Open to All Tool Kit: Serving the LGBTQIA+ Community in Your Library
This Toolkit is designed to help library staff better understand gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, and other queer (LGBTQIA+) library users, how to best serve their needs, and how to manage challenges that often arise.
PEN America: Online Harassment Field Manual
Online abuse poses an urgent and growing threat to free expression, equity, and inclusion.
Whether you’re experiencing or witnessing online abuse, this Field Manual offers concrete strategies for how to defend yourself and others. We wrote this guidance with and for those disproportionately impacted by online abuse: writers, journalists, artists, and activists who identify as women, BIPOC, and/or LGBTQIA+. Whatever your identity or vocation, anyone active online will find useful tools and resources here for navigating online abuse and tightening digital safety.
Selection & Reconsideration Policy Toolkit for Public, School, & Academic Libraries
Every library — academic, public, and school (public, private, charter, independent, and international) — should have a comprehensive written policy that guides the selection, deselection or weeding, and reconsideration of library resources. The most valuable selection policy is current; it is reviewed and revised on a regular basis; and it is familiar to all members of a library’s staff. The policy should be approved by the library’s governing board or other policy-making body and disseminated widely for understanding by all stakeholders.
Building A Diverse and Inclusive YA Library Collection (NYLA)
Why is it important for librarians to integrate culturally diverse literature into their collections? Readers need a rich and varied diet of material that reflects the many different ethnic, cultural, socioeconomic, and linguistic groups that make up multiple voices, individual lives, social attributes, and perspectives around the world. We are the advocates that help expand the borders of this culturally diverse literature, this inclusive literature, to aspects such as physical and mental disabilities, socioeconomic status, different family structures, such as foster families, and sexual and gender identification. We are striving to curate our collections to be the mirrors and windows of a teen’s life into adulthood.
Welcoming LGBTQ+ Patrons (CLRC)
Find out who your LGBTQ+ patrons are and how you can better support them. This workshop will include physical & digital spaces, collection development, and programs & events.
Check out the following websites for lists and reviews of diverse books:
General
Jewish Book Council
Founded in 1943, the Jewish Book Council is devoted to the support and celebration of Jewish literature. It maintains a listing of books about Jewish life, identity, and culture.
#romanceclass
#romanceclass began in 2013 as a free class meant to "encourage Filipino readers of chick lit and contemporary romance to start writing and publishing their own stories" and now includes a listing of romance novels by and about Filipinos.
Crime Writers of Color
Crime Writers of Color is a group of over 350 of today and tomorrow’s crime writers of color. It was founded by award winning authors Walter Mosley, Gigi Pandian, and Kellye Garrett in June of 2018.
First Nations Development Institute's Book List
First Nations Development Institute's book list contains what they consider to be essential reading for anyone interested in the Native American experience.
Children's and Young Adult
#DisruptTexts
#Disrupt Texts is a crowdsourced, grass roots effort by teachers for teachers to challenge the traditional canon in order to create a more inclusive, representative, and equitable language arts curriculum that our students deserve. It is part of our mission to aid and develop teachers committed to anti-racist/anti-bias teaching pedagogy and practices.
American Indians in Children's Literature
Established in 2006 by Dr. Debbie Reese of Nambé Pueblo, American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL) provides critical analysis of Indigenous peoples in children's and young adult books. Dr. Jean Mendoza joined AICL as a co-editor in 2016. It has a list of recommended books as well as a list of not recommended books.
Diverse BookFinder
The Diverse BookFinder is a comprehensive collection of children's picture books featuring Black and Indigenous people and People of Color (BIPOC). They offer a searchable database of their collection, data on who is depicted in picture books and how, as well as a circulating collection that you can access through interlibrary loan!
Epic Reads
Published by HarperCollins, Epic Reads is the largest online community of fans of young adult books.
Girls of the Crescent
Girls of the crescent collects books with female Muslim main characters and donates them to schools and libraries in order to increase diversity and representation in literature. Their comprehensive list contains children's and young adult books.
I'm Your Neighbor Books
I’m Your Neighbor Books strives to build a stronger America, one where immigrants are welcomed and where first-through-third-generation Americans truly belong.
We facilitate deep engagement with the children’s books that represent our New Arrival and New American communities. I'm Your Neighbor Books curates, loans, and gifts these diverse titles with educational materials.
KiBooka
Kids' Books by Korean Americans is a book listing initiative that aims to boost the voices of Korean American and Korean diasporic authors of children's & YA literature. It was created by children's author Linda Sue Park.
Rich in Color
Rich in Color is dedicated to reading, reviewing, talking about, and otherwise promoting young adult books (fiction and non-fiction) starring or written by BIPOC.
