ARRT Program Recap with Slide Access: Give Them What They Want- Reader Focused Collection Development

Yesterday, we had a packed house at the Archer Heights Branch of the Chicago Public Library for our program on Reader Focused Collection Development.

As a reminder, here is the blurb about the program:

Readers are flocking to library’s leisure collections. To make smart collection choices, we must look further than circulation statistics and learn what our entire community desires. Our presenters are using methods suitable at libraries of any size to incorporate patron wishes into collection development, making readers integral to the whole process. 

From complex patron-driven acquisitions plans at large library systems, to bite-size surveys at the smallest libraries, to prioritizing patron requests, to canny materials displays, all of these librarians are finding innovative ways to put what readers want front and center, and to ferret out even the hardest-to-discover reading desires.

Our presenters were:

• Robin Bradford, Collection Development Librarian, Timberland Regional Library (WA)
• Stephen Sposato, Content Curation Manager, Chicago Public Library
• Nicole Steeves, Director, Fox River Grove Memorial Library
• Rebecca Bartlett, Collection Services Manager, La Grange Public Library

Slide access for everyone reading this is now available and archived here and also available below:

Robin Bradford’s slidesStephen Sposato’s slidesNicole Steeves’ slidesRebecca Bartlett’s slides

That is also the order of their appearance. 

A few of us live tweeted the presentations and you can see those notes by using this exact link. That link will work whether you log into Twitter or not [I tested it]. You do not have to be a registered user to access these notes. It lists the tweets in reverse chronological order for this specific program. I did an advanced search and filtered by date to make it easier for all of you.

For reference, we tweet out all of our programs using #arrtreads. You can always use that hashtag to see any of our programs with the most recent first.

But with this specific program link, I have made access to the notes for yesterday's program easily accessible for anyone today or in the future. 

Use this link to follow along with the slides [above] as those of us who were Live Tweeting commented upon what was said to accompany those slides. I was one of the people Tweeting, so you can also see my specific comments about what was being said using that link.

I will tell you, I was the instigator, um I mean organizer, of this program. I solicited the presenters and asked them to talk about their specific topics. So in other words, I knew what was coming ahead of time. Why do I tell you this? Because even I learned quite a bit yesterday. Please take some time to at least look at these slides. These are all leaders in the library world and each of them shared a great deal of knowledge, including some fo their failures. It was fantastic and really got me excited about how we can better serve our patrons though the collections we craft.

Finally, the slides will be available indefinitely and each presenter included their contact info on those slides. Please feel free to contact any of them directly if you have specific questions about their presentations.

On behalf of ARRT and my team of volunteers for this program I would like to thank our host and presenters for providing a valuable and fun continuing education experience for our attendees and for those who will access the slides and notes from afar in the future.