Intersectionality Information Alliance: A Collaborative Collection Development Pilot Program

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Group 4 Final Project April Parker Katie Stollery Michael Davis Touger Vang

The Intersectionality Information Alliance: A Collaborative Collection Development Pilot Program. 1. Describe the organization and the industry. (Who are your users?) The basis of this project does not support just one library, but three. Collaborative Collection Development is based off the idea that libraries work together to share resources and allow its users access to more than their local library’s offerings. In this project, three libraries are the focus of the CCD plan. They are the Baynard Rustin Center at Guilford College, the Women’s & Gender Studies Library at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Reference & Lending Library. The partnership between these three libraries is significant because it will broaden the resources available at each while being able to maintain the identity and special focus of the individual library. Even though these three libraries focus separately on LGBTQ, women’s and gender studies, or black feminism, they have many resources that are cross curricular and can benefit all programs through collaborative collection development. Baynard Rustin Center at Guilford College The Baynard Rustin Center for LGBTQA for Activism Education and Reconciliation is a small library (around 400 titles) that supports the center’s mission of advocating for LGBTQ rights at campus, local, state, and national levels. They want to provide a safe and caring space to allow practical, logistical, and spiritual support for Quaker-based activism. The BRC also focuses on educating by creating programming, classes, and conferences for the community as well as fostering reconciliation of phobias between the heterosexual and LGBTQ communities. The users of this library are students and community members who need resources to assist with studies and research of LQBTQ literature.


Women’s and Gender Studies at UNC Greensboro The women’s and gender studies program at UNC Greensboro has amassed a 300+ special collection of books to support their growing program. The program’s central mission is to help students understand and analyze the role that gender, race and class all play in the history of politics, education, art, sports, health, and family. The program started in 1972 as a way of addressing the lack of perspective in curricula outside the scope of privileged men. The program offers an undergraduate major and minor as well as a graduate certificate and MA degree. This library helps support the Women’s and Gender studies students from undergraduate to postgraduate level. Resources are available to UNCG students and are available to browse on Library Thing (http://www.librarything.com/catalog/UNCG-WGS-Library). Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Reference & Lending Library This library was built out of the personal book collections of Dr. Alexis Gumbs and Julia Wallace. The collection contains fiction, nonfiction, reference, and poetry resources all pertaining to black feminism, sexuality, and politics. The library is open to community members to research and explore books and articles on topics for the empowerment and inspiration of its users. The lending library is also part of the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist School that hosts classes, workshops, salons, and after school programs all in support of promoting black feminist thought. The library is open and available to all community members on Sundays or whenever there are events at the Eternal Summer School. Only part of the collection is lendable but all resources are accessible for reviewing or scanning. Information pulled from: BRC website http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bayard-Rustin-Center-for-Lgbtq a-Activism-Education-and-Reconciliation/178474272198950?sk=info WGS website http://wgs.uncg.edu/ http://www.facebook.com/uncgwgs/info


http://www.librarything.com/catalog/UNCG-WGS-Library Eternal Summer Black Feminist Reference & Lending Library Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Reference & Lending Library brochure https://sites.google.com/site/bibliotherapyintheboro/get-a-perscripti on--locations/black-feminist-lending-library

2. Budgetary projections for the library/service being proposed. In our proposal, we hope that our Collaborative Collection Development plan for the special libraries will be a truly collaborative effort among the three participants. The proposed budgetary projections will have limited to no cost for the libraries. But in the event that we do not have a truly collaborative effort among the three participants, our budgetary projections should be as followed: Personnel: We proposed that the first year of coordinating this CCD plan, the Women’s and Gender Studies Library at UNCG hire a graduate assistant to help coordinated this collaboration. Per UNCG Graduate School, the cost of a Graduate Assistantship is $6,000.00 plus tuition and waiver which comes to $4,399.00 plus a $600 for health insurance. Therefore, the total cost to hire a Graduate Assistant to help runs this CCD will be $10,999.00 per academic year. Postal/Delivery Services: While our CCD plan required check-in and check-out of material between the three partners, we hope to use existing couriers within each of the partners’ shipping and receiving system. Within the university system, there are already existing couriers that will not cost any additional money to the university among the agreements within the sixteen university campuses. However, in the event that we have to use postal services to ship material back and for, we have decided to contract with Dynamex. Dynamex (https://www.dynamex.com/) is a local same day delivery between Greensboro and Durham with a reasonable pricing. With a fixed


