Inclusive excellence is integral to advancing the University of Georgia's mission and is embedded throughout the University’s 2025 strategic plan. Among UGA’s goals are to “promote academic access and success for all students with particular consideration for underrepresented, rural, first-generation, and other underserved students”; to “nurture a diverse and inclusive culture of excellence in research, innovation and entrepreneurship”; and to broaden student engagement with the “diversity of Communities in Georgia and across the nation.”

The University of Georgia Libraries (inclusive of the UGA Press and Georgia Review) advance these goals by collecting, sharing, and publishing an extensive and increasingly diverse array of scholarly resources, which we work to make accessible to all of our users regardless of physical ability or other personal differences. We provide welcoming, accessible, and safe environments for study and collaborative learning. We strive to make higher education more affordable and accessible, particularly for underrepresented students, through programs that reduce student spending on expensive textbooks and through free technology lending. We partner with the Board of Regents and others to support learning among all of Georgia’s communities and across all levels of education through programs like GALILEO, the Digital Library of Georgia, Civil Rights Digital Library, and the New Georgia Encyclopedia.

In 2022, the UGA Libraries developed a Diversity & Inclusive Excellence Plan that both reflects and advances University-wide goals for diversity, inclusion, equity, and accessibility. This plan includes goals that will help guide our efforts in the months and years to come. I invite you to join us by supporting these worthy endeavors.