Why Focus on Diversity in Children's Collections? 

Jordana Finlay

As I’ve begun to sort through the collection of my school library since I inherited it a few months ago, I have been putting a lot of thought and energy into making sure that we have a diverse collection of children’s materials. The school where I work is dramatically lacking in diversity overall- it is a Jewish school with the requirement that all students be Jewish. Our student body is 98% caucasian and very few students receive tuition assistance. The school has very few resources for students with cognitive or physical disabilities, so students with those needs are not typically drawn to our school.  

A lot of the writing about the importance of diversity in children’s media discusses the importance of children being able to see themselves reflected back. In the case of my students, it is almost more important that they are exposed to other experiences in order to grow empathy and a wider world view. The author of the below linked article points out that libraries are “spaces that welcome children to explore, discover, and connect to the larger world, libraries can play an integral role in helping them develop understanding and respect for other people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds.” Campbell Naidoo talks about the five Fs often used to incorporate diversity into collections and programming: “foods, festivals, folklore, fashion, and famous people of a particular culture.” She notes that in and of itself, introducing new cultures this way isn’t the worst, but truly we should be incorporating diverse stories into everyday themes and displays. I will be taking a lot away from this article as I work to grow my collection.

Campbell Naidoo, J. (2014, April 5). The importance of diversity in library programs and material. Association for Library Service to Children. 

https://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org.alsc/files/content/ALSCwhitepaper_Importance%20of%20Diversity%20FINAL_1.pdf

Building ESL Collection

Evgenia Sablina 

                                                          Building ESL Collection 

As an immigrant and pursuing a librarian carrier, I have a particular interest in helping immigrant communities. Unfortunately, I could not locate studies on building an ESL collection for adult users. However, there are some studies done on creating such collections in schools or academic libraries. Living in Las Vegas, I choose one that is close to home. The study I found was produced by two UNLV (University of Las Vegas) librarians, Amantha Godbey and Amanda Melilli.

Godbey, & Melilli, A. (2021). Developing a P-12 English Language Learner Collection in an Academic Library That Reflects Its Community. Collection Management, 46(3-4), 273–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2021.1910889

                According to Census.gov, 13.7% of the U.S. population is foreign-born. The number of immigrants steadily rises every year. With the increase of newcomers, the need to access materials that would help them to navigate within a new cultural and socio-economical environment is in demand. Apparently, the first and most important step for immigrants is to learn the host country’s language. It seems logical for public libraries to be upfront to provide access to such materials and to have a comprehensive ESL collection to help with this first step. However, the picture, in reality, may not be so positive, as some public libraries may be way behind in meeting apparent demand.

There are no studies that public librarians can use to help them build a proficient ESL collection for adults. However, some studies explore the topic of building an ESL collection for young learners.

Godbey & Melilli's article suggests building an ESL collection in an Academic Library for P-12 English Language Learners and the instructors.  The authors acknowledge that there has been an increase in ESL students at public schools throughout the United States over the past decades. Godbey   & Melilli argue that academic libraries associated with teacher education programs must modify their collections to better prepare teachers for working in these increasingly diverse P-12 schools. In this article, the authors describe how, in support of young ESL learners and teachers working with them, librarians at a research institution in one of the largest school districts in the country (Clark County, Nevada) approached a project to develop such a collection.  Godbey & Mellilli, working as librarians at UNLV (University of Las Vegas), assessed the current collection before purchasing any new material, surveyed literature on ESL collections in other academic libraries, and examined the local school district’s characteristics.  In their study, the authors advocate for using non-English materials to emphasize the value of home languages and culture, as well as the use of alternative youth library formats such as graphic novels or hi-lo books that also could be used in order to encourage a developing level of ESL skills and content literacy.  Libraries must be strategic in creating and promoting collections that offer various formats, topics, reading levels, and languages to meet the unique learning needs of ESL learners in their communities as well as educators.

Although this article concentrates on ESL material for young learners, the study findings can be used for public libraries for both YPL and adult collections.

 

The Need for Diversity Audits

 

Amanda Lawrence

Brilliant, B., Guessford, M.R., Snieg, A.L., Jones, J.J., Keeler, T., & Stephenson, P.L. (2002). Assessing diversity in hospital library collections. Medical Reference Services Quarterly. 41(4), 424-438. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2022.2131185

For Project 6 and my additional reading assignment, I chose to focus my research on diversity audits and why they are an important step in all collection management policies. At a minimum, collection development is the act of selecting new materials and weeding out old ones for your students or patrons. However, without specific collection management policies that are inclusive of diversity, equity, and inclusion standards, a library's collection runs the risk of excluding underrepresented people, their voices, and their experiences.

The article above focused on the need for diversity audits in a library hospital. My coursework and experience has primarily been with public libraries, so it was interesting to see how the idea of collection management works in a different setting. Unsurprisingly, a lack of diverse materials seems to be a common thread amongst most libraries; out of the libraries studied, 3% of collections referred to disability, 8% referred to ethnicity, and 0.37% had any cross-cultural references. This is particularly startling in a medical setting, since patients need medical professionals who are sensitive to their diverse needs and who understand how different backgrounds can affect a person's physical or mental health. On a more basic level, diseases present themselves differently on different bodies, so without diverse representation in medical books, patients may go undiagnosed. This article shows the need to conduct diversity audits on hospital collections; even though it is a long, costly, and imperfect system, it is essential for the library and hospital in order to function and provide proper evidence-based care.

