As part of SCONUL’s commitment to help drive improvements in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) across the library sector, we commissioned research to explore whether it would be possible to capture EDI statistics as part of the SCONUL statistics.  We are delighted that this study shows that members believe we can and should capture this data.  Doing so will provide an important benchmark that will support individual institutions in measuring their own progress as well as supporting the sector in fostering greater diversity.  

The report is available here: https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/SCONUL_Equality_d...

We will be including these questions in our statistical questionnaire for the coming academic year.

The genesis for this activity was our report on the experiences of BAME staff in our member libraries, which is available here: https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sites/default/files/documents/BAME%20staff%20ex.... This initial investigation recommended ‘SCONUL members should consider monitoring the ethnic diversity of their workforce to ensure that academic and research libraries have an evidence base to justify equality and diversity initiatives.’