Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

I’ve been hearing a lot about Diversity Audits as a way of critically examining a collection to determine how well it represents typically under-represented groups.  Karen Jensen at the Teen Librarian’s Toolbox has some very helpful guides for how to do this, and I would love to help you if this is something you are interested in doing but are feeling overwhelmed.

It can be daunting to think of analyzing your whole collection like this.  May’s Library Journal had an article about the Skokie Public Library’s effort to just analyze 3 elements of their services:  Books read in storytime, movies/films shown, and books chosen for book discussions.  I think another simple one to add would be materials in displays.

We might be really trying to do diversify our collections and our programs, but as Karen Jensen points out, it takes stepping back and really analyzing it to determine if that is just how we feel, or if it is really the case.  I am super interested in this idea, and hope that if you have any interest in doing this yourself, you will contact me!  I would love to help you figure out a plan for doing it.