Our Collection Equity Outreach Award will focus on collection building around BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ issues for the following reasons: the collections in these areas are out of date; and there is a high demand for such materials.

First, a collection analysis has identified notable gaps in Libraries’ print collections related to BIPOC & LGBTQ health and wellness issues, and a need for more coverage of contemporary issues (e.g., BLM, implicit bias, transgender rights). This is reflected in the statistics below. 

Average age of LC class ranges:

• HQ (“The Family. Marriage. Women”): ~1997
• HT (“Communities. Classes. Races.”): ~1991
• RA564-RA565 (“Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine. > By age group, class, etc.”): ~2008
• RC554-RC650 (“Psychiatric aspects of personality and behavior conditions > Sexual and psychosexual conditions”): ~1996

The other reason for the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ focuses is that we have fielded patron purchase requests in these areas. Between 3/2020 and 6/2021, the Libraries filled 202 requests from patrons for titles in multiple disciplines related to BIPOC or LGBTQIA+ topics.