RLUK Inclusive Collections, Inclusive Libraries | Prof. Mamokgethi Phakeng, University of Cape Town
Channel: ResearchLibrariesUK
Date: 2022-12-13

Inclusive Collections, Inclusive Libraries is an RLUK programme of events that aims to foster conversation around decolonisation and inclusive practice in collecting, describing, presenting, and engaging with content in research library collections. It seeks to raise awareness about the opportunities and challenges of dealing with, contextualising, and engaging with offensive collections while also identifying and sharing examples of good practice.

https://www.rluk.ac.uk/icil/

The ecology of inclusive knowledge collections rests on the pillars of excellence, transformation and sustainability - Prof. Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-Chancellor, University of Cape Town

Libraries are the custodians of knowledge. If they focus only on knowledge from a particular cultural bias or historical frame of reference, then libraries are serving only that part of the population that shares those perspectives. A library that does not seek to include diverse sources of knowledge and inclusive perspectives on the use of such knowledge will only reinforce the divide between the Global North and the Global South. This at a time when the world requires different perspectives and different sources of knowledge to address the challenges of global magnitude that humanity is facing.

In this sense, every library, no matter where it is located, is an essential part of a global knowledge network. By understanding and promoting the relationship between excellence and transformation in the collection and curation of knowledge, libraries are in a powerful position to build a universal knowledge archive that can serve all humanity.

This presentation summarises how the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa builds on the relationship between excellence and transformation to strengthen sustainability across the institution. These three pillars form the basis of UCT’s institutional ecology as well as their call to serve South Africa and the wider world. This focus on the ecology of the university is expressed in their Vision 2030 strategic plan, which can be summed up in UCT’s massive transformative purpose: to unleash human potential to create a fair and just society.

The presentation includes a brief description of the student protests since 2015, which gave voice to the disconnection students and staff members felt with the institution’s history and current approach to teaching, learning, curriculum, pedagogy and the archive and use of knowledge from different sources.

The presentation explains how UCT’s current approach to diversity and social inclusion in the academic project is built on the interaction of excellence, transformation and sustainability. In such a model, excellence is not about a specific standard set by a limited world view. Rather, it is achievable by everyone. Transformation involves not just meeting a quota for admissions or employment equity but rather creating conditions for everyone to express excellence, regardless of where they come from. This requires students to bring not only intellectual capacity to the academic project but also to gain the cultural capital that allows them to thrive in a university environment. Creating conditions for them to succeed, while enabling excellence, is transformation with integrity.

Together, excellence and transformation promote the sustainability of the university ecology, including knowledge dissemination, culture, finances, our contribution to society, our impact on the environment, the people and the institutions around us, recognising that a higher education institution affects the wider society. If we focus on excellence without transformation, or vice versa, the university ecology will not be sustainable.

The presentation demonstrates how UCT Libraries puts into practice the belief that “historically advantaged institutions should have a moral obligation to share scholarly content for the advancement of research in the country as a whole and for the greater good of the public.”