Exploring Collections Centered on Media Fans

 Jenkins. (2006). Fans, bloggers, and gamers : exploring participatory culture. In Fans, Bloggers, and 

        Gamers (pp. 3-49). New York University Press.

    What should library collections reflect? Should they reflect the needs of the library or the needs of information seekers? I truly believe that collections should reflect the needs of the people. The needs of the patrons coming to the library everyday seeking information. The above book is transformative in the sense that it addresses how bloggers, fans, and gamers should seek their own information through the context of library collections. Jenkins (2006) states in his book, "The new participatory culture is taking shape at the intersection between three trends: 1. New tools and technologies enable consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content; 2. a range of subcultures promote Do-It-Yourself (DIY) media production, a discourse that shapes how consumers have deployed those technologies…" If the library can capitalize on these trends from participatory culture then libraries can have very targeted collections for media fans. 

    Media fans are constantly searching for answers to their questions based on what they watch and their hobbies. Libraries are meant to serve those information seeking behaviors. Having collections that reflect that participatory culture and having the tools that media fans need will draw in new patrons and new services for this community. This book truly reveals this concept and could really help school librarians and public librarians reflect the collections that media users need. This can include the use of media platforms included with the collections as well. I plan on having a media fans center whenever I am school librarian to encourage students seek out information in the library. I hope others can follow in the same direction. 

"Library as Infrastructure"--Mattern, S.

  Christine Ryu

INFO266

Mattern, S. (2014). Library as Infrastructure. Places-a Forum of Environmental Design.   https://doi.org/10.22269/140609

 

This article focuses on the different capacities the library has served and continues to serve the community. It begins by describing the contribution of Melvil Dewey and how he created the first library school at Columbia College. Mattern compares the library to a platform-a term used by developers to mean a base where new applications, technologies, and processes are created. While this is a great metaphor for the library as a place of innovation and collaboration, Mattern points out the problems with the platform model. One such problem is the two-dimensional stage where, "resources are laid out for users to do stuff with" (2014). The library is also looked at as infrastructure, especially for its function in times of disasters and more recently, the COVID pandemic. Libraries, as reported by Mattern, are "ever evolving" infrastructures beyond architectural (but that is included) and our thinking of libraries in that way can assist us in better identifying "what roles we want our libraries to serve, and what we can reasonably expect of them" (2014).  The different social and symbolic function of libraries is explored and how libraries have historically been the place where social  and informational structures intersect. 

This article is great because it breaks down the different transformations the library has fluidly passed through in order to meet the ever-changing needs of the community. Libraries are no longer just a building that houses books, even the physical structure of libraries are changing to reflect the needs of the community, namely spaces for information communities to meet and exchange ideas. Mattern uses an apt, if not flawed metaphor of the library as a platform, especially as it ties in with today’s technology dependence.

"The Culture War"

 Jensen, K. (n.d.). The “Culture War” Designation is Journalistic Negligence. Book Riot. https://bookriot.com/book-censorship-news-december-2-2022/

Book Riot! is a blog which focuses on book publishing news, book recommendations and news items related to publishing. As the field of publishing is inextricably linked to the controversial widespread attempts to censor books in schools, public libraries and even private book shops, Book Riot! Has kept up with the latest news items related to censorship. This blog posts links to articles detailing the most recent challenges and poses the theory that the term “Culture War” is unnecessarily politicizing a topic which should be of universal good - intellectual freedom.

Creating and Building Effective Multilingual Library Collections

Shabeena Mathiruban

Hill, J. (2018). Building for Diversity: How Public Libraries Can Create Great  Multilingual Collections. Dalhousie Journal of Interdisciplinary Management, 14. https://doi.org/10.5931/djim.v14i0.7854

This article discusses how to build multilingual collections in public libraries through community consultations, collaborating with other libraries, working with vendors, cataloging and maintaining the collection, marketing, and providing staff training. When creating a multilingual collection, the first step is understanding the demographics of the community which can be obtained from community data found online or from your own research. Next, to understand the needs and interests of the community, libraries can do community consultations with library patrons. Librarians can do studies with patrons through paper surveys or observations to obtain this crucial information. They also need to determine how broad they want to create their multilingual collection by looking at the demographic data, as communities with large immigrant populations may need a more comprehensive multilingual collection. Moreover, hiring bilingual staff that can communicate with library patrons in their non-English language is beneficial. Overall, this article provides numerous ways libraries can create an effective multilingual collection for patrons to meet their information needs.  

From the article, I liked the idea of doing community consultations to understand the needs and interests of multilingual library patrons. The library system I work at primarily uses demographic data to determine which languages to include in their multilingual collections, however community consultations are usually not conducted. I have seen many multilingual books that are not circulating at my library and have been discarded, because they do not meet the interests of the patrons. I think community consultations can be very beneficial in creating a relevant collection that meets the needs and interests of diverse communities. Moroever, I liked that this article mentions the importance of hiring bilingual library staff as this greatly assists patrons with language barriers.