The Digital Toolbox

Academic Librarians and Publishers are the Vanguard of Critical DEI Content

Column Editor: Steve Rosato (Director and Business Development Executive, OverDrive Professional, Cleveland, OH 44125) <srosato@overdrive.com>

An issue that’s been exacerbated by COVID-19 is the increasingly polarized political climate’s impact on how academic libraries and publishers operate. This has manifested itself in a variety of ways, from book bans on universally acclaimed titles to challenging accepted academic research like critical race theory. It has also driven up demand for relevant information and made support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) a priority issue. At the same time, institutions of all shapes and sizes are struggling to navigate uncertain financial waters stemming from the pandemic.

To gain greater perspective, we sought insight from two crucial links in the supply chain that supports free speech and access to content. We hear from a publisher, sharing how DEI plays a key role in their editorial process and related business decisions. We also spoke with two academic libraries to learn more about their expanding DEI collections of eBooks and audiobooks and how they’re working through purchasing hurdles.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group

According to Courtney Packard (Associate Editor for Special Education, Early Childhood and Elementary Education, and Social Work) and Mark Kerr (Executive Editor for Education, Psychology, Counseling and Conflict Resolution) from Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group:

“In response to our higher education customers’ increased curricular coverage of race, ethnicity, gender and LGBTQ+ social categories and perspectives, Rowman & Littlefield has seen a noticeable uptick across the board for our titles that directly address diversity and equity topics. Beyond the college curriculum, we are also experiencing an increase in professionals purchasing resources to improve their clinical practice. Examples include classic textbooks such as Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America (Fifth Edition), and new books such as Beyond Equity and Inclusion in Conflict Resolution: Recentering the Profession by SY Bowland, Hasshan Batts, Beth Roy and Mary Adams Trujillo, which features 46 contributors — most of whom are people of color — offering a powerful description of and antidote to racially-based exclusion in the mediation and conflict resolution profession.

“Editors Courtney Packard and Mark Kerr, who lead Rowman & Littlefield’s educator preparation list, work with authors to embed an intersectional approach into all textbook and professional manuscripts to ensure that every form of diversity is present throughout every book, whether the topic is specifically on diversity and equity or not. They recognize that in education, diversity is a demographic fact, and that all educators at every level benefit from a well-rounded, robust, empathetic and positive knowledge base for working with all students, families and colleagues in the professional education settings. Diversity, equity and inclusion is integral to the editorial process of every book on their list, from the peer review process to the manuscript organization to the research basis and topical coverage.”

University of Delaware Electronic Resources Librarian (University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press) Marie Seymour-Green has leveraged outside funding to continue growing the library’s collection of primary source material addressing diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism.

“In addition to focusing recent OverDrive (digital book) purchases on DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility) and social justice, the library has been able to maintain its commitment to collecting primary source material in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism,” she said. “We were fortunate to receive grant support in 2021 that funded the purchase of a number of digitized primary source collections that record the experiences of African Americans from the 18th-21st centuries, as well as streaming media documenting the struggle for Black freedom.”

For 2022, the library has applied for a grant to fund the purchase of the same types of resources focused on gender and sexuality studies.

Seymour-Green reported that the library’s collection development funding was cut by several million dollars in fiscal year 2020-2021, and not restored for 2021-2022. As of mid-June 2022, the 20222023 budget remained unknown. This has resulted in increased internal scrutinization of purchases.

“No restrictions have been placed on subject matter, but subject selectors and the library collection management team are scrutinizing purchases more closely than ever before,” she said. “Subscriptions are not being added because we cannot assume that we will have the funds to renew them each year. Any electronic subscriptions that have little usage are being canceled. Some deposit accounts for books and streaming video are continuing to be funded, but each purchase is closely vetted as to its necessity for the university’s curriculum and strategic goals.” Sewanee: The University of the South (TN) For Director of Collections Management (Jessie Ball duPont Library) Penny Elkins Cowan, the last three years have seen a shift toward DEI content as well as digital formats to meet the changing needs brought on by the pandemic.

“We started intentionally purchasing many more DEI-related (digital) titles three years ago and also curated a collection of Black Lives Matter (digital) titles to meet the needs of our students and faculty while they were remote,” she said. “We wanted to provide as much material as we could to our remote learners that was grounded in a wide representation of diverse authors, topics, and points of view. This curated collection continues to be used by all of our library patrons.”

Cowan noted that the library has also received increased requests for graphic novel, comic book, young adult, mental health, and business and entrepreneurship titles over the last couple years.

And like the University of Delaware, Cowan also points to new challenges in balancing budget restrictions and content needs.

“Our issue is that our overall acquisitions budget has not increased in almost 10 years, but we have to find money to purchase new formats that were almost non-existent in our budget 10 years ago — eBooks, streaming audiobooks, streaming video,” she said.

Trusting the Experts

With political turmoil and widespread budgetary uncertainty, we live in — as cliché as it may sound — uncertain times. It’s encouraging to learn how librarians and publishers — who are attuned to the need for increased awareness around subjects that have risen from an undercurrent to the mainstream — are providing and curating content to meet the times. With years of training, education and realworld experience, that makes them the best people to be making these decisions; they’re the ones who should be doing exactly that.