Libraries and librarians are committed to diversity as a foundational value. Diversity goes to the heart of who we are and what we do: a profession that serves everybody.
IU Libraries commits to being self-critically aware – as individuals and an organization – of the world’s diversity and complexity, in order to be an open gateway and effective nexus for people and information.
IU Libraries resources for diversity, equity and inclusion
We often say "at IU Libraries we have been collecting the greatest ideas for 200 years and are ready to inspire yours." But that is not our whole story. To present a fuller picture, we begin by acknowledging that we may have overlooked, ignored or set aside underrepresented voices. Our profession strives for a legacy of neutrality, and for this reason, we collect and preserve many moments, philosophies, and documents none of us describe as "great." It is also true that each of us holds our own biases as we build collections. We recognize that over the course of two centuries, it has been the hundreds of individuals working as IU Librarians and Archivists who have curated the millions of items we now hold.
Today the individuals of IU Libraries have come together to offer an online guide to our most relevant resources and first person documentation of underrepresented experiences in America. Hundreds of databases, primary sources, journals and digital exhibits are available to the IU community and featured in this Diversity Library Guide, which will continue to expand as more resources are suggested and discovered.
- Sara Stefani (co-chair)
- Ilana Stonebraker (co-chair)
- Maureen Maryanski
- Gwen Kirk
- Laikin Morris
- Haley Norris
- Maddye Webb-Mitchell
- Allison McClanahan
- Amy Minix
- Robert Noel
- Thomas Whittaker
- Jennifer Witzke
- Michelle Crowe (ex-officio)
- Jennifer Chaffin (ex-officio)
- Erin Ellis (ex-officio)
Committee charge: The purpose of this committee is to provide leadership and guidance to the Libraries by promoting understanding in areas of diversity. The Committee shall serve as an advisory group to the Dean, Libraries Administration, and Libraries Human Resources by providing recommendations and planning on diversity programs and initiatives, staff and patron needs, and other concerns in the areas of diversity.
(dated 2019-2020)
IU Libraries offers a carefully researched Diversity Resident position.
- Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs at Indiana Unversity
- Cultural Involvement: How to support diversity and cultural awareness at IU (includes information on cultural centers and institutes)
- Community Engagement: Bringing the best to IU, and IU to the best
- News & Events
- Making a New Table: Intersectional Librarianship (In the Library with the Lead Pipe)
- Why Diversity Matters: A Roundtable Discussion on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Librarianship (In the Library with the Lead Pipe)
- The Quest for Diversity in Library Staffing: From Awareness to Action (In the Library with the Lead Pipe)
- The Diversity Discussion: What We Are Saying (Progressive Librarian) [pdf in Box]
- Monroe County Public Library Calendar
- Motivation to Lead (webinar sponsored by ACRL e-Learning) - Password: lead
Questions we are asking:

Can destroyed books still tell stories?
IU Libraries answers national call to reaffirm diversity commitment
In late 2018, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) responded to recent acts of antisemitic violence by “reaffirming its commitment to fostering diverse, equitable, and inclusive environments in its member library and archives so that communities may find in them the resources they need for inclusive and informed dialog.”
The ARL statement shares alarming facts documenting an unquestionable increase in antisemitic acts on college campuses in recent years and asks the higher education community to redouble its efforts to foster inclusive dialog. At this same time, librarians at Indiana University were looking back to fall 2010 when a series of antisemitic events took place on the Bloomington campus, one of them involving the intentional destruction of eight books from the Jewish Studies Collection held at Herman B Wells library.
Noting the symbolic passage of time, members of the IU Libraries’ Diversity Committee are working with colleagues to mark the passing of eight years by reclaiming the content of the eight destroyed titles for Indiana University researchers. The discovery efforts conducted over time have produced very few direct replacements. In fact, of the eight titles, only one physical copy has been found, although it is hoped some form of digital access will soon be established for all. In the committee’s visible work to document and reclaim the missing titles, many IU Libraries collection managers were inspired to make related symbolic purchases in their own areas of study.
This work resonates not only with the ARL call to action, but also with the IU Libraries foundational value statement found it its Strategic Plan: "IU Libraries esteems diversity of all kinds, building collections and collaborations to support students from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and foster a global, diverse, inclusive community of excellent students, scholars, and teachers.”
