Collection Development Using an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Lens

• Are you a library worker committed to supporting library collections that represent the needs, interests, and abilities of members of the community your library serves?
• Are you alarmed by the current trend of attempts to ban books from that have been written by or about people from historically marginalized communities?
• Do you want to understand how to apply and implement principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion to collection development policies and practices?
• Are you interested in exploring the complex, and often difficult questions that surround the application of the principle of Intellectual Freedom?

If so, this timely course is for you!

The instructor will lead a course on the importance of developing library collections, especially public library collections, while incorporating a lens of equity, diversity, and inclusion. In addition to curated resources, best practices, and guided activities, learners will participate in two synchronous sessions, where they will have the opportunity to participate in a conversation with a current collection development manager of a large California public library system and an author/librarian whose book was banned.

Course Description: This three-week course will include two interactive online sessions:

• Tuesday, November 8th 9:30-10:45am (pacific time)
• Tuesday, November 15th 9:30-10:45am (pacific time)

Please make every effort to ensure that you are able to attend these two meetings before enrolling in the course. If this is not possible, archived recordings will be made available.

In addition to the scheduled sessions, learners will participate in activities and discussion forums, with an opportunity to share their experiences. The instructor will provide resources, best practices, and guided activities to help learners approach their library collection with an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens.

Course Outline: When you log in to the Infopeople online learning site, you will see weekly modules with these topics:

• Week 1: Knowing Your Community and developing a collection development policy
• Week 2: Finding and Evaluating Content
• Week 3: Preparing for Challenges and Keeping your Collection Fresh!

Learning outcomes:

• Explain foundational equity, diversity, and inclusion concepts and why they are important for collection development in libraries
• Understand resources available to assess the collection needs of the community served by the library
• Define collection development and explain its basic components
• Understand the role of an inclusive collection development policy
• Explain the promise, challenges, and alternatives to the concepts of "Intellectual Freedom" and "Neutrality"
• Identify sources for inclusive material selection and review
• Identify techniques and resources to conduct a diversity audit
• Address book challenges/requests for reconsideration and First Amendment Audits
• The benefits and limitations of usage statistics in developing an inclusive library's collection
• Weed/deselect materials using an equity lens

Time Required: To complete this course, you can expect to spend 2½ hours per week, for a total of 7½ course hours. Each week's module contains various options for assignments, discussions, or online meetings. You can choose the options most relevant to your work and interests. Although you can work on each module at your own pace, at any hour of the day or night, it is recommended that you complete each week's work within that week to stay in sync with other learners.

Who Should Take This Course: Library staff interested in learning about collection development principles using an inclusive framework.

Are you a member of ARSL or do you work in a tribal library? If so, you may be able to sign up for a free seat in this course. Limit is five free seats per course. Make your request here and if a free seat is available you will be notified.

tags: programming, EDI, equity, diversity, inclusion, collection management