Objective
The Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) has prioritized equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) as an important area for capacity building within its member institutions. The Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Working Group (EDWIG) will work closely with CARL’s Visiting Program Officer for EDI to support the planning and delivery of CARL’s evolving program of initiatives in the following areas:
- Recruitment and Retention: Develop guidelines and strategies to promote workforce diversity, including decolonizing through diverse recruitment initiatives, fostering an inclusive environment that ensures long-term staff retention and presents staff with opportunities for professional growth in their library careers.
- Staff Professional Development: Facilitate training opportunities to better prepare staff to support a diverse community of users while promoting cultural competence, cultural humility, and decolonization.
- Services and Spaces: Identify best practices for establishing inclusive, welcoming services, and decolonizing services and spaces in research libraries that promote a sense of belonging for diverse users.
- Collections: Create mechanisms for librarians to share strategies in creating and curating inclusive library collections, encompassing diverse voices, narratives, community knowledge, and prioritizing decolonizing practices while considering a wide range of Indigenous, Black and People of Color perspectives.
Membership
This working group will be made up of a maximum of 15 members. All members will be expected to contribute actively to the group’s activities.
Lines of Accountability and Communication
- The CARL EDIWG is accountable to the CARL Strengthening Capacity Committee.
- The Chair of the working group reports on its activities and submits written recommendations as appropriate to SCC. The Chair also acts as a liaison with ARL’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.
- Minutes and reports of the working group are not confidential unless determined so by the SCC.
Financial and Administrative Policies
- Service on the working group is non-remunerative.
- Travel and meeting expenses for members may be reimbursed according to the policies of CARL.
- Members of the working group comply with CARL Board-approved governance and organizational policies, including code of conduct and conflict of interest policies.
- Discussions of the working group will normally be conducted by videoconference.
Rights, Attribution, and Licensing on Group Outputs
- Authorship and attribution on the license: For all work issued by CARL, CARL is the rightsholder, as (corporate) author and publisher. Attribution will be to CARL.
- Licensing policy: By default, CARL will issue all its content under a CC-BY license, with the appropriate graphic clearly evident.
- Attribution and credit to contributing individuals: CARL produces and makes available a wide range of types of content and often, this is through the volunteer efforts of committees working on behalf of CARL. Effectively, CARL commissions and publishes the work. Typically, committee members are listed on a web page; this page is usually one avenue to reach the product itself. If the product is a committee report, the committee members will be listed in the introductory matter.
- Attribution and credit to single authors: If there is a single author to a report or other document, they are usually credited on the cover page of the report or brief, or at the end. (There may be exceptions, for example, a CARL Statement.)
- Products such as forms, templates, infographics, training modules and so on, are not documents to which authorship is normally attributed to individuals and are attributed only to CARL by its logo and license.
Timeframe
The above terms of reference have been approved for the January 2024 – December 2025 term. The working group will then be disbanded or renewed, subject to a review by the Strengthening Capacity Committee.
