ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we introduce the concept of diversity by design. This concept is relevant to Library and Information Science (LIS) education, professional environments, and partnership-based community engagements. Building on our experience as educators and researchers, we illustrate this concept in the context of LIS graduate education and invite readers to contemplate whether this concept makes sense to them and, if yes, how it works in their respective workplaces and communities. We interrogate the term “diversity,” bringing to light the multiplicity of contexts that give diversity meaning and life in our complex field. By so doing, we demonstrate that diversity, broadly conceived, is foundational to LIS and that discounting or underappreciating its pivotal function may have a disintegrating effect on our practice, scholarship, and education.
