What’s Missing? Evaluating a University Library Collection for Workplace Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Using WorldCat

Abstract

The areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have become increasingly important in recent years within businesses, colleges, and libraries. In response to this development, this article reports on an assessment of the workplace DEI coverage in an academic library monograph collection. A sample of books on the topic, retrieved through a WorldCat search, was analyzed and compared with the library’s holdings. The authors discovered gaps in the library’s workplace DEI coverage and identified contributing factors. The authors selected and reviewed great books on DEI in the workplace to add to the library’s collection and recommend to students and faculty.

Keywords:

• Collection assessment
• diversity
• equity
• inclusion
• readers’ advisory

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data is available on request.

Notes

1 This plan was created in December 2021 at the BYU Marriott School of Business in Provo, Utah.

2 For examples, visit the guides from Boston University (https://library.bu.edu/diversitybiz); Portland State University (https://guides.library.pdx.edu/DEIBusiness); and the University of Washington (https://guides.lib.uw.edu/business/diversity).

3 For the most recent awards, see RUSA’s Notable Book List at https://rusaupdate.org/awards/notable-books-list/.

4 Currency of material is also of interest. However, this criterion was inherently included through the WorldCat search that narrowed to look specifically for books published in the last five years (2017-2021).

5 The evaluation of speed is adapted from suggested questions for selecting recommended books from Saricks and Brown (2005).

6 Along with the criteria of authority, uniqueness, scope, and readability, the top ten list contains books with a U.S. or general geographic focus to fit the needs of the BYU library users. The list is representative of independently published and self-published works as four were independently published, four were self-published, and two were published in mainstream sources. Since the BYU library collection was already relatively strong in books with awards and Google Scholar citations, the recommended books focused on popular, professional, and general academic level titles.