Assessing our library’s database collection through the lens of diversity

A team I put together at our library was lucky enough to snag a small grant from the university’s Office of Intercultural Affairs to support our work on assessing the diversity of our e-collection, a phased project. We were inspired by the work of academic librarians Ciszek and Young (2010), who identified ways in which large academic libraries evaluated the diversity of their collections over time. In particular we noticed the creation and assignment of “diversity codes” (p. 157) for all new acquisitions collected at Pennsylvania State University Library until 2007.

We plan to create and define a list of diversity codes appropriate for the current academic climate, and construct instructions on how to assign the codes to a portion of our electronic collection, our licensed databases. The team of colleagues working on the grant will be the leadership group to design the list of codes.

Once the codes have been created, the project group will conduct a pilot test by evaluating a subset of databases together, to determine if the codes and definitions are properly constructed. We will then work with a group of library student employees to guide them through the following process, with training: 1) evaluate the assigned database to fully understand the content contained in the resource, and then 2) “tag” that resource with the appropriate code(s). Each database selected for evaluation will be reviewed by two students working independently, to determine which diversity codes may be applied to that resource. The resulting lists of codes will be compared, and any discrepancies discussed and resolved.

That’s our initial plan of action and, at the moment, we are deep in the literature so that we are informed as we can be before taking our first steps. Wish us luck! We plan to complete the project by October 2018. I’ll report on our progress as we make it.

{edited to include a link to some blog love the library sent our way when we got the grant: http://librarynews.lmu.edu/2017/04/assessing-diversity-e-collection/}

Ciszek, Matthew P., and Courtney L. Young, (2010), “Diversity collection assessment in large academic libraries”, Collection Building, Vol. 29 Iss 4 pp. 154 – 161.