The Future of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Librarianship

ABSTRACT In her NASIG Vision Session, Twanna Hodge of the University of Florida Libraries addressed a wide range of questions and concerns: What does the future hold in regard to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI)? Who are the responsible parties? What needs to be done? When are we done? Or better yet, can we ever be done? Where are we going? Why are we here now? The mission of NASIG is about working to advance and transform the management of information resources. What steps have we taken to advance DEI? What transformative steps still need to be taken? What would it take to transform our profession to where DEI is embedded into everything? What resources and efforts are required? What needs to be discarded? What needs to be changed? How do we define success? How do we hold ourselves accountable? How do we fail forward? We are envisioning and working to create a world that doesn’t exist. Creating an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming future requires acknowledging a dark, painful, and traumatic past and present rooted in exclusionary standards and practices, foundations of white supremacy culture, settler colonialism, and more. In her address, Twanna Hodge began to answer these questions and explained her cautious optimism about this work.