Commitment to Anti-Racism and Social Justice
The undersigned at the UMD Libraries join in solidarity with campus and community members who seek to promote social justice and to end racism, especially the scourge of systemic anti-Black racism in American society.
Statement of Commitment to Anti-Racismi and Social Justice by the Undersigned Faculty and Staff at the UMD Libraries
The undersigned at the UMD Libraries join in solidarity with campus and community members who seek to promote social justice and to end racism, especially the scourge of systemic anti-Black racism in American society. We affirm the importance of our work together as a library and higher education community, and the need to co-create new knowledge and build a better society, one free from violence, hate, and fear. In alignment with the University of Maryland’s stated priorities and the Libraries’ core values, we commit to working vigorously for freedom and justice by taking the following actions, many of which are embedded in the Libraries’ Strategic Plan 2020-2023: Leading the Field, Living Our Values.
As individuals –
Anti-racist action and promotion of social justice begin with us as individuals. We affirm our intention to incorporate anti-racist awareness and action into our everyday practices and operations. As individuals, we will support Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) colleagues in our institution, libraries, and archives, because if we/they exit our organizations due to failure of accountability of change or denial of systemic racism, discrimination, and microaggressions, this will contribute to the erasure of BIPOC voices and perspectives from our community.
Within our organization –
Our library mission is to enable student success, support teaching, research, and creativity, and enrich the intellectual and cultural life of the community. If we are to achieve this mission effectively, we must work to ensure that all people, including those who have been marginalized or erased from the dominant record, can see themselves reflected in, defined in, and recognized in our physical and online spaces, and in the forms of knowledge, teaching, technologies, events, and exhibits we provide. We will use anti-racist and inclusive research and applied solutions in our work and operations, and we will build and strengthen new coalitions and partnerships to enact these changes on a broader scale. We will perform regular audits to improve our organizational policies and processes, and to ensure that our practice of librarianship and library operations incorporate anti-racist and inclusive principles. We will partner actively with other organizations to recruit, mentor, sponsor, and advance BIPOC colleagues within the Libraries and throughout the library profession.
Within the university community and beyond –
We will use our library expertise, skills, and resources to join with others who seek to understand and change the systems of inequity and oppression that affect our institution, the library profession, and our society, especially forces that are anti-democratic, ahistorical, anti-humanistic, and exploitative. Through our library partnerships, we will advance academic ownership of technological platforms and systems, and will promote open science, open education, and equitable forms of scholarly communication to counter models that endanger knowledge through unsustainable cost barriers, which is antithetical to the idea of equitable representation and change. We will be courageous in advancing visible and public advocacy for reinvesting in the public sector and civic engagement, because this is aligned with changing systemic racism and oppressive systems in our society.
Respectfully yours,
Tahirah Akbar-Williams
Joanne Archer
Drew Barker
Lutgarda Barnachea
Ben Blake
Benjamin Bradley
Nancy Caldwell
Liz Caringola
Lindsay Inge Carpenter
Nneka Chisholm-Edwards
Laura Cleary
Jodi H. Coalter
Jennifer E. M. Cotton
Mark Coulbourne
David Dahl
John Davis
Zaida Díaz
Kate Dohe
Jennifer A. Doherty
Bryan L.W. Draper
Leigh Amadi Dunewood
David Durden
Jennifer G. Eidson
Joni Floyd
Katia Fowler
Cindy Frank
Mary D. Galvin
Rachel W. Gammons
Christina Taylor Gibson
Simran Gill
Sharona Ginsberg
Kathy Glennan
Paula Greenwell
Lily Griner
Beth Guay
Babak Hamidzadeh
Kevin G. Hammett
Eileen G. Harrington
Stephen Henry
Patricia Herron
Michael Homme
Sarah E. Hovde
Lae'l Hughes-Watkins
Antonya Huntenburg
Judi Kidd
Joseph Koivisto
Scott Leffler
Adriene Lim
Y. Luckert
Daniel C. Mack
Kate Maloney
Judith Markowitz
Pamela A. McClanahan
Celina McDonald
Thomas M. Messersmith
Jim Miller
Carla Q. Montori
Irene Münster
Brynne Norton
John Novak
Sarah Over
Terry M. Owen
Tiffany L. Rogers
Bria Parker
Robin C. Pike
Steve Quintilian
Robin Reiss
Stephanie Ritchie
Laura Schnitker
Linda Seguin
Benjamin Shaw
Emily Spangler
James V. Spring
Nedelina Tchangalova
Hilary Thompson
Jen Wachtel
Amy Wasserstrom
Joshua A. Westgard
Jeremy Weiner
Andrea J. White
Gary White
Amy Wickner
Alan Wierdak
Joanna Wiley
Rebecca Wilson
Suzy Wilson
Lorraine Woods
Charles E. Wright
Andrew Yager
i"To be antiracist is to challenge the racist policies that plague racialized ethnic groups across the world. To be antiracist is to view the inequities between all racialized ethnic groups as a problem of policy.” (Ibram X. Kendi, How to be an antiracist. Random House Publishing Group, 2019)