Racial Equity Action Plan v.2 is Published

Texas Digital Library’s Racial Equity Action Plan (REAP) represents an on-going effort to articulate the concrete measures we commit to take in order to dismantle white supremacy within our organization and associated communities. TDL recently updated the REAP after a public call for comment period. Input from TDL’s community and Governing Board was incorporated into the newly published version, which you can read here.

Read TDL’s Racial Equity Action Plan

The Racial Equity Action Plan is updated annually, at minimum, by TDL’s executive leadership and Governing Board.

Our goals are not just to address inequities in our staff organization and the broader consortium, but to help transform practice and culture in the larger higher education and cultural heritage communities in which we operate. The initial version of this plan was published in March 2021 in the TDL DSpace repository as “Texas Digital Library Anti-Racism Action Plan.”

We believe TDL’s work fundamentally promotes equity and inclusion by providing alternative models for distributing research and cultural heritage materials in ways that are more equitable worldwide. Through our commitment to open education practices and Open Access digital publishing tools, researchers and institutions can publish their work and make it freely available outside of established profit-driven systems. As a membership organization, furthermore, we are accountable to our members that fund and govern our operations — a model of governance more suited to creating equity than top-down, profit-driven models.

TDL has previously enacted policies and programs that we believe combat white supremacy, including some of the measures listed in the sections noted as “Policies and operating procedures currently in place.” It is our intent to continue such established procedures even as we assess, strengthen, and add to them. We have shown our willingness to name racism and our own organizational shortcomings. And we recognize that there is much more we can do.

Read TDL’s Racial Equity Action Plan

We commit to revisiting this plan regularly, with a goal of normalizing anti-racism action as part of on-going program assessment and planning in five main areas of our organization:

• Governance & Strategy
• Technology
• Staff & Administrative
• Events
• Member Engagement & Outreach

Additionally, we will continue to seek input and critique from our communities to strengthen our efforts and propel us forward. If you have any feedback about TDL, our Racial Equity Action Plan, or any of our services or community support offerings, please feel free to contact us at info@tdl.org or leave your feedback using our anonymous Suggestion Box.