Tori Culler
NC State University Libraries Fellow
North Carolina State University
Kevin Beswick
Associate Head, Digital Library Initiatives
North Carolina State University
In 2020, North Carolina State University Libraries launched a new effort to confront the challenge of recruiting diverse candidates for technical positions in libraries, the Library Technology Jumpstart Program. The program is a free, immersive, week-long, virtual experience targeted at library and information science students within the first year of their degree. The goals of the program include raising awareness about career opportunities in technical librarianship, creating a welcoming and inclusive space where a diverse cohort can learn from each other, and providing concrete steps forward towards a career pathway in library technology by imparting strategies for learning technical skills. The program has been held twice now and has been received positively by both participants and the library community. This project briefing will expand on our project briefing from last year by reporting on assessment efforts from the first two years of the program and introducing our how-to guide for planning similar programs at other institutions. The team hopes that this work will contribute to broader conversations concerning the library and information sciences (LIS) pipeline and the ways in which technical skill-building is currently approached within LIS curricula, while also helping to develop a strategy to help address the gaps.
