Learn How To Evaluate, Audit, and Diversify Your Collections With Your Team

Send your team to our online course Evaluating, Auditing, and Diversifying Your Collections starts October 19, and you’ll work together to conduct a diversity audit, create a plan of action to cultivate more equitable collections, and address gap areas that will transform your understanding of your library users and the services you provide.

When you sign up as a group, your team will be placed in the same small workshop group, where discussions and project-based assignments receive feedback from an experienced librarian.

Contact [email protected] for group discounts.

Over three weeks, hear from an outstanding group of experts as they explore key concepts essential to cultivating and promoting inclusive and equitable collections. The live speaker program is supported by an asynchronous facilitator-led workshop, where you’ll receive feedback from a librarian on your tactical assignments.

The live speaker program runs Tuesdays, Oct. 19, 26, and Nov. 2, 2021 (recordings on-demand if you can’t make the sessions). Check out the inspirational and tactical program below.

Certificate of Completion Provided
15 PD credits available

Register Today!

Week 1: Tuesday, October 19, 2021, 2:00PM - 4:00PM ET
Session 1 | 2:00PM-3:00PM ET
Actively Anti-Racist Service to Leisure Readers
Being aware of a lack of diversity in your library collections and having the intention to make a change is important, but having a plan of action to address these problems is where the magic happens. In this conversation between Robin Bradford and Becky Spratford, you’ll learn concrete strategies for making lasting change in your approach to collection development and readers’ advisory, ensuring your library’s collections and suggestions are diverse, inclusive, and anti-racist.
Speakers:

Robin Bradford, Collection Development Librarian, Pierce County Library System (WA)

Becky Spratford, Readers’ Advisory Specialist

Intermission | 3:00PM - 3:15PM ET

Session 2 | 3:15PM - 4:00PM ET
Conducting a Diversity Audit of Your Collections
In this session, we’ll discuss both the process of conducting a diversity audit and what comes next after you’ve successfully audited your collection. You’ll learn how to plan a diversity audit, which salient data points should be included, how to gather the requisite information, how to set goals to address gaps, and how to make diversity and inclusion natural parts of collection management and promotion. You’ll also come away with an understanding of what to do with your data once you have it, how to create a plan of implementation, and where to go next.
Speakers:

Betsy Bird, Collection Development Manager, Evanston Public Library (IL)

Dontaná McPherson-Joseph, Collection Management Librarian, Oak Park Public Library (IL)

Week 2: Tuesday, October 26, 2021, 2:00 – 4:15PM ET

Stereotypes, Tropes, and Cultural Appropriation: A Collection Development Deep Dive
Some common stereotypes in books and media are easy to spot—others require a more fine-tuned understanding of culture and history. In this series of enlightening sessions, you will learn how to spot problematic stereotypes and tropes and how to avoid unintentionally perpetuating such depictions. You will hear from several experts in the field about the ways that specific marginalized cultures—Native American, Asian American, African American, and LGBTQIA+—are portrayed in mainstream media, their cultural traditions misunderstood or misrepresented, and their stories appropriated by cultural outsiders. You’ll walk away with the knowledge you need to build a more representative, inclusive collection at your library or institution.
Speakers:
Session 1 | 2:00PM - 2:30PM ET

Jennifer Baker, Writer, Editor, Advocate, and Founder, Minorities in Publishing podcast

Session 2 | 2:30PM-3:00PM ET

Mahasin Abuwi Aleem, Children's Collection Management Librarian, Oakland Public Library (CA), Co-Founder, Hijabi Librarians

Hadeal Salamah, Lower and Middle School Librarian, Georgetown Day School, Washington DC

Intermission | 3:00PM - 3:15PM ET

Session 3 | 3:15PM - 3:45PM ET

Carson Williams, Adult Services Librarian, Benson Memorial Library (NM)

Session 4 | 3:45PM - 4:15PM ET

Kara Stewart, Author, Teacher, Literacy Specialist

Week 3: Tuesday, November 2, 2021, 2-4 pm ET

Session 1 | 2:00PM - 2:45PM ET
Reading, Writing, and Reviewing Diverse Books: A Conversation
There’s more to building diverse collections than auditing! In this session, we’ll approach diversifying your collections from new angles, considering the author and reviewer’s perspectives in the process. You’ll hear why one author started writing, what they found missing from the books they were seeing on the shelves, and what improvements they’ve seen since they’ve been in the business. You’ll also hear from a collection development expert and reviewer on both the great benefits and the limitations of the review. This session will help you broaden your approach to collection development and enhance your ability to build a more equitable collection.
Speaker: To be announced soon

Session 2 | 3:00PM - 3:45PM ET
Librarianship During a Racial Reckoning
How do our personal identities impact the culture of our libraries? A truly inclusive library culture begins, first, with ourselves and considering how our blind spots can impact what our library spaces become. Creating libraries that reflect, and are safe for, BIPOC children and youth, is an active, ongoing practice requiring intent and unflagging effort. In this closing keynote, Dr. Kim Parker will help you think through how you can create an environment that is liberatory and reflective of diverse populations, on your shelves and beyond.
Speaker:

Dr. Kimberly N. Parker, Director, Crimson Summer Academy, Harvard University (MA)

View Full Program!

Register early and get immediate access to our foundational bonus content—rich supporting materials you can explore at your own pace, including a series of webinars from Library Journal and School Library Journal contributors, readings, activities, and videos!

Register Today!

And there’s more!

Round out your development by adding our one-day ‘Read Woke’ course extension:

From Collection to Action: A One-Day ‘Read Woke’ Mini Course with Cicely Lewis
Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2:00-4:00PM ET
When you attend the one-day Read Woke online mini-course, you’ll come away with:

Send your team and increase your impact!

Contact [email protected] for group discounts.