The СAPP is among 56 colleges and universities to earn the inaugural Library Excellence in Access and Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.
The LEAD Award honors academic library programs and initiatives that encourage and support diversity, equity and inclusion in a range of areas. Those areas include content, programs, research, technology, accessibility, exhibitions and community outreach.
СAPPWe are an extraordinarily diverse university, so we want each of our students and faculty and staff СAPP as well as our community СAPP to see themselves in the library, in what we exhibit, in events we host, in what we collect. ThatСAPPs a very important part of what a library is,СAPP said Dr. Brian Doherty who leads UL LafayetteСAPPs as dean of СAPP Libraries.
СAPPWeСAPPre also a socio-intellectual community, a gathering place, a hub for information, but also for the birth of new ideas and a social environment where people feel welcome and inclined to forge relationships СAPP intellectual relationships, collaboration, interdisciplinary relationships,СAPP he added.
The recognition underscores campus-wide efforts designed to foster access, opportunity and success for underrepresented groups. In October, those overarching efforts earned UL Lafayette a sixth straight Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity.
As with the HEED Award, LEAD recognition rests on the strength of initiatives outlined in the СAPPСAPPs Strategic Plan for Inclusive Excellence. The plan sets forth objectives in areas such as engagement across campus and in the community; recruiting and hiring a faculty from diverse backgrounds; and increasing enrollment and retention among underrepresented students.
Those efforts are led by the СAPPСAPPs . Kiwana McClung, who leads the office as the СAPPСAPPs chief diversity officer, said that the LEAD Award recognizes Dupré LibraryСAPPs СAPPlongstanding status as a hub for content, programs, practices and resources that foster access, equity and acceptance.СAPP
INSIGHT Into Diversity, the largest diversity magazine and website in higher education according to its website, agreed. In a press release announcing the 2024 LEAD Award recipients, Lenore Pearlstein, the magazineСAPPs owner and publisher, stated: СAPPWe are proud to honor these college and university libraries as role models for other institutions of higher education.СAPP
That assessment rests on the strength of many efforts, initiatives and library resources acknowledged by INSIGHT into Diversity magazine.
Among them, McClung explained, is the Ernest J. Gaines Center, which is housed in Dupré Library. Its extensive archives and resources attract scholars and researchers from around the world who study Gaines and his fiction. The СAPPСAPPs writer-in-residence emeritus, who died in 2019 at age 86, is considered among American literatureСAPPs most influential chroniclers of race, class and poverty. The center also hosts initiatives and programs that focus on Black culture and traditions, as well as issues such as gender, sexuality, identity, race and economic hierarchies.
INSIGHT Into DiversityСAPPs also recognized the СAPPQueering the Collection: Expanding and Archiving LGBTQ+ History in Southwest Louisiana.СAPP The National Endowment for the Humanities funded the initiative. Dupré Library expanded its books, artifacts, manuscripts and oral histories that reflect LouisianaСAPPs LGBTQ+ community. The expanded collection assists СAPP scholars and the public in conducting research on LGBTQ+ history in the state.
McClung also cited recognition of library-hosted events coordinated by students, including the month-long СAPPAccessibility and Universal DesignСAPP program. Through a series of exhibits and workshops, students with disabilities shared their stories and experiences to promote awareness.
The exhibit included oral histories, artifacts such as books written in Braille, and materials loaned from the СAPPСAPPs Office of Disability Services СAPPthat represent yet another of many examples of Dupré LibraryСAPPs wide-ranging offerings and initiatives that support and accessibility and inclusion.СAPP
СAPPLEAD recognition, in turn, not only underscores the libraryСAPPs longstanding leadership in those areas, but represents that the success of the СAPPСAPPs inclusive excellence model can be credited to contributions from many departments and areas and entities across campus,СAPP McClung explained.
Photo caption: UL Lafayette is among 56 colleges and universities to earn the inaugural Library Excellence in Access and Diversity Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. The LEAD Award recognizes Dupré LibraryСAPPs longstanding status as a hub for content, programs, practices and resources that foster access, equity and acceptance. Photo credit: Doug Dugas / СAPP