Student Organizer & Library Partnerships for Textbook Access: First Generation and Low Income Textbook Library [Advanced – 12:45-1:15pm Central]

In fall 2017, Barnard College undergraduates in the local chapter of the national organization First-Generation Low-Income Partnership asked Barnard Library to create a textbook collection for first-generation and/or low-income undergraduate students. Over the following spring and summer, Barnard Library worked with student organizers to define the collection of more than 800 textbooks available for first-generation and/or low-income undergraduate students to check out for a full semester. We collaborated with partners at Columbia University Library Information Technology, and we hired and mentored student staff members. The collection created a framework for accessibility action including fine forgiveness and dialogues about textbook affordability.

In this session, Kristen Hogan, Director of Collections Strategy and Library Operations at Barnard Library, and Christina Juste, Barnard Library Student Staff Associate for the FLI Library ’22, will facilitate a choose-your-own-adventure workshop to share tools from the Barnard FLI Library, the evolution of the collection, and its impact on course reserves. The interactive session will support participants to plan for or share ideas from their own textbook collections and to reflect together on textbook accessibility through acquisition and lending policies. We’ll also share changes from moving to online classes in the spring of 2020 – and into the future.