Finding the Power of Community of Practice: Lessons Learned from a National Diversity Recruitment Initiative

Abstract

Assessing the impact of new grant initiatives is tricky, especially when the goals of the project are far-reaching and significant organizational change is called for. We will describe how we approached the assessment of an IMLS-funded grant initiative to build a national corps of diverse new professionals ready for work in metropolitan public libraries across a variety of American neighborhoods. Starting with the impacts on Scholars, researchers and program leaders further uncovered multiple levels of impact in organizations, the profession, and the public library industry. Their "hot off the press" evaluation provides insights on effective new paths for building recruitment and retention strategies in organizations and for building bridges between academic and practical experiences, and, consequently, significantly shaping a preferred future for the "business" of public libraries in cities.