[Libs-Or] Collection Development Policies & Racism

[Taylor Worley]

Thank you Rita, for your response; I'm grateful for your perspective.

Perhaps I should have been more explicit with our motivations and
intentions in my initial email. I hope this additional context is
beneficial. I am going to use primarily "I" statements and kidlit examples,
because I can only speak to my specific experiences.

In my role in collection development, materials assessment, etc. I read and
have, myself, many competing perspectives. An excellent example would be
Brave by James Bird from 2020. This title received many starred reviews and
made best-of-the-year lists, however it also received a "Not Recommended"
from American Indians in Children's Literature. So, when I am assessing
whether or not to keep this book in my collection (or, if I had not already
ordered it, then whether to purchase it in the first place), there are many
complex things to consider in addition to circulation statistics and
physical condition (digital copies of the book being their own thing
entirely). I have a responsibility to hear and trust expert perspectives,
because my own perspective (cis, white, bi, etc.) only gets me so far, and
has myriad blind spots.

With this revisit of our collection development policy, I am not looking
for a reason to ban books. However, we also must be honest with ourselves
that the nature of collection development is, to a certain extent,
manipulating what folks read. We choose what to order and what not to
order. We decide how many copies, and which titles get put on display or
highlighted in readers advisory and hand-sells. I want to make sure that
our collection development policy is a robust, intentional, and thoughtful
scaffolding for our collection work, and not simply a document that we
refer to when a patron decides they don't want "George" by Alex Gino on
middle grade shelves. If I decide that yes, a title belongs on our shelves
regardless of my personal feelings on it, then does our policy support that
decision, and how? Whom did we listen to, read, and consult when making
that decision? Who is harmed with that decision, and who benefits?

Regarding the Freedom to Read statement and ALA's other, similar documents,
they are all in my resources for this project and I am referring to them
regularly.

Thanks so much, again,


*Taylor Worley                                                 *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




On Wed, Sep 22, 2021 at 7:54 AM Riddle City Library <
riddlecitylibrary at gmail.com> wrote:

> It seems we've lost the Freedom to Read policy in many of our libraries.
> Why are we trying to dictate what people read? What happened to Banned
> Books week? Are we moving backward here?  Let's stay open to ALL literature
> instead of making it our job to remake the minds of people.. Are we overtly
> harming children by banning racist fiction? Think carefully about this.
> Rewriting or banning history and "harmful" literature is taking the Freedom
> to Read from them. Instead, perhaps the solution is to encourage parents
> and teachers to train their children to love and accept all races and
> creeds. We, as educators, can have a tiny part in this process as well.
> Promote love and good will and remain open minded to the freedoms we enjoy.
> They are extremely valuable. Just as the freedom of speech is valuable as
> well. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak freely my opinion. I
> remain
> Looking forward,
> Rita Radford
> Riddle City Library
>
> On Tue, Sep 21, 2021 at 5:55 PM Taylor Worley via Libs-Or <
> libs-or at omls.oregon.gov> wrote:
>
>> 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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