Guiding Principles
Our guiding principles in collection development are informed by the mission of the Pratt Institute Libraries, Pratt’s Strategic Plan, and core tenants of the American Library Association.
We are committed to the following principles.
Intellectual Freedom
The Libraries subscribe to the American Library Association’s policies on intellectual freedom as expressed in the Library Bill of Rights, Freedom to Read, and Freedom to View statements. As stated in the Intellectual Freedom Principles for Academic Libraries: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights, “The development of library collections in support of an institution’s instruction and research programs should transcend the personal values of the selector. In the interests of research and learning, it is essential that collections contain materials representing a variety of perspectives on subjects that may be considered controversial.” Library materials shall not be proscribed or removed from the Library because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
Accessibility
The Libraries are committed to ensuring educational equity for the Pratt community by making our collections accessible to all. This means selecting content in different formats, evaluating our current e-resources for accessibility, and striving to acquire, license, or subscribe to content and platforms in compliance with the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Level AA (WCAG 2.0 AA) as well as state and federal accessibility requirements.
Diversity & Inclusion
The Pratt Institute Libraries’ collection development strategy adheres both to the Institute’s Diversity Strategic Plan, the Association of College and Research Libraries Diversity Standards and the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights. We strive to build diverse and inclusive collections that not only reflect the racial, ethnic, religious, gender identity and presentation, sexuality, geographic, cultural, age, disabilities, and socioeconomic statuses of Pratt students, faculty, and staff but also the writers, thinkers, and creators whose work is studied. We seek to collect content that is created by historically under-served, oppressed and marginalized groups of people. The Pratt Institute Libraries is committed to making sure that DEI considerations are integrated into efforts to acquire, describe, and manage resources that go beyond normative structures. See more information on the steps that the Pratt Institute Libraries’ have taken to address harmful language in our libraries’ catalog here: Harmful Language Statement.
Open Access
The Libraries pledge to support and promote open access scholarship, resources, and services. By promoting resources that are free and open access, the Libraries' further their commitment to advancing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, as these resources will continue to be accessible to students after graduation, as well as being decoupled from traditional academic silos. For more information on open access and the Libraries’ efforts, please refer to our Open Access Policy.
Ethical spending
We strive to develop collections that support Pratt’s evolving curriculum in the formats that allow for the greatest access and will look to our community to guide us in this effort. We are careful and conscientious in how we spend our acquisitions budget both in terms of what we acquire and the vendors and businesses we support through our purchases and subscriptions.