Curating Community Collections: A Holistic Approach to Diverse Collection Development

Begins where diversity audits end, informing and supporting academic, school, and public librarians in the quest to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion in a meaningful and sustainable manner throughout collections, policies, and practices.

A primary question for many librarians, directors, and board members is how to evaluate diversity in a collection on an ongoing basis.

Curating Community Collections provides librarians with the tools they need to understand the results of diversity audits and to formulate a reasonable, achievable plan for increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion not only in the collection itself, but also in library collection policies and practices. Information on ways to make diversity, equity, and inclusion part of a library's everyday workflow will help ensure the sustainability of these principles.

Mary Schreiber and Wendy Bartlett teach readers how to increase the number of diverse materials in their collections and make them more discoverable to library patrons through the implementation of a community collections program. Stories from librarians around the United States and Canada who are auditing and improving the diversity of their collections add broad, scalable perspectives for libraries of any size, budget, and mission. Action steps provided at the end of each section offer a practical road map for all types of libraries to curate a diverse, equitable, and inclusive community collection.