Description: Collection diversity audits are not a new phenomenon for libraries. While many public and school libraries have taken these projects with varying levels of success, academic libraries, especially medium and large-sized academic libraries have been hesitant to commit to a collection diversity audit or have done so in a limited capacity. Many medium and large academic libraries approach diversity audits by focusing on a specific area of their collection since large-scale projects of this nature can be time-consuming and unmanageable. Even when an administration supports diversity audits, projects such as this can be daunting and/or given low priority as academic libraries see declining budgets and limited staff available to perform these types of operations. This webinar will focus on one unconventional approach taken as an ongoing pilot collection diversity audit and a shelf space review project in a large midwestern urban academic library. With limited resources, this method collected and evaluated five years of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) and Social Justice selections and acquisitions data for the library’s general collection, re-envisioning a collection development policy, and shelf review study with a sense toward maximizing current and future space efficiency.
This webinar was previously presented in-person as a session at the 2023 Core Forum. We are hosting this webinar, with the session adapted and presented live as a virtual event, to extend its reach.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the webinar, attendees will gain insight into utilizing a holistic approach that includes diversity audits and shelf space reviews, using a collection development policy as a foundation to build a robust acquisition and collection management process to support DEIA and Social Justice resources across an academic library collection.
Who Should Attend: This webinar is directed primarily towards acquisitions and collection management librarians, project managers, and librarians in leadership positions focused on DEIA strategies to balance their collections.
Presenters:
Derek Wilmott is the Acquisitions & Collection Management Librarian at the University of Toledo Libraries. He received his MLIS from the University of South Carolina in 2003 and began as a serials cataloger, spending the majority of his career in various areas of technical services at Clemson University. He currently serves on the ALA Core Access and Equity Section Leadership Team, ODLOS Services to Refugees, Immigrants, and Displaced Persons subcommittee, and is Co-Chair of the Social Responsibility Round Table Programming Committee.
Tech Requirements
Core Webinars are held in Zoom. Speakers or a headset for listening to the presentation are required. You may interact with the presenter and ask questions through text-based chat. Closed captioning is available in the Zoom platform. The webcast will be recorded and the link to the recording shared with registrants shortly after the live event.