Diversity Audit Update: Humor

This week ended with a completion of the Humor section for the Diversity Audit. From here on out there will be some space in between posts as we move into the bigger sections such as Sci-Fi, Mystery, Historical Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Fantasy and Graphic Novels. Humor is a smaller section, but has an alarmingly high number of male authors and while it seems like the main character characteristics are more diverse, the numbers themselves are quite low across the board of what we do have that qualified in each section.

The numbers for authors in this category were surprising to me because there so many male authors and hardly any female authors. Are men the only ones that can write humorous books for middle grade and young adult?! I know so many funny females so I’m going to make it my mission to get their stories in my library next year so this number evens out more. The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney and Middle School series by James Patterson just dominated this section with very little representation anywhere else other than white, male authors.

The main characters had a slightly bit higher amount of females, but not much. It was still dominated by male main characters like Rowley Jefferson and Rafe Khatchadorian. I will add more female-driven stories in the Humor section too. Lastly, I changed the format of the last chart Main Character Characteristics so that the categories would be easier to read.

All in all this section was another disappointment, but I expected it, to be honest. Hopefully Science Fiction will be better.

Author Diversity Criteria: HUMOR

Main Character Gender Identity: HUMOR

Main Character Race/Ethnicity: HUMOR

Main Character Characteristics: HUMOR

Diversity Audit Update: Scary

Diversity Audit Update: Paranormal & Sports

This week was busy with classes, but I managed to get all of Paranormal and Sports entered into the data spreadsheet. Below are the results for those two genre sections.

Paranormal was very closely aligned with Dystopian: a lot of female authors with female main characters, which was better than Adventure as far as gender goes, but still not very diverse at all. In fact there was more author and main character female representation in Paranormal than in Dystopian, which I didn’t think was possible. (LOL) Another plus for Paranormal is the fact that it increased in Latinx authors. Unfortunately, the rest of the ethnicities are very low just like the other genre sections I have completed already. Main character ethnicity and race was worse than Dystopian and I was hoping it would be higher. Paranormal has been the worst section so far in Main Character Characteristics with only 2 Plus Size characters, 11 characters from the LGBTQIA+ community, and 10 with settings Outside the US. Nothing in any of the other categories. It was very disheartening.

Sports had some surprises and disappointments as well. One celebration is I had my first NonBinary/Trans author, which was a first from any genre section. It was heavily dominated by male authors and main characters, which wasn’t surprising, but disappointing nonetheless. One disturbing realization is that I had several authors that were white writing about Latinx or African-American/Black main characters. I find that problematic, as they don’t have the experience to truly write from that perspective. I weeded most of those books. Sports did have the highest representation of African-Americans, Latinx main characters so far, but the stereotyping was strong with this ethnicity because almost all the Black characters played basketball or football and the Latinx characters played baseball or soccer in the books. That doesn’t mean books about various ethnicities playing sports can’t be written, but when I have the highest rep of Black and Latinx characters and it’s because of a stereotype of them playing a sport some associate with that race, that’s problematic, in my opinion. I need better representation of all races and ethnicities playing all types of sports. I will note that Sports had the best bar graphic under Main Character Characteristics. I’m finally able to see some representation in most of those categories, which made it look more balanced, but still no where near where it needs to be.

One thing I noticed while completing the Sports genre was there was some female empowerment books (i.e. girls going out for football and baseball teams on predominantly male teams and fighting against the patriarchy) as well as social justice and race issues being discussed on various sports organizations. Therefore I decided to add two more categories to Main Character Characteristics: Feminism and Social Justice/Activism/Race. In addition to those additions I also corrected the Plus Size category. When going through the Sports genre I noticed several books that addressed body image and eating disorders for both males and females. So while I know Plus Size and body image issues don’t necessarily go together I did combine them to keep my categories from getting out of control. Many Plus Size books and authors do a fabulous job of promoting positive body confidence so I want to make it clear that I realize the distinction between the two. Plus Size is mostly a positive characteristic while Body Image is something the main character is struggling with, sometimes resulting in an eating disorder, body dysmorphia, and/or drug use. If that is the case I make sure to note a check under Addiction or Trauma Response as well. I will have to go back and adjust all those category changes in Main Character Characteristics in the Adventure, Dystopian and Paranormal diversity audits, but I would rather do that than leave them off because I think they’re important characteristics when looking at purchasing new books. I knew I would run into some issues throughout the process, just like I did with my Genrefication project. I’m okay to go back and make those changes to make the audit as correct and helpful as it can be when completing future book orders.

