Leading the Charge: Advancing the Recruitment, Retention and Inclusion of People of Color within the Library and Information Science Field

Tina D. Rollins is the Director of the William R. and Norma B. Harvey Library at Hampton University.  She completed her B.S. degree in Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University and her M.L.S. degree at North Carolina Central University.  While at NCCU she was a member of the Diversity Scholars Program which was an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) funded program to recruit students of diverse backgrounds into the Library and Information Sciences field.  This experience led to an interest in promoting and researching diversity within librarianship. 

Rollins has committed herself to bringing awareness to the lack of diversity within all facets of the LIS field.  She has served as principal investigator on a grant awarded to Hampton University by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).  This award convened a national forum in August 2018 to discuss effective strategies and action planning to address the lack of diversity within the LIS field. In 2020 subsequent funding was awarded by IMLS for the project grant. This three-year grant seeks to work with leaders and administrators in LIS to build and assess strategies to address the continued issues related to diversity within the field. 

Ms. McGuffie is currently the Assistant Director of Technical Services at Hampton University’s William R. and Norma B Harvey Library. It is in this position that she discovered an interest in digitization to preserve the many historical resources housed in the library’s special collections. Throughout the course of her career she has recognized the lack of diversity among digital librarians, as well as librarianship as a whole. This is what prompted her to become the co-principal investigator on what is now her second grant regarding Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in libraries.

Amy Bondy is a Reference Librarian at Guilford Technical Community College where she provides reference and instruction services to a diverse group of students and faculty.  At GTCC, Amy participates in the assessment of library public services and library instruction outcomes.  Having previously occupied the roles of Library Assessment Committee Chair at Elizabeth City State University and Library Assessment Intern at Duke University, Amy has experience gathering, analyzing and reporting large data sets; designing and implementing surveys and usability studies; writing and assessing goals for outcomes-based assessments; using results for continuous improvement; and training library staff on assessment tools and best practices.  Amy earned her MLS from the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a research focus in library assessment.  Amy also holds a BA in Psychology.

Kaysi Bazemore returns as the Program Assistant for the Leading the Charge grant, after previously holding the position in 2018 for the Hampton University Forum on Minority Recruitment & Retention in the Library & Information Science Field. She holds an Associates degree in Graphic Design from Tidewater Community College, often using her design talents for various projects related to the grant.