While the NYU Abu Dhabi Library offers an array of academic books and resources for students and faculty, the recently launched Global Book Collection focuses on the curation of a collection based on a survey of favorite books and genres completed by contracted staff. “I think it’s an amazing initiative to give back to the contracted staff who supports the day-to-day running of the campus,” says Yuxuan Li. Yuxuan, an NYU Shanghai student studying away at NYU Abu Dhabi, learned about the initiative while seeking more opportunities beyond her business studies for the semester.

Launched in 2022, the Global Book Collection is the evolution of a used books program started by NYU Abu Dhabi Class of 2014 alum Jin U Bak over eight years ago. The program was a way to promote sustainability culture at the University while giving new life to used books. Now it has blossomed into a joint partnership between the NYU Abu Dhabi Library and the Office of Social Responsibility (OSR).

NYU Abu Dhabi student Rawan Shaaban, along with Yuxuan, acted as an OSR assistant to catalog and tag literature for the collection’s launch. “People often think the library is only for students,” says Rawan. “With the global collection, it’s a space for everyone. I really like the initiative, and the fact that the books are in so many languages makes it very inclusive.”

The collection includes books in Hindi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Tagalog, and Urdu, with over 350 international titles on its shelves. Now the NYU Abu Dhabi Library not only reflects the University’s diverse community of students, faculty, and staff but also represents a myriad of languages commonly used by community members.

For example, Brendalle Belaza, a domestic worker who lives on campus, welcomes the initiative as a book lover and enjoys visiting the collection during her free time. “As I am starting to write my own stories, I love reading stories that are in Tagalog,” Belaza says.

OSR hopes to continue growing the collection year after year. “The library is thrilled to partner with the Office of Social Responsibility to build a collection around the interests and needs of our contracted colleagues, in their preferred languages. We are excited to continue working with our colleagues to develop the collection further based on their recommendations,” says Beth Russell, associate director for research services and strategy.

The collection is available to all NYU Abu Dhabi community members based on an honor system as well as open to requests for books and authors via a suggestion box located near the collection.

Repurposed with permission from NYU Abu Dhabi Latest News.