Scary is next and I’m scared it’s going to be more of the same. Stay tuned!

Paranormal Author Diversity Criteria

Paranormal Main Character Gender Identity

Paranormal Main Character Race/Ethnicity

Paranormal Main Character Characteristics

Sports Author Diversity Criteria

Sports Main Character Gender Identity

Sports Main Character Race/Ethnicity

Sports Main Character Characteristics

Diversity Audit Update: Dystopian

The last time I had time to work on our library’s Diversity Audit I was in quarantine in October. After my two weeks in exile, I haven’t had the time, but since returning from the holiday break I made it a priority so that we can finish it by the end of the year. So far Adventure was the only genre section I had been able to finish on my own. Entrusting the help of my library aides definitely helped speed the process along this week as we were able to finish our Dystopian section and are currently a third of the way through Paranormal. Of the 272 Dystopian titles we currently have my results were, unfortunately, very similar to Adventure in that we had a strong white presence in these books and not enough minorities and representation of BIPOC both in the author categories and the main characters. This is definitely something I am going to work on when purchasing new books. It’s also something the publishing industry needs to be aware of and do better at publishing diverse, inclusive and empathetic literature for our middle grade and young adult students. A difference that I did notice, and was a bit surprised by—even though I shouldn’t have been—is the higher number of females as main characters and authors in Dystopian. This differed with Adventure greatly, as many of those authors and characters were male. If I think of the popular Dystopian novels, I shouldn’t have been thrown when seeing the data. Series such as The Hunger Games, Legend, The Testing, Divergent, The Selection, Red Queen, The Darkest Minds, etc. all have female authors and main characters. Yay for GIRL POWER! I hope to have Paranormal completed by the end of next week then it’s on to Humor. Honestly I’m hoping for more representation as we move through the genres because I know that all genre sections should have better diversity. So far it’s been a bit disheartening seeing how much work needs to be done to make these genre sections more representative of not just our school community, but the world as a whole. Feel free to take a look at the data presented below for the Dystopian section in my middle school library and thanks for following along with my Diversity Audit journey!

Dystopian Author Diversity Criteria

Dystopian Main Character Gender Identity

Dystopian Main Character Race/Ethnicity

Dystopian Main Character Characteristics

Librarian: The Job With Many Hats

I was working on my bio for a panel that I am speaking on in a few weeks and noticed something. I wear a lot of hats. This isn’t unique to me, in particular, but to all librarians across my district, state, nation and beyond. School librarians, like teachers and counselors and administration, have more responsibilities than their job title states in the description or what you assume they do. So many times I hear, “well, you’re a librarian. Surely all you do is read all day.” As much as I wished that were true, it is absolutely FALSE.

On my campus I have morning duty for 45 minutes before school. In a normal (non-COVID) year I have clubs such as Makerspace Club, Robotics Club, ProjectLIT Book Club, iREAD Book Club, Gaming Club such as Dungeons & Dragons, UIL Oral Reading & UIL Writing, etc. However, I am unable to have clubs such as these this year, but in regular years I have these clubs before school, during lunch and after school. In addition to clubs, I am also on the campus Team Leader committee, which meets once a month. I am on the Campus Improvement Committee, which meets four times throughout the year. I am the co-leader of the campus’s SPIRIT Committee that meets once a month to help make improvements in campus culture with various subcommittees. We also meet once a month with the district librarians. All of the committees I am on occur after school, past my contract day.

In my position alone I am the GT Facilitator for my campus, which means I am in charge of the entire program. I make sure the GT students are coded correctly in our PEIMS system, that they are all in the right classes and have a GT advisory class. I monitor their budget and order what they need. I hold meetings and make sure they’re following the district and state plan for the GT program. I am also the GT Facilitator for my district’s secondary campuses. This means I share budgets with the other librarians at those campuses and make sure they know deadlines. I am in charge of the field trips for the GT program, as well as our 7th grade competition, which is a huge undertaking on its own. I attend meetings at the district level and advocate for the GT program and teachers.

In addition to that title I am also the Project-Based Learning Leader and Trainer for all secondary campuses. This means that I am in charge of a team of teachers to ensure all our teachers are training in PBL every year. We have multiple meetings to plan our training, schedule the trainings and execute them in a 3 day summer professional development. We then do follow up trainings throughout the school year to keep PBL current and fresh in their minds. I am in charge of scheduling these, meeting with our district curriculum specialist to coordinate trainings, order items needed for the training and much more.

