Twanna Hodge: From Diversity Resident Librarian to Diversity Fellowship Coordinator
Twanna Hodge, MLIS
Twanna Hodge, MLIS is a graduate of the University of Washington Information School. She was the Diversity Resident Librarian at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and was the previous Information Literacy and Collection Development Librarian at the University of the Virgin Islands-St. Thomas. She’s an Academic/Research Librarian at the SUNY Upstate Medical University Health Sciences Library. She is a co-chair of the National Conference of African American Librarians XI Programming Committee. Twanna is also a member of ALA New Members Round Table Membership Promotion, Diversity, and Recruitment Committee, Black Caucus of the American Library Association Recruitment and Professional Development Committee, Webinar Team, Co-chair; ACRL Residency Interest Group – Convener and more. She’s a 2013 Spectrum Scholar and 2018 ALA Emerging Leader. When she’s not at work or involved with varied professional committee work, she enjoys reading fanfiction and manga, catching up on sleep, and traveling.
Pronouns are she/her/hers Twitter handle - @tkhodge19
Library residencies and fellowships are not internships, student work-study, practicums or anything similar to those things. Residencies and fellowships are focused on developing post-MLIS professionals with the experiences and skills to survive in the profession — a short-term structured program designed to introduce new librarians to the various duties associated with librarianship. The residency/fellowship also gives the hosting institution a chance to learn up to date material from the new resident/fellow among many other things. This often an equity initiative aimed at supporting those from underrepresented populations. Despite the lengthy history, residents tend to have varied experiences. I share my story today to emphasize that whatever you do, you are enough.
Residencies/fellowships are geared toward providing professional experiences and knowledge in a library for those who are transitioning to different library specializations or new to librarianship so that they can thrive in the profession. That is my definition. As a 1st generation college graduate, a woman of color, Afro-Caribbean, who is passionate about equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility, and I REALIZED there were experiences and knowledge that my degree and previous positions had not COVERED and could not BE COVERED.
Retrospectively it was very beneficial for me to kick off my professional life as a resident. My residency was great for me professionally, but not personally. I was on the edge of burnout after the first year (though it did not know it then). I felt I had to do 10 times the amount of work in order to be as productive as my colleagues; I also had to contend with feeling like I was a representation of my race or cultural heritage and having to continually dispel stereotypes (perceived and imagined) as the only black librarian and one of the few librarians of color. My feelings of isolation and tokenization were exacerbated because of my unique position as the Diversity Resident Librarian.
Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels
From July 15, 2015, I was employed as the Diversity Resident Librarian at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. As the Diversity Resident Librarian, I rotated through four different departments in my first year with the plan to be based in a home department for my second year. I served on committees within the library and on-campus, met with different administrators, developed new professional relationships, and built a foundation for succeeding in the profession. A key point I would share those currently interest in residences/fellowships is- that onboarding/orientation is more than an introduction to the department, library, or institution; it is an introduction to the profession, developing knowledge and networks for a long-lasting, fruitful career, and different ways and styles of being a librarian. Orientation/onboarding does not stop at week 2 or 6 months in. The resident/fellow/employee is more than their title/position, so making sure that they are introduced to key places, people, and resources on and off-campus is vital to their success.
By the end of my residency I had presented at a few conferences, increased my teaching skills, developed awareness of being a woman of color at a predominantly white institution, better understood the informal rules that govern behavior and attitudes, furiously networked, overcommitted myself, conducted outreach, dug deeper into equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) efforts in librarianship, gained experience as a liaison librarian and learned how to put to use what I learned in graduate school. I also learned what it took to succeed in the profession: self-awareness, resilience/grit, mentors (peer mentoring), protectors, champions, coaches, sponsors, advocates, learning how to say no diplomatically, understanding my identities, asking for help, how to be okay with not knowing everything; developed skills on how to create and maintain working relationships; development of my research interests and refinement of presentation skills; and time management and prioritization skills.
