Finding Our Way Forward: A Roadmap for Anti-racist Collection Development

By Kat Nelsen (Social Sciences Librarian, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities) <kgerwig@umn.edu> and KL Clarke (Social Sciences Librarian, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities) <clark078@umn.edu> and Wanda Marsolek (Engineering Liaison and Data Curation Librarian, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities) <mars0215@umn.edu> and Sunshine Carter (Director of Collection Strategy and eResource Management, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities) <scarter@umn.edu> and Malaika Grant (Arts, Humanities, and Area Studies Librarian, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities) <grant044@umn.edu> and Nicole Theis-Mahon (Dentistry Liaison Librarian and Health Sciences Collections Coordinator, University of MinnesotaTwin Cities) <theis025@umn.edu> and Pearl McClintock (Collections Associate in Archives and Special Collections, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities) <mccli072@umn.edu>

Introduction

Traditionally, academic libraries (and by extension, scholarly publishing and academia) supported and promoted whiteness — as evidenced by collections predominantly consisting of Eurocentric knowledge, systems, and voices. Institutions, however, faced a reckoning with the COVID-19 pandemic, George Floyd’s murder, and community and global uncertainties. Libraries and library staff are increasingly demanding that their services, policies, staff, and collections reflect communities they serve. As collections are core to the library, correcting the imbalance in the representation of marginalized and diverse voices, experiences, and perspectives requires addressing structural barriers touching all aspects of library work.

In 2021, the University of Minnesota Twin Cities (UMN Twin Cities) Libraries created the Racial Equity in Collections (REiC) group to advance collection development methods and practices to amplify diverse and marginalized voices with a focus on racial minorities, racism, and anti-racism within the United States. The UMN Twin Cities, located on Dakota lands, is a land-grant research institution in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota with 52,000 students and 4,000 faculty in seventeen colleges and schools. UMN Twin Cities Libraries employs approximately 250 full-time staff. Setting the library on a new course means coordinating efforts across collections management, cataloging, metadata, subject areas, instruction, research, acquisitions, access, e-resources, and interlibrary loan. To coordinate this shift, REiC was tasked with creating a roadmap for anti-racist collection development (henceforth referred to as The Roadmap).

Throughout the UMN Twin Cities Libraries, there are and have been individuals and groups doing anti-racist work and advocating for changes to make the library and its collections more diverse and inclusive. The Roadmap is a way to bring together disparate activities in a cohesive way.

Before creating The Roadmap, a shared understanding of anti-racist collection development was needed. Conner-Gaten et al., defines anti-racist collection development as “the process of identifying and disrupting whiteness and racial inequality in our collections, collection development policies and professional practices.” Collections work permeates all aspects of the library. The Roadmap touches most areas of the UMN Twin Cities Libraries and recommends areas for further investigation and actionable steps.

Seeking Input from Library Staff

To gain a complete picture of what anti-racist collection work looked like across the UMN Twin Cities Libraries, REiC contracted a consultant to gather staff feedback on anti-racist collection development. Twelve, one hour-long, library staff focus groups were brought together over three weeks with over 80 staff participating. Questions were shared in advance to provide time for thoughtful consideration. Additionally, a form gathered anonymous feedback from 24 staff who were not able to attend the focus groups. The consultant provided REiC with a summary report including notes and thematic findings. REiC reviewed all of the information and distilled the responses into ten themes. Concurrently, a paid intern created an extensive annotated bibliography for anti-racist collection development practices.

Ten Themes

The ten themes serve as wayfinders on The Roadmap Descriptions of the themes are concrete examples and ideas derived from library staff feedback. They provide jumping-off points for consideration and discussion while the full roadmap suggests distinct strategies for moving forward. These strategies are specific to organizational needs and structure of the UMN Twin Cities Libraries and are not included in this article.

Revalue Collections Work

Approval plans increase efficiency in selection, acquisitions, and cataloging processes. However, automated collection development has built-in biases which reflect the racism prevalent in academic and publishing structures. The “set it and forget it” approach promoted by approval plans has resulted in devaluing collection development work. At the UMN Twin Cities Libraries, this has translated into staff reductions in cataloging and acquisitions, and for some staff, increased expectations for responsibilities unrelated to collection development. Collections work is time-consuming. Increased efficiencies provided by automation created time that was filled with the development of new services or initiatives. Additionally, antiracist collections work involves retrospective work, which may not be recognized as time well spent.

Meeting academic departmental collection needs requires bespoke CD work outside of approval plans. Approval plans may miss anti-racist and diverse titles. If left to run unchecked, approval plans could create serious content gaps and lead to bias in collections. If the way forward means reducing the library’s reliance on the efficiencies of automation, then more staff will be needed to prioritize non-automated workflows.

Administration must support and empower staff doing antiracist work; it is essential to protect those doing anti-racist work. This may mean ceasing collaboration with any donor, publisher, vendor, or contractor who demonstrates racist, disrespectful, and harmful actions or speech towards library staff.

Education

Library staff need more training on anti-racist topics (e.g., implicit bias, white privilege, racial equity, allyship, etc.) to manage complicated and nuanced processes of anti-racist collections work. Furthermore, anti-racist education and training opportunities relate to the work of all library staff and should be available to all. Professional development and training opportunities may take the form of webinars, courses, and suggested readings.

It must be explicitly communicated where anti-racist collections work fits as an organizational priority, and how it differs from current policies and practices. Anti-racist values and practices need to be integrated throughout collection development policies rather than in separate policy sections.

