Diverse Population, Diverse Collection? Youth Collections in the United States

Abstract

Do school, public, and academic library collections in the United States provide the children, young adults, and future teachers they serve with books that reflect diverse families and life experiences? Using checklists and OCLC holdings, the authors assessed the extent to which libraries collect youth literature that includes characters from racial and ethnic minorities, characters with disabilities, and characters who identify as LGBTQ. They also assigned public libraries to Conspectus levels and compared youth-diversity holdings by collection expenditures. They found that more than one-third of public libraries spending over $100,000 annually on materials did not achieve the minimal level for representations of diversity in their youth collections, indicating a need for local assessments and additional efforts to provide diverse youth collections.