LMU Library DEIA Statement of Commitment

The following statement was drafted by the William H. Hannon Library’s DEI Task Force, and approved by the library’s Management Council in June 2021. We are in the process of developing a new DEI website that will track our progress on these issues and provide our campus community with additional resources.

Our vision for the William H. Hannon Library inspires us to create a brave and welcoming space for the students, faculty, and staff of Loyola Marymount University. For that goal to become fully manifest at LMU, we must commit ourselves to the principles of diversity, equity, inclusivity, and anti-racism (DEIA) in our collections, our spaces, our operations, and throughout all our work.

We recognize that structures of power and privilege remain largely in the hands of a few, and that we are part of a system, specifically academia, that perpetuates white supremacy. As librarians, information professionals, researchers, teachers, and practitioners, we aim to redress social and historical injustices through critical examinations of our operations, the development of diverse collections, the creation of inclusive spaces, and by centralizing the voices of historically oppressed and/or marginalized communities. These groups include, but are not limited to, Black, Indigenous, persons of color, LGBTQ+ people, and those with differing abilities, as well as those at the intersectionality of these communities.

We strive to maintain an inclusive environment where our students, faculty, and staff (including our own staff) are seen and respected. As academic library workers, our professional standards and ethics compel us to acknowledge and address historical racial inequities; challenge oppressive systems within academic libraries; value different ways of knowing; and identify and work to eliminate barriers to equitable services, spaces, resources, and scholarship. We use critical information literacy to help students identify oppressive power structures within information ecosystems so they may develop a critical consciousness to act upon their findings of inequalities and bias. We believe that this responsibility does not fall to one person or group, but that it belongs to everyone at the library.

We aim to foster an environment that embeds diversity, equity, inclusivity, and antiracism in all that we do, to create a library where inclusivity is automatic. With these goals in mind, we commit ourselves to the institutional change necessary to build a better, more just library community.