[Libs-Or] Collection Development Policies & Racism

[Taylor Worley]

Hi folks,

A while back I sent an email out asking for information as we were
considering setting up a historical children's literature collection in our
public library. After research and discussions, we've come to the
conclusion that not only is it *not* an ideal solution for dealing with
old/complex/and often racist literature, but it would very likely cause
overt harm rather than simply changing the context around the books, as was
our intention. So, we're going to the root of things and revisiting our
collection development policy.

My questions for the Great Brain are: 1) has your library rewritten or
edited your collection development policy recently 2) do you have specific
language in your collection development policy which addresses racist
*fictional* works (for any part of your library, not necessarily exclusive
to your kids/tweens/teens collections)?

We are working our way through various library's websites and continuing to
look for examples, research, discussions, etc., but if anyone has wisdom to
share directly, we'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks so much,

*Taylor Worley (she/her)                                                 *
Youth Services Librarian
Springfield Public Library
225 5th Street
Springfield, OR 97422
541.726.2243 (direct)
taylorlgkw at gmail.com
tworley at springfield-or.gov
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