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Publication Date
6-2019
Keywords
Institutional Repositories; Medical Libraries; CritLib; Critical Librarianship
Disciplines
Collection Development and Management | Health Sciences and Medical Librarianship | Library and Information Science | Scholarly Communication
Abstract
Objective: This paper discusses the experiences of an institutional repository (IR) manager at a multi-state health system. Launched in 2018 the IR aims to gather published articles, presentations, posters, etc. produced across the 50+ hospitals in the system. Since the IR is new, there is the opportunity to build social justice and critical librarianship in to the strategic planning from the beginning.
Methods: How can a social justice lens inform what is added to an IR? If an IR aims to collect the entire body of research at an institution what steps can be taken to make sure works promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (both authors and subject matter) are being found? What happens to the work of colleagues at our rural clinics versus the work of colleagues at well-funded research institutes who have the resources to publish articles?
Targeted outreach efforts undertaken to promote equity and representation will be examined, including successes and failures. Outreach at an individual author level, organizational departments, and employee affinity groups will be discussed. While PubMed searches capture most articles for inclusion, outreach and awareness is the main tactic to collect gray literature.
Results: Without targeted outreach efforts and a social justice framework an IR will not provide representation, equity, and inclusion. Having these as part of the launch and strategic planning for the IR creates the space to devote staff time and energy and sees it as an intrinsic goal in the IR.
Conclusions: There are no absolute conclusions, as this is an ongoing approach to medical library IR management and designed to open a conversation. Time will be included for an interactive think-pair share activity. Participants will be invited to brainstorm ideas to incorporate social justice in to medical library institutional repositories and to share experiences from their own institutions.
Specialty/Research Institute
Library Science
Conference / Event Name
Northern California/Nevada Medical Library Group and the Medical Library Group of Southern California/Arizona Joint Meeting
Location
San Francisco, CA, United States
Included in
Collection Development and Management Commons, Health Sciences and Medical Librarianship Commons, Scholarly Communication Commons
