Curated Collection from Votes

 

Fogelberg, Rachel

 

Heisserer-Miller, R. A. (2023). A Community Curated Collection in an Academic Library: Empowering Students Through Collection Development. NASIG Proceedings, 37. https://doi.org/10.3998/nasig.4031

 

Summary

This is a presentation given at the 2022 annual NASIG conference about two initiatives at an academic library. The purpose of the programs was to involve students in collection development to overcome decreased funding and a need for student engagement. The first program asked students for subject areas that they wanted to add to the library collection that would interest them, such as mental health. The subject areas were then voted on by the students and new materials were added about that subject. The second program was paid for through a grant. Student groups, like the National Student Speech Language and Hearing Association, created a list of materials and submitted their application. While some faculty did not like the initiatives, the presenter said that the programs offered new ways for library engagement in diversity, equity, and outreach.

 

Evaluation

These program ideas sound exciting and could work with a little adaptation in many types of libraries, such as school libraries, especially with high schoolers, and public libraries. The programs are an effective way to get both patrons and the community involved with collection development. In addition to growing physical materials, the programs could ask for other items to create a new collection, whatever the community requested. For example, a “library of things” could be created from donations from the neighborhood based on common needs from a suggestion box. This idea works for school, academic, and public libraries.