Atla Annual 2024

There are solid strategic reasons for libraries to continue collecting materials in print format, but these may not always be obvious to institutional administrators and others outside the library. I will present a way to make this case on one sheet that is hopefully easy for non-librarians to understand. I will also offer ideas of when and where to present this case.

As online instruction allows universities to reach a global audience, there is a growing demand to offer course instruction and resources in multiple languages. While the ALA’s Standards for Libraries in Higher Education state that libraries must provide “access to collections sufficient in quality, depth, diversity, format and currency to the research and teaching mission of the institution,” guidelines and support for developing multilingual collections in higher education are severely lacking. Meanwhile, many publishers and aggregators have international divisions, but this does not necessarily mean that non-English resources are available in the US. This session will allow librarians who manage multilingual collections to come together and share their challenges, experiences, and successes in meeting the needs of their institutions’ multilingual instruction endeavors.