[Libs-Or] Collection Development Policies & Racism

[Marly Osma de Forest]

What I'm going to say may be provocative - but I need to push against some of the ideas around the Freedom to Read.


Freedom/Right to Read - does not exist.  Has never existed.


At least not in the idealized way that we have and continue to use it. When we use this phrase it is to often removed from historical context and the context of how publishing, bookselling, and libraries actually work.


The Freedom/Right to Read is already manipulated before libraries ever enter the picture, and then we build on those practices, turn them into policy undermining our own stated values. The reality is that when we take into account the historical/current exclusion of groups of people from libraries (Jim Crow-era segregation, those experiencing houselessness, often unwelcoming environment for neurodivergent people), limited access because of location and the burden of fines, the lack of a diversity in materials that the libraries provide - it is clear that the Freedom to Read has only ever been a reality for some groups of people.


Over the last 10 years, there has been more visibility of the work of disabilitycrit, LGBTQIAP+, and BIPOC library people who discuss and provide data about the lack of books by and about queer people, disabled people, and people of the global majority yearly. Here are the latest numbers<https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/books-by-and-or-about-poc-2018/#USonly> from the Cooperative Children's Book Center about US publishing if you haven't gotten to see them yet.


This lack of diversity affects person's Freedom to Read.


  *   A Garifuna immigrant didn't have the Freedom to Read about someone like them. They didn't/don't have the freedom to pick up a book and trust that anti-black/indigenous racism wouldn't be present. Historically they couldn't even be guaranteed that the library would be open, available, and welcoming to them.


  *   Queer children couldn't freely read about being queer for years, and if they did it was a moral tale where the characters died or experienced trauma because of their identity.


  *   Until recently you couldn't find books by transracial adoptees about the experience of being adopted. Books about adoption were almost always by an adoptive parent or industry professional. Most were guides or books about how to  adoption, storybooks were from the adoptive parents' perspective, not adoptees.


The examples are countless.


At the inverse : white, middle-class, straight, heteronormative people have always had the opportunity to read books that speak to them. To have an abundance of stories to choose from. Some terrible but also many that aren't racist, ableist, queermisiac<https://simmons.libguides.com/anti-oppression#s-lib-ctab-10174165-1> or otherwise oppressive to whole groups of people. These books have had the freedom to be read, to exist for decades - even centuries - just by virtue of having taken up space on library shelves when countless books never even got published.


If we can agree that we cannot have ALL the books - that there is not enough shelf/server space in our libraries to have every book and we have to use our judgment in selecting what goes on our shelves - then we need to acknowledge that the library does discriminate.  Has always discriminated. Has used collections to welcome AND exclude, to connect and ignore. We obscure that discrimination by leaning so heavily on the Freedom to Read. Whether we do it knowingly or simply because we've succumbed to vocational awe<https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/> (F. Ettarh) does not lessen the impact or harm.

Yes, fighting against bans by schools and government is important, especially since the books most likely to be challenged or banned are by authors or about people from marginalized communities but that is only a small part of making the Freedom to Read a reality.  Until we look critically at the interlocking systems that make the Freedom to Read a privilege for some - not a right for all - until we look at how we perpetuate this in our policies and procedures then it will never be anything more than a slogan. We have an obligation to do better than that. Shifting our lens as we build collections is a start.

This is not to say that all libraries are in the same place - location, funding, community, leadership and the will to change are varied. I want acknowledge the difficult work many libraries are doing , usually lead by library workers of the global majority and other marginalized communities, to a more equitable and liberatory framework.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Marly Osma de Forest
she/they
marlyo at wccls.org<mailto:marlyo at wccls.org>
West Slope Community Library
3678 SW 78th Ave
Portland, OR 97225


Links from body of message for easy copy and paste:

Data on books by and about Black, Indigenous and People of Color published for children and teens compiled by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison
https://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/literature-resources/ccbc-diversity-statistics/books-by-and-or-about-poc-2018/#USonly

Simmons Libguides : Anti-Opression - what does "misia" mean?
https://simmons.libguides.com/anti-oppression#s-lib-ctab-10174165-1

In the Library with a Leadpipe : Vocational Awe by Fobazi Ettarh  01/10/2018
https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2018/vocational-awe/
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