New: DEAI Library in Van Steenis
A cabinet of books on diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion now stands in the common area on the first floor's landing of the Van Steenis building, and everyone in the Faculty is welcome to borrow from it.
The idea
The DEAI committee envisioned a small library of books on diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion, open to everyone and available to students especially. Rather than another list of links, we wanted something more tangible, so we decided on a shelf of good books in a common area, there to be picked up between classes.
What is on the shelves
There are currently 50 books, arranged in five loose themes:
- accessibility and inclusion
- gender and sexuality
- women and feminism
- race and anti-racism
- decolonising research and heritage.
To mention a few titles, there is Blindspot, Better Allies, Subtle Acts of Exclusion, How to Argue with a Racist, Culture and Power in the Classroom, Disability Visibility, Unmasking Autism, Gender and Archaeology, Women Don't Owe You Pretty, White Innocence, The Pink Elephant, The Brutish Museums and Community-Based Archaeology, among others.
So far, it is a mix of practical books on allyship, inclusive workplaces, disability and neurodivergence, gender archaeology from the classics to recent work, to feminist classics, books on racism, and decolonising methodologies and museum restitution.
A printed catalogue sits with the collection, designed in two formats for different types of learners: a visual section with the book covers for browsing, and the same collection in list form for reference.
How borrowing works
The lending system is colourful and paper-based, and it runs largely on trust. A key hangs on the cabinet. Each book has a borrowing card inside, which is very important. You write your name and the date on the card, then stand it in the book's place on the shelf, so the shelf shows what is out. Books are on a 3-week loan, and when you return one, the card goes back inside the book.
Made in the faculty
The cataloguing was carried out by students as part of internships in the Department of Archaeological Heritage and Society's inventory and cataloguing project. Each book has an official Library of Congress Classification (LCC) where one exists, and a simpler DI call number, adapted from LCC, which groups the collection into its themes and establishes the shelf order. The University Services Department (UFB) kindly sourced and installed the lockable cabinet. Acquisitions, cataloguing, library design and installation by E. Beganovic, M. Erasmus, S. Espinoza Gutiérrez, M. Kerkhof, S. Schrader and I. Simpson.
Suggestions for new books are very welcome at diversity@arch.leidenuniv.nl. Come and have a browse!