Looking for Diversity in the Children’s Book Collection at the Bedford Free Public Library

 

How accurately does the Bedford Free Public Library’s (BFPL) children’s book collection reflect the demographics of the community?

Librarian Jess Dyment undertook a “diversity audit” of the collection in the fall of 2020 as her final project toward her Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) degree from the University of Rhode Island, which she received in December. With the building closed during the pandemic, it was a fortuitous time to conduct such an exercise since much of the study involved manually looking at the 12, 714 books audited.

Library Director Richard Callaghan said of the audit: “It’s a good snapshot of the collection to make sure our collection is responsive to the town’s makeup. It shows what we have and what needs improvement.”

The introduction to Dyment’s report explains, “the purpose of this audit was to see whether our collection is accurately representing the population of our town, and of our greater society. Diversity Audits serve as a tool with which to measure the level of diversity within a library collection, and gather information about what changes need to be made in order to improve the collection’s overall diversity.”

Dyment focused on diversity as it pertains to race, culture, gender, sexuality, and disability.  Her findings will be used to inform Children’s Librarian Bethany Klem in her ongoing book selection process.

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Results of the BFPL diversity audit for the total children’s book collection:

Diverse Representation out of 12,714 total books audited:

• Black: 678 (5.3%)
• AAPI: 307 (2.4%)
• Latinx: 182 (1.4%)
• Arab/Middle Eastern: 35 (.3%)
• Native/Indigenous: 64 (.5%)
• Mixed/Multiple/Unspecified: 481 (3.8%)
• LGBTQ: 117 (.9%)
• Disability: 231 (1.8%)

The remaining 86% of the total titles either feature exclusively white main characters, or non-human characters.

These findings are not inconsistent with the demographics of Bedford. Dyment writes:

“As of the 2019 US Census, the racial makeup of the Bedford population was as follows:

• 74% White,
• 15% Asian,
• 4% Black.
• Of the population under 65 years of age, 4% have reported living with a disability
• There is no collected statistical data on the LGBTQ community in Bedford.”

The graph shows one category called “Own Voices,” which is defined as “an author from a marginalized or under-represented group writing about their own experiences/from their own perspective, rather than someone from an outside perspective writing as a character from an underrepresented group” (Seattle Public Library, 2020). So, for a book to be considered ‘Own Voices’, the main character(s) and the author will share a marginalized identity.”

Dyment’s report states, “Of the middle-grade books reported to have characters (main characters or otherwise prominent characters) with marginalized identities, 43% were “Own Voices” books. “ Because there are some authors whose cultural identity, gender, sexuality, or disability is not publicly stated, there might be an underestimate of the number of ”Own Voices” books in the collection.

Comments by the Trustees

The Library Trustees briefly discussed the audit at their July 13 meeting.

Trustee Rachel Field offered statistics from the Census Bureau and the Brookings Institution on the nation’s growing diversity, saying “more than half of the nation’s population under age 16 identify as a racial or ethnic minority.” She felt the Library could do more to bring in books that reflect this reality.

Trustee Alma Hart, drawing on her experience working in a large bookstore, commented that the goal should be books of high quality.

Select Board member Emily Mitchell, liaison to the Trustees and herself an editor, responded that “as of 2019, latest data, 85% of books published in the U.S. still feature white characters, so it’s not that there are a ton of books out there.” She feels that the publishing industry is getting better; “the number of books featuring non-white characters as the main character grows incrementally every year.”

Chair Mike Pulizzi summed up his thoughts: “It is important that our children’s collection has a wide variety of books by a diverse group of authors that offer multiple perspectives. People from all backgrounds and walks of life should be represented in our library’s collection. Having books that focus on different settings, cultures, and backgrounds provides children with the opportunity to see and learn about realities that they otherwise might not be able to experience in person. Hopefully, this will encourage children to be more aware and accepting of the world that exists outside of their own day-to-day realities.”

