Event Type
Lightning Talk
Description
As libraries and communities consider institutional values and ethical standards in the wake of 2020, we need to scrutinize how those values and standards connect with our collections decisions. Critical Librarianship is at the forefront of work being done by librarians across the country. Related to this concept, there is an existing body of literature about the contents of the collections themselves, with respect to issues like decolonization and open access, but little about the specific business relationships we maintain in order to acquire these collections. Are the values of our partners in the publishing ecosystem aligned with ours? What should we do if a publisher makes decisions or takes actions that go against our stated principles, but their content is relevant to the ongoing work of our patrons? What are the broader implications for our communities of doing business with these publishers? Precisely whose values need to be taken into account when making these decisions? Balancing the needs of our patrons with the principles of critical librarianship is a challenge faced by all collections librarians. Librarians from Purdue University take a critical approach to identifying the values of their institution at multiple levels, including a newly released Libraries strategic plan, to create a values-based rubric for future collection assessment. Business librarians can play an important role in teaching our colleagues how to find company information on the vendors with which we deal to help inform this type of evaluation.
Included in
Creating a Values Based Collections Evaluation Rubric
As libraries and communities consider institutional values and ethical standards in the wake of 2020, we need to scrutinize how those values and standards connect with our collections decisions. Critical Librarianship is at the forefront of work being done by librarians across the country. Related to this concept, there is an existing body of literature about the contents of the collections themselves, with respect to issues like decolonization and open access, but little about the specific business relationships we maintain in order to acquire these collections. Are the values of our partners in the publishing ecosystem aligned with ours? What should we do if a publisher makes decisions or takes actions that go against our stated principles, but their content is relevant to the ongoing work of our patrons? What are the broader implications for our communities of doing business with these publishers? Precisely whose values need to be taken into account when making these decisions? Balancing the needs of our patrons with the principles of critical librarianship is a challenge faced by all collections librarians. Librarians from Purdue University take a critical approach to identifying the values of their institution at multiple levels, including a newly released Libraries strategic plan, to create a values-based rubric for future collection assessment. Business librarians can play an important role in teaching our colleagues how to find company information on the vendors with which we deal to help inform this type of evaluation.