Book censorship efforts in the USA have become increasingly concerning for champions of freedom of expression and civil liberties. The movement to ban books is seemingly driven by a desire to curtail adolescents' access to information about sexuality and gender diversity. This paper details the findings of a content analysis of the American…

This exploratory and qualitative study examined the appraisal practices of archivists in university special collections, including how archivists define appraisal, decide what to keep and discard, apply a collection policy in their decision process, and contend with problematic aspects of the practice. The first part of this study examined the…

The Diverse BookFinder (DBF) and its Collection Analysis Tool (CAT) were co-founded by Dr. Krista Aronson at Bates College, with support from an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant. It was recognized in 2021 by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) as one of the Best Digital Tools for Teaching and Learning. Through…

As a music reference librarian at the Library of Congress, Cait Miller gets obscure songs questions that pose greater issues for music librarians because music libraries are generally searchable by format, genre, instrumentation, composer, and/or title but not often by lyrical quotation. New crowdsourcing transcription programs, however, give hope…

Over the past couple of years, school districts nationwide have seen a wave of challenges to books in libraries and on reading lists, as well as rising demands to know what titles are in schools. These challenges and demands have put public school libraries under significant scrutiny and raised fundamental questions about their purpose and…

Grenier and Lynn present collection development strategies that include student voice, diversity audits, and the value of weeding.

Calzada and Philippi approach the topic of collection development by using Kerby's (2019) four steps, including (1) knowing your standards, (2) knowing your learners, (3) knowing the curriculum, and (4) identifying your selection criteria.

Historical and modern scientific thought is dominated by the English language, colonized science, patriarchal norms, and Westernized "ways of knowing." By making materials that lie outside that narrative discoverable (e.g., non-Western science, Indigenous/Aboriginal knowledge, women in science, etc.) we can assert that science is a…

A diversity audit of the natural resources monographs took place in the spring and summer of 2022 at the California Polytechnic University, Humboldt Library. The goals of the audit were to construct a diversity audit that could be undertaken with very limited time and personnel availability. The findings have provided the library with important…

In 2018, the University of Winnipeg Library introduced the Syllabus Service to improve the course reserves submission process. This initiative has allowed library staff to proactively support copyright in e-reserves and provided opportunities to improve accessibility for students. The service has also encouraged faculty and instructor use of…

Academic libraries invest significant resources for developing collections of foreign-language materials, so it is important for librarians to understand how scholars use these materials. This study uses citation analysis to investigate how frequently scholars in the United States cite sources in languages other than English, taking German Studies…

This group of school librarians from across the country answer questions from "how do you approach collection development," to "share a story of a book you added to your collection that had a meaningful impact on a student," as well as preparing for challenges and the importance of EDI in collection development.

This article explores the relationships between faculty library use, their perceptions of the importance of library resources, and its impact on their research productivity at a public research university. The authors used a self-reported faculty survey and publication records from a faculty activity reporting system to answer this question.…

This study explored the language preferences of instructors at Louisiana State University for library resources and whether library terminology influenced those choices. Participants were presented with both screen captures and definitions of electronic library resources and were asked to identify them in their own words. Faculty did not use…

This is the story of six books looted by Nazis from the Jewish Religious Community Library in Prague (JRCLP) that were discovered recently in the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Library. No scholarly literature describing similar experiences of North American academic libraries was found, nor were any professional guidelines for…