NMPL Receives Indiana Humanities Racial Equity Grant

NMPL is a proud recipient of the 2024 Advancing Racial Equity Collection Development Grant from Indiana Humanities. Multiple libraries, schools, universities and nonprofit organizations across Indiana have been awarded Advancing Racial Equity Collection Development grants, which supply funds to add to their circulating collections digital or physical resources addressing topics such as race, systemic racism and the Black experience in Indiana and beyond.

The Advancing Racial Equity Collection Development grants, first offered in response to the 2020 murder of George Floyd and ensuing protests, address the increased demand on libraries for materials on the subject of racial equity. This special grant was made possible thanks to the generosity of Lilly Endowment, Inc.

With these funds, NMPL has purchased almost 50 new adult, young adult, and children’s titles to add to the collection, many of them in Spanish.

“As a library, we pride ourselves on being a welcoming and inclusive space for all members of our community,” said Jeanna Hann, Adult Department Manager. “We believe that everyone should be able to find representation and resources that reflect their cultural background and language preferences. Currently, our library houses a small Spanish section, but out of the 68,096 items in our collection, only 92 adult titles are in Spanish. Our children’s Spanish section currently houses 370 titles. We were excited to use this grant to build out this important collection.”

“As we collaborate with local organizations to better serve and reach the Spanish language speakers in our community, it is essential that we have a robust and up-to-date collection of resources to offer,” said Andrea Zwiebel, Library Director. “This grant not only enhances our library’s ability to meet the needs of our diverse population, but also demonstrates our commitment to promoting diversity, inclusivity, and cultural representation within our library’s walls.”

These books are available to check out at the library with your NMPL library card.