rate, we hope to keep the costs of shipping the collections back and forth as cheap as possible. After contacting Dynamex on their rate, we budget for $8,500.00. This will cover an annual service of delivering collections on a daily basis for a fix time and point-to-point delivery among the three sites. For a total of $19,499.00 for the first academic year, our group hopes to have this CCD plan in place and running among the three site. Funding As per the Collaborative Collection Development a Practical Guide for Your Library, “Whether consortia are chartered or not, collaboration is a heavily self-supported endeavor. Although many groups report multiple funding arrangements, 75 percent of all projects receive funding from member institutions. Twenty-eight percent receive government funding, and 23 percent have obtained grant funding.” Seeking out grants, and other funds is essential to the program. The first funds that the current UNCG WGS Library consultant/intern will apply for the Sally and Alan Cone Student Grant for Special Projects in WGS to support the IIA: CCDP.. The UNCG WGS website advises, “Each year, grants of up to $500 will be awarded to UNCG students to support projects in women’s and gender studies that may require a limited amount of special funding. Possible uses for the grants include, but are not limited to, travel for research or artistic purposes, conference attendance, research/creative project support in the form of supplies, photocopying, payment for laboratory participants or other expenses, or support of a community service project or internship. Preference will be given to those students who have not received the award previously. Students may not receive more than one special projects grant per year. Applications may not be made for reimbursement of expenditures from the past unless the applicant is in a process where expenses related to the project need to be prepaid. Requests for travel must be made prior to the trip.”

3. Your presentation should indicate any specialized needs (software,training, equipment.) that you may want to propose. The Collaborative Collection Development plan, implemented through this project, has a main goal of allowing patron access to


these rare resources. The Bayard Rustin Center at Guilford College, The Women & Genders Studies Library at UNCG, and the Eternal Summer of the Black Feminist Reference & Lending are all established centers in their own rights. To accommodate the wonderful selections, each center has specific needs that have to be addressed in order to make sure each patron receives friendly, but accurate services. In relation to software, all three of these libraries feature user friendly library circulation platforms to circulate material. Also, interlibrary loan assistants are vital in making sure that this service is successful. Their services will be the most in demand for making sure that each patron gets access to the resources from each library. While all the libraries feature adequate spaces to house their collective resources, and appropriate technological and equipment choices, the biggest specialized needs would be to further train employees on how to work with patrons on what some may consider “sensitive� materials. To assist with sharing and distribution of resources across the three libraries, each library would benefit from the acquisition of scanners to enable them faster turnover of requests. Training will be necessary of staff that might not be familiar with tools already in place at all three libraries. All three collections utilize the online tool Library Thing for cataloging purposes. Because both the staff and patrons will heavily use this tool at all three libraries, workshops and training will be implemented to ensure ease-of-use for all involved. An example presentation on using the Women’s and gender studies can be found in the appendix of this document.

4. Indication of what services and benefits the library/service you are proposing is going to provide to the organization. The Pilot Plan Proposal: The Intersectionality Information Alliance (IIA): A Collaborative Collection Development (CCD) Program is proposed to be a pilot program, at least six months to fully experience the mutual benefits of this interlibrary loan system. Essentially, the plan is to create an informal interlibrary loan (ILL) agreement between the UNCG WGS Library, the BRC at Guilford College and the Eternal Summer Lending Library of Durham, all in North Carolina. The ILL arrangement would consist of materials being


sought after by the user, requested and conveniently delivered within a reasonable time frame. Ideally, the library consultant/graduate assistant/student worker would be able to travel via car from Guilford College to UNCG and vice versa on a weekly basis, checkout time could be three weeks with one renewal. The potential cost for the exchanges amongst the Eternal Summer Lending Library would be for a courier service delivery.. It makes sense to support the exchange for those materials to be made electronically and then via mail due to the fact that this community space is also a personal residence and to avoid the public and security concerns this would be an ideal arrangement. Patrons would search collection/locate resources by: · Review LibraryThing catalogs to search · Call libraries with name of the book · Librarians/ Other places can Call with call # and Librarian can shelf read for availability · In Person Shelf Reading for Guilford and UNCG WGS campuses Guilford/WGS uncirculated library items can be used in house · If individuals are off campus, then ILL delivery will be implemented. Afterwards, patrons would then fill out an ILL placed on each participant's website and the institution will send the request accordingly. A library committee consisting of faculty, staff, alumni, and community members should be formed for each organization that is involved. The committee will further develop the collective mission and goals, which in its simplest form should advanced the research and exploration of feminist and queer theory and history. Further purchasing should be based on expressed need, assessment, donation, and as per patron request, potential boundaries regarding collection development could be restricted mildly based on subject expertise. Inquiries, and request should be documented within the checkout logs of each IIA partner. “Another strategy used by groups in the formative stages of a partnership is to engage the services of a consultant. In 1985, four public library districts in Colorado formed a consortium called APAL (Arapahoe Public Access to Libraries) and hired a contractor to develop a CCD plan. Using ALA’s Guidelines for Collection Development, librarians worked with the contractor on collection and use analysis. Participants collected data and calculated a budget for cooperative purchases, determining each library’s level of responsibility for funding.” A fuller assessment should be conducted by a library consultant and customer feedback/satisfaction survey should be acquired post the initial launch and then towards the


