Library Committee Handbook

Diversity Committee 

E-mail:
diversity@library.uiuc.edu

 

University Library Diversity Goals 2007-2012

Goals

  1. Create a welcoming environment for all members of the community.

    Strategies

    • Increase awareness and understanding of diversity among Library employees, including students, by:

      1. Providing training, workshops, and other educational opportunities, and incorporating diversity training into existing training opportunities (e.g., training for graduate assistants and student assistants).  Training should focus both on general concepts and values and on issues relating to providing service and content to a diverse community;

      2. Developing mentoring programs for all new librarians and staff so that they better understand the Library's culture;

      3. Holding forums and discussions that feature participants from diverse communities that would allow employees to ask questions and improve their knowledge of other cultures, backgrounds, and people with disabilities;

      4. Promoting the understanding that diversity is a celebration of differences and identification of similarities;

      5. Collaborating with other campus-level groups with similar missions (e.g., CITES) and

      6. Improving the website overseen by the Diversity Committee so that it will serve as the hub of useful information for employees.

    Who's Responsible

    • Library administration

    • Diversity Committee

    • All employees

  2. Enhance teaching, learning and research by improving access to information resources that serve the needs of a diverse academic community.

    Strategies

    • Expand purchase of resources that represent the experience of diverse and underrepresented communities;
    • Move towards meeting 100% of accessibility standards in all Library web pages;
    • Collaborate with DRES to work with content providers to make their materials accessible;
    • Have an always up-to-date Gateway that provides easy access across disciplines and cultures;
    • Form collaborations with groups that serve under-served communities (e.g., OLLI) and that produce or distribute content for under-served populations;
    • Create websites, exhibits, and publications that highlight the Library's resources on diversity; and
    • Work with consortial partners to expand awareness of vendors about accessibility issues for purchased or licensed information resources.

    Who's Responsible

    • Associate University Librarians

  3. Recruit and retain faculty from diverse cultures and races and with disabilities that reflect societal demographics.

    Strategies

    • Continue to seek candidates for TOP hires;
    • Improve recruitment strategies to build the most diverse pools possible;
    • Participate in and support regional and national programs that recruit minority students to the profession (e.g., LAMP: LIS Access Midwest Program; ARL Initiative to Recruit a Diverse Workforce); and
    • Support participation of individual library faculty in ARL's Leadership & Career Development Program

    Who's Responsible

    • University Librarian