Rural Libraries and LGTBQ Collection Development

 

Carrasquillo, Marisol

“We Could Do Better”: Librarian Engagement in LGBTQ Collection Development in Small and Rural Public Libraries in the Southern U.S.  By Dawn Betts-Green

Out of all the material that I have read this semester, this article is one that impacted me the most. This article discussed the hostility that LGBTQ youth face in areas of the Bible Belt, being careful to express the higher instances of intolerance in the region can be related to other ideals outside of religion, but noting that there is a “higher instance of negative experiences in this area”. Giving everyone a safe place to gather and feel welcomed is what libraries symbolize and if a certain group within the community cannot or does not feel safe to explore then how are they being reached? This is the question that is asked throughout the article with emphasis on how library staff should try to avoid traps that lead to the assumption of who lives in their area and what materials to offer. The author expresses that there is still work to be done in gathering the experiences of those searching out and requesting information from rural libraries.

The research questions that were asked included:

• To what extent do the librarians and/or library staff of small and rural libraries in Alabama have an accurate conception of their library’s LGBTQ collection?
• How do librarians and/or staff actively promote and build the collection?
• What barriers does the library face in building the collection perceive to exist?
•   How are the barriers addressed?

Lack of funding and the inability to hire professionals to better add to the collections and programming was a noted factor. But in the end, the author expressed the invisibility of the LGBTQ community should push librarians to add books to the collection to “advocate for their patrons”.

Betts-Green, D. (2020) “We Could Do Better”: Librarian Engagement in LGBTQ Collection in Small and Rural Public Libraries in the Southern U.S., Public Library Quarterly, 39:6, 510-536, DOI: 10.1080/01616846.2020.1737493