Exploring the Potential for Equity in Primo

Abstract

This session describes how Primo, including its search and facet functions, has implications for equity and can support conversations around equity in the contemporary library. The session will be presented using examples from an academic library at a technical college in Washington State (Lake Washington Institute of Technology). However, the ideas explored contain implications for the presence of Primo in all libraries.

The session will be broken down into the following sections: an exploration of search/discovery technology from the angle of equity (with specific focuses on library ILSs and database platforms, as well as popular search engines and folksonomy-enabled platforms including Twitter, Google, and Google Scholar); an exploration of examples of Primo’s capacity to support equitable responses to its users and the ability to enable the autonomy of its users; additional factors that contribute to this capacity outside of the platform itself (including collection development, instructional methods, and UX decisions); and a brief look at larger problems of equity in search/discovery technology as they stand today.