Collection Development

Most public libraries in the United States organize and shelve their materials based on the Dewey Decimal Classification system. This one-hour Know & Go was created with library assistants, volunteers and all employees who are responsible for shelving library materials using Dewey in mind. Through demonstration and interactive materials, participants will explore introductory shelving concepts using the Dewey Decimal Classification system, common shelving mistakes, and approaches to maintaining an organized library collection.

Readers advisory services are vital for connecting books with readers, and readers with books – and RA has returned in popularity in recent years. With a seemingly endless variety of titles and genres and personal tastes, building a strong readers advisory program can seem like an insurmountable task. But readers advisory can be mastered with the right mix of curiosity, awareness, and strategy, collaborating with patrons to find the perfect book or material for their need.

Most academic libraries in the United States organize and shelve their materials based on the Library of Congress Classification System (LCC). This one-hour Know & Go was created with student workers, volunteers and all employees who are responsible for shelving library materials using LCC in mind. Through demonstration and interactive materials, participants will explore introductory shelving concepts using the Library of Congress Classification System, common shelving mistakes, and approaches to maintaining an organized collection.

Two library teams partnered to challenge the assumption that college students don’t read and to amplify underrepresented voices through community-driven collections. By examining what students want to read and how they engage with library materials, the project revealed that this perception and the push to elevate diverse voices are deeply connected. This collaboration between the Student Learning and Engagement team and the Acquisitions team combines expertise in outreach, instruction, and collection development, supported by faculty, staff, and student employees.

As artificial intelligence tools become increasingly integrated into library workflows, the ability to craft effective prompts is essential. Develop practical strategies for building, refining, and testing AI prompts tailored to real-world library scenarios. Explore how prompt structure influences responses and learn techniques to improve clarity, relevance, and usefulness. Through guided activities, experiment with prompt variations, compare outputs, and evaluate whether results are appropriate for contexts such as instruction, collection management, communication, and creative projects.

For the library to be a living organism it must constantly evolve – adding new materials and resources, pivoting to meet new needs, and changing with its community. In the areas of collections and technical services, that move to be a living organism requires responsible flexibility as we consider new formats and organize and make collections discoverable. Collections, classification and cataloging, weeding, and storage practices all represent the heart of each individual library to their communities.