Collection Equity Award - San Diego State University

Our plan is to purchase materials related to student/young adult health and wellness, specifically in underrepresented populations. Resources purchased with these funds will include graphic medicine, fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, and oral histories representing diverse people, illnesses, and other health related concerns. We want to purchase books highlighting the diversity of medical issues allowing our students holistic enrichment to help them with the emotional and social aspects of health and medical issues. These books will be especially helpful for students studying health and related sciences. They can also offer support to students who see themselves represented in the books highlighting misunderstood medical issues. 

San Diego State University (SDSU) has an extensive comic and graphic novel collection, and a social justice course that uses the collection, but there has never been a concerted effort to add materials that support health and wellness, either as narratives or non-fiction, with a focus on underrepresented populations or by underrepresented authors. We also have some specialty book collections supporting underrepresented groups, such as our Chicana/o Collection, and we want to add more health related topics. These collections are heavily used, so adding health information would make these materials available to many students.  By expanding the collection to include health topics, we can create more opportunities for accessibility and relatability for those underrepresented groups.