conclusion of the initial pilot time period (suggested six months) and be valued as a vital component of the shared experience. The IIA should plan to meet quarterly, but converse fairly regularly and be excited and committed to do so to display investment and build relationships amongst each other. An informal agreement would be very flexible, negotiable, and subject to change as needed with open dialogue about any necessary changes. All of the organizations described have a fixed space and shelf availability as the collections are housed in an average room size library. Each participant also has only been launched within the last year, and has limited funds for collection building. The IIA will increase each library’s access to more titles and resources without additional cost, or demand for expansion or relocation. This arrangement is ideal and has potential to result in external funding as unique initiatives are often supported, “One of the most dramatic advantages of geography is financial: collaboration among academic institutions within a political jurisdiction has proven effective for generating CCD funding…The Minnesota legislature actually mandated formation of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System, reinforcing the fact that when collaboration starts at the level of library funding agents, the potential for success increases dramatically.” The very nature of this radically untraditional service seeks to improve a disconnection between local resources, deepen the connection amongst communities that are performing comparable work and support these subject areas. The WGS Library, the Bayard Rustin Center collection, and the Eternal Summer Lending Library all collect marginalized literature, which have been historically hidden amongst larger collections. Building a unified interlibrary loan system is ideal to eradicate counterproductive practices, also “by continuing to buy separately, we will each buy much less. And, if we do not coordinate, will will probably duplicate each other much more.” The IIA: CCD program is a deviation from autonomous collection development which structure alleviates the pressure of attempting to build adequate independent collections. This consortium is ideal as it is formed on the basis of geographic convenience, function, and cross curriculum/disciplinary subjects making for a sustainable optimal endeavor. Furthermore, as educational institutions, it is not responsible to rely on other neighboring colleges and universities to supply all necessary resources. Coming together in this collaborative collection development project will undoubtedly improve access to existing materials, and assist in the communities familiarity of each partners holdings. These monies can in turn be reallocated to support other purchases, services, and programming. All three potential partners have catalogs using LibraryThing. This


increases access exponentially as the can be easily listed as “friend” institutions where members/students can view each collection and determine if a necessary source is available at either participating library. After paying the $25 lifetime membership cost, the basic catalog will not cost anything additionally. LibraryThing uses folksonomy, a form of social tagging as a way of classifying books. Participants are able to apply their natural language to “tag” a book as opposed to using very strict and problematic Library of Congress subject headings. The IIA suggested partners all combat subject accessibility issues as it pertains to marginalized literature. Many tags make historically hidden narratives visible what LC subject headings have subsequently suppressed. LC has been criticized for being slow to move on updating subject headings. As communities and individuals alike are reclaiming cultural terminology, and demanding the right to self-identify without restriction building community resources can assist in creating a collective socio-historical memory, where race, gender, religion, sexuality, gender expression and all of their intersections can be represented. As libraries, our mutual missions is to serve our communities, and at its core values to provide accessible, and diverse materials, and culturally competent and stellar customer service. The collaboration will assist in fulfilling these very basic needs, as a result there will be fewer gaps in our collection if the alternative space holds additional and complementary resources. We cannot be arrogant to think we as stand alone institution can fill the needs of all patrons, they demand is by far too complex, and diverse. That is not realistic, and even the largest libraries have some shortcomings in being reflective of an entire population let alone trying to represent movements of people that consist of minorities within a minority populace. Instead library users will become familiar with several local collections and will be less likely to be turned away by the library as a result of an absent material, in fact they will potentially be more satisfied as it will be readily and expeditiously delivered upon request. Also with increasing trust that libraries will fulfill their needs patrons will develop a sense of trust which will promote the libraries as a community space, and generate a sense of belonging and a “sense of place” as per McMillan and Chavis (1986), “the four building blocks of a community are membership, influence, integration and fulfillment of needs.” Using this concept and foundation for the program will build a stronger community and the libraries will be the heart. The IIA: CCD program is a deviation from autonomous collection development which structure alleviates the pressure of attempting to build adequate independent collections. This consortium is ideal as it is formed on the basis of geographic convenience, function,


and cross curriculum/disciplinary subjects making for a sustainable optimal endeavor.

