Meaningful Reads is a celebratory UW Tacoma Library program first envisioned in 2017 and launched with an inaugural blog post in April 2019. Initially modeled after a long-running faculty recognition event at the University of Arkansas, the core of the program focused on inviting newly promoted or tenured faculty to submit a book title along with a short paragraph describing how the book impacted their personal life or career. The book submissions and responses, collected in the spring and shared in blog posts throughout the following academic year, offered a rich set of experiences demonstrating how the act of reading can inspire thoughtful reflection, new interests, or even new life directions.
Program Expansion
We have immensely enjoyed inviting and sharing these faculty recommended titles; however, a number of factors have prompted us to reimagine the program framework and goals. The March 2020 COVID closures meant that library communications immediately scoped to core building and service changes and gave us time to pause and think about our programming. The experience of more than a year of remote work has highlighted the need for even greater mindfulness in building an interconnected community. Finally, and most importantly, we have been wrestling with concerns raised about the equity of a program where only a handful of people on campus have the opportunity to participate.
The past months of remote work, coupled with seeing the need for community expressed in other programming initiatives such as RealLit and Staff Reads, have provided both opportunity and inspiration for reshaping Meaningful Reads. We spent time thinking about how this program could be expanded to build a sense of broader community across our campus, and the most robust and authentic way to do this is to open it up to the entire campus community: students, staff, and faculty. Inviting everyone to share texts that connect to their achievement and joy in higher education can serve to highlight intersecting identities and foster inclusion. We value your voice and experiences, and we want to hear about what inspires and motivates you!
We are excited to launch the newly renamed and reimagined Campus Meaningful Reads!
Goals
In the coming weeks, we will begin to post submissions that we have received from faculty promoted over the last two years, while also launching the re-envisioned program and a new call for participation. The reframed goals of Campus Meaningful Reads are as follows:
To build a UW Tacoma collection that highlights the texts — books, articles, or creative writings — that have been meaningful to members of our campus community.
To grow spaces where students see their voices represented next to staff and faculty.
To understand how scholarship and creative outputs have impacted us in our lives.
Process
The UW Tacoma Library will send our regular reminders via uwtline and the Library blog post three times a year during Fall, Winter and Spring quarters .
We will ask that participants share a text (books, articles, poems, short stories, etc.) that has influenced them personally. Additionally, we will ask for a short paragraph about why that text has been meaningful.
These submissions will be published on the UW Tacoma Library’s blog post.
The UW Tacoma Library will purchase suggested texts as the budget and licensing restrictions allow.
Whenever possible, the UW Tacoma Library will create displays highlighting the texts that have impacted our community.
Thank you for your participation in this community project: we are looking forward to hearing about what inspires and motivates you!
Interested in participating in Campus Meaningful Reads? Let us know by filling out this participation form!
