Today, there are “more than 4 million elementary and secondary students require language assistance, and growth of the English-language learner (ELL) population is expected to continue.” (What does it mean to be culturally proficient?), so we must strive as librarians to make sure that our programing and library collections are culturally diverse and reflect all of our students. Diversity also has a large impact on our student’s learning, and students who do not feel fully included within the classroom it can “feel lost, depressed, alienated, lonely, fearful, and abandoned” (What does it mean to be culturally proficient?). Librarians can play a large role in helping their school be culturally diverse by making sure that all children find
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First and foremost, librarians can work hard build a culturally diverse collection by making a concerted effort to purchase diverse materials that are authentic and of high quality. “Books and other print and digital media convey to children how the world perceives people who are like them as well as people who are different,” (The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children) so we need to make sure the message our students are getting from the books they are exposed to be culturally accurate and do not consist of stereotypes. When children are “consistently exposed to books and other media that negatively represent their culture, then it is likely they will internalize these social messages and develop a poor sense of self. Similarly, negative images or misinformation about a particular cultural group reinforces stereotypes in children outside the culture”, we can help avoid this by making sure we purchase books written by authors and illustrators within the culture they are writing about and also by rejecting outdated materials (The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children). Children “need to hear more than one story once a year about a particular cultural group” so we also need to make sure that we are also devoting enough time to diverse books and not only reading one “token” book during the year (The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children). This also extends to book displays and we need to make an effort to include diverse books displays that highlight multicultural
First and foremost, librarians can work hard build a culturally diverse collection by making a concerted effort to purchase diverse materials that are authentic and of high quality. “Books and other print and digital media convey to children how the world perceives people who are like them as well as people who are different,” (The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children) so we need to make sure the message our students are getting from the books they are exposed to be culturally accurate and do not consist of stereotypes. When children are “consistently exposed to books and other media that negatively represent their culture, then it is likely they will internalize these social messages and develop a poor sense of self. Similarly, negative images or misinformation about a particular cultural group reinforces stereotypes in children outside the culture”, we can help avoid this by making sure we purchase books written by authors and illustrators within the culture they are writing about and also by rejecting outdated materials (The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children). Children “need to hear more than one story once a year about a particular cultural group” so we also need to make sure that we are also devoting enough time to diverse books and not only reading one “token” book during the year (The Importance of Diversity in Library Programs and Material Collections for Children). This also extends to book displays and we need to make an effort to include diverse books displays that highlight multicultural