Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Home

The staff at the University Libraries are committed to ensuring that the Libraries will always be a welcoming and inclusive environment that takes deliberate actions to meet the needs of the entire Miami community. We provide meaningful, globally diverse cultural collections focusing on racial, ethnic, religious, geographical, socioeconomic, disability, and gender and sexual orientation topics. We promote programs, events, displays, services and other activities and resources to enhance student, faculty, staff, and community awareness.

On this page, you'll find information and links to Libraries resources and events - please explore!

University Libraries Diversity Statement

What Constitutes Diversity?

Miami University Libraries adheres to the Miami University definition of diversity, which includes but is not limited to race, ethnicity, color, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, class, religion, disability, age, military status, visa status, economic status, geographic location, and language/linguistic ability. 

Diverse and well-reasoned ideas, approaches, and experiences are also essential parts of equity, inclusion, and accessibility. 

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Statement 

In alignment with Miami University’s statement on Diversity and Inclusion, the Miami University Libraries are committed to fostering an environment where the highest ideals of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility support our employees, students, staff, faculty, and university community at large. DEIA efforts are viewed as fundamental to our mission and integral to our service model on campus and in the broader community.

We are an intentionally open and inclusive community that embraces the full spectrum of human attributes, ideas, perspectives, and cultures. 

We aspire to high levels of intercultural competence to serve our community and actively work to ensure that tenets of diversity and antiracism influence all aspects of our work, including as it relates to our:

• Collections: We will continue to expand diversity within our collections, and reduce the effects of inequity by enriching our collections in areas related to underrepresented groups. We strive to ensure that researchers and learners can discover and access all of this information and content in thoughtful and culturally aware ways.
• Services: Our library services are aimed at meeting researchers and learners where they are by helping them make connections between their real-world experiences and our collections and resources. We will openly and proactively share our library services, resources, and expertise with all who visit the University Libraries, both physically and virtually. 
• Spaces: Physical and virtual library spaces must be accessible, welcoming, and affirming to all. We will continue to strive to eliminate barriers for the patrons who use our collections, services, and facilities. We will make an ongoing effort to ensure that we provide welcoming and inclusive surroundings for all who wish to take advantage of our spaces and services.
• People: To create and maintain a positive and inclusive climate and culture, we commit to recruiting, retaining, and advancing library personnel who belong to traditionally underrepresented groups. We encourage and provide opportunities for all library staff to participate in diversity-focused professional development training and activities.

Furthermore, the University Libraries will actively address acts of harassment, hate, and violence that negatively impact the ability of our community members to engage in their intentional work together. We oppose activities that threaten our mission, vision, and values, as well as the rights, dignity, or humanity of the students, faculty, and staff who are fulfilling our mission and working in good faith to engage respectfully across differences. We will not condone acts of harassment, hate, and violence – or any other activities that threaten the University Libraries’ mission. 

In order to create a more equitable future, we must acknowledge and address inequities and oppression of the past. The University Libraries takes responsibility for inequities created intentionally and unintentionally at the individual, collections, and systemic levels within our organization. We commit to changing this narrative and working together to create spaces and systems that foster a sense of belonging and inclusion and are accessible to all. Additionally, we acknowledge that the work of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility is ongoing, with needs that unfold and evolve with time. This diversity statement looks to address the current needs and will be updated as time and circumstances change. We look to continually adapt and grow on the path toward a more equitable institution.

Creating an inclusive, safe, and accessible library system is everyone’s responsibility - administrators, librarians, staff, faculty, students, and the university community. To learn more about specific initiatives and projects that the staff at the University Libraries are engaged in, please visit the Libraries’ DEI website. There you can find contact information for further comments or questions.

The Miami University Libraries stand in solidarity with the American Library Association’s (ALA) statements on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, as well as the ALA’s policies listed in their Library Bill of Rights.  

Statement on Racism

The Libraries are a welcoming, inclusive, and safe resource for every person in our community. We believe that Black lives matter. Racism, violence, discrimination, oppression, and hatred are antithetical to our values, mission, and fundamental humanity, and will not be tolerated in any Libraries-affiliated spaces or services.

We at the Libraries must continue to listen, learn, and better understand injustice and the experiences of others in order to truly be a welcoming and inclusive resource for all, and are dedicated to doing the work necessary to be better allies of and advocates for the victims of injustice.

Land Acknowledgement

Miami University is located within the traditional homelands of the Myaamia and Shawnee people, who along with other indigenous groups ceded these lands to the United States in the first Treaty of Greenville in 1795. The Miami people, whose name our university carries, were forcibly removed from these homelands in 1846.

In 1972, a relationship between Miami University and the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma began and evolved into a reciprocal partnership, including the creation of the Myaamia Center at Miami University in 2001. The work of the Myaamia Center serves the Miami Tribe community and is dedicated to the revitalization of Miami language and culture and to restoring that knowledge to the Myaamia people.

Miami University and the Miami Tribe are proud of this work and of the more than 140 Myaamia students who have attended Miami since 1991 through the Myaamia Heritage Award Program.

For more information about Miami University's Land Acknowledgement, visit https://miamioh.edu/diversity-inclusion/land/index.html

Have something to add?

The goal of this site is to showcase the amazing DEI initiatives throughout the Libraries.  If you would like to see another project, initiative, or resource added to this page, please reach out to dulb-DEIcontact@miamioh.edu.