LIS 5100 : Labeling systems for books

During class discussion this week, a classmate brought up the experience of having few options for reading while in school because she was an advanced reader who was required to read books that were “at her reading level.” As a youth librarian, I don’t want to be in the position where I have to deny a child a book that “speaks” to them because a rating system has determined it “too easy” for them to read.

Pat Scales offers an interesting perspective on “leveled” reading of materials (ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee, 2015). The systems themselves don’t abridge students’ freedom, “It’s the practice of limiting students’ access to materials based on reading levels that infringes on students’ right to read” (ibid).

If applied in this way, the AR ratings might become “prejudicial” labels, identified in the American Library Association’s interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights as any labels “designed to restrict access, based on a value judgment that the content, language, or themes of the resource, or the background or views of the creator(s) of the resource, render it inappropriate or offensive for all or certain groups of users” (ALA, 2015).

The AASL in its position statement concerning labeling books with reading levels, also expresses concern with “nonstandard shelving practices,” that “if books in the school library are arranged by reading level, students may have no understanding of how materials are arranged in most school and public libraries, and students’ ability to select books in other libraries will be adversely affected” (AASL, 2018, p. 216).

I do have concerns about completely being able to adhere to the ALA policy; my school library serves a client base ranging from Kindergarten to Grade 8. If that client base was at the public library, the younger and older patrons would be in separate parts of the library — where librarians would have curated a collection just for them, based on their very different levels of development.

In the school library, we don’t have the luxury of separate physical spaces to serve the vastly different needs of our different clients. Instead, “Young Adult” and “Tween” labels identify books’ target readership, and the labels are not based on reading level but instead on the age or grade level of patrons for whom the book would hold interest.

(This information is reflected in catalog records, in the 521 fields for “Target Audience” [Library of Congress, 2002].)

I base distinctions between juvenile, “Tween,” and “Young Adult” by researching where a book would be shelved in the Tulsa City-County Library. Sullivan identified the TCCL as an “early adopter” of housing a “Tween” collection, separate from Juvenile and Young Adult (Sullivan, 2013, p. 66). I also pay attention to how students talk about books, because I find that they are the first to mention when a book ought to be Young Adult.

These labels serve in the role that would be filled in public libraries by giving patrons their own physical spaces in which to browse their separate collections.

The policy that was in place when I started work in my school library is that books intended for older students were marked with a yellow dot. Students in grades 6 and older could check out as a matter-of-course what were “Yellow-Dot” materials while students in grades 3-5 needed parent permission. For students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade, “Yellow-Dot” was not an option.

I continued with this practice, but I added a “Tween” category to identify books that, before, seemed unduly restricted. (A book with a third- or fourth-grade target readership is not the same as “Young Adult,” so I specifically identified as “Young Adult” those books for which a “Yellow-Dot” still seemed appropriate.)

Regardless of target readership, the books are shelved in the library according to standard conventions: informational books by subject according to the Dewey Decimal System, and fiction books alphabetically, most often by the author’s last name. (Exceptions to shelving fiction by the last name of the author include series fiction like 39 Clues or Spirit Animals, where numerous different authors contributed books that make up the series.)

But being exposed through our studies to position statements about labeling, my concern hinges upon how these policies would consider identification of a book as being for “Tween” and “Young Adult.” Would the ALA consider these labels “viewpoint-neutral,” or would they be “prejudicial” labels?

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

ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee. (2015, March 21). Leveling and labeling: An interview with Pat Scales. ALSC Blog. https://www.alsc.ala.org/blog/2015/03/leveling-and-labeling-an-interview-with-pat-scales/

American Library Association. (2015). Labeling systems: An interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretation/labeling-systems

Library of Congress. (2002). 521 - Target audience note. MARC 21 format for bibliographic data. https://www.loc.gov/marc/bibliographic/bd521.html

Sullivan, M. (2013). Fundamentals of children’s services (2nd ed.) American Library Association.