‘Young Adult’ materials in library: No more age-based restrictions

Among my communications to school staff this week, was a link to this year’s contract for checking out library books. New this year: I have abolished the permission form for younger children to be able to check out Young Adult materials.

When I began work as the school’s Library Technician in February 2018, a previous technician had established a routine where, in order for younger students to access “Young Adult” books in the library, their parent/guardian had to sign a special permission form.

I continued with existing practice, but it made me uncomfortable — and, in addition, keeping track of who had, and who did not have, permission to check out Young Adult materials proved very time-consuming. It added an extra layer of bureaucracy when I already needed to track which students had a signed contract to check books out for the year.

As I became familiar with the books in the library, I found that, in some instances, the Young Adult or “yellow-dot” designations were unduly restrictive. A book with a third- or fourth-grade target readership is not the same as “Young Adult,” and should not be represented as such.

I added a “Tween” category as alternative labeling for books that seemed unduly restricted. I took my cue from the Tulsa City-County Library, an “early adopter” of housing a “Tween” collection that is separate from Juvenile and Young Adult (Sullivan, 2013, p. 66). I base local distinctions between juvenile, “Tween,” and “Young Adult” materials by researching where a book would be shelved in the TCCL.

Our middle-school Language Arts teacher passed along to me, that her students asked about where in our library the “Young Adult” section was. In our small school library, we don’t have the luxury of separate spaces and collections for juveniles, “Tweens,” and “Young Adults,” so I feel as though “Tween” and “Young Adult” labels can offer an alternative by communicating to their intended readers, “Yes, this book is for you!”

As for the permission form, which, as I said, made me uncomfortable: when I began taking classes toward a Master’s degree in librarianship, I learned that age-based restrictions run counter to the values of the American Association of School Librarians. This offered me justification to propose abolishing the practice.

From an AASL position statement, approved in February 2021:

“Providing information to educators, learners, and families about how the school library is organized and encouraging families to be engaged with their own child’s reading selections is preferable to requiring written permission or restricting access to certain library sections based on a learner’s age or grade, since the needs, interests, and readiness levels of two children of the same age may be vastly different” (AASL, 2021, p. 2-3).

The policy also states:

“It is also important for school policies to recognize the distinctions between a school library’s need to be accessible to all learners and a classroom library’s more narrowly targeted collection, which may focus on the needs of a specific age group or instructional goal. Because the school library’s goal is to meet the needs of its entire community’s information-seeking, curricular, and leisure reading goals, its collection and labeling practices will necessarily be more inclusive and less restrictive than some classroom libraries” (AASL, 2021, p. 3).

Each year with the contract, parents/guardians acknowledge that their child will be responsible for any books checked out to them. Instead of a separate permission form to check out Young Adult materials, with my principal’s consent, I added the following paragraph to the library contract:

“The library collection encourages students to be independent reading consumers, and it stocks materials that are suitable for children, tweens, and Young Adults. I understand that library staff will not “police” my child’s selections, and that I am responsible for discussing with my child, those books that seem a good fit for them.”

References:
American Association of School Librarians. (2021). Position statement on labeling practices. https://www.ala.org/aasl/sites/ala.org.aasl/files/content/advocacy/statements/docs/AASL_Labeling_Practices_Position_Statement_2021a.pdf

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