SBU Libraries received 2025 Library Excellence in Access and Diversity Award

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Sunny Chung

Stony Brook University Libraries has received the 2025 Library Excellence in Access and Diversity Award. The LEAD Award recognizes academic libraries’ programs and initiatives that encourage and support DEIA across campus.

Our Libraries are not only committed on paper to DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility) by making it an integral part of its new strategic plan but are also actively implementing DEIA initiatives in hiring and retention of staff, collections, teaching techniques, service models, and programming. Staff feel empowered to embrace diversity and inclusion in their practices and decisions. Teaching librarians have taken training on Universal Design for Learning that they have incorporated into their teaching practices.

University Libraries hosted events like the Human Library, AAS Student Research Symposium, AI in DEIA: Thinking Beyond Bias, and the AAPI Heritage Month Student Showcase.

Additionally, University Libraries received a Collection Equity Grant from the NNLM and were able to purchase 40+ ebooks on graphic medicine, which was highlighted during the LGBTQIA+ History Month series in October 2024. For the past few years, the library, in partnership with the Department of Africana Studies has received funding from the Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives (DI3) to acquire a subscription to The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. The HistoryMakers was founded to address the lack of documentation and preservation of the African American historical record. We diversified the Creative Writing collection at the Southampton Campus with titles from underrepresented authors.