Celebrating Diversity

We value the diverse backgrounds and talents of our staff and communities and lead and champion activities that promote and celebrate openness and inclusivity. Through our spaces, resources and activities, we aim to establish a library culture that embraces and celebrates diversity.

Celebrating Diversity Through Books and Exhibits

We believe in helping everyone connect and celebrate all the different ways they experience the world. We are proud to champion awareness months and weeks throughout the year, transforming our spaces with vibrant, ever-evolving book displays and exhibits. By careful curation of our stock, we have promoted Women’s History, Black History, Dalit Awareness, LGBT History, Pride, Roma and Gypsy Traveller Awareness, Disability History, Autism Acceptance, Neurodiversity Week and Mental Health Awareness and many more. We have supported each of these with an online library guide available through the library portal full of additional resources that can be explored further.

We work closely with Global Link, a local charity dedicated to supporting refugees and asylum seekers. This partnership allows individuals to use our library resources. Recently, our events space proudly hosted 'Escape to Safety,' an interactive exhibit that powerfully depicts the journeys of three asylum seekers finding refuge.

Our Special Collections and Archives arrange exhibitions and events to highlight various awareness days including LBGT+ History Month, Women’ History Month, and UK Disability History Month. Please look at our what's on page for more information: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/library/whats-on/exhibitions-and-displays/past-displays/

Anti–Racism Advocacy

The library has an anti-racism advocacy group that is active in four main areas: discussion and education; events and activities; information and resources; and policy, procedure and process. The group have organised intensive race awareness training for staff through Advance HE; whilst reading groups provide a safe space for staff to continue the discussion and educate themselves. Examples of books, themes and films covered in these groups since 2020 include Akala’s Natives: Race & Class in the Ruins of Empire; the 2024 Race Riots following the Southport murders and the Small Axe film Education.

The library has also partnered with local groups such as the Lancaster Black History group, to create a community collection of books, the Global Collection; and the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller community to screen the film Romany Rai. The library’s engagement with race and anti-racism has also fed into its thinking about policy and process with significant changes being made to the recruitment and selection strategy as well as a Black and Ethnic Minority Careers event both aimed at attracting job applicants from underrepresented groups. The Library committed staff time to the Race Equality Charter Teaching and Learning Committee and Institutional Self-Assessment Team and are currently working to incorporate the Bronze award action plan into their refreshed Library vision.

Graduate Traineeship

We are in the second year of our Research, Engagement, and EDI Graduate Traineeship and are now recruiting for the third year. This role was specifically designed to offer recent graduates a chance to explore various areas of a library career. When hiring, we focus on individuals with lived experience from marginalised groups, and we have developed dedicated resources to help the smooth transition from student life to their first office-based role.

A large focus of this role is delivering EDI activities, with the freedom for the graduate trainee to explore different personal interests within EDI, such as commemorating White Ribbon Day, creating an event to highlight neurodiversity in careers across the university, and helping create bookstands. Both graduate trainees have successfully moved on from their time with us, one into further education and the most recent to another engagement-based role external to the university. Both spoke highly of the confidence and the skills that they developed through their time here. It has been remarkable how each graduate trainee has contributed something entirely different, highlighting the rich diversity we encourage within our library.

“This role has given me a constant space for growth, learning and seeking opportunities. Through the trust and support provided to me by my colleagues, I have felt empowered to share my thoughts and ideas about my own hopes for our library and how I wish for us to keep working towards making it a space that extends beyond just academia, and is a safe and inclusive environment for all staff, students and public - and especially for minoritised communities”.

A quote from Fabiha Askari, Graduate Trainee, Lancaster University

English Language Support for International Postgraduate Students

Within the Library we have a vast array of opportunities for students to develop their English during their studies at Lancaster. The English for Academic Purposes Learning Developers create supportive and inclusive workshops/courses, discussion groups and communities to ensure that we celebrate the diverse backgrounds of all our students at Lancaster University.

An area the team has been developing and building on is the support available for postgraduate students such as ‘Dissertation Conversations’ and ‘Presenting your Research’. The dissertation conversations are a series of small group sessions where PG students can connect with others about their experiences of undertaking a dissertation in English. Each session looks at a different stage of the dissertation process and provides a space to explore approaches. The ‘Presenting your Research’ course provides a space for students to reflect on their experiences of giving presentations in English plus students have the opportunity to give a presentation on any aspect of their research or studies and receive feedback from the tutor and peers. The presentations showcase the richness of the research our postgraduates are involved in, spanning a range of topics, contexts, and countries.

Diversity of Spaces

We aim to provide a variety of study spaces in the Library, recognizing that students' needs change as they progress through their studies at Lancaster University. Throughout our library vision, we have expanded this range to include our family study space. This space allows users to study while their children (up to age 12) play or read, with toys and books provided.

In the library we look to consider the wellbeing of our students. The FeelGood hub is where students can take a break from their studies, look at craft, cookery or travel books even do a jigsaw. There are books supporting mental health and other conditions that our user may want to explore or find out more about. It is also a space where students can find out about other services on campus.

We have also introduced a board game collection to the Library which was introduced as part of a course along with a regular board game evening during term time. The games can be used by all students in the library for some time away from their studies.

“Excellent space - great sets of toys, activities and books available in the room”

A quote from Quote from a family room user

Staff Development Group

Throughout the vision period, the Staff Development Group (SDG) brought together colleagues from across the Library for career development activities, knowledge exchange and to celebrate our own success. Key sub-theme contributions came from the Anti-Racism Advocacy Group, and the Wellbeing Group. One notable activity was the Midday Seminars series, which covered topics from internal reflections on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), to invite guests from City of Sanctuary and Global Link to speak about Refugees. Coffee & Career Stories events have always proved popular, with colleagues welcoming the opportunity to hear the different journeys taken and connect with people they may not work with day-to-day.

Perhaps our biggest SDG undertaking each year was our Celebrating Success event. Colleagues were nominated under categories that highlighted individual and team contributions, nationally and internationally. Celebrations of conference talks, events organising, publications, specialist training, awards and more. From taking on the new role of LGBT+ Staff Network Chair to gaining ALDinHe funded research project exploring the experience of peer writing mentoring in Higher Education and the impact on writing, teaching and the emotional impact, staff shared showcases of their work, inspiring others and demonstrating what an outstanding Library Team we have at Lancaster.