Assessing Diversity in Academic Library Book Collections: Diversity Audit Principles and Methods

Abstract Diversity audits reveal the extent to which library collections incorporate the topics, perspectives, authors, characters, and narratives associated with underrepresented or marginalized groups. They can help us evaluate whether the collection is aligned with the user community, pinpoint the specific areas where improvement is needed, establish goals and timelines, measure progress toward those goals, demonstrate that deficiencies in the collection are being addressed, and highlight the need for additional resources. This guide reviews the scholarly and professional literature on diversity audits of academic library book collections. It discusses how concepts such as diverse groups and diverse books can be operationalized; describes three methods of conducting the diversity audit – the catalog search method, the checklist method, and the book inspection method; considers various benchmarks or targets that may be adopted; and explains how the results of the analysis can be used to build more diverse library collections. The review concludes by presenting three fundamental questions that explore the limits of the audit methods currently in use, highlight underlying issues that librarians may want to consider, and suggest avenues for further research and discussion.