Residency Interest Group

The Residency Interest Group (RIG) subgroup on diversity residencies is pleased to announce the Diversity Residency Toolkit.

RIG, an interest group of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), charged the subgroup in June 2019 to examine diversity residences in terms of institutional readiness, support, and success. In response to this charge, the subgroup has developed the Diversity Residency Toolkit that contains four tools that provide guidance for a residency program from its inception to its completion and beyond: 

• Guidelines for establishing residency planning and steering committees – Provides recommendations on the creation of a steering committee to provide a continuous support system for the resident(s) and a planning committee which serves as the initial start to the planning process of a residency program.
• Pre-residency checklist for institutions – Designed to broadly assess an institution's current readiness to host a resident by outlining the activities, tasks, and support mechanisms that are recommended to be implemented prior to a resident's arrival.
• Guidelines for establishing a mentorship program – Outlines the roles and expectations for mentors, residents, and residency coordinators/supervisors and is appropriate for developing a new mentorship program or revising an existing one.
• Residency support survey – Assesses the level of support an institution provides residents based on four factors that contribute to a supportive environment: mentorship, professional development, career advancement, and inclusion. 

The Toolkit has broad applications and is suitable for institutions that already have a residency program and as well as those who are considering developing a residency program. It may be used by current and prospective residents, residency coordinators, supervisors, library administrators, and other stakeholders of diversity residency programs. Although the toolkit is intended for diversity residencies hosted at academic institutions, it may be adapted for non-diversity residencies as well as non-academic organizations such as museums, public libraries, business libraries and archives, etc.

Testing and Revision

We are seeking academic institutions to test the Toolkit through 2022, at which time the toolkit will be revised based on findings. For the purposes of testing out the implementation of the toolkit, prospective testers must: 

• Be an academic institution (college or university) in the US or Canada
• Have a current residency program or are in the process of creating a residency program; 
• Have or will host diversity resident(s); 
• Commit to testing all four tools; 
• Have or will secure the consent of the resident or prospective resident; 
• Provide feedback on all four tools by attending at least 1 community call, and completing the Framework for Institutional Feedback on the Diversity Residency Toolkit.  

Testers do not need to be part of the ACRL Diversity Alliance.  

Interest in participating in testing the Diversity Residency Toolkit? Complete this sign up form.

Licensing 

The Diversity Residency Toolkit is under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. This license allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator. If you remix, adapt, or build upon the material, you must license the modified material under identical terms.

Questions and feedback

The subgroup welcomes any questions and feedback. We may be contacted at: rig.diversitysubgroup@gmail.com.

RIG subgroup on diversity residencies - Members and resident institutions