INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Public Library has received Mayor Greg Ballard’s Leadership in Diversity Award for excelling in strategies that support diversity throughout the Library. The award was presented during the 12th annual Mayor’s Celebration of Diversity Awards recognizing local businesses, organizations and institutions that encourage, embrace and celebrate differences that foster a culture of diversity and inclusiveness.
The Library has a long, rich history of recognizing and responding to cultural change. Its mission and vision are to create an agile infrastructure while achieving and sustaining excellence in serving diverse urban communities. In addition to a collection of over 2.1 million items in various formats, yearly visits by over 5 million patrons, and a revised Web site that meets the expanded information needs of citizens, the Indy Library provides special services and adaptive technologies for accessing and using information with ease.
For 30 years, the Library’s staff-run African-American History Committee has addressed the information and cultural needs of the local African-American community, presenting programming which highlights the accomplishments and heritage of African-Americans. Included is the prestigious Meet the Artists exhibit, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, which showcases locally-prominent African-American artists.
Most recently, the Library has worked closely with the Mayor’s office to promote Sister City relationships with Hangzhou, China and Cologne, Germany through staff exchanges that help promote Indianapolis as a globally recognized city. This program will continue in 2013 with a city-wide reading program between Cologne and Indianapolis in which citizens will be encouraged to read and discuss the same book.
