Diversity Means All of Us
A statement from University Librarian and Dean of Libraries Paul N. Courant
Diversity is essential to realizing the fundamental purposes of the University and of scholarship. Without difference, and the sometimes vigorous disagreement that comes from difference, we cannot learn from each other and cannot be sure that we have learned at all. The Library has within it ideas, data, theories, perceptions, stories (and much more) from every time, place, style of thought and way of knowing thatwe have been able to get our hands on. Anything less would fall short of what students and faculty in a great university need to do their work. Just as a Library built on one book or set of ideas would be dull and essentially useless, so too a campus community made up of p eople who are essentially alike would be dull and a poor place for learning and teaching.
Here at Michigan we welcome and celebrate difference and diversity, and we use our differences to solve problems and to make sense of a complicated and fascinating world. We also recognize that the cultural agility necessary to speak and to reason across difference is both difficult to attain and essential to our success as a university and as a contributor to the larger societites of the nation and the world. The Library at the center of it all, and proud to be so.
Library Diversity Council
The Library Diversity Council is dedicated to provide leadership to the staff of the University of Michigan Library by promoting understanding in various areas of diversity, and to collaborate with members of the campus and the community to bridge individual and collective experiences; to serve as an advisory group to the library administration, reporting on diversity programs and on staff and patron concerns; and to lead in the creation and implementation of diversity activities.
