Wednesday 10 June, 14:00 – 15:00 (BST), 15:00 – 16:00 (CEST/SAST), 16:00 – 17:00 (EEST), 06:00 – 07:00 (PDT), 09:00 – 10:00 (EDT), 21:00 – 22:00 (AWST/CST), 23:00 – 00:00 (AEST)

This seminar will discuss issues around inclusive collecting, barriers to access, ethical stewardship, and strategies for amplifying underrepresented voices.

How inclusive is our inclusion? A case of the struggle for knowledge sharing
Cathleen LeGrand, Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Leeds

This presentation reflects on collections and equity by looking at some of the limitations of efforts to make collections inclusive and accessible. It presents a composite case study of a Majority World institutional repository as a lens through which to look at current struggles to share knowledge. The case study is drawn real-world examples collected during international fieldwork conducted within libraries in The Bahamas, Bhutan, and Botswana.

It looks at some of the economic and socio-technical forces that affect what an institutional repository–expected to house unique local knowledge resources, make them accessible to the wider world, and keep them secure into the future–has the capacity to make visible and discoverable. It also considers the implications of local instabilities, material conditions, labour practices, and library workloads on what we can know and reflect on how institutions can engage with these challenges in the goal of achieving greater inclusivity.

Cathleen LeGrand has worked as a library professional in academic, school, medical, and special libraries around the world. Her research examines the dynamics that shape information access and the new and continuing inequities in the information ecosystem as it reconfigures to digital.

Her work centres how humans experience information access and technological change and considers how traditional information technologies and practices persist and complement digital systems. She has an MLS from Emporia State University (USA) and a PhD in Media and Communication from the University of Leeds (UK).

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Prioritising inclusive collection building in challenging times
Karen Jackson, Research and Academic Support Manager, University of Warwick

How do we make the case for inclusive collection building in the current financial climate? Exploring the challenges around the sometimes competing priorities of usage metrics and the drive for decolonisation, this talk will outline potential responses and creative ideas for developing more inclusive collections in times of financial constraint.

Karen Jackson has worked in academic libraries for nearly 30 years and has been the Research and Academic Support Manager at the University of Warwick since 2017. She has expertise in academic engagement and in the development of information research skills across the academic lifecycle. She is interested in the role of information research skills in inclusive education and in the implications and impact of Artificial Intelligence on higher education teaching and learning practice. She is currently co-leading a project with the Inclusive Education Team on online academic literacies and skills for all students and has also recently led a project to develop guidance for students, teachers and researchers on using Library collections to decolonise their practice.