Emory employees enjoying one of the DEI events last year.

[Ed. note: this article was written by Gretchen in collaboration with members of the DEI Committee.]

The Emory Libraries’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee enters its third year looking to add new members and to enhance its presence in the Emory community. Emory Libraries recognize diversity, equity, and inclusion as core values integral to achieving our mission to enrich the quality of life and advance intellectual discovery by connecting people of diverse backgrounds and experiences.

What we do

DEI supports Emory’s commitment to creating an inclusive environment for federally protected groups and additional historically underrepresented members of our community, as defined in the 2017 Diversity and Inclusion Working Group (DIWG) Recommendations. Our charge is to provide leadership, guidance, and recommendations for:

• Staff development and training opportunities for library employees
• Programming and education for all library users
• Outreach to and information exchange with existing campus offices, organizations, collections, and resources
• Assessment of library services and space
• Best practices around diversity, equity, and inclusion

Emory Libraries Diversity Statement

DEI guest speaker Mark Puente, Director of Diversity and Leadership at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), who spoke to Emory Libraries in 2017.

Emory Libraries recognize diversity, equity, and inclusion as core values integral to achieving our mission to enrich the quality of life and advance intellectual discovery by connecting people of diverse backgrounds and experiences. We champion an inclusive work environment through competency training, reassurance of personal growth, restorative communication practices, and diverse recruitment and retention. We offer exhibits, collections, programming, and research assistance that speaks to the rich needs and identities of patrons from the Emory community and beyond. We encompass opportunities that strengthen these values. We invite you to bring your true self to the library and feel welcomed when you arrive.

New chair

The DEI committee thanks Saira Raza and Elliott Kuecker for serving as co-chairs of the committee this past year. Saira was one of our founding co-chairs in 2016, along with Christeene Alcosiba. Elliott Kuecker replaced Christeene as co-chair in 2017. As the new chair, I (Gretchen Warner) am very proud of the work that we have accomplished thus far.

Recruitment

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee is looking for new members. The DEI committee is co-sponsoring the October 8 LEAF coffee, 2 pm, in the Jones Room, where we will present some highlights from the past year. There will also be an opportunity for you to sign up for the committee or our listserv. We will also be hosting a new member-focused meeting on October 17, at 11 am, in room 303F. Afterwards, we invite you to stay for light refreshments and to get to know some of the committee members. If you cannot attend the meeting, you are still welcome to join us at noon.

“Community of Practice” Listserv

We wish to encourage folks to sign-up for our new “community of practice” mailing list (DEI-COP). We decided to create a secondary listserv so that there would be a space where colleagues can share diversity-related articles, events, opportunities, etc. This is a great opportunity to stay informed of these issues if you do not have time to serve on the DEI Committee. If you do become a member, we’ll add you to our committee’s primary listserv.

How to subscribe to the mailing list

You can automatically subscribe to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Community of Practice Listserv by sending an email with a blank subject line and the following single line in the body (i.e., no signatures) from the account to which you wish to receive messages:

To: listserv [at] listserv [dot] cc [dot] emory [dot] edu
Subject:
Body: subscribe DEI-COP

How to unsubscribe to the mailing list

You can automatically unsubscribe from the mailing list by sending an email with a blank subject line and the following single line in the body (i.e., no signatures) from the account from which you initially subscribed.

To: listserv [at] listserv [dot] cc [dot] emory [dot] edu
Subject:
Body: signoff DEI-COP

As a reminder

The upcoming events are:

• LEAF coffee, October 8, 2pm, Jones Room
• DEI Committee meeting, October 17, 11 am, 303F
• DEI Committee meet-and-greet, October 17, noon, 303F

I’m very excited to be the next chair for the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee. I’m looking forward to what we’ll all accomplish together over the coming school year and beyond.