Message from the Dean

September 6, 2022

Welcome to the beginning of fall semester. The library is pleased to offer a full complement of in-person and remote services to help students, faculty, staff, and our community flourish. We are especially excited to share the many ways that we are working to reduce financial and other barriers to completing a life-changing education at WSU.

Highlights include:

  • An expanded textbook lending library: We have purchased at least one copy of nearly every general education textbook, as well as many others in key courses across all disciplines. Check out Course Reserve if you need a short-term loan (5 hours) of your textbook.
  • Faculty grants to adopt, adapt or create Open Educational Resources (OER) that can replace expensive commercial course materials and are customized to meet specific course needs. Learn more about the library’s OER and other affordable course material efforts.
  • We continue to lend laptops and wifi hotspots (pending availability). We also have webcams, cameras, calculators, and anatomical models available for short-term checkout.
  • And, of course, the library has thousands of books and journals, both in print and online, that are available for your research needs. If we don’t have it, use our Interlibrary Loan Service. We will find what you need from another library and get it to you quickly. We deliver the vast majority of items at no cost to you.

We also know that financial and technology barriers aren’t the only ones that many students experience. Over the past year, the library began an equity-minded and anti-racist audit of our formal policies, practices, and services. This ongoing effort is part of our commitment to using an equity and justice framework to guide all of the work that we do, as called for by the Equity Framework in the WSU Strategic Plan. We completed the first phase of this work by engaging in intensive learning and reflection on principles of equity and anti-racism and the historical and current library practices that create inequities and contribute to disparate outcome, especially for BIPOC students, staff, and faculty. We engaged in action-oriented learning, analyzing and revising some key library policies and practices in the areas of collection development, operations, and human resources. I invite you to read the First Year Report and provide feedback that will enable us to continue the essential work of creating more just and equitable policies and practices in the library.

Specifically, in the 2022-2023 academic year, we are committed to the following:

  • Continue the critical deconstruction of inequitable systems, policies, structures, and practices that we began in 2021.
  • Developing accountability with multiple communities, especially BIPOC students, through relationship building, listening, and action.

My library colleagues and I have made a commitment to continue this work with humility and the full openness to the accountability that it requires. I have made a personal commitment as Dean of the Library to provide the support and resources to enable the library staff and faculty to continue this essential work.

As always, please email or call me to provide feedbackon any aspect of the library. I most especially welcome conversation about what the library can do to advance equity and justice at Weber State University.

Wendy Holliday
Dean of the Library
wendyholliday@weber.edu
801-626-6404