Hanging Together: Diversifying Print Collections

Casting A Different Net

From a guest post appearing on the OCLC blog, Hanging Together:

The recent report Leading by Diversifying Collections: A Guide for Academic Library Leadership (Bledsoe, et al., Ithaka S+R, 2022) helps to illuminate some of the challenges, including: prioritizing DEI in staffing over operations, a lack of criteria for evaluating diverse collections, and overall downward pressure on collection budgets.

This brief write-up discusses approaches and practices adopted by those working in the field to ensure appropriate balance in their physical collections. The organizers conducted interviews with staff from eight different institutions. Among others, these included collection managers and selectors from the University of Texas - San Antonio, the University of Toronto, the University of Denver and Emory University.