The Library is Here For You
If you, like many of us here at Clark’s library, are feeling fearful of what the next four years will bring, we believe that now is as good a time as any to remind our community what we stand for.
The American Library Association (ALA) is an organization that actively advocates and educates in defense of intellectual freedom—the rights of library users to read, seek information, and speak freely as guaranteed by the First Amendment. They state that “Intellectual freedom is a core value of the library profession, and a basic right in our democratic society”.
The ALA has a Bill of Rights which lists the basic policies that guide library services across the country. They include Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights to help you read and understand how libraries can best serve you.
Here in the library, we want you to feel cared for. We have an equity-focused strategic plan through which we “work to eliminate barriers and provide equitable information access through our services, resources, and instruction”. We make it our goal to:
- provide a welcoming and supportive environment for the Clark College community,
- acquire, curate, organize, and facilitate universal access to physical and online resources,
- teach and advocate for information literacy across the college’s physical and virtual locations.
These goals align with the values of Clark’s Social Equity Framework, Abolitionist Framework, Collective Care, Inclusive Practices, and Transformative Mindset.
As always, we encourage you to stay curious and never stop asking questions.