The elementary librarians in our district have lunch duty, before/after school duty (depending on the campus) and many are in charge of morning announcements. In a regular year, they are in charge of the GT program on their own, pulling students out of class to do lessons, which many times has them closing the library for the GT services. This year they are providing GT services remotely via SeeSaw or Canvas platforms. They don’t have library aides like we do at the secondary level so they’re in charge of processing, shelving, inventory, weeding, etc. all on their own in addition to many other duties that their campus requires of them.

The point I’m trying to make is that when we go to school to be school librarians, many times it’s not just being a librarian. They don’t really teach us that in graduate school, but if you’ve been involved in education at all, you know that in most schools in America, educators do way more than is required of them. We go above and beyond everyday, doing any and all that is asked of us for the good of our school and students. Teachers become nurses, counselors, social workers, art and technology teachers, etc. The list is never-ending sometimes in what else we do other than our job title. What hats do you wear on your campus?

Biography Genrefication

The last part of making my middle school library 100% genrefied was doing our biography section. Before the biography books were organized by who the biography book was about as the call number (ex. a Kobe Bryant book would have B BRY as the called number). However, once I saw a fellow librarian of mine out of Grand Prairie ISD who had their biography section genrefied by different categories the biography books could go into I knew that was what I wanted to do with my collection because it really has never gotten a lot of check outs. So I did what I did with nonfiction (see previous post). I took all the books and put them into different bins by categories. There are less of these than what I used for nonfiction so I can list them: Actors/Celebrities, African Americans, Artists, Authors, Chefs, Inventors/Explorers, Musicians/Singers/Rappers, Native Americans, Presidents/Government, Religion/Mental Health, Scientists, Social Justice, Sports, Texas, War, and Women. The books were given a colored dot which matched the label of the bin so my library aides can shelve easily. In Destiny Follett under Sublocation I added the biography choices (ex. BIO-Artists) so we can easily find them in the bins when the books are put on hold. This has really made things easier such as shelving, grabbing holds and when the students are able to search for books themselves again (thanks COVID) it will make it easier for them to find books on topics and people they’re interested in. We are now 100% genrefied in my library and I couldn’t be happier. Circulation numbers are up, children can find books easier and I love the organization of it, as do my library aides. Let me know if you have any questions about the genrefication process and how you can get started!

Nonfiction Genrefication Completed!

Last year our library project was to take the nonfiction section of the library and genrefy it. Our fiction section was done the year I started at this campus and has increased circulation tremendously. I knew that anything I did to nonfiction would help since that area of our library held around 20 check outs PER YEAR. When this library was built they made two rows at the floor around the library and put windows above it, which works in theory. However, the nonfiction books don’t fit on the two shelves and have to be turned sideways so you can’t see the titles on the spines. Also because they’re so low to the floor, students don’t like to get on their hands and knees to search for them. In addition to this, nonfiction just isn’t circulated like it is at elementary. Most kids tend to gravitate towards fiction/chapter books at this age. Therefore, I knew any changes I made would help nonfiction.

My idea was to take the books out of the two rows on the bottom and put them in bins by topic. We started this process in February 2020 and were able to figure out which each bin topic would be and separate the books into those bins and label them. In the three weeks we had them set up like this our circulation numbers soared. Students were able to go to a bin that looks interesting, search through it and find what they wanted. We checked out more nonfiction books in the three weeks the bins were set up than in the entire four years I’ve been the librarian there. Then COVID happened and the project was put on pause until we returned in person in August. August usually is a time for me to train library aides and this year was no exception. Only this year I had to spend three weeks training them because of new COVID procedures and then when classes started we were busy with other duties like checking out books, entering, covering and labeling new books, etc. Once we got a moment to breathe we knew our nonfiction genrefication project wouldn’t wait any longer. Finding nonfiction books and shelving was almost impossible because we had yet to change the sublocation of books in our check out system. So that was our next step that we started in October.

Students had to put colored dots on the spine of the book to correspond with the color of the label of each nonfiction bin. This will help them with shelving. Then we had to scan each book and change their sublocation in Destiny Follett to match the bin the book is in so we can easily find them when kids put them on hold. Ex. Cinderella’s sublocation would be NF-Fairy Tales. I kept the bins somewhat in their Dewey order on top of the shelves so I can easily find them. (Librarians: you know what I mean when a student asks for a basketball book—grad school burned into our brains that it’s 796 for the call number so I know that it would be towards the end of NF). The spine of nonfiction books still say the number and the author, but it’s the sublocation that really shows where the book goes.

