Our Commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Clemson University Libraries seeks to best serve our community through creating a welcoming environment in which diverse ideas and perspectives come together to achieve common goals. We are committed to the practice of inclusion as it is essential to the continued success not only of Clemson University but of the library and information science profession. We embrace Clemson’s core values of integrity, honesty, and respect, and add to those the ideals of compassion, dignity, and historical awareness so that Clemson Libraries’ staff, collections, spaces, and services inform the interest, information, and enlightenment of all who we serve.

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that the main campus of Clemson University occupies the traditional and ancestral land of the Cherokee People. Clemson’s main campus is built on land seized through US military and diplomatic incursions culminating in the Treaty of Dewitt’s Corner in 1777. This is also land on which people enslaved by the Pickens, Clemson, and Calhoun families lived and worked, and that was transformed into the campus of Clemson University through convict labor.

We make this acknowledgement to remember the histories of violence that anticipate our gathering here, to recognize Indigenous and Black claims to life and land, and to recenter those claims as we commit to better ways of caring for each other and for this land.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee

The Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee oversees Clemson Libraries’ equity, diversity, and inclusion program to ensure that we provide inclusive collections, programs, services, and technologies that support Clemson University’s goals. Specifically, the committee seeks to:

• Implement key action items from the Clemson Libraries’ Diversity Plan
• Identify annual areas of focus
• Assess progress toward the completion of identified goals, including the possibility of the creation of metrics
• Communicate regularly with Libraries’ employees and campus stakeholders regarding our progress
• Revise the plan as necessary
• Utilize CampusLabs to document plan progress and revisions
• Coordinate with Altheia Richardson and Office of Inclusion and Equity
• Maintain the Libraries’ diversity web site
• Ensure that the Libraries’ diversity web presence is updated with information about our progress and initiatives related to our progress toward becoming a fully inclusive organization
• Partner with other diversity-related organizations across the campus and in the community to sponsor diversity-related public events and encourage these events to be held in the Cooper and the Libraries’ branches
• In concert with the Organization Development Committee, facilitate training workshops related to diversity, equity and inclusion for library faculty and staff.

Resources

Clemson Libraries Resources

• Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Resource Guide
• Asian Pacific American Voices and Readings
• Latinx Voices and Readings
• LGBTQ+ Voices and Readings

Videos and Webinars

• The Misrepresentation of LGBTQIA+ Topics – A Review of Queer Solutions to Queer Barriers in the Library
• Open for Antiracism: Using Open Education to Support Antiracist Teaching 
• Celebrating Asian Americans in Academic Libraries, An Asia Pacific Islander Desi Awareness Month Special Presentation 

• The African American Experience at Two South Carolina Universities: A Book Talk

Reading

• Best Practices for a Great Workplace Culture: DEI and the Workplace ulture at Clemson Libraries 
• Framework for Change: Creating a Diversity Strategic Plan within an Academic Library 
• Framework for Change: Creating a Library Diversity Plan Using 6 Objectives for Action 
• Change the Subject – Post-screening Resource Board

Other Helpful Resources

• Clemson University Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation Definitions of DEI
• American Library Association: Access to Library Resources and Services
• Association of College & Research Libraries: Diversity Standards
• Association of Southeastern Research Libraries: Supporting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Our Libraries
• Decolonize Clemson. Decolonize Clemson (formerly Indigenizing Clemson) is a committee that was established in 2018 with the purpose of developing a basis for how Clemson connects with and recognizes local Indigenous communities, land, labor, and history. This committee consists of students, faculty, and staff across Clemson’s campus who work collaboratively to advance indigeneity through the curriculum, co-curricular engagement, and community development.