Library Develops More Representative, Anti-racist Materials

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Thanks to money from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF), the library was able to purchase access to these digital collections that go directly to support teaching and research.

Additional funding came from the chancellors office with support of the CSU provosts following a vote of the CSU council of library deans after feedback was requested from campus faculty.

These collections help situate students in historical and cultural moments where they have never been afforded an opportunity to see themselves, Nataraj said. These resources will facilitate self-reflection as well as beginning or extending vital scholarly conversations that will positively impact current and future generations by helping them feel validated within the academy.

The library worked with the ethnic studies and American Indian studies departments when deciding which collections to pursue. A survey was also sent out to all faculty early this spring to garner feedback and narrow down focus on what would have the greatest impact on students.

The new American Indian Histories and Cultures collection includes art and written work from the cultures earliest contact with European settlers.

There is also a collection called Race Relations in America, which was an institute that investigated racial conflict and documented the fight for civil rights. It includes speeches, reports, surveys and analyzes produced by the department and institute participants, including Charles S. Johnson and Thurgood Marshall.

Actively working to center the experiences of those who have been excluded, marginalized and harmed through our shared history is essential to building CSUSMs Library collections and furthering CSUSMs social justice mission, Magnuson said. CSUSMs library collections need to represent the research interests and experiences of our students and faculty, all of whom have a right to see themselves and their communities represented when they do research with CSUSM library resources. It is critical for libraries to intentionally collect and preserve histories and narratives of people who have been excluded and marginalized from dominant culture, so that researchers can use them to surface and amplify voices that otherwise may not be heard.

A dedicated group determined to provide impactful resources, the library is also planning community and campus oral history projects focused on campus community voices.

A deep dive of the library’s print book collection will also occur in order to establish gaps to be filled.

A university library has long been a place for learning. A place to revisit the past in order to create a better future.

Like bees pollinating to positively impact our environment, the new collections are expected to inspire learners to take their newfound knowledge from the CSUSM library and spread it into the world.

The pay-it-forward arena always has available seats.

The library does not exist in a vacuum, inured to the structural inequities and systemic oppression that impacts Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, Nataraj said. Our collections are organic, and library staff and faculty constantly update them to reflect the changing sensitivities of the world around us, including developing our materials to be more representative and anti-racist, addressing instances of racist language in our collections and catalog records, and analyzing our print collections to fill gaps.

Being anti-racist is a collective responsibility on the CSUSM campus. Since the collections directly support the teaching mission of the university, the library also commits to creating co-curricular programming for the campus community on anti-racism, systemic oppression and similar topics.

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