The Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries and their director, Cliff Haka, hosted the ARL Diversity Scholars—participants in the Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce (IRDW)—for a multiday site visit designed to offer these master of library and information science students an inside look at the operations of a major research library and the changing roles the library serves in support of research, teaching, and learning. The visit was held May 17–19, 2015, on the MSU campus in East Lansing, Michigan.
Highlights of the site visit included a discussion with Theodore H. Curry II, associate provost and associate vice president for academic human resources; an opportunity to tour the libraries’ maker spaces; a panel discussion on the future of area studies in the academy; and a session on defining and integrating special collections into the mission of the university. The special collections program featured a pop-up exhibit containing materials that aligned with the research interests of the Diversity Scholars. The site visit included ample time for the students to connect with MSU staff, and other social events and networking opportunities.
The site visit experience has been a component of the ARL IRDW since 2005. The MSU Libraries are hosts of the site visit in 2015 and 2016. For more information about the site visit, see the ARL IRDW website.
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit organization of 124 research libraries in the US and Canada. ARL’s mission is to influence the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the diverse communities they serve. ARL pursues this mission by advancing the goals of its member research libraries, providing leadership in public and information policy to the scholarly and higher education communities, fostering the exchange of ideas and expertise, facilitating the emergence of new roles for research libraries, and shaping a future environment that leverages its interests with those of allied organizations. ARL is on the web at https://www.arl.org/.
