Determine the collections to be analyzed in a preliminary diversity audit based on realistic time frames. Conducting a diversity audit is a time-consuming task that requires hours of manual research and analysis. The data collection step of the 582 individual materials selected to be analyzed in the initial audit took about sixty-six hours over six weeks of largely uninterrupted work by a temporary intern dedicated to completing the audit and analysis under a time constraint. Library staff have other tasks to manage first before focusing on a diversity audit, so more than likely conducting an audit of the same scale would take a much longer period of time. It is best to start small to realistically complete an audit in a timely manner. Start with one small collection. Another method is to take a random sample, such as every fifth book or so, from a larger collection or the whole library. This way, you are generalizing the collection as a whole and saving time by not analyzing every material available.
For the initial audit, two collections were assessed. The first collection was the children's literature, which was further separated for graphing purposes into the four sections in the library: Easy Readers, Picture Books, Toddler Books, and Readers. The second collection was the adult popular fiction books. The Sierra integrated library system was used to make a list consisting of the materials currently on the shelf at the time to assess for the audit.