Laying the Foundation for Inclusive Collections

by Christy James, September 2020

My Foundation

There's always that one moment when the lightbulb pops on, the pieces all magically fit together, the mental confetti rains down, and everything finally makes sense. During my MLIS program at the University of South Carolina, this happened when I watched Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop's 2-minute video explanation of how children need books that can serve as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors, which is based on her seminal 1990 article about the value of multicultural literature (Sims Bishop 1990). All my coursework was suddenly connected. This moment opened my eyes to the true power of diverse books and created the foundation for my work with inclusive collections, first in my middle school library and now with our district's teacher librarians.

Why Inclusive Collections Matter

Creating inclusive collections was a logical priority for our libraries in Charleston County School District (CCSD). With over 50,000 students, our district is racially, geographically, and economically diverse. Our teacher librarian demographics don't match this diversity, so it was even more important to focus on intentionally building and sustaining inclusive collections to ensure we could meet all our students' needs. I started to pursue this work in earnest during the 2019-2020 school year. Momentum for inclusive collections was building with the We Need Diverse Books movement and the widely shared 2018 Lee & Low Diversity Baseline Survey results, which all helped push this issue into a long-overdue national spotlight (Huyck and Dahlen 2019). Plus, our new AASL National School Library Standards explicitly value diversity and inclusion, especially in the Shared Foundations of Include and Explore (2018). The need was clear, but were my district's teacher librarians ready to build with me?

Pre-Planning

As eager as I was to move forward, I knew I needed support from the same folks I rely on for anything library-related: my boss, the executive director of instructional programs, her boss, our chief academic officer, and, most importantly, our teacher librarian advisory team. The conversation with the administration involved a big picture overview of the intended work on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and its importance. Additionally, I wanted to be able to clearly tie this work to our district's vision and priorities, which included an increased emphasis on cultural competency and equity.

After securing initial administrative blessings, there was an important piece of groundwork needed. Even though the previous year all of our schools had created strategic three-year collection development plans, our district lacked any specific policies or criteria for library materials selection. The library mission was lumped in as part of a general statement with other instructional materials. I called on the teacher librarian advisory team to create new selection guidelines as a first step in aligning our collection development practices with our inclusive values. The advisory team worked throughout the summer to create a document that integrated ideas from the ALA, AASL, other districts, and our own mission statement to provide professional selection criteria that reflected our commitment to EDI. To best serve our students, we wanted a functional guide that would give our librarians clear standards for choosing quality materials and that also outlined our responsibility to include diverse materials in our collections. We continuously shared our progress with my boss to ensure we were moving in a direction the district would support. The resulting Charleston County School District Library Materials Selection Guidelines became the cornerstone for our inclusive collection development practices.

Building the Space for Buy-In

The teacher librarian advisory team had been on board with focusing on inclusive collections from the beginning, and their support for initiatives goes a long way with the rest of our faculty. But, I needed more than just goodwill for this endeavor. I wanted our teacher librarians to feel passionate about inclusive collections and be empowered to make changes and create better relationships with their students and communities through diverse books. I needed a lot of buy-in. For our August professional development (PD), I met with our elementary school librarians for a half-day and spent another half-day with our middle and high school librarians to handle all the back-to-school housekeeping. It was during this time that I chose to highlight our priorities for the 2019-2020 school year, focusing on inclusive collections.

Like all our PD sessions, we began with a read-aloud. I used Alexandra Penfold's beautiful and timely book, All Are Welcome (2018), to set the tone for the year and to connect the idea of embracing diversity to our library mission statement. I specifically defined the difference between diversity and inclusion. Often, the terms seem interchangeable, but I wanted everyone to understand why we were focusing on inclusion, not just diversity. The difference seemed to make sense as we examined Liz Fosslein and Mollie West Duffy's definition, "Diversity is having a seat at the table. Inclusion is having a voice. Belonging is having that voice be heard" (2019). In our libraries, we need to be aware of diversity so we can practice inclusion. Practicing inclusion will provide the opportunity for students to feel they belong.

During our time together, we also examined the 2018 Lee & Low graphic about diversity in publishing and delved into AASL's Developing Inclusive Learners and Citizens Activity Guide (https://standards.aasl.org/project/inclusive/) through small group discussions and sharing. The discussions were surprising. I'd been prepared for hesitation about including LGBTQ+ materials and questions about support from administrators. Or even folks saying, "But, I already do this," despite collection statistics that indicating the opposite. What I wasn't prepared for was the depth of the librarians' conversations and how they recognized a need to do better for our students. On the way out, I offered each librarian a poster featuring Jennifer LaGarde's illustration, "In this Library Y'all = ALL" (https://www.librarygirl.net/post/in-this-library-y-all-all). When I ran out of posters, I knew they were willing to help build our foundation for inclusive collections.

Connecting to What We Know

I chose to focus on collection development because it was immediately actionable and would feel familiar to librarians. It proved a low-stress entry point into equity, diversity, and inclusion work. The first step was building awareness of the need for diversity. When we met again in late September for a full day of learning with our teacher librarian family, I wanted us to move into "the work." The morning focused on understanding more about the value of inclusive collections and examining our own collections, and the afternoon was structured as a mini-conference with presentations from guests and fellow librarians.

The morning read-aloud was Say Something by Peter H. Reynolds (2019) to inspire us and emphasize the need for action in the library. I officially introduced our new selection guidelines , highlighting how they connected to our mission statement and empowered us to better serve our students. I kept going back to why this is our job as library professionals and why it matters to our students.

