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CSW’s Library Conducts its First Diversity Collection Audit
he word library has come to mean many things, especially in the context of educational institutions. Few — if any — libraries that exist today consist solely of hard-copy books. The rise of digital media and technology has transformed the ways libraries function, both in terms of what they offer and how they offer it. But books, in whatever form they take, whether it be e-book, audiobook, or old fashioned paper, remain an essential component of CSW’s library offerings. The responsibility of which books should be made available to students, faculty, and staff, falls upon Library Director Jenna Wolf and Library Assistant Sharon Cuthbertson, who take this power, and the responsibility that comes with it, very seriously.
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In the Winter of 2021, the CSW Library decided to measure how well their choices reflected the diverse and vibrant interests of the CSW community by conducting their first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion audit of the library’s fiction and graphic novel collections.
“Building and maintaining a highquality, diverse collection of materials is one of the most critical responsibilities of any school librarian,” Jenna says. “At the CSW Library, we strive to choose titles that offer a wide variety of viewpoints and allow our students to see themselves reflected within the pages of a book, all while offering materials that reflect the complexity and nuance of identities and personal stories.”
These principles are guided by the American Library Association’s Library Bill of Rights and the National Council of Teachers of English Students’ Right to Read. Additionally, the CSW Library is guided in principle by the deeply held belief that reading has the power to transform readers’ lives.
“It is critically important that our students have access to books that reflect their own life experiences as well as those that expose them to experiences that are different from their own,” Jenna explains.
The following report includes a description of the factors Jenna and Sharon used in the completion of their audit, along with a summary of what they learned about the CSW collection — where there are holes, and where they can see future growth in diversity of authorship and protagonists’ identities. The last section, Implementing the Audit, provides key directives the CSW Library will use in evaluating and purchasing materials moving forward, weeding of outdated or problematic materials, and specific catalog enhancements with an eye toward strengthening the library collection for The Cambridge School of Weston community.
Conducting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) audits is an ongoing process, and CSW will continue to use them to evaluate other parts of their collection. By providing transparency about the audit process and communicating their findings, Jenna and Sharon hope to signal to CSW’s readers that the school is committed to building an inclusive library program.
A diversity audit evaluates an existing collection to produce quantifiable data that can be used to measure certain characteristics of the authors and protagonists represented in it. The CSW library’s initial DEI audit examined more than 1,700 works of fiction on its shelves.
THE POWER OF DIVERSITY IN CHILDREN’S LITERATURE
“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created and recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.” —Rudine Sims Bishop, Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors (Perspectives, 1990, p. ix)
Stuart Heintz '22
WHY CONDUCT A LIBRARY COLLECTION DIVERSITY AUDIT?
Librarians have a duty to reflect the values stated in Rudine Sims Bishop’s groundbreaking article “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors” (1990). It’s not just representation that matters, but it is the quality of that representation. A diversity audit provides quantitative (and qualitative) data for making informed decisions about the amount and quality of representation in CSW’s collection.
KEY DEFINITIONS
Some critical terms you will encounter that are important in understanding the DEI audit parameters and findings.
DIVERSITY In the context of collections, having a variety of representations, experiences, and points of view; a book written that includes diverse characters or points of view by any author (From Diversity Considerations in YA: Doing a Diversity Audit)
OWN VOICES* An author from a marginalized or under-represented group writing about their own experiences (From Diversity Considerations in YA: Doing a Diversity Audit)
INTERSECTIONAL In the context of library collections, characters or authors who belong to one or more under-represented or marginalized groups (e.g., a person of color who is also LGBTQIA)
ETHNICITY The ethnic or cultural origins of a person’s ancestors
*It’s important to note that the hashtag #ownvoices was created in 2015 as a way to highlight books written from the author’s own identity markers. This “catch-all” term has become a marketing tool that can, at times, devalue authors’ experiences and the ways in which they wish to be identified. We recognize this and understand that specificity matters. For the audit, it was important to represent and highlight the authors’ own identity impacting the story within the broader, aggregate data but we have not found another term that denotes this. You will see this term used but we hope to find a way to respond to this change and highlight the work in new ways moving forward.
TIMELINE FOR CONDUCTING THE AUDIT
FALL 2017 – WINTER 2020
When Jenna first arrived to manage the CSW Library, she realized much of the fiction collection centered around white authors and white protagonists, with an emphasis on “serious” and “literary” fiction rather than young adult literature. Throughout her four years as director, she has made a concerted and intentional effort to purchase materials that center young adult literature, protagonists of color, own voices, stories of LGBTQIA+ people, and other identity markers not previously seen reflected intentionally in CSW’s fiction collection. She also enrolled and completed an online course offered by Library Journal, Equity in Action: Building Diverse Collections, which explored how to design collection development policies around marginalized voices and how to conduct an audit of materials to identify areas of representation or lack thereof.
WINTER 2021
Upon researching other diversity audits at school libraries, Jenna found the right match in a system designed by Kelsey Bogan, a Pennsylvania-based school librarian who writes the blog, "Don't Shush Me," and utilizes the same cataloging tool as CSW (Follett Destiny).
FALL 2021 & BEYOND
CSW’s librarians will continue to audit all new fiction/graphic materials that enter the library, by school year. Additionally, in the coming years, they will broaden this audit to include extremely relevant non-fiction Dewey classification numbers, particularly in the social sciences (race, gender identity, as examples).
AUDIT FINDINGS
ENTIRE FICTION COLLECTION: AUTHOR RACIAL IDENTITY
WHITE
60.8%
BIPOC
39.2%
2020-2021: #OWNVOICES REPRESENTATION
NOT OWN VOICES
52.7%
OWN VOICES 47.3%
2020-2021: OTHER IDENTITY + THEMATIC ELEMENTS
LGBTQ 19.9% World Fantasy/Other 18.4% Response Health/Trauma Mental 17.8% US Outside Set 11.7% Socioeconomic 8.3% Immigrant 4.6% American Gen First 3.4% Muslim 3.4% Size Plus 2.1% (Non-Holocaust) Jewish 2% Disability 1.9% Adopted/Foster 1.8% Addiction 1.8% Joyful Voice Own 1.5% Insecurity Housing 1.2% Neurodiversity 1%
2020-2021: AUTHOR RACIAL IDENTITY
WHITE
34.9%
BIPOC
65.1%
2020-2021: AUTHOR LGBTQIA+ REPRESENTATION
LGBTQ+ 51.5%
WHITE CIS HET 48.5%
2020-2021: PROTAGONIST RACIAL IDENTITY
White 36.3% AA/Black 20.3%
Latinx 13.7% Asian E/SE 9.9% BIPOC Biracial/Mixed/Unspec. 7.1% Indigenous 6.6% Asian S 4.2% Asian Eastern/Central Middle 1.9%
