Another Side of Student Diversity | From the Bell Tower
There are multiple diversities, but we also need to promote the skills needed to foster a diversity of opinion. Steven Bell, Associate University Librarian, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA Oct 21, 2010Academic librarians exert considerable effort to help students learn about the importance of diversity as it applies to research strategy. Having broad perspectives about the wide spectrum of possible choices is critical when it comes time to select the appropriate information resources. We know that students tend to limit themselves to a single resource that becomes their only hammer for hitting every nail. Faculty, despite good intentions, may aggravate the situation when they recommend to students their favorite database, or worse, require it.
A good example is JSTOR. I am reminded of a story told to me by a database representative whose company did some focus groups with college students. One insisted that the only database needed for academic research was JSTOR because her professor told her to use it for a research paper. It's great when students expand their horizons beyond Google and Wikipedia, but keeping the horizon tightly defined is ultimately counterproductive.
A call for diverse opinions
Conversations about campus diversity typically refer to the racial, ethnic, religious, and gender composition of our institutions. Every academic institution strives for these types of diversity because they contribute to a better community. My own institution, Temple University, is considered one of the most diverse universities in the nation, and I can attest to how it contributes to the school's vibrancy and strength. I personally prefer it to my two previous institutions both of which were far less diverse. But there's another type of diversity for which we need to strive—diversity of opinion. According to a new report from the Association of American Colleges and Universities, there's hard work ahead to promote a true exchange of ideas on campus.
Seeing a diversity gap
Everyone agrees that learning how to engage with different ideas and opinions should be a critical outcome for higher education. However, a major finding of Engaging Diverse Viewpoints: What Is the Campus Climate for Perspective Taking? is that the majority of those who responded to a survey see no evidence on their campus of much commitment to having students learn how to seek out and engage different view and opposing opinions. The report establishes the dimensions of what is referred to as the ability to "consider and embrace diverse perspectives in order to become informed, responsible thinkers and citizens." One should be of particular interest to academic librarians: the ability to thoroughly gather evidence to support ideas.
Among its multiple suggestions for how faculty and administrators could help students acquire a taste for diverse perspectives, the report recommends that institutions create opportunities to expose students to outside speakers, to encourage conversations between students from different backgrounds, and to ensure no particular viewpoint is marginalized. While there's no clear indicator that librarians participated in the survey (though we could be lumped together with "administrators"), the report noted that "all members of the campus community must take responsibility for educating students about the importance of respecting diverse perspectives." From my perspective there is much our profession can contribute to narrowing the diversity gap.
Think research diversity
Admittedly, this report has little to do with students and research resource diversity, but it does point to the importance of equipping students with the skills they need to gather evidence to support ideas. To accomplish that we must help students to broaden the perspectives with which they arrive at our door. My observation is that this same narrowness of perspective applies to the students' research diversity—the result of a steady diet of Google, Wikipedia, and a single, general periodicals database common to high schools. To encourage students to find and explore new and different ideas, we have the good fortune of access to a rich body of diverse information content.
We just need to pay more attention, as must our faculty, to exposing them to this spectrum of resources. Take every opportunity to show a student a different, appropriate database. I thought of this the other day. Why am I not introducing more students to the vast treasure trove of corporate information found in the television transcripts searchable on Lexis/Nexis? Why would I allow them to settle for Wikipedia when I can expose them to Credo Reference? We need to think research diversity.
How about your diversity?
Before we can help our students gain broader perspectives about research, we academic librarians might want to perform a gut check of our own. We develop our own favorites, and it's all too easy to fall into a rut where we always go right to the same database or the databases of a single vendor. If we are lucky enough to have multiple options then we need to constantly explore what they are and how they work so that we are ready to choose the best one when needed or at least quickly show a student or faculty member their top three options in any given discipline—not simply those with which we are most comfortable.
We all like the idea of diversity for others. Let's remember that it starts at home.
Steven Bell is Associate University Librarian, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. For more from Steven visit his blogs, Kept-Up Academic Librarian, ACRLog and Designing Better Libraries or visit his website.
