LIS 5100 : Diverse populations need diverse library collections

In our reading this week for LIS 5100, Foundations of Librarianship, we learned that the populations and communities we serve are increasingly diverse. The Rubins cite a finding by Frey (2019) that “Hispanics comprise 18.3% of the population; African Americans, 12.5%; and Asians, 5.9%” (Rubin 2020, p. 69).

Because our populations are increasingly diverse, it makes sense that librarianship would evolve in order to reflect that. As the Rubins point out, citing a tenet of “Critical Librarianship” as defined by Bats (2016), libraries are “inherently political” and reflect the strengths, weaknesses, openness, and biases, of the culture in which they reside (Rubin, 2020, p. 91).

Curating a diverse collection meets the AASL Shared Foundation of “Include,” which we are studying this week. An inclusive library “encourages balanced perspectives,” and represents all members of its community through up-to-date, high quality materials in a variety of formats (AASL, 2018, p. 80).

When selecting materials for the library, I make a conscious choice to purchase diverse titles. One way that I do this is by closely following the American Library Association’s annual Youth Media Awards. Many of these awards honor works by and about members of diverse communities.

The Coretta Scott King Award, for example, recognizes “an African American author and illustrator of outstanding books for children and young adults” (ALA, 2022). The Pura Belpré Awards honor Hispanic writers and illustrators “whose children’s and young adult books best portray, affirm and celebrate the Latino cultural experience” (ibid), and the Stonewall Book Award is “given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience” (ibid).

Some diverse identities are more visible than others. One of my readings this week was by Christina Torres, writing about the importance of normalizing discussions of mental health in classrooms. She writes that “Shame is a construct built on the idea that we are the only ones struggling with something that other people would judge us for if they knew. Sharing my story with others allowed me to see that my experience with anxiety wasn’t something I had to be ashamed of. I wasn’t alone” (Torres, 2018).

Torres cites a finding by the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI), that “20 percent of students 13 to 18 years old deal with some kind of mental health issue, and 8 percent experience some kind of panic or anxiety disorder” (ibid).

Those numbers were pre-pandemic; a recent NAMI infographic stated that in 2020, one in six U.S. adolescents (young people ages 12 to 17) “experienced a major depressive episode” (NAMI, n.d.), 3 million adolescents had “serious thoughts of suicide,” and there was a 31 percent increase in mental-health related emergency room visits by adolescents (ibid).

Among U.S. young adults (ages 18 to 25), one in three experienced a mental illness, one in 10 experienced a “serious mental illness,” and 3.8 million had thoughts of suicide (ibid).

So among books in my collection that uplift and honor more visible diverse identities, it’s also important to address aspects of mental health and anxiety. Some titles that come to mind include Guts by Raina Telgemeier (chronic illness and anxiety), Real Friends by Shannon Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham (loneliness, mental health, and anxiety) and The Eleventh Trade by Alyssa Hollingsworth (PTSD, survivor’s guilt).

References
American Association of School Librarians. (2018). National school library standards for learners, school librarians, and school libraries. ALA Editions.

American Library Association. American Library Association announces 2022 Youth Media Award winners [Press release]. https://www.ala.org/news/press-releases/2022/01/american-library-association-announces-2022-youth-media-award-winners

Bats, R. (2016). Libraries after Charlie: From neutrality to action. Library Trends (65), 128-142.

Frey, W. (2019). Six maps that reveal America’s expanding racial diversity. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/research/americas-racial-diversity-in-six-maps/

National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.) 2020 Mental health by the numbers: Youth and young adults [Infographic]. https://www.nami.org/NAMI/media/NAMI-Media/Infographics/NAMI_2020MH_ByTheNumbers_Youth.pdf

Rubin, R. & Rubin, R. (2020). Foundations of library and information science (5th ed.). ALA Neal-Schuman.

Torres, C. (2018, March 6). Broken and healing: Normalizing mental health issues in our classrooms. Learning for Justice. https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/broken-and-healing-normalizing-mental-health-issues-in-our-classrooms