Recently, Wiley commissioned a report to look at diversity in academic librarianship. With an increasing focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion across all businesses, we wanted to see what it meant for the librarian community we work with.

Approaching such a sensitive topic was always going to be a challenge. As a publisher, we work with institutions and librarians but are always going to remain a partner. We can never truly speak from the perspective of a librarian. So, we’ve worked with Maverick Publishing Specialists and Umbrella Analytics to do a deep dive into the world of diversity on our behalf.

What do we know about diversity in academic librarianship now?

Diversity is a complicated term - it can cover many things and have slightly different meanings for different regions. Diversity in academic libraries covers not only librarianship but also collections and the inclusivity of library spaces, so these were issues that needed to be considered as well. Working on a global scale, there are also issues of local language, cultural dominance and the accessibility of data. Conversations about diversity and representation vary from region to region – this makes it hard to find uniform global data sets. These challenges make it even more important to open up the conversation.

We'd like to encourage discussion and data gathering around the topic of diversity in academic librarianship, and see how we can work with librarians to inspire change for the better.

To begin with, you can access the full report on diversity in academic librarianship here.

If you only have five minutes - check out this summary infographic.

• This is not a standalone piece of research from us, we are keen to hear from librarians on the topic and explore the missing pieces further.
  
• If there are data sources we've missed, let us know
  
• If you have data to share please show us where it is posted
• If you are interested in helping us to further this work, get in touch with us at researchsuccess@wiley.com