Programming with Diversity in Mind: Conducting a Diversity Audit

Youth services and school librarians are in a unique position. Not only do we help patrons and their parents find books to read, research answers to pressing questions, and provide a safe, comfortable place to learn, but we also create programs for our patrons. Story times, book clubs, puppet shows, and even literature displays are standard in any public or school library. The titles that we share during these events and on these displays matter. Have you noticed that the authors you share, the titles you display, the books you read to classes are often the ones that get checked out the most? Our populations are diverse and we need to be purposeful about the books we share (or "bless") so that they reflect our audience. What children see in the illustrations of the books we read stays with them. What children hear in the stories we read stays with them. Children need to see themselves in the books they read and in the books that are read to them.

In my current role as instructor for the School of Library & Information Science at the University of South Carolina and as the coordinator for Cocky's Reading Express, I am making diversity a priority in the books that we share with the children, parents, and teachers in South Carolina.

Background

I started as the coordinator for Cocky's Reading Express (CRE) in August 2018. CRE has been an established program at the University of South Carolina for over thirteen years. It is the University of South Carolina's literacy outreach program and was started in 2005 by the student body president, Tommy Preston. The purpose of the program is to encourage early literacy by bringing college students and the university mascot, Cocky, to PreK–2nd grade audiences at Title I schools in South Carolina (to be considered for Title I school funds, at least 40% of the students must be considered low-income). At the schools we visit, university students share the importance of reading with children and read aloud several picture books. Cocky also pays a visit. At the end of the program, each child is given a book to take home, as long as they promise Cocky they will read every single day. CRE is fully funded by grants and gifts.

Cocky's Reading Express does important work. The leaders of the program have a head for getting grants and gifts and for selecting excellent read alouds for the college students to read. When I joined CRE, I did have one question (based mostly on my background as a school librarian and the research I have been doing on diverse books in children's literature): how are the diverse needs of students being addressed in terms of the books we are sharing with them? As I started traveling around the state with CRE, I felt that the books we shared did not always reflect the audience we were sharing them with. I have been teaching my university students about diversity audits and felt it was time to conduct a diversity audit of my own using CRE materials.

Getting Started

A "diversity audit" is basically taking a count of the materials you share or purchase for your collection based on diverse traits (ethnicity, race, gender, etc.). In conducting this audit, I wanted to find out more about the books we share with students during CRE visits, both the ones we read aloud and the titles we give away. We know that children need to see themselves in the books they read and in the media they consume and I wanted to make sure that was happening.

The benefits of having a diverse collection and sharing diverse books are numerous. From the We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) website (https://diversebooks.org/faq/):

• They reflect the world and people of the world
• They teach respect for all cultural groups
• They serve as a window and a mirror and as an example of how to interact in the world
• They show that despite differences, all people share common feelings and aspirations
• They can create a wider curiosity for the world
• They prepare children for the real world
• They enrich educational experiences

Conducting a diversity audit can seem overwhelming. You do not have to start out by doing an audit of your whole collection. You can start small. If you want to learn more about the books you are sharing with students, choose a small selection of your collection to evaluate. I choose to evaluate the books in our CRE collection (about 75 titles).

Questions you can ask:

• Are the authors/illustrators/characters portrayed in your collection a representation of the community in general?
• Is there any implicit bias?
• Do you consider your diverse community when making purchasing and programming decisions?

If you search the Internet for "library diversity audit," you will find many links directed to library professionals and educators looking at collections and making sure that what is in the collection reflects the readers in the room. These audits help librarians and teachers make decisions about materials to purchase for their collections. A diversity audit can be done for many different aspects of libraries and classrooms. You can do an audit of your collection to make sure you are purchasing materials that reflect your students and the greater community. You can conduct an audit of a particular assignment—are you giving students the opportunity to learn about all people and cultures? You can do an audit on a particular program, which is what I have done.

My Process (and a Model for You)

1. Collect information from others who have conducted diversity audits. I created my spreadsheet based on what others have used.
2. Compile a list of books—in my case, CRE titles that have been given away or read aloud since 2005. Please note that this is not a complete list, as it was not always recorded what was shared at visits, but it is a good overview of the literature that has been shared with students throughout the years.
3. Create a spreadsheet with demographics to chart for diversity, using spreadsheets from others as a guide.
4. Examine each book on the list. For example, what ethnicity is the author/illustrator? What do the main characters look like? What is the story about?
5. Add to the current collection. After conducting the audit, and discovering weaknesses, add to the collection.

What Did I Find?

We have a read aloud collection that is fantastic. The books make you laugh. Students are engaged. As part of the CRE program, students go home with a book to keep and that book is selected for students based on price and popularity. The books we have been sharing, however, are not diverse. This did not come as a complete surprise. If you have been following the WNDB movement, you know that much of the lack in diversity in children's books comes from the fact that major publishers are simply not publishing diverse books. That trend seems to be changing.

Our current collection is great as all of the books are engaging read alouds. However, there is a clear need for more diversity in the authors and illustrators we share, as well as in the characters shown in illustrations. Here is what I found of the almost 75 books we have shared throughout the 13 years of the program (some with same author/illustrator):

Limitations

• When you conduct a diversity audit, you will probably have to assume the race, gender, and ethnicity for the authors/illustrators and for the characters in the books. You may not know what race, gender, ethnicity the author/illustrator identifies with.
• Our books are purchased based on cost (CRE is funded by grants and gifts) and possible enjoyment by students (is it a great read aloud?). Books that fit both criteria with diversity in mind can be difficult to find. You may find that you have similar limitations, depending on the collection you are auditing.

Now What?

There is an obvious need to select books with more diverse characters and by more diverse authors/illustrators for the CRE program. Steps I have taken to increase the diversity in the materials we share:

1. Shelf reading of all books in the South Carolina Center for Community Literacy collection. I am currently reading and evaluating every picture book in our collection (as well as new picture books that come in) to find more diverse books for our CRE collection.
2. Exploring lists by trusted experts for book suggestions
3. Including more materials than what is shared out loud. For example, I have started giving book talks in between each book read aloud during a CRE program. I make sure these books are diverse in nature.
4. I have been purposeful about adding new books to our read aloud collection that are diverse and show characters that look like our audience. I am also trying to enlist volunteers who are diverse so that students not only see themselves in the books we are sharing, but also on the stage.

Work Cited

Bishop, Rudine Sims. "Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors." Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom, 1990.

Further Reading

Adam, Helen, Caroline Barratt-Pugh, and Yvonne Haig. "Book Collections in Long Day Care: Do They Reflect Racial Diversity?" Australasian Journal of Early Childhood 42, no. 2 (June 2017).

Jensen, Karen. "Doing a YA Collection Diversity Audit: Understanding Your Local Community (Part 1)." Teen Librarian Toolbox (November 1, 2017). http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2017/11/doing-a-diversity-audit-understanding-your-local-community/

Lifshitz, Jessica. "Having Students Analyze Our Classroom Library to See How Diverse It Is." Crawling out of the Classroom (May 7, 2016). https://crawlingoutoftheclassroom.wordpress.com/2016/05/07/having-students-analyze-our-classroom-library-to-see-how-diverse-it-is/.

Parrott, Kiera. "A Diversity & Cultural Literacy Toolkit." School Library Journal (March 8, 2018). https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=diversity-cultural-literacy-toolkit

Winner, Matthew C. "Diversity Audit of the All the Wonders Podcast." blog November 8, 2017. http://www.matthewcwinner.com/single-post/2017/11/08/Diversity-Audit