Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Challenging The "Good Fit" Narrative: Creating Inclusive Recruitment Practices In Academic Libraries, Jennifer Stout, Sojourna Cunningham, Samantha Guss

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

As a profession, we talk the talk of valuing diversity and inclusion, but do we walk the walk with our hiring practices? The profession stresses the importance of “a good fit” when hiring, but we rarely interrogate the fact that “a good fit” can be a reflection of our implicit biases. Academic librarians conducted a survey of hiring policies with a focus on the processes (or lack thereof) of recruiting candidates from underrepresented groups. This session will report on their findings and recommend the implementation of specific practices designed to create an inclusive candidate pool and an equitable search