Collection Equity: Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

As MCLA, Massachusetts’ public liberal arts college, prepares to launch a new Bachelor of Science in Nursing with the first students entering in Fall 2023, our library is presented with the opportunity to build a truly inclusive nursing collection from the ground up. We envision using a Collection Equity Award to purchase books falling into three categories:

1. nursing resources authored by scholars and practitioners from traditionally marginalized groups;

2. books specifically addressing the cultural competencies, knowledge, and skills that nurses must bring to a truly inclusive practice; and

3. books providing first-hand accounts of illness and healthcare utilization by patients from traditionally marginalized and underserved groups.

While the primary use of the Collection Equity Award would be to build an inclusive collection to support the nascent nursing program and help develop culturally fluent practitioners, an additional benefit would be that many titles, especially those in category (3) above, will also appeal directly to the wider campus population, which embodies many dimensions of diversity. The MCLA student community represent 25% students of color, 15% students with a disability, and 54% first generation to college students (Source: DHE HEIRS Fall 2021 Enrollment)