[CALIBK12] building a diverse collection

Mon May 18 15:18:24 PDT 2009

I'm with you Tony! We forget that diverse can be so many things, too many to list. I'm Irish, my children are Polish and Russian (adoptions obviously), but when someone says 'diverse' it most often means person of color. Since when has that become the only representation of diversity!  

We just need to do the best that we can, to try to represent as much as we can, in our libraries!
Anne Ostapiej
George Kelly
Tracy, CA

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From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu [calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Doyle_Tony [tdoyle at muhsd.k12.ca.us]
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 2:08 PM
To: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Subject: Re: [CALIBK12] building a diverse collection

Just to stir the pot a little...

What constitutes a multicultural book?  Is a series of country books serving the needs of minority students?  Is a book written by a white author about non-white characters a multicultural book?  Is _Whale Talk_ by Chris Crutcher a multicultural novel?  What about Taylor's _The Cay_?  What about _Indian in the Cupboard_?  Does Graham Salisbury accurately portray the Japanese experience in Hawaii?  What if the Japanese-American community is not united in its opinion of his works?  Who gets to determine if a book is culturally accurate/sensitive?  Is it the loudest voice, the biggest group, the one with the most famous spokesman?  Can a hetero author write Gay Literature?  Can a male write Feminist Literature?  Hmmm...

And how do you know if your collection is diverse enough?  Should my collection be 78% Hispanic literature and 11% Punjabi so that it reflects my student body?  Should you tweak your collection development standards for hard-to-find books (e.g. Middle Eastern, Indian, etc.) so that you have some representation?  Does having books by Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban authors serve my Mexican-American students' needs?  Do "Chicano" and "Mexican-American" mean the exact same thing?  Or are they completely different?  Or do they overlap?  How do I know if a novel is 1 or both of those?

I am not asking for personal guidance.  Hard to believe but I already have strong opinions on these issues.  I would like to see more discussion on the list on this topic.

Tony

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Anthony Doyle, Teacher Librarian
Livingston High School
Livingston, CA
tdoyle at muhsd.k12.ca.us<mailto:tdoyle at muhsd.k12.ca.us>

What am I reading now? http://lhsblog.edublogs.org/whats-he-reading-now/

"When I read about the way in which library funds are being cut and cut, I can only think that American society has found one more way to destroy itself." (Isaac Asimov, from his autobiography I Asimov)

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From: calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu [calibk12-bounces at lists.sjsu.edu] On Behalf Of Lisa Gonzalez [lgonzalez at vcs.net]
Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 2:03 PM
To: calibk12 at lists.sjsu.edu
Subject: [CALIBK12] building a diverse collection

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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