Mission, Vision, & Values

About

Mission

University Libraries partners with our Bears community through diverse collections, innovative services, and welcoming spaces to promote curiosity, learning, teaching, and engaged global citizenship.

Vision

As the heart of the UNC community, the Libraries will be vital partners in transforming the Lives of each of our students.

Values

The following serve as the foundation and representation of our core values that define, inform, and guide every aspect of our professional practice.

Access

We recognize the UNC Bears community as our primary focus and work to provide access to needed spaces and materials no matter the format or users’ location.

Collaboration

We work in sustained and intentional partnerships across campus, as well as with regional and national organizations, to amplify the impact of our work and enhance our position on campus as a hub for scholarship, learning, and student success.

Innovation

We foster and encourage innovation by seeking new and better ways of working with the Bears community. We think creatively, embrace change, and encourage intellectual curiosity and experimentation as individuals and as a team.

Professional Development & Growth

We regard Libraries employees and their expertise as critical to the university and support their professional development, academic freedom, and personal growth.

Social Justice

We aspire to become a truly inclusive and equitable organization. We engage with the university community by:

  • Sustaining diversity,
  • Creating inclusive spaces and experiences
  • Removing barriers to learning, and
  • Confronting institutional bias and structural racism

Stewardship

We maintain and enhance our diverse and unique collections and spaces for future generations of scholars. We make the most efficient use of our resources and advocate for increased access to, creation of, and use of high-quality open access materials.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Libraries Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement

We strive to continually educate ourselves on diversity, equity, and inclusion to better support scholars and students representing the full, diverse spectrum of humanity. Diverse and well-reasoned ideas, approaches, and experiences are essential parts of inclusion and equity. University Libraries promotes an environment free from constraint on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender identity and gender expression, age, religion, language, abilities and disabilities, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, geographic region, and more. We follow the lead of diverse communities and aim to mirror the ever-evolving language they use to define themselves.

Libraries Anti-racism Statement

UNC Libraries acknowledges that the University of Northern Colorado sits upon the traditional territories of the Ute, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota peoples. We also acknowledge and affirm that the United States was founded on white supremacy which has built systematic racism into laws, policies, and practices which impact people of color to this day.  We stand in solidarity with communities of color and strive to redress these wrongs.

We aspire to become a truly inclusive and equitable organization. We engage with the university community by sustaining diversity, creating inclusive spaces and experiences, removing barriers to learning, and calling out institutional bias and structural racism.

We are a place for everyone and we will not tolerate mistreatment of anyone.

Action Items

Change happens through the actions and behaviors of our individual faculty and staff. The responsibility for change rests on all of us.

We commit to:

  • Enhance our employee recruitment process to be more inclusive
  • Develop best practices to continue to create a more inclusive workplace
  • Leverage culturally responsive training to better understand systematic and historical oppression and how we can create a more just society
  • Offer programs and exhibits that are representative of cultures/nationalities that make up the UNC and surrounding communities
  • Work with local communities to expand inclusive archival work and assist in curating collections
  • Collect more books by and for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and other traditionally minoritized groups

References for Anti-racism Statement

1619 ; a podcast from the New York Times (N. Hannah-Jones Trans.).

Epperson, A. Research guides: DEI & antiracism resources: Home. Retrieved Jun 7, 2021, from https://libguides.unco.edu/DEI-and-Antiracism

Hannah-Jones, N. (2019, 18 August,). The 1619 project. New York Times Magazine, , 4-86.

Smith, C. (2021). How the word is passed: A reckoning with the history of slavery across America. New York: Little, Brown.

This statement was inspired by many university and library anti-racism/diversity statements, including:

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