Diversify the Library Project
We welcome requests for books that reflect our University's Māori and Pacific communities and our University recognised equity groups.
Questions & feedback
Any questions or feedback, about the submitting process or the project, get in touch with Megan or Scott:
and we will get back to you quickly!
Diversify the Library
University of Otago, all rights reserved.
Request a book!
We have a fantastic library collection, but we want to make it more inclusive and diverse. As part of that mahi we have created the 'Diversify the Library' initiative. We welcome requests from you for books that reflect our University's Māori and Pacific communities and our University recognised equity groups.
- These do not have to be teaching or research related.
- Is there a book the library should buy? Put in your request below!
Submit your request
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Complete the form and add the acronym for Diversify the Library "DTL" in the notes field and submit!
Book Request FormWe will be in contact to keep you up to date with the progress of your request. |
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The latest on the List
Our evenings by Publication Date: 2024Dave Win is thirteen years old when he first goes to stay with the sponsors of his scholarship at a local boarding school. This weekend, with its games and challenges and surprising encounters, will open up heady new possibilities, even as it exposes him to their son Giles' envy and violence. As their lives unfold over the next half a century, the two boys' careers will diverge dramatically: Dave, a gifted actor struggling with convention and discrimination, Giles an increasingly powerful and dangerous politician.
The Weight of Whiteness by Publication Date: 2021"Check your privilege" is not a request for a simple favor. It asks white people to consider the painful dimensions of what they have been socialized to ignore. Alison Bailey's The Weight of Whiteness: A Feminist Engagement with Privilege, Race, and Ignorance examines how whiteness misshapes our humanity, measuring the weight of whiteness in terms of its costs and losses to collective humanity. People of color feel the weight of whiteness daily. The resistant habits of whiteness and its attendant privileges, however, make it difficult for white people to feel the damage. White people are more comfortable thinking about white supremacy in terms of what privilege does for them, rather than feeling what it does to them. The first half of the book focuses on the overexposed side of white privilege, the side that works to make the invisible and intangible structures of power more visible and tangible. Bailey discusses the importance of understanding privileges intersectionally, the ignorance-preserving habits of "white talk," and how privilege and ignorance circulate in educational settings. The second part invites white readers to explore the underexposed side of white dominance, the weightless side that they would rather not feel. The final chapters are powerfully autobiographical. Bailey engages readers with a deeply personal account of what it means to hold space with the painful weight of whiteness in her own life. She also offers a moving account of medicinal genealogies, which helps to engage the weight she inherits from her settler colonial ancestors. The book illustrates how the gravitational pull of white ignorance and comfort are stronger than the clean pain required for collective liberation. The stakes are high: Failure to hold the weight of whiteness ensures that white people will continue to blow the weight of historical trauma through communities of color.
Underdogs : social deviance and queer theory by Publication Date: 2021With Underdogs, Heather Love shows that queer theorists inherited as much from sociologists as they did from activists. Through theoretical and archival work, Love traces the connection between midcentury studies of deviance and the antinormative, antiessentialist field of queer theory. While sociologists saw deviance as an inevitable fact of social life, queer theorists embraced it as a rallying cry. A robust interdisciplinary history of the field, Underdogs stages a reencounter with the practices and communities that underwrite radical queer thought.-- Publisher
A Māori phrase a day by Publication Date: 2020Presenting the most common, relevant and useful phrases today, A Maori Phrase a Day is the perfect way to kickstart your te reo journey!
Suicide Prevention Guidebook by Publication Date: 2021In this comprehensive guidebook, Joy Hibbins (the founder of an award-winning Suicide Crisis Centre, which has attracted international attention) shares her invaluable experience of helping people through suicidal crisis. Equally popular with the public and professionals, the book provides the reader with strategies and skills to help someone through a period of suicidal crisis. Whether you have never helped someone in crisis before, or you already have an abundance of experience, this book is relevant for you. The charity that Joy runs (Suicide Crisis) regularly provides suicide prevention training for the NHS, the British Transport Police and charities. This book will show you how to: Understand the complexity of suicidal feelings and what may lead to a crisis Be aware of factors that can increase someone's risk of suicide Assess risk and directly ask someone about suicidal thoughts Build empathy and a strong connection with the individual in crisis Create a safety plan Learn strategies and skills to help someone survive (in the short-term and the longer term) Learn techniques to support someone who is experiencing intense distress - or conversely someone who is silent and withdrawn Create manageable steps to help someone survive Know what to say, including how to help someone see their own worth Understand why some people experience multiple crises and how to help them All royalties donated to the charity Suicide Crisis.