HOW TO DO AN AUDIT

Conducting the audit required a variety of approaches.  For the Graphic Novels, Chapter Books, and Fiction part of the collection, Dyment used a Google Sheets template provided by a consultant from the Mass Library System. Book titles and authors were uploaded into the spreadsheet, then Dyment went through the tiles alphabetically to determine which books were representative of the respective chosen categories. This process involved analyzing synopses, reading professional and consumer reviews, and looking through the physical books.  A time-consuming effort!

PICTURE BOOKS

The Audit Process: To analyze the Picture Book collection, Dyment worked with Diverse Bookfinder, an organization developed at Bates College which researches and collects racially and culturally diverse picture books. Libraries can cross-reference their own picture books against Diverse Bookfinder’s collection, which aims to collect every racially diverse title published after 2002.

Number of picture books audited: 651

Picture Book Representation: Diverse Bookfinder identified racially and culturally diverse picture books in the Bedford collection with the following racial/cultural groups:

• Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American
• Bi/Multiracial/Mixed Race
• Black/African/African American
• Brown-Skinned and/or Race Unclear
• First/Native Nations/American Indian/Indigenous Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American
• Middle Eastern/North African/Arab

As Diverse Bookfinder notes, “picture books are powerful tools for children in developing literacy, and a sense of self and others. They act as either ‘mirrors’ in which children can recognize characters like themselves, … or  ‘windows,’ introducing children to characters whose lives are different from their own, fostering curiosity, understanding, and empathy.”

GRAPHIC NOVELS

The Audit Process:  Dyment had to manually input all of the data for each title in the other parts of the collection. For the Graphic Novel collection, she opted to not track data about “Own Voices” titles, as many comics are a collaboration between authors, illustrators, and colorists, and it was difficult to determine if a title is “Own Voices” if not explicitly stated.

Number of Graphic Novels Audited: 855

Graphic Novel Representation:

• Black: 6% (4% girls, 2% boys, <1% other gender)
• AAPI: 4% (2% girls, 2% boys)
• Latinx: 1%
• Arab/Middle Eastern: <1%
• Native/Indigenous: N/A
• White: 49% (20% girls, 29% boys, <1% other gender)
• Mixed/Multiple/Unspecified: 5%
• Animal/Non-Human: 35%
• LGBTQ: 2%
• Disability: 1%

CHAPTER BOOKS

The Audit Process: “The chapter books make up a smaller portion of the collection, and many of them are multiple titles in a series. However, representation is important in chapter books as they are designed with specific interests in mind and are meant to encourage a lifelong love of reading.”

Number of Chapter Books Audited: 573

Chapter Books Representation:

• Black: 6% (5% girls, 1% boys)
• AAPI: 2% (2% girls, <1% boys)
• Latinx: 3% (2% girls, 1% boys)
• Arab/Middle Eastern: <1%
• Native/Indigenous: N/A
• White: 56% (34% girls, 22% boys)
• Animal/Non-Human: 31%

FICTION

The Audit Process: Dyment reports the fiction collection took the most time to manually review and audit. For fiction, she focused on the same categories for racial/cultural representation, as well as LGBTQ+ and Disability representation. She also marked books as “Own Voices” when such information was publicly available.

Number of Fiction Books Audited: 2,466

Fiction Books Representation:

• Black: 5% (3% girls, 2% boys)
• AAPI: 4% (3% girls, 1% boys)
• Latinx: 2% (1% girls, 1% boys)
• Arab/Middle Eastern: <1%
• Native/Indigenous: <1%
• Multiple/Unclear: 4% (3% girls, 1% boys)
• White: 70% (34% girls, 36% boys, <1% other gender)
• Animal/Non-Human: 12%
• LGBTQ+: 2%
• Disability: 5%
• Own Voices: 43% (43% of books with marginalized characters are written by authors who share that identity)

CLICK THIS LINK TO VIEW THE DIVERSITY AUDIT REPORT: https://sites.google.com/minlib.net/bfpl-diversity-audit/home