Navigating the Crossroads: Counteracting Political Polarization and DEI Weaponization in Library Collection Development
Bernice Suphal
As Inauguration Day 2025 passed, the defining role of the American government has become increasingly blurred, making the distinction between autocracy and democracy less clear. The current administration has implemented policies and directives that affect First Amendment rights across both public and private sectors of society. Academic freedom – a core component of public universities – is particularly vulnerable under these conditions. The First Amendment ensures that scholars can teach, research, and publish without undue interference or political pressure.
When governmental actions restrict speech or impose ideological conformity, the autonomy of higher education institutions and their ability to foster critical inquiry comes under threat, challenging instructors to be creative in delivering curriculum, course content, teaching, and educational resources.
In navigating the crossroads and resisting ideological manipulation, academic libraries can counteract political polarization and weaponization of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) by adopting steadfast, transparent, and community-responsive collection development strategies and activities that uphold intellectual freedom and foster inclusive representation across academia.
EBSCO Informational Services’ (n.d.) white paper, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI): Challenges and Opportunities in Academic Libraries, offers a comprehensive look at key challenges and opportunities for DEI in campus libraries. At Leonard Lief Library, opportunities critical to supporting DEI principles include transforming collections, creating inclusive physical and digital spaces, and promoting meaningful conversations.
An academic library’s response to such creativity lies in its policies and practices, which guide inclusive collection development, resource accessibility, and engagement strategies that uphold intellectual freedom and address inclusive and equity-centered values.
One of the key actions to transformative collection practices is developing a library collection policy that explicitly incorporates Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) principles. In alignment with American Library Association (2025) Diverse and Inclusive Collections: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, the policy should define clear criteria for selecting materials that represent marginalized voices, cultures, and perspectives. It should also ensure accessibility by making resources available in multiple formats including processes for evaluating how metadata accurately represents and highlights diverse resources within the collection.
An important component of diversity-centered collection practices that support the transformation of library collections is an involved process that requires support from all levels of library staff and the campus community to nurture collective responsibility. Outreach begins with discipline faculty input in selection of materials, facilitated by faculty library liaisons. This collaboration ensures recommendation of diverse titles reflecting multiple perspectives and disciplines, strengthening inclusivity and relevance within the collection.
Acquisition of these vital resources can be leveraged through calls for college funding initiatives, cost-shared or fully supported by respective academic disciplines, or reallocation of “… funding from a major cancellation to new DEI-related content” (Blesdoe et al., 2022). This work can only be accomplished by communicating with other campus stakeholders about the importance of DEI initiatives as libraries operate in a collection as service model, prioritizing needs of library users for support services.
Community-responsive acquisition strategies extend beyond collaboration between the library and campus stakeholders to external partners. These strategies require library faculty responsible for technical services and collection development or management to assume a proactive role in supporting diverse collection activities such as obtaining subject and title lists from diverse publishers and library vendors that specialize in works by underrepresented authors, as well as sourcing materials from small presses, independent publishers, and international sources.
Academic libraries prioritize accessibility standards (ADA compliance) for physical access to support diverse users and sustain equitable engagement. They also leverage digital spaces to promote open access and Open Educational Resources. They can further expand efforts to amplify voices from underrepresented regions and communities by curating multilingual and culturally relevant digital collections.
Curating these types of resources at Leonard Lief Library is no easy feat. It requires persistent collaboration and dedication from campus stakeholders to uphold DEI principles. Finally, libraries also promote critical conversations within their spaces through community engagement. Lehman’s Library has successfully accomplished this through its Reading and Discussion Series, book talks where faculty and alumni present their latest publication, subsequently added to the Library’s circulating collection.
During Fall 2025 Reading and Discussion Series, faculty authors Maeve Adams, Mila Burns, and Bryan Warde discussed their recent work, all timely and relevant to current issues. These events engage all members of the campus community, providing a safe and open space to listen, ask questions, broaden understanding, and even debate topics to deepen knowledge. This exemplifies intellectual freedom at work.
In conclusion, as tension between government authority, institutional autonomy, and free expression continues to shape policy and campus culture, its impact is evident on campus life. As an academic library, we can demonstrate resilience in pursuit of intellectual freedom and that promoting DEI remains an important part of the mission of campus libraries.
It is essential to “acknowledge and appreciate differences, cultivate an inclusive culture, and provide equitable literacy and access to resources” (EBSCO, 2023, p.2). Success can be achieved in curating diverse library collections and fostering community engagement through these proposed creative strategies, while leveraging all available resources to advance these principles.
References:
American Library Association. (2025). Diverse and Inclusive Collections: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/diversecollections
EBSCO Information Services & Library Journal. (n.d.). DEI in Campus Libraries: Key Challenges and Opportunities [White Paper]. EBSCO. https://about.ebsco.com/sites/default/files/acquiadam-assets/Diversity-Equity-Inclusion-in-Academic-Libraries-White-Paper.pdf
Bledsoe, K., Cooper, D. M., Schonfeld, R. C., & Rieger, O. Y. (2022, November 9). Leading by Diversifying Collections: A Guide for Academic Library Leadership. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.317833