YALSA Podcast #57 – Diversity in the Library
In this podcast Alma Ramos McDermott interviews Helen Snowden, Gloucester Township Library (Blackwood, NJ) and Angie Miraflor, San Jose Public Library (CA), YALSA’s 2008 diversity stipend winners.
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The conversation covers:
- Annual Conference experiences
- Why attend ALA Annual Conference
- Street lit
- Collection development
- Serving immigrant teens
- Diversity in the library and in teen services (as seen in programs, services, and staff)
- Diversity in librarianship
- ALA Spectrum Scholars program
- How public and school librarians can collaborate successfully
Greetings; I just want to clarify that Street Lit is NOT YA fiction. It is adult fiction that YAs read. I think we need to be clear about that. The YA fiction that has developed as a response to street lit, is more teen-friendly, and collection-appropriate for the YA collection. Some examples include the Drama High series, the Platinum Teen series, and authors such as Nicole Bailey Williams, Walter Dean Myers, Sharon Flake, and newcomer Ni-Ni Simone. By and large though, most street fiction can be seen as Adult-YA, meaning it is most appropriate for readers aged 16 and up. In my humble opinion, the teen-friendly street lit makes street lit accessible to teens 12 and up. Thanks for listening!
I have learned so much by this podcast. I am latina and starting my master’s in Library Media Science. The reason I listed this podcast is because we were asked to write a paper about diversity in the library media center. I think that a LMS needs to be a step ahead on diversity, we need to anticipate questions that our patrons might have, so that when they come looking for information we can point them to the right direction instead of saying I don’t know, I am not sure, sorry we don’t have that information. Thank you again.
Just wanted to write in and mention how posts like this (and the preceding one which led me to this podcast) are very helpful to emerging teen librarians and school librarians like myself. I’ve volunteered to help a vetted librarian build and defend her YA Street Lit collection, and am learning a lot about how meaningful this genre is within the media center. For a life-long love of reading to take hold, students need to be able to see themselves in the collection. Thanks for the leads!