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Library Committees

IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Committee

by Makaila Offutt on 2020-09-17T07:53:00-05:00 | 0 Comments

Our Team:

  • Kesley Damms
  • Rachael Damms
  • Robin Holliman 
  • Nichole Larson
  • Bailey Phillips
  • Amanda Clay Powers
  • Jared Quist

Our Mission: 

The purpose of the IDEA committee is focused on internal accountability and external education. We strive to continuously evaluate and assess internal practices, policies, and services in order to create and sustain a diverse, non-discriminatory, and accessible library.  We seek to educate and inform campus, form partnerships with on-campus groups, develop a diverse collection, and create a non-discriminatory and accessible environment for library patrons and employees.  

Our Strategic Goals: 

  1. Recruit, attract, and retain a diverse faculty and staff to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse university and local community.
  2. Increase cultural competence and sensitivity among library employees.
  3. Evaluate and adjust our services and collection to reflect equity, diversity, and inclusion value.
  4. Cultivate a continued culture of inclusion within our patronage both in-person and online.
    • Ensure and maintain access to our physical and virtual resources.
    • Ensure that the Library’s communications reflect our commitment to diversity.
    • Highlight and develop the diversity of our collections and increase the discoverability of diversity resources.
    • Ensure the focus of our communications is on engagement and inclusion.
  5. Create and use metrics to assess and adjust efforts to support the Library’s values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Our Plans:

  • Retreats: The IDEA committee has implemented two retreats: Anti-racism in Academia and Training Against Microaggressions.  These retreats were a full day dedicated to library faculty and staff learning, reflecting, and discussing issues around racism and microaggressions and how our teams can work together to support and serve diverse groups of individuals through our resources and our daily interactions and services.  We plan to continue to develop trainings and resources. 
  • Collection evaluation:  We will assess and work to diversify our collections.
  • Diversity Reading Club and Discussions: The Library will offer a common text to read and discuss monthly. The text will feature diverse characters and people from the LGBTQIA+ population, individuals of all races and minority groups, people with disabilities, etc.  We will discuss the challenges the individuals and groups face as well as the themes and concepts in the text.  We will draw meaning from the texts and apply the lessons to our personal and professional lives so that we can become more inclusive and inviting.   
  • Professional development: Staff members will seek and pursue opportunities for professional development about concepts related to our values.  Professional development helps us stay current on research, trends, and policies as well as learn about various resources that will help us advance our services. 
  • Website Evaluation for Accessibility: We will maintain WCAG 2.0 standards on our website and improve accessibility by including alternate texts for all images. 

 


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