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Find yourself in our collections

- Decolonise and diversify King's Libraries & Collections

‘Find yourself in our collections’ is a student campaign to build and diversify our library collections. 
Across King’s we are striving to be an organisation built around equality, diversity, and inclusion. We want to expand the range of voices and viewpoints in our collections and address the underrepresentation of marginalised groups. 
To truly represent the plurality of King’s student communities, we are asking for your input and insight to help us discover and develop our collections in your image.  

We are inviting all students to ‘Find yourself in our collections’ by identifying works that you connect to, and that decolonise and diversify our Library collections.

Tell us about a work that resonates with YOU. It can be: 
•   a book, an ebook, an article, a film, or other library resource  
•   a work outside your area of study that interests you personally, e.g. a favourite novel, poem or theory/non-fiction 
•   an item already in our collection or something new that you would like to see added.  

Choose a work which you feel: 
•   decolonises and diversifies King’s libraries 
•   highlights underserved histories, experiences, communities or backgrounds
•   depicts and represents you, speaks with your voice or portrays your story 
•   explores ideas, issues or beliefs that are important to you.

We’d also welcome you telling us why you chose a particular work or quoting a favourite passage or line. Your comments will help us highlight and celebrate these works in the Library, in the future – for instance, your words could appear alongside your chosen work on our shelves/collections, inspiring others to read them! 

You can search our existing physical and online Library collections using  Library Search. 

Submit your choice

Send us details of your choice and the reasons behind it using our  webform. 

Currently we are inviting one submission per person. We will endeavour to purchase new resources in line with the aims of our campaign and subject to our budget and supplier availability. We will inform you if your chosen work has been purchased and where it has been highlighted in the Library.   

Thank you for helping to diversify our collections

Student selections:

Last Semester students chose some of the following titles:

Book cover for Crippled by Francis Ryan

Crippled: the demonisation of disabled people during austerity by Frances Ryan.

Reason for request:  "I don't see any sections celebrating disability or disabled culture or disabled authors at King's. This feels like an oversight given the great progress around diversifying and decolonising the literature for other marginalised groups."

Book cover for The woman's courtyard by K̲h̲adījah Mastūr

The Women’s Courtyard by Khadija Mastur, translated by Daisy Rockwell.

Reason for request:  "A translation of one the most popular Urdu novels focusing on the partition period that has been dramatised twice.” 

Book cover for the best we could do by Thi Bui

The Best We Could Do: an illustrated memoir by Thi Bui.

Reason for request:  “I wrote my dissertation on this book, and it represents the community I come from: Asian American immigrants.”

Battle of Algiers - film cover

The Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo (film).

Reason for request: "It is a film that represents the beauty and the struggle of Algerians during a revolution against French colonialism. I don't see a lot of North African representation in UK media but I'm so glad this is in King's Library Collection because this is such a heartfelt watch for those who can relate to or want to hold onto that feeling of resistance, perseverance and community. But it's also a great watch for those who are looking for excellent cinematography- film studies students I'm looking at you!”