I was a member of the ACRL Residency Interest Group (RIG) Web Team, during my time at Utah. I created the Resident of the Month feature, which is still going strong. My involvement with RIG helped me to form a strong support network of past and current residents and fellows that have helped in my personal and professional lives. Now, I am the current convener of RIG, the Communications, and Social Media Team leader and lead the formation of the Diversity Residency sub-group and Assessment Team
Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels
I am one of many who have left their residencies/fellowships early for a variety of reasons. I left my residency a year early to become the Information Literacy and Collection Development Librarian at the University of the Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, my alma mater. It was my dream job at that time and returned home. The job duties were providing information literacy sessions to first-year students to seniors, liaising with the School of Nursing and the College of Sciences and Mathematics, weeding the collection, and more. I continued service on professional committees, juries, and groups, as the campus is geographically isolated. I used the skills that I gained in graduate school and fine-tuned in my residency to help excel in my job duties such as scheduling, prioritization, teaching, amongst other things. I presented on open access and open educational resources, increased information literacy sessions in a few discipline areas, and learned how to support faculty, students, and staff in the sciences and health professions.
So, after being employed at UVI for a little over a year, I was back on the job market. In order to help others, you must be able to put and help yourself first. A hard lesson that I had to learn and it took many times to learn it. It goes beyond saying no to others - you have to learn to say no to yourself. It takes immense strength to acknowledge when you need to leave and to do so even without another job lined up or with a fool-proof plan. Sometimes you have to walk into the dark with only a flashlight (friends, family, and mentors) to help shine some of the ways. During my period of unemployment I stayed active in the committees I was still on, presented a webinar, applied for jobs, interviewed, and worked extremely hard (along with my support systems) to keep moving forward with as much spirit and dignity as I could. So many people helped me, and I’m eternally grateful to them.
Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels
After interviewing at several places, I was offered a position as an Academic/Research Librarian at SUNY Upstate Medical University. I started in March of 2018, and almost immediately, the work of creating a fellowship began. I was very thoughtful in my approach to creating a fellowship alongside my director. I met with several residents/fellows, coordinators, mentors, and supervisors to identify overall arching themes, strategies, and more. Some of the exposed themes included the importance of an in-depth, onboarding/orientation process and; that assessment of the program should start at the beginning of the program (ensuring to collect only necessary information of course). I was a member of the search committee, then became the fellowship coordinator and mentor. I was highly involved in the creation and maintenance of the fellowship to ensure that the fellow knew that I was here to help them in any way that they needed.
In July 2018, we welcomed our first Librarian and Diversity Fellow. As the coordinator, my role was planning, developing, and assessing the residency and point person for day-to-day tasks regarding the infrastructure. As a mentor, I served as a resource in a non-supervisory role. I used my experiences as a resident, previous coordinator and mentor interactions to inform my practice, the literature I read, the structure of the fellowship, and how I interacted with the fellow. I was frank, open-minded, and worked hard to ensure that they were learning not just how to become a health sciences librarian, but how to navigate being a person of color at a predominantly white institution, how to combat imposter syndrome, developing professional support systems, and learning that librarianship is a career, not your life.
Residencies/fellowships are not perfect, nor are the supervisors, mentors, or coordinators who created them. Some people excel despite their residencies/fellowships shortcomings, some leave the profession altogether, others might question if they belong, and some pushback and critique the profession, challenging vocational awe, and the precarity of residencies/fellowships. April Hathcock, NYU Scholarly Communications Librarian, has written a blog post titled, Why don’t you want to keep us, that talks about the precarity of residencies/fellowships and temporary positions. She has so eloquently asked, “Why are your institutions so excited to spend money year after year on a different set of POC to do the work that a more permanent staff member could do? Why are you so willing to welcome POC into your temp positions for a year or two or even four, but you do not want to invest in keeping us for the long haul?” The reason I am sharing my story is so that others feel confident in sharing theirs, but also to lend my voice to those who need it. Remember that you are enough.
