Visual Diversity Committee

Owned by Linda Daniel
Last updated: Jun 10, 2021
2 min read

Charge 

Reporting to EG and liaising with library committees and departments as appropriate, the team will develop and implement a plan to better visually represent diverse racial and cultural histories, achievements, and perspectives within Duke University Library spaces – including Perkins & Bostock, Rubenstein, the Marine Lab Library, and the East Campus Libraries. The group will draw on visual content from DUL’s collections, including photography, art, rare materials, and historical documents. The group will review potential spaces across the Libraries and their use, attributes, and limitations; determine the types of visual content available; identify visual content in our collections by developing an inclusive process for staff and the DUL community to suggest content; develop criteria to be used when selecting content; determine costs, necessary treatment, and where outsourcing would be needed; develop a timeline and a series of small projects that can be implemented individually over time; and create a PR and communications plan to make staff and users aware of changes. 

Timeline

The team plans to produce deliverables by the end of calendar year 2021, with some initial pilot areas to occur earlier in the year.

Background

This cross-departmental committee was formed to address recommendations from DUL’s 2020 Anti-Racism Roadmap and the recent DUL study,“Understanding the Experiences and Needs of Black Students at Duke.” The two goals that prompted the formation of the committee are: “visually celebrate and affirm racial diversity” and “increase portraits, artwork, photographs, or other visual representations of people of color to balance the number of portraits of white people in library spaces, including the Lilly Library.”

Membership

  1. Meg Brown (Exhibits, committee lead) 
  2. Kelley Lawton (East Campus Libraries)
  3. Cortney Hatchell (Security and Facilities)
  4. Linda Daniel (RIS)
  5. Naomi Nelson (EG liaison)

Criteria for prioritizing spaces:

  1. Provides high visibility
  2. Prioritizes at least one space in each library, as well as staff areas in Smith and the LSC
  3. Appeals to at least one of the Libraries’ audiences (students, faculty, staff, visitors)
  4. Responds to complaints or requests received in the student and staff surveys, for example:
    1. In the student survey, there was a recommendation to “Increase portraits, artwork, photographs, or other visual representations of people of color to balance the number of portraits of white people in library spaces, including the renovated Lilly Library”
    2. In the library staff survey, there was a comment: “I had a recent conversation with a BIPOC library worker who pointed out that changing the pictures on the wall of the Gothic Reading Room wouldn’t improve their daily life of working in the library...”
    3. Responds to needs specifically expressed by library staff
  5. Considers current aesthetics and physical limitations of the space
  6. Considers cost, time, and resources needed (we will balance some different size projects and varying types of rooms or spaces)

Reports