'Libraries' Collecting and Self-Presentation since Black Lives Matter: a US-UK Comparison'

Since the second wave of the Black Lives Matter movement, many libraries have issued new commitments to anti-racism and EDI. This paper examines whether these statements have made any impact on collecting practice during the years 2020-24. Focusing on selected national, university and public libraries in the US and UK, it uses Toni Morrison's editorial corpus at Random House (1972-78) as a collection case study.

Dr Tessa Roynon is a specialist in modern American fiction and Classical Reception studies. She is the author of three monographs including the prize-winning Toni Morrison and the Classical Tradition (OUP,  2013), and the co-editor of three essay collections. Since 2020, after 12 years of teaching on temporary contracts at the University of Oxford, she has worked as the founding librarian at The Swan School (a new, diverse and dynamic comprehensive in that city). This year she also completed the MA in Library and Information Studies at UCL.