When all is said and done, I’m sure Melvil Dewey is rolling in his grave, but if my students can find books easier and check out more—I really don’t care. “That’s just the way it’s always been done” isn’t a good enough reason for me. I’ve found this is the way kids like to search for books. It’s easier and knowing Dewey call numbers isn’t really a life skill they need. If they go to a public library they can just ask a librarian where a book is and they can find it for them. I’m okay with the trade off if it gets them to read more and be excited about finding books in my library.

Up next: biography genrefication and then our library is 100% genrefied!

Starting a Diversity Audit

All credit from here on out goes to the amazing Kelsey Brogan who brought this idea to my attention this summer. I was able to use her blog www.dontyoushushme.com to start my own diversity audit after the beginning of the year craziness died down. So far I have only been able to do one genre section, but what I’ve done so far has been incredibly eye-opening.

Why did I decide it was time to do a diversity audit? I have been working on diversifying my genre sections since I started at my campus five years ago. After genrefying it right away I started adding more diverse titles. However, I quickly have to come to realize not as well as I thought (more on this later). I feel like it’s important that we represent everyone in the library. Recent movements such as Black Lives Matter, LGBTQIA+ allies and champions for the cause, #metoo, as well as more BIPOC in movies and books coming out made it imperative that those causes and people find their space in our libraries. I have more students than ever asking for books to learn more about various movements, causes and topics. It’s vital that I have books to adequately explain the significance of these issues like in nonfiction and tell fictional stories to humanize the issues and have the reader empathize with what someone else might be going through. Books should always act as windows, mirrors and doors. The audit for me personally is so I can actually see the gaps that I have in my genre sections and use this knowledge to best fill them when purchasing new titles. I also want to take that data to help me get grants for my library because our budget is usually pushed to the max for ebooks and audiobooks (this year especially) and they are so expensive (this year especially). I’d love to be able to get some extra funds to help fill in these problem areas that I’m finding. I plan on also using indie publishers and local bookstores, particularly those owned by BIPOC and the LGBTQIA+ community.

After completing just one genre section in my library (Adventure) the results were staggering. I thought I was crushing it with my diverse book purchases, but I feel like I have been doing well with Realistic Fiction and Fantasy and not with the other smaller sections, which is another reason why it’s so important to really take the time to do one of these audits. (For step-by-step instructions visit Kelsey’s blog. I only changed a few of the categories, but did the rest pretty much exactly as she did it). I can’t wait to see what data and statistics more genre sections bring as I move through this audit in the 2020-2021 school year. We need to do better and even though the work is hard—it’s work worth doing.

Helpful Links:

Kelsey’s blog: www.dontyoushushme.com

Diversity in Publishing Statistics (statistics image from here)

TheNextGenLibrarian’s First Genre: Adventure

What is ProjectLIT (and why you should have a chapter)

Two years ago I started seeing “ProjectLIT” all over my Twitter and IG feed. I didn’t know much about it so I did some research. In 2017 Jarred Amato started ProjectLIT with the goal to get diverse, inclusive and empathetic books into students’ hands so that kids could use these books as windows, mirrors and doors. He started the ProjectLIT Community Chapters so that other educators and librarians could form their own chapters in their communities around the world. What started in 2017 has now grown into a global phenomenon.

So what is ProjectLIT all about? We are a national, grassroots LITeracy movement, a network of dedicated teachers, librarians and students who are committed to increasing access to culturally relevant books and promoting a love of reading in our schools and communities. We work together to:

• Empower students as READERS and LEADERS in their school and community.

• Host monthly or quarterly Project LIT Book Clubs.

• Flood our schools and communities with high-quality, culturally relevant books.

• Champion & celebrate reading daily.

• Inspire and support one another through sharing of lesson plans, resources, strategies, and book recommendations.

• Create opportunities for students to connect with peers around the country.

• Advocate for policies & practices that will help our students become lifelong leaders.

In order to become a ProjectLIT chapter leader you need to apply here. Once accepted, chapter leaders access our resources and checklists and connect with our community to develop a game plan for their school. From there, they empower their students to organize Project LIT Book Club events and engage in service & project-based learning that address literacy needs in their community. Through the process, our Project LIT educators & students become passionate readers and leaders who change the world.

Starting ProjectLIT at my campus is one of the most rewarding things I’ve done in my career. It’s made me pay more attention to the books I purchase for my library to make sure I’m buying diverse books for all of my patrons. It’s helped me recommend books because I’m reading so many different types of books with a wide variety of marginalized characters that need to have their stories told. I’m reading more #ownvoices books so that those who lived their stories can tell their stories and have readers see themselves in books. I hope I’ve created a more empathetic group of readers on my campus who are learning from other cultures and voices through reading ProjectLIT books. I’ve been able to also nominate a lot of these titles to be chosen for future years’ lists.

