You might recall hearing about the ‘More Books’ scheme in recent years, where students can recommend books to add to the Library. The campaign was first piloted in 2018, and with online learning in spring 2020, the Library received and processed over 1,000 requests for specific eBooks. This year, there’s going to be a special focus on diversifying the collections held by the Library.

The ‘More Books: Diversifying your Library’ campaign is being run by Kat Halliday, an Academic Support Librarian, and a small team of Library Associates. It aims to add informative and inspirational books for students to read outside of their studies, and which are representative of the diverse community here at Warwick. Mia Neaves, one of the Library Associates working with Kat, shared her thoughts on the scheme:

‘The more books decolonising and diversifying scheme is extremely important to raise awareness of the types of material we are processing and understanding. The aim is to encourage people to diversify their personal collections, along with providing suggestions for library resources. This will hopefully help us to appreciate texts of different cultures and genders. I am hoping people will suggest material from around the world not simply focusing on British authors.’

Students are encouraged to recommend a book that might not typically appear on their reading lists. For example, this could be a book that’s written in a non-English language or that’s censored in other countries, or one that offers a voice to under-represented individuals, events, and experiences – the biography of an inspirational activist, for instance. (If there’s a text you need for your course, please do still let your Academic Support Librarian know!).

The ‘More Books’ group is currently preparing plenty of promotional materials to advertise the campaign and engage with students. There will be a range of social media posts, including a take-over of the Library’s Instagram account. After being filled with winter-themed books last term, the shelves in the new ‘Breathing Space’ room are starting to feature more diverse texts, and books suggested by students during the campaign will be added there. You can share your recommendations with the social media profiles, or you can write it out on a postcard for the bookshelf display, including why others might like to read it.

The ‘More Books: Diversifying your Library’ scheme will run from the start of Term 3, so get thinking over the break and let us know about voices that should be represented in your Library. Watch out for the campaign on social media in term 3, and remember to recommend a text that has inspired you!

By Luke Holloway