Advocate for Change in Collection Development Practices

The imbalance seen in many library collections — privileging materials written by and for the dominant culture rather than building collections more representative of library user populations — is directly tied to practices rooted in structural and institutional racism. To truly shift priorities for library collections, it is necessary to address the larger systems at play. To accomplish this, library leaders must advocate with university administrators, vendors, and publishers for increased funding, and changes to policies and practices that support anti-racist collection development. This work needs to be funded and resourced appropriately, to support purchases from BIPOCowned businesses and authors and rely less on systems that do not.

Fund Anti-racist Collection Development

Anti-racist collections work needs appropriate resourcing. Over time, funds were diverted to support approval plans, leaving less funding for monographs outside these workflows and big publishers/vendors. Additional funds are needed to purchase resources outside of approval plans.

Not all disciplines, cultures, and fields of study rely on books and journals as their primary communication venues. Alternatives to the written record include oral histories, film, ephemera, and music recordings. Libraries must purchase and support these material types. Non-text materials are more expensive and require additional expertise from technical services and cataloging departments to make them discoverable.

Additional resources for acquisitions, metadata, and cataloging are necessary. Library funding levels need to consider these increased costs and adjust accordingly.

Purchase Materials from Bipoc Authors and Owned Business

The University of Minnesota supports and encourages purchasing materials and services from businesses owned and operated by minorities, women, and disabled persons. Purchasing practices should align with organizational values regardless of processing efficiency or ease. Providing a means to identify BIPOC publishers and vendors is a first step toward prioritizing purchases from these sources.

Revolutionize Approval Plans and Their Use

Approval plans (in use at UMN Twin Cities Libraries since 2005) reduced staff time required to select materials. While this shift increased capacity elsewhere, it eroded the perceived value of thoughtful collections work and increased reliance on approval plans. While efficiencies and automations have their place, they are not a panacea and are often dominated by publishers, authors, works, and metadata rooted in structural racism.

Collaborating with vendors can improve how approval plans identify materials; additionally, advocating for improved services, processes, and support for anti-racist collections work is vital. Lastly, it is necessary to empower library staff to purchase materials outside of approval plans regardless of increased costs or decreased efficiencies.

Improve Metadata and Discovery

As the diversity in collections increases, so should the discoverability of those materials. Catalogers and library staff are already advocating for more diverse, inclusive, and respectful metadata. Improved methods to identify diverse perspectives are needed. Additionally, algorithms powering search results and relevancy rankings in library databases and discovery layers reflect biases and inequalities found in other library, publishing, and academic systems. Libraries can press database and discovery vendors for transparency in how relevancy rankings are generated and improved algorithms. Additionally, library staff can inform patrons of biases in the algorithms powering search tools.

It is imperative to prioritize increasing access and decreasing harm by describing materials in a manner that is respectful to communities creating, using, and represented in those materials. Work is needed to implement practices to address or remediate offensive and harmful language in metadata, discovery, and catalog systems.

Communicate About Anti-racist Collection Development

Clear communication and advocacy are critical. Communication systems must be adapted for work across library departments. All staff need to feel empowered to advocate for diversity and inclusion with colleagues, donors, and vendors. Anti-racist work can only be accomplished in environments where staff can start conversations, are empowered and supported, and can think critically without fear of retaliation.

Communication with institutional stakeholders will ensure collections continue to support the curriculum and research needs of students, staff, and faculty. By leveraging existing relationships, library staff can advocate for use of anti-racist materials.

Increase Use of Anti-racist Materials in Teaching, Learning and Research

According to the American Library Association, librarians have an obligation to advocate for material use that reflects the diversity of learners ( American Library Association ). When collaborating with faculty there may be discomfort and hesitancy to lead conversations around anti-racist materials; yet, with discomfort comes learning. Ongoing, open discussions build skills and confidence in teaching with materials from underrepresented groups.

Collaborate to Increase and Improve Anti-racist Collection Development

Library systems need to change to support anti-racist goals. Libraries, publishers, vendors, and other institutions must collaborate to improve anti-racist collections work. Consortial relationships and partnerships between libraries can stretch limited resources and add weight when advocating for changes from vendors and publishers.

In addition to collaborating with private and public organizations, libraries must collaborate with their local communities. Meaningful collaborations with community stakeholders require building trust and relationships. Furthermore, care must be taken to ensure community-centered collaborations are not extractive; ideally, groups are working in concert, on shared goals and receive shared benefits.

As The Roadmap is shared beyond the UMN Twin Cities Libraries, the authors anticipate that colleagues at other libraries will consider their own contexts and have discussions about antiracist collections work. As more libraries take steps to dismantle racism and white supremacy in their collections, a clearer path forward for all of us will start to emerge. To that end, the questions below offer a way to approach thorny conversations around diversifying collections work:

• Individually: What does anti-racist work in librarianship look like to you? How can you develop anti-racist skills in your role?

• Departmentally: How do the library’s collections impact your department’s work? What do you know about your collections?

• Organizationally: Is your library ready to do diversity work? What does diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) look like at your library currently? Who participates in DEI work? Who is involved in selection, acquisition, and discovery?

• Institutionally: How can leaders build investment in DEI among staff? Who are the champions of this work? Which campus or community partners could collaborate on DEI initiatives in the library?

Some concepts and library practices championed here may be unexpected and overwhelming. Moving the needle toward engagement in anti-racist library work is challenging but necessary. It is essential that long-established and longstanding harmful processes rooted in structural racism be surfaced, considered, and eliminated. The Roadmap is the story of how one library system is making changes for the better, one slow step at a time.

Works Cited

Conner-Gaten, Aisha, Kristyn Caragher, and Tracy Drake. “Collections Decoded: Reflections and Strategies for Antiracist Collection Development.” LMU Librarian Publications & Presentations, no. 137, 2017, https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/ librarian_pubs/137. Accessed 26 June 2023.

American Library Association. “Diverse Collections: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.” 2006, http:// www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/ diversecollections. Accessed 27 June, 2023.