Library Resource Management Project

Lending Library

Women and Gender Equity Lounge

From September 2023–April 2024, in my last year working as the Women and Gender Equity Intern at Utah State University's (USU) Inclusion Center, I created a library resource management project for the Women & Gender Equity program. This program was inspired by student feedback, and as a personal goal, for the need of more representation in literature; providing student access to literature that was not available in the Merrill-Cazier library on USU's main campus. I centered this program to compile BIPOC, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ characters and authors to be displayed in the Women and Gender Equity lounge, available to check out.

This project entailed feedback from students, planning and managing a budget within the Women and Gender Equity program, developing a library schedule and checkout system, and developing graphics for this program. I read and watched book reviews, trends, and themes on Goodreads, Google Reviews, YouTube, and TikTok. I compiled a list of over 40 books, some being novels and some the first book in a series, and ended up with over 25 books to include in the lounge.

I did not have access to online CRM systems, so I created different graphics on Canva.com to include the rules of the library, titles available, check-in/out and a holding policy, and tracked the ins and outs of the library manually. To fit the theme of the lounge, and to catch your eye, the main colors I used in my graphic were pink and purple. The Women and Gender Equity lounge colors were green (couch) and pink (chairs and pillows), with touches of different colors throughout the lounge. I posted the graphics next to the entrance of the lounge, and where the books were visible, to allow easy traffic to the area.

The lounge provided a space where student's identities were represented in literature, and I am glad the students who used this resource read multiple titles! I gained valuable skills in project management, budgeting, and outreach while learning about the challenges of engagement and program sustainability. I believe this initiative could exceed expectations with more promotion on social media, in newsletters, and digital signage throughout campus, like how other events I ran were advertised!