Auditing Your Children's Collection: Acquisition and Shelf Balancing

Maintaining a strong collection is a process, not an event. When we audit, we can help ensure that our collection is diverse, inclusive, and appealing—that the materials we offer our patrons are in proportion to demand and contain a robust variety of diverse titles, own voices, and subjects across youth reading levels.

In this webinar, collection development and youth services librarian Jill Burket Ragase will offer practical step-by-step instructions for shelf balancing, allocation audits, and diversity audits, as well as helpful tips to ensure ongoing balance. You’ll walk away with a new perspective on how to keep your collection strong, adaptable, and popular.

After participating in this webinar, you will:

• Be able to evaluate shelf allocation relative to need and demand
• Know how to balance shelving and fill in gaps
• Be able to audit collections for diverse titles, own voices, and subjects across youth reading levels
• Understand how to monitor acquisition to maintain balance

Jill Burket Ragase has eagerly shared her passion for collection development and Youth Services as an Independent Library Consultant for five years. She is the former Juvenile Collection Development Librarian for the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, an SLJ 5-star library and winner of the National Medal for Museum and Library Services. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with her husband and their four children.

This event will be hosted in Zoom. Automatic captions will be enabled for this event. This event will be recorded, and registrants will receive access to the recording within a day after the event ends.

If you have questions or requests regarding accessibility, contact us at ce@ala.org or at 312-280-5100.