5. Provide a core list of 25 resources that you would add to this new library or provide as supporting documentation for your new service. For each resource you should have a supporting statement next to it explaining why it is important Arondekar, Anjalis. For the Record: On Sexuality and the Colonial Archive in India Anjalis Arondekars chapters of For The Record: On Sexuality and the Colonial Archive in India addresses what is lost in the records and archives regarding sexuality, pointing out the cultures preference of “historical invisibility”. The work traces colonial archives to bring forth the stories of the culture that have been lost due to language, or suppression. The book is urgently needed in the WGS collection as it is a required text for the Critical Sexuality Studies and Queer Theory class.

Baxandall, R. F., and L. Gordon. Dear sisters, dispatches from the women's liberation movement. New York: Basic Books (AZ), 2002. Dear Sisters is a collection of documents such as songs, leaflets, cartoons, position papers that chronicles the history of the womens’ liberation movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s. This work depicts the people, places, and organization that embodied the movements as it applied to health, work and family. This important text is a required text for a core women and gender studies class offered at UNCG, and should be included as a part of the reference section of the library to assure students access to necessary class material. Beam, Joseph. In the Life: A Black Gay Anthology. In the life features 25 essays where writers express two kinds of differences -– both black and gay—in modern day America. Though all different in form of expression, these pieces come together to declare that the contributors are black men who are proudly gay and proud to share their lives, visions and loves.


Braxton, Joanne, and McLaughlin, Andree Nicola (Editors). Wild Women in the Whirlwind: Afra-American Culture and the Contemporary Literary Renaissance. Wild Women is a collection of 20 essays from critics, scholars, and activists honoring the new renaissance of literary work from African-American women. The essays explore everything from historical discussions to critical theory on the important roll of black American women writers. The book also includes a comprehensive bibliography of works from prominent black writers from 1970 to present. Collins, Patricia Hill. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Black Feminist Thought is a must need for these collections. The book is a primer on the history and framework of black feminism. Looking at the work of Angela Davis, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde, and many others, the author provides the reader a rich history of fiction, poetry, and music to explore the revolution that is black feminism. The book is still as relevant today as it was when it was originally published in 1990. Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality. 1. New York: Random House, 1978. Michel Foucault argues in this series that during the eighteenth and nineteenth century “peoples identities became increasingly tied to their sexuality”. The first volume, The Will to Knowledge explores his argument that sexuality was discussed heavily during the 17th to mid-20th century contrary to what the “repressive hypothesis” of western society upholds. This work is necessary because it too is a required text for a core class and should be readily accessible to all students and a part of the reserve section of the library. Furthermore, to offer documentation of contrast of the majority perspective will trouble the lens of those who were socialized to believe one central perspective. Gates, Henry Louis (Editor) . Reading Black, Reading Feminist: A Critical


Anthology Libraries looking for a comprehensive work on African-American women’s writing need this anthology in their collection. The book offers perspectives not only from African-American women, but from contributors of various races, genders, and sexual-orientations. The book provides in-depth analysis of 18th century poetry to new thought on Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and everything in between. Grahn, Judy. Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds. Judy Grahn’s book focuses on the history and folklore of queer culture. She investigates the enormous oppression and marginalization of queer culture throughout history while also telling moving stories about queer tradition and ancestors. The book looks at the past, but also the future of where queer society is moving within the context of heterosexual culture. Halperin, David M. One Hundred Years of Homosexuality: and Other Essays on Greek Love. Halperin's subject is the erotic nature between men in ancient Greece. Arguing that the modern concept of "homosexuality" is an inadequate tool for the interpretation of these features of sexual life in antiquity, Halperin offers an alternative account that accords greater prominence to the indigenous terms in which sexual experiences were constituted in the ancient Mediterranean world. Hewitt, N. A. No permanent waves, recasting histories of u.s. feminism. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers Univ Pr, 2012. Print. This work is a compilation of seventeen essays (both original and reprinted) addresses aspects of the women’s movements in the United States throughout the early nineteenth century to present day. This book not only depicts the history of U.S feminism but also illuminates several diverse perspectives and new evidence on how time, race, religion, class, sexuality, occupation and generation relates to feminism. This important text is a required text for a core women and gender studies class offered at UNCG, and should be included as a part of the reference section of the library to assure


