Collection Development: Should School Libraries Standardize?

1. Collection Development: Should School Libraries Standardize? Elizabeth E. G. FrieseDepartment of Language and Literacy Education University of Georgia, USA

2. Should school library collections standardize? • U.S. schools are in an age of standardization, driven by high-stakes tests and standard curriculum • Initially, a standard collection might seem to make sense • However, a standardized curriculum does not mean our schools are filled with “standardized” learners

3. The school library is a place where… • Individual needs can be met • Differentiated paths to curriculum mastery can be negotiated • Inquiry can be nurtured through a collection developed for a specific community of learners

4. Meeting Individual Needs • A broad and varied collection can counterbalance some of the “standardization” of classrooms • But are our collections more standard than we think?

5. Consider… • Widespread reliance on professional reviews and “comprehensive” online selection tools (Callison, 1990; Whelan, 2004) • Lack of diversity in U. S. school librarianship (ALA, 2007)

6. A Case in Point: Culturally Diverse Literature Culturally diverse materials: • Are important for diverse students, so they see that their stories matter (De Leon, 2002) • Can increase reading engagement for diverse learners (Hefflin, 2003) • Benefit all members of the school community as we learn to thrive in a diverse world

7. Culturally Diverse Materials… • Are not produced in large numbers (Agosto, Hughes-Hassell & Gilmore-Clough, 2003; CCBC, 2008) • Are reviewed in significantly smaller numbers than other materials (Lempke,1999; Woody, 2000)

8. Culturally Diverse Materials… • Lack of diversity in school librarianship may lead to a significant degree of homogeneity in selection (Bourdieu, 1979/1984) • Can be difficult to assess in terms of authenticity, especially for people outside the culture depicted (Bishop, 1997)

9. Current Research (In Progress) • How do elementary school librarians in culturally diverse schools select materials for their school community? • Two to three in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews (Seidman, 2006) • Document analysis of school selection policies (Prior, 2003)

10. This Research Examines… • How school librarians understand the role of culturally diverse materials in a collection • How school librarians select culturally diverse materials • Barriers to developing a culturally diverse collection Drawing on critical theory (e g., Bourdieu, 2007; Ladson-Billings, 1998)

11. One Elementary School Librarian Talks about Selecting Culturally Diverse Materials Megan • school population: 950 students • Primarily Hispanic and African American students, with some smaller groups of different ethnicities, especially Vietnamese and Indian • “Eight to ten” languages spoken

12. Highlights from Megan’s Interviews • “[culturally diverse literature’s] main purpose for me is to give something that kids can really really relate to..” • “our state, our county, has changed drastically over the past ten or fifteen years and a lot of just the, I'll call it, classic literature is not culturally diverse, you know, because most of its written by white Anglo Saxon Americans”

13. Highlights from Megan’s Interviews • “Our collection's not where it needs to be, but, I… I don't know that there's enough out there of good quality literature to get a collection, you know, when your school is 92% nonwhite…I think you'd be hard pressed” • We have to find stuff that’s been reviewed. Which I think might be a problem.”

14. More From Megan’s Interviews • Nonfiction is not an area where cultural diversity merits consideration (except biography) • Budget priorities put culturally diverse collection development near the bottom of her list of collection objectives • Megan’s observations and beliefs indicate both the importance of and significant barriers to selecting culturally diverse materials

15. Other Types of Materials may Face Similar Barriers • Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual / Transgendered / Queer Resources • Popular Culture • Resources Addressing Controversial Topics • Materials Featuring Authentic Depictions of Working Class Families (Jones, 2006)

16. What We Can Do • Reexamine selection criteria and tools for hidden biases • Seek and purchase culturally diverse materials from small presses • Educate future librarians on barriers to diversity of all kinds in collections, and give them strategies to address the barriers

17. What We Can Do • Encourage a wider range of cultural representation in collections and our profession as a whole • Create paths that allow students and members of the school community a voice in building their collections There is no substitute for a well informed and conscientious school librarian in selection of resources

18. References Agosto, D., Hughes-Hassell, S., & Gilmore-Clough, C. (2003). The all-white world of middle-school genre fiction: Surveying the field for multicultural protagonists. Children’s Literature in Education. 34, 257-275. American Library Association. (2007, January). Diversity counts. Retrieved April 9, 2008 from http://www.ala.org/ala/ors/diversitycounts/divcounts.cfm Bishop, R. S. (1997). Selecting literature for a multicultural curriculum. In Harris, V. J. (Ed.), Using multiethnic literature in the K-8 classroom (pp. 1-19). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. Bourdieu, P. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste. (R. Nice, Trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (Original work published 1979). Bourdieu, P. (2007). The forms of capital.  In A. Sadnovik, (Ed.), Sociology of education:  A critical reader (pp. 83-95).  New York:  Routledge. Callison, D. (1990). A review of the research related to school library media collections: Part 1. School Library Media Quarterly, 19(1). Cooperative Children’s Book Center. (2008). Children’s books by and about people of color published in the United States. Retrieved March 9, 2008 from http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/pcstats.htm.

19. References De Leon, L. (2002). Multicultural literature: Reading to develop self-worth. Multicultural Education 10(2), 49-51. Hefflin. B. R. (2003). What’s so “powerful” about African American children’s literature? Let’s ask the students. The New Advocate 16(2), 171-184. Jones, S. (2006). Girls, social class and literacy: What teachers can do to make a difference. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Ladson-Billings, G. (1998). Just what is critical race theory and what’s it doing in a nice field like education? Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1), 7-24. Lempke, S. D. (1999). The faces in the picture books. The Horn Book Magazine 75(2), 141-147. Prior, L. (2003). Using documents in social research. London, UK: Sage. Seidman, I. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences (3rd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press. Veltze, L. (2004). Multicultural reading. School Library Media Activities Monthly, 20(9), 24-27. Whelan, D. L. (2004). SLJ’s book buying survey. School Library Journal, 50(9), 42-46. Woody, D. (2000). African-American biographies: A collection development challenge. Journal of Youth Services in Libraries. 13(2), 5-9.