if they will do a good job in that
particular position. Taking race or ethnicty into consideration would not
even enter my mind.
I've always thought that the ARLIS membership was a particularly liberal,
enlightened and progressive group of professionals.
The problem with recruiting individuals from a more diverse background is a
problem that is much wider than art librarianship or even librarianship in
general. It's a problem throughout academia and has been for years.
I do think that we should be marketing ARLIS and art librarianship as widely
as we can not only to attract a more diverse membership but to recruit young
people into the profession. As the administrator of an internship program
associated with UCLA, I can tell you, this is not easy.
I definitely don't want this to start a huge controversial thread on this
topic but I felt I had to respond.
Sincerely,
Debbie Smedstad
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