Inclusive Reference: Creating Guiding Principles and Best Practices That Inform Our Everyday Practice as Reference Librarians

In 2021, the Research Services Team at the Gutman Library at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) was preparing to onboard two new colleagues. As we developed checklists and other orientation documentation to help our new librarians acclimate to their roles, we talked at length about our research consultation practice. One-on-one research appointments are heavily used at HGSE, and the Research Services Team grappled both with how to codify what we were already doing and how to continue refining our practice to ensure every user feels welcomed and supported. We conducted preliminary research to see what others in the field had written about