Inclusive reading lists: how libraries can support student and academic leadership

Informed by student leadership and by practice at other modern universities, libraries are working with academic colleagues to look at the inclusiveness of reading lists to support a diverse curriculum. This paper offers examples from other university libraries already working in this area with BAME academic leadership and will discuss different ways this topic can be framed and approached to maximise reach and impact. Reading lists and the curriculum are interwoven, and inclusiveness within the curriculum needs to be mirrored by course recommended reading. This is a joint project between module teams and librarians to investigate the situation and look for opportunities to make reading lists more representative of the diversity of our student body within the subject content. We will discuss how representation of our students' diversity in their recommended reading is one aspect of developing an inclusive curriculum to address and narrow the University's BAME degree-awarding gap. Inclusiveness of reading lists is multi-faceted, and covers content from within the material on the reading list, inclusion of diverse authors and decolonising of reading lists, structure of the list, and accessibility of both the list and materials