Make items available for students

The Reading List Diversification Toolkit is a resource, created in collaboration with students and academics, that can support you to develop reading lists that are representative of our diverse student body. The toolkit was created in response to student demand.

Why we need to diversify and decolonise reading lists

Diverse reading list content matters to our students. When students can see themselves represented in their curriculum there is a significant impact on their sense of belonging to the University community (Gopalan and Brady, 2020) which empowers them to achieve their potential (Suhlmann et al, 2018). When this does not happen there is an increased risk of disengagement while retention and attainment gaps widen.

Students from minoritised groups have highlighted sense of alienation partly caused by curriculum content that either does not speak to their interests and lived experiences or, worse, is discriminatory and biased.

Use the toolkit

The toolkit is user-friendly across disciplines and contains practical guidance that you can use in the way that’s most helpful to you. It includes tips for getting started with the process of diversification, including:

• self-reflection prompts to help you evaluate your reading list content
• examples of diverse reading lists from a range of disciplines
• short videos featuring students and staff speaking about why representation in reading lists matters
• ways to find and access diverse resources from the Library collections and beyond 
• how to submit purchase suggestions to help us develop collections
• a glossary of terms.

Get support

Content and Discovery Services are responsible for all the information resources held by the Libraries. Their various teams can help you with the below:

• For queries relating to the reading lists system, email the Acquisitions & Reading Lists team via readinglists@leeds.ac.uk.
• For access queries or issues relating to content metadata, email the Metadata & Discovery team via metadatamailbox@leeds.ac.uk.
• For requests relating to developing our wider library collections, email the Collections Liaison team via librarycollectionsliaison@leeds.ac.uk.

Give feedback

The toolkit is regularly reviewed to ensure its fitness for purpose. We welcome any feedback or resources to help develop the toolkit, email the team via readinglistsdiversification@leeds.ac.uk.