AL Live—The Importance of Being Inclusive: Diversity in Collection Development for Academic Libraries (May 2019). This event was sponsored by GOBI® Library Solutions from EBSCO.

1. May 17, 2019
The Importance of Being Inclusive:
Diversity in Collection Development
for Academic Libraries

2. Presenters
Panelists:
Michelle Baildon
Collections Strategist for Arts & Humanities
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Becky Imamoto
Head, Collection Strategies Department
University of California, Irvine
Emily Bliss-Zaks
Arts & Sciences Librarian
Texas A&M University - San Antonio
Moderator:
Jenny Hudson
Senior Collection Development Manager
GOBI® Library Solutions from EBSCO

3. • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• Overview of Library
• University of California, Irvine
• Overview of Library
• Texas A&M – San Antonio
• Overview of Library
• Q&A with Panelists
• Key Takeaways
• Questions
Agenda

4. Our students:
• 11,575 FTE students (40% undergraduate, 60% graduate)
• 72% of undergrad majors and 46% of grad students in School of Engineering
• 49% of undergrads and 19% of grads are students of color
• 10% of undergrads and 42% of grads are international students
Our libraries:
• 6 library locations
• 160 staff
Our collections:
• $11 million collections budget
• 2.3 million print volumes
• 700k e-books
MIT Libraries

5. University of California, Irvine
• Fall 2018 enrollment: 36,742
• Degrees offered: 9,636
• Ranked #1 University doing the most for the American
Dream by NYT College Access Index
• Ranked 7th on Forbes 2019 Best Employer for Diversity list
UCI Libraries
• 3 libraries and a study center
• 59 librarians and professionals, 100 staff, 200+ students
• $20 million annual expenditure
• 4 million books (print and online)
UC Irvine Libraries

6. Our Library
• University celebrating 10-year anniversary
• 15 FTE staff members, 2.5 FTE student workers
• Fall 2018 enrollment: 6,500 students
Our Collections
• E-preferred library
o 40k print titles
o 600k e-book titles
o 90k digital media titles
• $100k budget for print/e-books/media
• Decentralized CD Program
• Approval plan with notification slips
• Subject librarians firm order titles
Texas A&M – San Antonio Library

7. Why is diversity, inclusion
and social justice important
to you and to your library?

8. MIT Libraries
MIT Libraries’ mission:
“The MIT Libraries aspires to advance knowledge by providing a trusted foundation
for the generation, dissemination, use, creative engagement with, and preservation
of information, in support of the MIT mission and so that it can be brought to bear
on the world’s great challenges and in the cause of social justice.”
? Why is diversity, inclusion and social justice important to you and to your library?
The Scholarly Communications and Collections Strategy Department “takes the values
of open access, diversity, and social justice as a lens for framing collections decisions, and as
important guideposts for navigating and favorably shaping the scholarly communications
landscape.”

9. UC Irvine Libraries
Diversity of our campus
• Underrepresented minorities: 26%
• First generation: 48%
• International students: 19%
• Asian/Pacific Islander: 35%
• Hispanic/Latino(a): 25%
Library Strategic Plan
• “Targeted support for non-traditional
and unique student populations.”
• “Promoting diversity and inclusive
excellence.”
Library Diversity Team (2016)
• https://www.lib.uci.edu/diversity-plan
? Why is diversity, inclusion and social justice important to you and to your library?

10. Texas A&M – San Antonio Library
Professional responsibility
• Core value and Library Bill of Rights
Serve our diverse community
• 71% First-Generation
• 70% Latino(a)/Hispanic
• 17% military connected
• 68% receive financial aid
Campus initiatives
• President’s Commission on Equity
(PCOE)
Why is diversity, inclusion and social justice important to you and to your library??

11. How has the importance of diversity,
inclusion and social justice changed
the way you view your collection
development process?

12. MIT Libraries
Can we work with vendors to
improve the MIT Libraries collection
... and maybe even the system?
Can you implement
monograph storage
efficiently based on
DISJ values?
How has the importance of diversity, inclusion and social justice
changed the way you view your collection development process??

13. UC Irvine Libraries
?
• Make changes to subject fund
allocations
• Diverse book displays + tagging
• Work with vendor to generate reports –
what are we missing?
• LGBTQ Plays Project
• Age of the collection
• Evaluating ILL requests
How has the importance of diversity, inclusion and social justice
changed the way you view your collection development process?

14. Texas A&M – San Antonio Library
?
• Re-evaluate current collection development policy with diversity
lens
• Push for change with your vendor
• Available publishers, Spotlight Lists, interdisciplinary topics, etc.
• Involve faculty and students in collection development process
• Diversify perspectives
How has the importance of diversity, inclusion and social justice
changed the way you view your collection development process?

15. What do you see for the future of
diversity, inclusion and social justice
in collection development?

16. MIT Libraries
• Extending the “social justice mindset” leads to a focus on:
• Open access (equitable global access to consumption and production)
• Special or distinctive collections
What do you see for the future of diversity, inclusion and social justice in collection development??

17. UC Irvine Libraries
• More emphasis in collection
development
• Further integrate into approval
plans / need to work closely with
vendors
• Collaborative collections
• Better ways to identify in catalogs
? What do you see for the future of diversity, inclusion and social justice in collection development?

18. Texas A&M – San Antonio Library
?
• Shift in incorporating more proactive practices into our collection
development policies for diversity and inclusion
• Increase support from vendors to build and evaluate our collections
with a diversity lens
What do you see for the future of diversity, inclusion and social justice in collection development?

19. Use bibliographic and reporting tools to analyze the diversity of a collection
• Purchase and holdings data
• Aspects and interdisciplinary topics
• Geographic focus
• Profile performance review
Create a process to deliver diverse material on an ongoing basis
• Identify library needs
• Look at current collection to understand holes that need to be addressed
• Build profile/strategy for collecting and distributing desired material using profiling tools through GOBI
• Track and tweak over time
How Vendors Can Help - Evaluating a Collection

20. • Diversity can play an important role in your library’s collection development
philosophies and policies regardless of the size of your library.
• A focus on diversity, inclusion and social justice can be both retrospective
and forward-thinking.
• Enhancing the diverse content in your library can be a collaborative effort:
with other libraries, with consortia, with students and users, and with
vendors.
Key Takeaways

21. Panelists:
Michelle Baildon
Collections Strategist for Arts & Humanities
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
baildon@mit.edu
Becky Imamoto
Head, Collection Strategies Department
University of California, Irvine
rimamoto@uci.edu
Emily Bliss-Zaks
Arts & Sciences Librarian
Texas A&M University - San Antonio
Emily.Bliss-Zaks@tamusa.edu
Moderator:
Jenny Hudson
Senior Collection Development Manager
GOBI® Library Solutions from EBSCO
jhudson@ybp.com
Questions?