Belonging

A Library for Everyone

The Northeastern University Library believes that libraries play a special role in welcoming every individual and community, and ensuring that everyone feels that they belong in our institution.

The library provides services to all members of the Northeastern Community. This includes but isn’t limited to members of historically marginalized groups, such as the LGBTQ+ community. Commitment to this central value, which opposes all forms of exclusion and discrimination, comes in the form of consistent, concrete actions in our daily work as individuals and through large-scale initiatives across the organization in order to improve our library and the communities it serves, within and beyond the university. Among other activities, we give special attention to:

• Building an  Archives and Special Collections that collaborates on a peer-to-peer basis with social justice organizations in the Greater Boston Area, and that focuses on preserving and presenting the history and culture of groups that are largely underrepresented in university collections;
• Constantly reviewing and expanding our library’s resources to reflect authors and creators from the full breadth of our society and world, and to ensure that we have a collection of books and media that can help students and researchers understand and counteract systematic oppression;
• Designing information systems that encode and support belonging, including through our library platforms and projects that involve technical aspects, such as the Boston Research Center;
• Providing a welcoming environment and attracting a diverse staff into what traditionally has not been an inclusive or diverse field.

We understand that this active stance requires a regular, critical self-assessment and transparency. This statement will be updated with new activities as our library advances toward these goals.

See also:

Library locations: All-gender restrooms are provided whenever possible in library buildings and patrons are encouraged to use whichever bathrooms they are most comfortable with. To learn more about physical facilities, see information on Snell Library (Boston) and F. W. Olin (Oakland).

Privacy: The Library is committed to protecting the privacy of library users. See the library’s privacy policy. Please note that individuals physically in the library building may be monitored by other university systems, including security camera video footage and card swipe data, which is collected throughout the campus.