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Ethical Financial Stewardship: One Library’s Examination of Vendors’ Business Practices

In the Library with the Lead Pipe: Katy DiVittorio and Lorelle Gianelli – “The evaluation of library collections rarely digs into the practices or other business ventures of the companies that create or sell library resources. As financial stewards, academic Acquisition Librarians are in a unique position to consider the business philosophy and practices of our vendors as they align with the institutions we serve. This article shares one academic library’s research and assessment of library vendors’ corporate practices, a review that involved purchasing Consumer Sustainability Rating Scorecards and Accessibility Reports. Challenges the library faced include lack of vendor involvement and how to move forward when it is discovered that a provider’s business ventures could harm our library patrons or their families. As a library that serves two official Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) and one emerging HSI this evaluation also considered how vendor practices may impact Hispanic/Latinx students. “

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