How Libraries can Help Students from Disadvantaged Socio-economic Backgrounds [video replay]

Description
Students from many and varied backgrounds are currently pursuing higher education, including students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Students from a disadvantaged socio-economic background face many challenges in completing their degree, including paying for tuition, books, housing, and food. Further, students from lower socio-economic backgrounds often feel like outsiders on campus – regardless of race, gender, or sexual orientation – and issues of class , often unacknowledged and unexplored, produce rifts in the campus culture that can lead to serious confrontation. How can academic libraries work with students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds? What kinds of services can libraries provide for low income students that help them thrive on campus?

This online program will explore various services, programs, and practices academic libraries can offer to students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds-including real-life examples-that help their academic success.

Program Speakers
Cristina Favretto (Program Moderator) is the Head of Special Collections at the University of Miami. She is a nationally recognized speaker on collecting women’s history materials and preserving local heritage collections. She is a champion for diversity and inclusion in librarianship, especially as it relates to socio-economic background.

Annie Downey is Associate College Librarian at Reed College. She has worked with Upward Bound, Summer Bridge, Winter Bridge, McNair Scholars, and veteran students. As a librarian from a low income background, she believes the most important work with economically disadvantaged students happens in the classroom and at the reference desk.

Ray Pun is the First Year Student Success Librarians at Fresno State, California State University. Ray works closely with SupportNet, At-Risk student programs, Summer Bridge and Upward Bound programs and also partners with Student Affairs and the Career Development Center (including Food Security project) to foster new opportunities for students through the library.

Bob Schroeder is the Education Liaison librarian at Portland State University, an urban access university. Bob works with McNair Scholars and the Summer Bridge students, both of which focus on underrepresented groups in academe.

The presentation was sponsored by the ULS Professional Development Committee. For a list of future and past programs, visit the Committee’s Programs Page.