“Public Libraries and Diverse Historical Records” - Inaam Charaf
Channel: Bibliographical Society of Canada
Date: 2021-06-25

Inaam Charaf, New Brunswick Public Library Service

Facing the multiple, interconnected, sometimes conflicting, and remarkably diverse histories of its communities, New Brunswick Public Library Service (NBPLS) is working hard to develop diverse and inclusive collections that build a natural bridge between books and young readers. To cultivate and inspire Young Readers is goal number one in the NBPLS Strategic Plan, and Regional Offices are encouraged to invest in collections to provide online, and physical collections that reflect the diverse population in New Brunswick (NB) population (People of Colour, Indigenous, LGBTQ2+, etc.).

This paper discusses the importance of diversity and inclusion in a library’s collections, and more specifically in children book’s collections. It provides an analytical and statistical review that identifies gaps in representations of race, gender, sexual orientation, and other traditionally marginalized perspectives in NBPLS children book’s collections. It is an attempt to assess and identify a group of characteristics that collections management librarians could consider when developing collections. The paper provides recommendations and references as well to put more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all children so they can see themselves in the pages of a book.

It is worthy to be clarified that this paper does not represent a full picture about the diversity and inclusion in NBPLS children’s book collections. This is primary research based on an individual initiative and a small sample of the NBPLS children’s book collection.