Optimizing Library Services — Library Collections and DEIA: Progress and Opportunities By Ms. Julia Gelfand (Applied Sciences, Engineering, & Public Health Librarian, UCI Libraries, University of California – Irvine, USA) <jgelfand@uci.edu> and Ms. Sarah Lester (Librarian, College of Engineering, Kennedy Library, California Polytechnic State University) <salester@calpoly.edu> Column Editors: Ms. Genevieve Robinson (Director of Content Solutions, IGI Global) <grobinson@igi-global.com> and Ms. Cheyenne Heckermann (Marketer, IGI Global) <checkermann@igi-global.com> Column Editor’s Note: Recognizing the continued challenges librarians face around the necessity for implementing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA), Julia Gelfand, Applied Sciences, Engineering, & Public Health Librarian, and Sarah Lester, College of Engineering Librarian, write about progress and opportunities in integrating DEIA in library practices and selection decisions. As a stalwart supporter of the DEIA movement, IGI Global can collaborate with institutions on transformative agreements in support of social justice, and offers a selection of DEIA titles, including our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion e-Book Collection. 40% of IGI Global’s researchers come from non-western countries. — CH & GR
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arlier columns have addressed different aspects of how to optimize library services that will promote, encourage and support Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) and whether library collections are indeed acquiring diverse content. By combining those themes, nearly a year later, after two years of a pandemic, and the social uprising following the murder of George Floyd, we ask what current actions are being taken in libraries and whether the DEIA movement is indeed showing any new focus or differences in relationships with publishers and information providers. More recently, we saw some of the controversies erupting across the national horizon when Senators sitting on the Judiciary Committee questioned a new Supreme Court Justice nominee about content found in school and public libraries because of the covered social issues. These Senators cannot imagine how young and old Americans are currently struggling with these stories and information, and they are calling for the removal of these texts. This narrow determination of why citizens can’t choose what sources they want to read, rather than have access to only materials that are pre-selected by a radical few who share a belief system that may be in dire opposition to one’s own values is mystifying and politically biased. Banned Book Week is another example of noting what titles and content are being removed from the public by those that think that they can determine what readers can choose to read. In their 2021 ten most challenged books list, the ALA reported the highest number of books banned in a single year (729) since 2020. By celebrating and sharing those titles, including works by beloved authors such as Maya Angelou, it allows people to understand the ways banning eliminates readers from having choices to learn, explore and make their own decisions about the lives they want to live. The entire notion of not giving the public the choice of what they want to read at the time of need dilutes the democratic principles of public education, lifelonglearning and responses to inquisitiveness. The result increases limits and restricts access to issues of social concern, identity
44 Against the Grain / June 2022
models, and other human conditions with which not everyone is always comfortable. This is especially troubling in what we like to consider a safe environment: the library. Where else do people go but to libraries and published scholarship to read and explore more about whatever they choose to learn? The roles of libraries are changing as libraries define their sense of relevance to their stakeholders, be it elected civic officials, library trustees and regents, and school and campus administrators. It is more than just library collections that must be addressed by taking actions changing the balance of equity, diversity and inclusion in libraries and in publishing. When referring to library collections, we need to consider the entire infrastructure of where those collections reside, what they contain, who selects and processes them, how they are made accessible and marketed to readers and from where they came. The latter refers to the publishing world which also shares some of the weaknesses of a large global enterprise in that it is led by mostly highly educated white leaders. The ALA Policy Manual states: “Diversity is a fundamental value of association and its members, and is reflected in its commitment to recruiting people of color with disabilities to the profession and to the promotion and development of library collections and services for all people.” Addressing disparities among role models in academic settings will contribute to advancing opportunities for new generations of students to consider options for their own careers and also for giving back or paying forward the chances they can realize when demographic disparities are reduced. Mentorship goes a long way in promoting chances for career exploration and advancement. Together libraries and publishers have begun to discuss such concerns by assessing their lists and looking inward at their staffs and decisionmakers, holding webinars and conferences that look at how systemic some of these issues are and what can remedy them. The entire scholarly communications horizon suggests that by embracing more openness with structures, procedures and outputs, barriers are reduced and access increases. Amy Brandt, Director of the MIT Press, stated at the 2020 NISO Plus Conference, “Open is not enough,” as we must “question the ownership and diversity of research infrastructure. The future of knowledge depends on building an open and diverse research infrastructure.” Library collections have morphed to different heights during the pandemic with greater reliance on digital resources and responding to how to best reflect the values inspired by diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA). As many libraries continue to develop strategic planning processes and incorporate a DEIA component, we are observing how this contributed to actionable work in libraries. Writing from the
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