Underserved Patrons in University Libraries by Publication Date: 2021This practical and research-based volume focuses on how libraries can meet the needs of underserved patrons in college and university libraries, with an emphasis on those facing trauma, abuse, and discrimination. While university libraries strive to meet the needs of all students, some groups have traditionally been overlooked. This volume engages with those underserved populations on college campuses, with an emphasis on those facing trauma, abuse, and discrimination. It brings a variety of authorial voices to discuss different aspects of that service and to share current research related to underserved populations in libraries. This combination supports research in LIS and beyond while offering concrete ways for service providers to make a difference in the lives of their patrons. Editors Skinner and Gross have both conducted extensive research in ethically meeting patron needs. They and their contributors are keenly aware of the complex and interwoven considerations that inform such service, such as patron desire for confidentiality accompanied by an urgent need for assistance. This volume is committed to sharing diverse voices in the field and to exploring the interrelationship between theoretical findings and practical applications--all in the service of underserved patrons.
Prisoner 302: a Fijian prime minister's story of his life, of military rebellion, national oppression, and a handful of miracles by Publication Date: 2022Laisenia Qarase was Fiji's Prime Minister in 2000-2006. In his own words, he tells of his rise from village obscurity to public service, from bank management to the high office of Prime Ministership. After two election wins, his SDL Government was subsequently couped in 2006 - a crisis that led to Qarase's eventual imprisonment as PRISONER 302 in 2012 for 243 days. Here, he tells us why, and what impact that politically-contrived fall from grace had on him and his family personally, socially, financially and politically. Laisenia Qarase writes clearly with authority, humility and deep authenticity of the one who has 'been there'. This is a book which will inspire, and from which there is much to learn.
A disappearance in Fiji by Publication Date: 2023"1914, Fiji: Sergeant Akal Singh would rather be anywhere than this tropical paradise - or, as he calls it, 'this godforsaken island'. After a promising start to his police career in Hong Kong, Akal has been sent to the far-flung colony of Fiji as punishment for a humiliating professional mistake. Lonely and embarrassed, he dreams of solving a big case, thereby redeeming himself and gaining permission to leave. Otherwise, he fears he will be stuck in Fiji for ever. When an indentured Indian woman goes missing from a sugarcane plantation and Fiji's newspapers scream 'kidnapping', the inspector-general reluctantly assigns Akal the case, giving him strict instructions to view this investigation as nothing more than cursory. But as soon as Akal arrives on the plantation, he identifies several troubling inconsistencies in the plantation owners' stories, and it seems there is more to this disappearance than meets the eye..."--Back cover.
He who drowned the world by Publication Date: 2023"Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory – one that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor.However, Zhu isn’t the only one with imperial aspirations. Courtesan Madam Zhang plots to steal the throne for her husband. But scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang is even closer to the throne. He’s maneuverered his way to the capital, where his courtly games threaten to bring the empire to its knees. For Baoxiang also desires revenge: to become the most degenerate Great Khan in history. In the process, he’d make a mockery of the warrior values his Mongol family loved more than him.To stay in the game, Zhu must gamble everything on one bold move. A risky alliance with an old enemy: Ouyang, the brilliant but unstable eunuch general. All contenders will do whatever it takes to win. But when desire has no end, and ambition no limits, could the price be too high for even the most ruthless heart to bear?"--Back cover.
She who became the sun by Publication Date: 2022An absorbing historical fantasy, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty's founding emperor. In a famine-stricken village on a dusty plain, a seer shows two children their fates. For a family's eighth-born son, there's greatness. For the second daughter, nothing. In 1345, China lies restless under harsh Mongol rule. And when a bandit raid wipes out their home, the two children must somehow survive. Zhu Chongba despairs and gives in. But the girl resolves to overcome her destiny. So she takes her dead brother's identity and begins her journey. Can Zhu escape what's written in the stars, as rebellion sweeps the land? Or can she claim her brother's greatness - and rise as high as she can dream? This is a glorious tale of love, loss, betrayal and triumph by a powerful new voice.
DTL Reading List on Library Search Ketu
Access DTL books on Library Search Ketu at the link below:
Aims
The Diversify the Library project is designed with four aims in mind:
- To develop the diversity of the University of Otago Library collection.
- By removing barriers, enable access and input for students and staff from our Māori and Pacific Island staff and students and university-recognised equity groups on campus.
- To increase visibility of content that is created by people from our Māori and Pacific Island staff and students and university recognised equity groups or has relevant subject matter.
- As an important step towards meeting the University's aims and commitments to social justice and equity, as recognised in the Vision 2040 document, the Māori Strategic Framework, Pacific Strategic Framework, Equity and Diversity Policy and in line with recommendations from the University's Rainbow Tick accreditation process.
We welcome requests that reflect the values and foreground the culture and mahi of the University's Māori and Pacific communities and the University recognized equity groups as noted below:
- Students and staff with disability and/or impairment.
- Students who are first in their family to attend university.
- LGBTTIQA+ Students and staff
- Students from low socio-economic backgrounds.
- Students and staff from migrant and/or refugee backgrounds and those whose first language is not English.
- Women, where there are barriers to access and/or success.
Acknowledgements
The project is inspired by the initiatives at Goldsmiths, University of London, https://www.gold.ac.uk/library/about/liberate-our-library/ and Durham University in the United Kingdom, https://www.dur.ac.uk/library/liberatemylibrary/