Know Their Names: Case Studies in DEIA Collection Development Assessment, Expansion, and Access

This session took place on April 6, 2022, as part of the ARLIS/NA 50th Annual Conference in Chicago. It was moderated by Nick Curotto. Jared Ash and Daisy Paul present "Black Artists Matter: Assessing and Expanding Representation and Visibility in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Library Collections". They outline how the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Met expanded African American artist representation and visibility in the collections through bibliographic reviews for 700+ artists, identifying works for acquisition and enhancing catalog records with expanded content notes. Additionally, an online index was launched to connect researchers with records for those artists in Watson’s online catalog. Elizabeth Little and Lea Simpson present "Counts Count: Collections Analysis and Gender Equity at the National Gallery of Australia Research Library & Archives." They share how the NGA Research Library & Archives sampled and analyzed large collections of artist monographs to identify the gender ratio of artists therein. The data is measured against national and institutional surveys of exhibition and acquisition in galleries and museums. The results provide a valuable lens to critically view library collections past and present and inform future collection development policies and practice. Both presentations in this session examine rationales, methodologies, and outcomes of each project, and offer inspiration and tools to assist institutions with similar initiatives. This recording is made available under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.”)