students access to necessary class material. Also, this book is significant as it questions the application of the “wave concept� and its inability to be inclusive of the entire movements’ complexities, topics include hip-hop feminism, sex work, and religion which are often omitted from academic writing. Nelson, Emmanuel. Critical Essays: Gay and Lesbian Writers of Color. A first of its kind, this book systematically explores the literature of gay and lesbian writers of color in the United States The work challenges the marginalization and tokenization of gay men and lesbians of color in the dominant academic discourses by focusing exclusively on the imaginative work of gay and lesbian writers of color. Puar, Jasbir K. Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism In Queer Times. Duke University Press Books, 2007. The author of this text brings forth the correlation between terrorism and sexuality. Uniquely writing about how race, gender, nation, class, and ethnic as they relate to securitization, counterterrorism and nationalism. The book utilizing both transnational feminist and queer theory, technoscience criticism and several other supportive concepts as framework and films, television, queer media, activist organizing materials, and many other primary sources to bring this to life. WGS uses this extremely fascinating literature as a part of their course work, WGS can appreciate having this text as a staple within their collection.

Reti, Irene. Childless By Choice- A Feminist Anthology. With pieces ranging from narrative, to short story, to poetry, this anthology approaches this complex and sensitive subject of being woman and childless from a positive, feminist perspective. The writing here is by women of diverse backgrounds and ages.

Roberts, Dorothy. Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-First Century.


This book focuses on how people’s DNA and genomes are being used as a way to classify and further divide human diversity by race. Roberts, a leading law and social justice expert, explores how new science and biotechnology is furthering brutality against minorities in a allegedly post-racial America. This book will provide thought provoking analysis to issues of race and diversity in a scientific manner. Smith, Barbara. Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology. The pioneering anthology Home Girls features writings by Black feminist and lesbian activists on topics both provocative and profound. Since its initial publication in 1983, it has become an essential text on Black women's lives and writings. This edition features an updated list of contributor biographies and an all-new preface that provides a fresh assessment of how Black women's lives have changed-or not-since the book was first published. 6. Use articles, books, websites from the literature of the profession or industry you have chosen to support your arguments. Most certainly including justification from the special library field and ideally, and where possible, from existing descriptions of special libraries which have some similarity to what you are proposing. Similar programs have been mentioned as early as the 19th century, “local lending arrangements have been documented as early as 1851, and formal cooperative cataloging ventures date at least to 1876.” Special libraries particularly have been able to create and sustain very successful collaborative collections, for example, “exemplifying CCD in the subject of law, six libraries from the Whatcom County [Washington] Legal Materials Group for the express purpose of strengthening collections. The group composed of two special, two public, and two academic libraries, received grant funds to acquire print materials and database access. Participants produced a brochure publicizing their services and demonstrated service improvements through formal evaluation.” There are models that have proven to be ideal for these arrangements. Particularly the decentralized distributive model which can be informal agreements amongst the partners. Participants decide their selection, and budgets. Each library houses their own materials and then also agree to share materials in the collection that the deem lendable,


however, they also can share special collections that they would not usually circulate. Usually this model does require a central catalog. An example of this model is used in the Information Alliance (University of Kentucky, University of Tennessee, Vanderbilt University). Libraries can select a subject, or any other characteristics and make further agreements based on that. “Area studies appear to form the surest path to success in collaborative print collection development, at least among large academic libraries. Incentives for cooperation may be stronger in these fields because building intensive multidisciplinary collections covering all..is beyond the means of the most well-financed libraries. Prospects for reaching agreement on collecting responsibilities are doubtlessly strengthened in focus areas that lend themselves to organization by material type. The Triangle Research Libraries discovered early in their collaborative history that diving collecting responsibilities geographically worked well for all parties. Duke and North Carolina have long shared in developing research-level collections on Latin America; each acquires specialized resources from assigned countries.”

ALL QUOTES FROM THIS CITATION Burgett, James, Linda L. Phillips, and John M. Haar. Collaborative Collection Development: A Practical Guide for Your Library. Chicago: American Library Association, 2004. Print. http://wgs.uncg.edu/research/ConeStudents.html#outstandingwork Appendix Women’s and gender studies training presentation http://prezi.com/k8bo4ordamsl/the-university-of-north-carolina-at-gr eensboro-women-and-gender-studies-participatory-library/


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