[CALIBK12] building a diverse collection

[Lisa Gonzalez]

Our school just finished our WASC accreditation process and one of our major recommendations was for the library to improve our collection in terms of its diversity and multi-cultural materials.  My administration is asking me to come up with specific criteria such as "What percentage of our resources should be multicultural?" and "How many multicultural books do we need to buy each year?"  I looked at the CSLA standards, specifically  2.1 ("Contains materials representing the community's diversity...") and 3.5 ("Contains resources that enlarge understanding of ethnic and cultural differences"), but the guidelines presented are for all books, not just multicultural books.

I posed this question to Maria Petropulos, who was the chairperson for the CSLA Standards for School Library Media Resources.  She responded by saying that setting a percentage of "multicultural books" would mean I'd also have to give a percentage for other types of books like poetry, sci fi, etc.  She encouraged me to build a collection that " meets individual needs of the students at your school and represent all types of cultures so that students can learn about cultures different from their own" and to make sure to include resources that validate and raise the esteem of minority groups.  She also encouraged me to post the question on CALIBK12.

So, can anyone share with me any wisdom or point me towards other resources that can help me satisfy my administration's requirements for a quantitative criteria?  I don't necessarily agree with putting a number on how many books are considered "diverse" or "multicultural," but for now, I do need to provide my administration with some sort of rough number.

I appreciate any suggestions you can give.  Thank you in advance!

Lisa M. Gonzalez
Library Media Specialist
Valley Christian School
100 Skyway Drive
San Jose, CA 95111
(408) 513-2426
lgonzalez at vcs.net<mailto:lgonzalez at vcs.net>
http://blogs.vcs.net/library/

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