On June 1, 2020, Vice Provost for University Libraries and University Librarian Elaine L. Westbrooks issued a statement committing the University Libraries to reckoning with systemic racism and oppression.
The University Libraries’ Reckoning Initiative is a call to action for the Libraries as a whole, as well as for each member of the Libraries’ staff. Library employees are called to continuously recognize, contemplate, and dismantle they ways in which systemic racism operates in our lives and in our work.
Among the expectations for this work is that staff will support and learn from one another.
This ongoing work has included a staff book discussion series using Ibram X. Kendi’s bestselling book How to Be an Anti-Racist and a 21-day Racial Equity Challenge inviting staff to engage, act, and reflect on race and racial equity in our personal spaces as well as in the Libraries and the profession.
