Making sure that all people are reflected in books on library shelves is important to both collection development and patron participation. Learn best practices for developing your collections and resources on next week’s NCompass Live webinar, ‘Can you see me? Collection Development for Marginalized Communities’, on Wednesday, March 16 at 10am CT.
All people, regardless their sexual orientation, religion, and race, should see themselves reflected in the books that they can check out. Often times, small libraries find a lot of challenges making sure that these books are present in the collection, either due to cost issues, budget changes, staff self-censorship, and challenges from patrons.
This session will discuss issues related to collection development for marginalized communities (LGBTQIA, African American, Native American, Indigenous, etc.), provide library staff with best practices to develop collections and resources to combat pushback that might take place from patrons or community members who do not approve of certain books on the shelves. This session will present preliminary findings from research on this topic and look forward to coming research to assist small and rural librarians with ways to better develop book collections for marginalized communities.
Presenter: Laura Pitts, Director, Scottsboro (AL) Public Library.
Upcoming NCompass Live shows:
- March 23 – If You Build it, Will They Come? Makerspaces Work in Small, Rural Libraries
- March 30 – Pretty Sweet Tech – 3D Room Design Activity with TinkerCAD & Thingiverse
- April 6 – Expanding the Health Information Landscape In Your Public Library
- April 13 – Tweak Your Library’s Social Media
- April 20 – Starting a Board Game Club at a Small Library
- April 27 – Pretty Sweet Tech – The 40 Day Challenge Initiative
For more information, to register for NCompass Live, or to listen to recordings of past events, go to the NCompass Live webpage.
NCompass Live is broadcast live every Wednesday from 10am – 11am Central Time. Convert to your time zone on the Official U.S. Time website. The show is presented online using the GoToWebinar online meeting service. Before you attend a session, please see the NLC Online Sessions webpage for detailed information about GoToWebinar, including system requirements, firewall permissions, and equipment requirements for computer speakers and microphones.