I was lucky enough to have a 7th grade teacher on my campus, Melanie Jaramillo, who partnered with me to start our ProjectLIT Book Club last fall. We had over 50 members for our first year. Together we worked with Cassie Thomas, Kim Nichols, and Megan Traeger to partner with a local elementary school and the other middle school in our town so students could pair up and read a ProjectLIT book together since we didn’t have enough books to have everyone read the same one. Students communicated through email and Flipgrid to talk about the books they chose together and which ones they wanted to read next. We met once a month during lunch to debrief and talk about the books students were reading. This worked well, but we still have some things we want to tweak this school year, adding Samantha Goldstein to our crew too!

Due to COVID-19, our chapter is going to look different this year and that’s okay. We hope to partner kids virtually and Zoom after school so they can all “meet” one another. We would like to have an author Skype visit as well. This will take some practice and flexibility, but we still hope to have a successful chapter this school year. The second announcement of ProjectLIT books for 2020-2021 will be in October so follow ProjectLIT on Twitter, FB, and IG to see what the newest books will be. Previous lists can be found here. Please reach out if you have any questions or need help starting a chapter on your campus!

Networking

In this world of uncertainty, social distancing, and more questions than we have answers—it’s the perfect time to network with your PLN (Professional Learning Network) on your campus/library, school district and beyond. This isn’t just about growing you PLN, which is always a good idea. This is about specifically networking and partnering up with others in your educational profession so you can achieve goals and grow as an educator. This was a goal I specifically had for myself during COVID. I wasn’t as useful while we were in quarantine as I was while on campus. Our district has been 1-2-1 iPads for a while and at the middle school level many were proficient with teaching almost all digitally. Some had to figure out Zoom, but other than that it was a smoother transition for my district than others around us.

At the beginning of distance learning in March 2020 I was feeling unwanted, listless and unimportant—until I decided to switch my mindset and goals for this time.

I really wanted to connect with other librarians and learn from them on specific areas that I feel like I lacked: learning new #edtech apps, websites, getting more certifications, book talking, Bitmoji classrooms, hosting virtual author visits, new book reviews, etc. I targeted the areas I wanted to improve on and searched out experts in those fields to learn from them. This definitely ties in with my Summer of Learning and Branding blogposts I did recently, but in this case networking is more purposeful than simply creating a librarian brand and sharing info. It’s about reaching out to those who connect with you and having goals for what you want to learn from them. The second I started my brand I was very choosy when it came to who I followed: are they a librarian, technologist or teacher? Are they an author, illustrator, book blogger, publisher, editor, etc.? Or are they an advocate for libraries and librarians? By being more careful in who I follow I’m able to weed out content I don’t need to see everyday from people who aren’t associated with my brand. I can also connect in various social medias with those who reach out to me for help and those I can reach to as well. These include: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Goodreads, etc. The content I put out under my name/brand is specific to the library or trends that are relatable to today’s society. I began getting a lot of engagement through those platforms. Once others engage with you can begin sharing relatable content with them, as well as provide opportunities for collaboration, share documents, and be creative together. My network has grown through my social media platforms this summer in great ways.

The first way I was able to grow my followers and who I follow specific to the librarian profession was doing a giveaway. This was not the intent when I partnered with other teachers and librarians who are ProjectLIT chapter leaders. We wanted to make sure a teacher got 22 books from this year or previous year ProjectLIT books that were diverse, inclusive and empathetic reads for his/her students. But because of the giveaway, I received a lot of educator followers. Giveaways are a good way to get started, but it shouldn’t be the ultimate goal: get followers. I see a lot of accounts that are dedicated to just that and I think for me I wanted to have quality content once I got followers. It didn’t stop at the follows for me.

I also spend time sharing out resources, if someone asks for them. I’ll happily give my knowledge and what I’ve learned to others, which was a big reason I started this blog. I’ve had a lot of success through trial and error in my nine years in the library and if I can help another librarian get genrefication off the ground or start a new social media platform or create a Bitmoji Classroom, I’ll do so happily.

To me networking is so important in our profession. For many of us we are the only person like us on a campus so we need to have other friends in the field that we can reach out to for help. I’ve made some amazing new educator friends this summer and have learned so much from them. Also thanks to COVID I don’t know when I’ll get to go to another in-person conference to network in person. Which is why it’s essential to find other like-minded people online to learn and grow from so I can be successful in my professional goals in the library. As always, if you need anything—just reach out!