We all had a fangirl moment when Cicely Lewis joined us to share her professional journey with starting the Read Woke movement and the impact it has had on her students. Hearing from a practicing librarian who had met the needs of her students by promoting diverse books was powerful. It gave our librarians an opportunity to consider what might be possible at their own schools when diverse books are available and elevated. We have a strong partnership with the University of South Carolina, and two of their LIS professors, Dr. Jenna Spiering and Valerie Byrd Fort presented, providing recommendations for LGBTQ+ materials for all ages. They emphasized how necessary it is to have a positive representation of this vulnerable population in all our libraries. Some librarians were uncomfortable and worried about parent pushback, but great conversations ensued about the dangers of self-censorship. It was an opportunity to really dig into our new selection guidelines and take advantage of all the expertise in the room.

These conversations created an easy segue into the work session for our collection development plans. The plans were designed to give us an intentional and systematic way to look at our collections and prioritize our limited funding over the next three years. Now in Year Two, we are adding an additional section about diversity to the template. The collection development plans are tied to receiving additional district funds, so we made certain the plans were aligned with our priorities. Increasing diverse offerings was now a collection goal for all our school libraries. During the work session, librarians had time to dive into updated collection analyses, run reverse audits on recent diverse awards lists, and collaborate with each other. Librarians always love to talk about books, but now the conversations were happening with an intentional focus on diversity. Veteran librarians paired with newer folks and it created a great synergy. The newer librarians have a passion for change and our veterans have the know-how to navigate collection analyses and comb reviews. Throughout the day, our focus on inclusive collections was grounded in community and a growing sense of shared responsibility to do right by our students. Being surrounded by fellow librarians all working toward a common goal made a difference for us. It was new, and it was tough work, but we were all doing it together.

Building All Year

We secured our foundation for valuing inclusive collections early in the school year, but we continued to build our knowledge and collections throughout the year. Later in the fall, we took advantage of opportunities to gather and review drafts of the curriculum for our state's new social studies standards. Our librarians researched, discussed, and suggested more recent, relevant, and diverse titles for teachers to include in their lessons. This work sparked a lot of weeding in the 900s to make room for historical representations from diverse perspectives in our collections. After the Youth Media Awards were announced, we spent time doing reverse audits of the new lists and revisiting the collection development plans. Our monthly library reports now specifically ask about collection development and adding diverse titles. We had multiple ways to demonstrate that our continued focus on building inclusive collections was shifting practice in our libraries.

Planning for Future Additions

At our February meeting, I read aloud, "Track 19: Give Them Words" from 19 Love Stories by David Levithan (2020). This powerful seven-page poem is Levithan's love letter to librarians and is filled with images of the students we serve and their spoken and unspoken needs. It was an emotional reminder about just how much access to diverse books matters to our students. It also opened the door to our next step: moving from inclusive collections to inclusive practices. Our collection development work is ongoing because it isn't enough to just have the books on our shelves; we have to actively invite our students in and create a place of belonging for them in the library.

Returning to school in 2020-2021 presents some unique challenges and opportunities. We're focusing on the immediate opportunities to lead the EDI work in our district and schools in the wake of the recent civil unrest. We will also be supporting social-emotional learning by building empathy through books. Our focus on inclusive collections and practices will make our efforts more meaningful and impactful for our students and staff. There will be library policy audits, additional work with collection development plans, more learning from experts, continued collaboration with our public library system, and hopefully much more. We have a solid foundation, and now it's time to keep building--opening windows, hanging mirrors, and sliding back doors.

Timeline Ideas

School Year 1

• Early June. Introduce the idea of inclusive collection and the need for new materials selections guidelines to my boss.
• Mid-June. Convene Teacher Librarian Advisory Team to start looking at other selection policies and finding what aligned with our purposes and mission statement.
• Mid-August. Back-to-school PD, introducing the value of and need for inclusive collections; set purpose.
• Late September. Full-day PD with focus on updating collection development plans.
• November. Connecting inclusive collections to new social studies standards.
• February. PD with reverse audits of Youth Media Awards and updating collection development plans.
• April. Creating a translation of practice from physical to virtual learning environments with an emphasis on curating diverse virtual collections.

School Year 2

• August. PD focusing on being leaders with inclusive practices
• August. Begin Project READY cohort with our district, a neighboring district, and our public library.
• September. Ongoing discussions about inclusive physical and virtual displays.
• October. PD about inclusive library policies and updating collection development plans.
• November. Working with middle and high school ELA and social studies teachers on long-range curriculum plans and including diverse perspectives and texts.

Works Cited and Additional Resources

AASL. National School Library Standards for Learners, School Librarians, and School Libraries. American Library Association, 2018. https://standards.aasl.org

AASL. "Developing Inclusive Learners and Citizens." https://standards.aasl.org/project/inclusive/

Fosslien, Liz, and Mollie West Duffy. No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work. Penguin, 2019.

Hyuck, David, and Sarah Park Dahlen. "Picture This: Diversity in Children's Books 2018." Reading Spark (June 19, 2020). https://readingspark.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/picture-this-diversity-in-childrens-books-2018-infographic/

LaGarde, Jennifer. "In This Library, Y'all = ALL." Adventures of Library Girl (July 20, 2019). https://www.librarygirl.net/post/in-this-library-y-all-all

Levithan, David. 19 Love Songs. Random House, 2020.

Lewis, Ciceley. "'Read Woke' School Reading Challenge Makes an Impact." School Library Journal (March 29, 2018). https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=read-woke-school-reading-challenge-makes-impact

Penfold, Alexandra. All Are Welcome. Penguin Random House, 2018.

Reading Rockets."Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Doors" YouTube (January 30, 2015). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAu58SNSyc

Reynolds, Peter H. Say Something. Orchard Books Press, 2019.

Sims Bishop, Rudine. "Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors." Perspectives 6, no. 3 (Summer 1990): ix-xi.

We Need Diverse Books. https://diversebooks.org/