7 Auditing Tools to Uncover Soft Censorship - Watch Party - Abilene Public Library
2026-08-05 10:00 - 11:00 (America/Chicago)
When: Wednesday, August 5th at 10am
Where: Abilene Public Library
What: & Auditing Tools to Uncover Soft Censorship
Please let Jan know if you plan to attend.
We’ll watch the webinar and have a brief discussion.

OVERVIEW:
The heart of this session is seven auditing tools you can use in any library, regardless of size or budget, to uncover soft censorship — from a thirty-minute walkthrough of your own building to data-driven benchmarks using the Seattle Public Library’s open checkout dataset and free tools built specifically for this kind of collection analysis.
There are titles missing from library shelves right now that were never formally challenged, never voted on, never even discussed, and there is no record of their absence. It’s called soft censorship and it’s happening in libraries across the country. In most cases, nobody intended it.
We’ll look at the three mechanics through which soft censorship operates — Removal, Rejection, and Restriction — using Kayla Martin-Gant’s research as our framework. We’ll examine what the current climate is doing to library workers and how that stress quietly reshapes collections through a phenomenon researchers call anticipatory anxiety. We’ll look back at the 1950s comic book scare — because the mechanics of soft censorship are not new, and what happened to the profession then has direct lessons for now.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
This session is for collection development & cataloguers.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Apply seven data-driven auditing tools to uncover soft (self-) censorship in library collections
Identify the three operational mechanics of soft censorship
Explain how anticipatory anxiety drives fear-based collection development decisions
Analyze how the profession was targeted during the 1950s comic book scare to drive soft censorship in public libraries.

Managing Resources, Expectations, and Demand for Libby Lovers - Watch Party - NCKLS
2026-08-11 10:00 - 11:00
What: Watch party for webinar–e-Obsessed: Manage Resources, Expectations, and Demand for Libby Lovers.
When: August 11th at 10am
Where: NCKLS offices
Who should attend: Anyone interested in collection development for Libby
Registration: Please let Jan know if you will be joining us.

Summer Reading Wrap up - NCKLS
2026-08-21 10:00 - 12:00
What: Summer Reading Wrap up
When: August 21st from 10am-noon
Where: NCKLS offices
Who should attend: Any stafff involved in kids, teen, and adult programming
Registration: Summer Reading Wrap up! Friday, August 21st from 10am-Noon at NCKLS offices – Fill out form

KS Judicial Center help center webinar
2026-09-24 13:30 - 14:30
What: KS Judicial Center help center webinar
When: September 24th 1:30pm
Where: online
Who should attend: Front line staff
More information to come!

Collection Development workshop with Erin Downey
2026-09-29 09:00 - 13:00
What: Collection Development workshop with Erin Downey
When: September 29th 9am – 1pm
Where: NCKLS offices
Who should attend: Anyone who works with collection development
Registration: To come
