Inclusive collections
The Library has launched the Inclusive Collections project as part of our ongoing commitment to the University’s Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Statement of Ambition.
About this initiative
This initiative focuses on enhancing our approach to decolonisation and inclusive practices.
The Inclusive Collections project has two key objectives:
- Develop inclusivity in library resources: By reassessing how we acquire, describe, present, and engage with resources, we aim to foster inclusivity and support diverse academic voices.
- Respond to the needs of the University community: Ensuring our library collections are reflective of the academic and cultural diversity at the University.
This initiative ensures that our Library is modern, relevant, and inclusive.
Recent progress
Over the course of the last year, we reviewed our digital collections to assess the inclusivity of our resources. This highlighted the inclusive resources we already have and identified gaps in the Library’s collections. As a result, we have made significant strategic investments over the last couple of years as part of wider strategic content strategy and ambitions. Some examples are:
- Sage Research Methods : Diversifying and Decolonizing Research
- Lived Places Publishing
- Taylor & Francis curated eBook collections: Black Studies, Ethnic Studies and Gender Studies
- African Diaspora, 1860-Present
- Gender, Feminism, and the British Left, 1944-1991
To make our inclusive collections more discoverable, we created a database category called Inclusive collections and School-based collections that highlight the inclusive content that will be useful for these subject areas.
We’ve also redesigned our Inclusive library support web page so it simplifies and clarifies the support the Library provides in terms of accessibility. We’ve organised this into the following categories: Library collections, Assistive technology and software and Library spaces.
Click on the buttons below to explore both these collections and the web page.
Want to recommend a resource? Request it!
Have you come across a valuable or useful resource that would diversify the Library’s Collections? Then we encourage you to use our Request it! Service and choose ‘Diversify the library’s collections’ as the reason for your request.
We've lifted the restrictions on the number of requests you can make. This change allows us to promptly address any gaps in the Library's Collections, particularly those related to dissertations and research needs.
Your suggestions ensure that our Library Collections are reflecting the needs and the cultural diversity of our University community.
Future plans
But we don’t want to stop there, we have some exciting plans for the future:
- Enhancing discoverability of inclusive resources. We will be developing and implementing strategies to improve the discoverability of inclusive resources across all platforms.
- Decolonising Reading Lists. We will be collaborating with academics and professional service colleagues to create a toolkit that supports the building of an inclusive curriculum through reading lists.
- Enhancing Media City Collection access. We want to explore the ways we can improve the visibility and accessibility of our Media City Print Collection.
- Promoting Student-curated content. We will be further developing and promoting student-curated collections to reflect diverse academic contributions.