Last week, we saw an election unlike anything that any of us alive today could have imagined even a few years ago.

Some have used the rhetoric that emerged during the campaign and afterward as a legitimization for disrespectful speech and violent action towards those that they do not understand and therefore fear. As one colleague put it, we are a nation experiencing a case of road rage, where rage has replaced reasoned, open, and honest discourse.

The UCR Library affirms the campus’ commitment to diversity and inclusion and its role in ensuring that that commitment is fulfilled. We also stand for reasoned, thoughtful, and respectful discourse and the free exchange of high-quality information. We value the multiplicity of viewpoints, insights, and lived experiences that make the academic, professional, and personal experience at UCR so rich for our students, faculty, and staff.

The role of the Library has been and always will be to connect people, ideas, and information. This is a time for us to come together to shine the light of reason and fair play on  “information” being shared via social media and other communications platforms that has not faced the test of journalistic or academic integrity and that has not been edited, fact checked, vetted, or otherwise challenged effectively for factual inaccuracies.

The Library can and will play a critical role in preserving and extending our democratic ideals where people of all backgrounds, identities, socioeconomic levels, and places of origin have an equal footing and an equal voice in the democratic processes that have set this country apart from so many others for so long. Libraries in this country have stood from their beginnings as places where democratic ideals are protected, shared, and nurtured. This is not the time for us to stop doing so.

We have an opportunity to be part of the solution to pull this country back from despair, lawlessness, and discord. That doesn’t mean that we have to always agree, far from it. But it does mean that we have to use our skills and abilities to stand for our ideals.

Everyone in the UCR Library community is welcome as a valued member, regardless of race, ethnicity, country of origin, religion, socio-economic status, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, visible and non-visible disability, or any other characteristic. Please join me in affirming that it is our duty to continue to work together to ensure the safety and well-being -- physically, emotionally, and academically -- of all of the students, faculty, staff, and community members who work, study, or use the UCR Library.

Sincerely,

Steven Mandeville-Gamble, University Librarian