Picture Books

Audit Process - Picture Books

For the picture book portion of the collection, the library was able to work with Diverse Bookfinder, an organization which researches and collects racially and culturally diverse picture books. The Diverse Bookfinder has developed their own “Collection Analysis Tool” which allows libraries to cross-reference their own picture book collections against the Diverse Bookfinder’s own collection. The organization aims to collect every racially diverse title published after the year 2002. However, there is a noted gap for newly released books that have not yet been cataloged, as well as books that may have been missed or older titles published prior to 2002.

We compiled shelf lists of our entire picture book collection, including picture books within our “Illustrated,” “Biography,” “Parent Shelf” and “Folklore & FairyTales” sections. Then, we formatted them into excel files and uploaded them to the Collection Analysis Tool for review.

As the Diverse Bookfinder only collects data on Racial & Cultural diversity, we had to manually audit the collection for LGBTQ representation and Disability representation. Our findings show that .5% of the picture books in our collection have LGBTQ representation, and .9% have disability representation.

Below is the report courtesy of the Diverse Bookfinder: