During an award ceremony Jan. 12, Reinhold Hill, Vice Chancellor and Dean of Indiana University Columbus, announced the 2024 recipients of the Excellence in Diversity Awards: Emily Dill, IU Columbus Library Executive Director and Associate Professor, and the Bartholomew County Public Library.
IU Columbus Excellence in Diversity Awards are presented each January during the university’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration, highlighting one campus initiative and one community initiative.
These awards recognize and honor demonstrated commitment and outstanding efforts toward creating a diverse and inclusive community. Nominations are accepted for internal (on-campus) and external (off-campus) individuals, organizations, groups, projects, units, and institutions whose work during 2023 is deserving of recognition.
Campus award: Emily Dill
Emily Dill, winner of the campus Diversity Award, led a presentation and conversation about book banning on Oct. 2, engaging Columbus faculty, staff, students and local residents in this co-sponsored Banned Books Week event.
Additionally, Dill and University Library staff honor marginalized groups by creating displays of library materials to further educate, build empathy, and foster community, including their inclusion of LGBTQ+, immigrant, women, African American, and Latino stories.
Dill also provides guidance and support for research projects with students and ensures that the library is stocking the shelves with books and materials relevant to IU Columbus’ mission of “Collaboration within and across disciplines and with the community…A commitment to ensuring diversity.”
Community Award: Bartholomew County Public Library
The Community Excellence in Diversity Award was presented to Jason Hatton, Executive Director of the Bartholomew County Public Library. “The Bartholomew County Public Library has shown incredible leadership in supporting and highlighting diversity within our community,” Hill said.
This year, the library participated in or hosted events such as Teen DIY: Black History Month Collage, Columbus Pride and Freedom to Read-In. The library had a diversity audit of the books within its shelves, shared that information, and is committed to cultivating a diverse collection of materials.
The library also partnered with IU Columbus in a variety of ways to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. Each semester, Lindsey Bailey provides a read-aloud for education students and demonstrates how to ask and answer questions about diversity, equity and inclusion through children’s books. Hatton recently served on a panel at IU Columbus to discuss the BCPL book audit and the library’s role in preventing book censorship. BCPL also provides staff to serve as members of the IU Columbus Division of Education’s Community Advisory Board to address recruitment efforts to include marginalized populations in the field of education.
Hill thanked the IU Columbus Diversity Council for soliciting nominations and recommending this year’s Excellence in Diversity Award recipients. He added, “The importance of Dr. King’s messages championing systemic equality resonate as strongly today as when he first spoke them.”