Collection Equity: University of Southern Maine

Our goal in seeking this award is to improve the resources available to students of the University of Southern Maine to learn about health equity narratives, stories, and issues, especially as they pertain to clinical practice and care challenges affecting Maine. To this end, Glickman Library would use this award to add resources to our collection that are centered on issues of rural healthcare, health of refugee and immigrant communities in Southern Maine, and indigenous health, focusing on both academic texts and personal stories.

USM graduates students in the fields of Nursing, Public Health, Psychology, Social Work, and in many other disciplines that go on to interact with and influence health and the healthcare system. These students come from a variety of backgrounds, and as the future of healthcare workers, it is vital that they understand the many barriers to health equity and the experiences of those who are underserved, mistreated, or overlooked by the current system. Through URSUS, an association of Maine state, academic, and public libraries, the USM library collection is also used by and shared with libraries throughout the state of Maine, meaning that its reach is not limited to only the USM community.

We plan to use a Collection Equity Award to develop our print and e-book resources that focus on these issues. Some examples of the types of materials this would include would be:

• Materials addressing the medical translation needs of the Southern Maine community, with a particular focus on supporting recent refugee and immigrant populations from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola

• Resources related to Indigenous health, especially stories and materials relevant to the health needs of the Wabanaki people

• Academic analysis and personal narratives addressing the challenges facing rural healthcare systems and communities

• A particular focus on materials that support the curriculum of the Nursing, Public Health, Occupational Therapy, and other health programs at USM. This curricular material would aim both to supplement and enhance classes that already specifically focus on health equity challenges and to add or support an equity lens to general curriculum classes