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Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice Initiatives: Home

A record of the initiatives and work done by the former Equity, Diversity, and Social Justice Team

What is in this Guide

The UWB/CC Campus Library Equity, Diversity (EDSJ)Team was disbanded in 2017 and replaced by two separate library initiatives: 

Community Reads 
Social Justice Team

This library guide is retained as a historical record of the work done by EDSJ and in effort to continue to provide information about the projects, programs, presentations, and curriculum the team developed and implemented from 2012-2017.  This guide includes resources and documentation for the following initiatives: 

  • Workshops developed for library staff
  • Brown bag sessions for library staff
  • Some of the presentations team members did during the existence of the team
  • Assessment materials used for library staff workshops
  • A bibliography of readings, listenings, and viewings in Zotero
  • Information about Community Reads, a program still going at the Campus Library

Mission Statement

Inspired by the ACRL Diversity Standards, the Equity, Diversity, And Social Justice (EDSJ) Team serves the University of Washington Bothell and Cascadia College campuses. The purpose of the team is to conduct trainings and facilitate discussions among librarians, staff, and studentworkers to develop cultural competencies; and to critically reflect on library practices to make use of library facilities, resources, and services optimal for users of diverse backgrounds, circumstances, and experiences. We are open to new ideas, and would love to hear from other libraries about their efforts to support diversity among their constituents!

Related Institutional Priorities

From the Campus Library Strategic Directions:

Diversity

The Library serves one of the most ethnically diverse higher education communities in the state. We seek to provide culturally relevant services and resources that reflect the diversity of our user community and we work to foster an inclusive organizational structure in which staff from all different backgrounds can thrive. As cultural competency is not intuitive and must be learned, library staff will regularly and continuously expand their understanding of the impact of culture on behavior, attitudes, and values, and the help-seeking behaviors of diverse constituent groups.  From: ACRL Cultural Compentency Standards: http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/diversity

From the Campus Library Information Literacy Instruction Program Plan - Goals & Objectives:

GOAL:  Support Diversity and Inclusiveness

Objectives:        

  1. Provide instructional services inclusive of the diverse perspectives and needs of the campus communities served.
  2. Deliver instruction that is inclusive of a variety of teaching and learning styles, and cultural backgrounds.
  3. Encourage diverse inquiry-based and creative processes for engaging students in research.
  4. Value cultural ways of knowing through respect for non-dominant or non-Western thought and modes of knowledge production.
  5. Participate in professional development, educational opportunities, and critical reflection that help advance cultural competence of the librarians and staff within the program.

Cultural competency on campus: Applying ACRL’s Diversity Standards

The ACRL Diversity Committee released the "Diversity Standards: Cultural Competency for Academic Libraries" in 2012. With strong support from our administration and clear guidelines from the standards, the University of Washington (UW)-Bothell and Cascadia Community College Campus Library Diversity Team formed in the autumn of 2012, concerned with forging authentic connections based on shared values and experiences among team members, library staff, and our community as a whole. This article describes our consensus-centered model, the design process and content of our trainings, our assessment philosophy and methods, and our relationship-building focus on campus.

Lazzaro, A.E., Mills, S., Garrard, T., Ferguson, E., Watson, M., & Ellenwood, D. (2014). Cultural competency on campus Applying ACRL’s Diversity Standards.  College and Research Libraries News, 75(6), 332–335.