Materials destroyed by targeted Jewish Studies vandalism on Nov. 29, 2010 at Herman B Wells Library
Sefer Diḳduḳe sofrim : kolel nusḥaʼot ṿe-girsaʼot ha-nimtsaʼot be-Talmud ketav yad mi-shenat 103 la-elef ha-shishi ha-munaḥ be-ʻir Minkhen, : ʻim hagahot Divre sofrim : kolel nusḥaʼot shonot mi-kitve yad nosafim umi-defusim ḳedumim ule-varer et ha-nusḥa ha-yesharah ʻa. pi divre ha-rishonim zal ṿe-ʻa. pi shiḳul ha-daʻat ... / me-et Refaʼel Natan Netaʻ Rabinoṿiṭts. |
ספר דקדוקי סופרים : כולל נוסחאות וגירסאות הנמצאות בתלמוד כתב יד משנת ק״ג לאלף הששי המונח בעיר מינכען : עם הגהות דברי סופרים : כולל נוסחאות שונות מכתבי יד נוספים ומדפוסים קדומים לברר את הנוסחא הישרה ע״פי דברי הראשונים ז״ל ועפ״י שיקול הדעת ... |
Sefer Liḳuṭ rishonim : ʻal masekhet Bava kamma / ṿe-hu liḳuṭ mi-teshuvot rabotenu ha-rishonim, Rif ... [et al.], u-mesudarim daf ʻal daf. |
ספר ליקוט ראשונים : על מסכת בבא קמא |
Perush Rabenu Ḥananʼel : Masekhet Bava ḳama / le-Rabenu Ḥananʼel b.R. Ḥushiʼel ; yo. l. ʻal-pi ketav-yad u-defusim rishonim be-tseruf mavo, tsiyune meḳorot, maḳbilot, heʻarot u-veʼurim me-et Tsevi Yehoshuʻa Laiṭner ; be-tosefet ḥidushim u-veʼurim me-et Dov Domb. |
פירוש רבינו חננאל : מסכת בבא קמא / לרבינו חננאל ב״ר חושיאל ; יו״ל על־פי כתבי־יד ודפוסים ראשונים בצירוף מבוא, ציוני מקורות, מקבילות, הערות וביאורים מאת צבי יהושע לייטנר ; בתוספת חידושים וביאורים מאת דוב דומב. |
Sefer Ḥidushe Mahariʾa : ʻal Pirḳe Avot / Yehudah Asod ; asafti ṿe-liḳaṭeti Yiśraʾel Brunner. |
ספר חידושי מהרי״א : על פרקי אבות / יהודה אסאד ; אספתי ולקטתי ישראל ברוננער. |
Sefer ʻErekh kesef : ʻinyanim be-maʻarakhot ... / ḥibro Ḥayim Shemuʾel Gaṭinyo. |
ספר ערך כסף : ענינים במערכות ... / חברו חיים שמואל גאטינייו |
ʻIdan ha-Talmud : seḳirah hisṭorit ʻal teḳufot anshe keneset ha-gedolah, ha-Tanaʾim, ha-Amoraʾim, ha-Savoraʾim ṿeha-Geʾonim be-Erets-Yiśraʾel uve-Vavel : mi-yemot ʻEzra ha-sofer ʻad ḥurban ha-arets bi-yede ha-Tsalvanim / Gershom Harpanas. |
עידן התלמוד : סקירה היסטורית על תקופות אנשי כנסת הגדולה, התנאים, האמוראים, הסבוראים והגאונים בארץ ישראל ובבבל : מימות עזרא הסופר עד חורבן הארץ בידי הצלבנים / גרשום הרפנס |
Talmud Yerushalmi (1967), vol. 3-4. |
תלמוד ירושלמי |

Can open access publishing offer a new environment of inclusion?
IN TRADITIONAL ACADEMIC PUBLISHING, A PERSISTENT LACK OF DIVERSITY IN AUTHORSHIP IS WELL DOCUMENTED AND DISCUSSED.
Dismantling barriers to information access is central to the mission of the academic library. The rising cost of journal subscriptions puts research access at risk. At IU Libraries, we have been working on solutions to this problem for over a decade. One of the most prolific is our open scholarship services—facilitating IU-authored, scholarly work on the open web for anyone to read.
Today, IU ScholarWorks, developed and deployed by the Scholarly Communication department of IU Libraries, delivers 49 Open Access journals and serves as the repository for more than 8,000 deposited items.
In traditional academic publishing, a persistent lack of diversity in authorship is well documented and discussed. That led Scholarly Communication leaders to ask: What happens when research is liberated and cost barriers removed? Can open access publishing offer a new environment of inclusion?
As the new Open Scholarship Resident, Willa Liburd Tavernier (pictured above in a team meeting) intends to find out. Charged with assessment and outreach of the current ScholarWorks inventory, Liburd Tavernier believes the two go hand in hand. “We don’t have information right now in terms of a profile of whom is left out. Once I do the assessment, then my outreach becomes very targeted to encouraging those gaps to be filled,” she explained.
Library leaders participating in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Diversity Alliance are committed to opening doors, sharing their networks, and preparing residents for success. As part of its diversity plan implementation, IU Libraries joined the Alliance in 2017 and in 2018 recruited Liburd Tavernier with a highly strategic, well-defined resident position.
“I want to reach out to underrepresented groups and help form a more inclusive publishing space through open access. I want to create spaces in the same way that space was created for me.”
—Willa Liburd Tavernier, IU Libraries ACRL Diversity Resident, Open Scholarship
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