Black, Latino, and Native authors combined wrote only 7% of the new children's books in 2017?
Only 29% of books about African/African American people were by Black authors/illustrators in 2017.
34% of books written about Latinx people were written or illustrated by Latinx people although the year before, it was 61%!?
39% of books about Asian Pacific/Asian Pacific Americans were written by Asian Pacific creators.
These stats make the 53% of the books about Native peoples that were written by Native creators seem great.
Source: The Diversity Gap in Children's Book Publishing, 2018, Lee & Low The Open Book Blog, May 10, 2018.
From The Cooperative Children's Book Center, we learn:
Of the approximately 3,700 books we received at the CCBC in 2017, we counted, 136 (3.68%) with significant LGBTQ+ content. source
Source: CCBC 2017 Multicultural Statistics
Although the population of the Latinx community in the US is over 52 million people, only 216 of 3,700 children'ts books published in 2017 featured a Latinx character or characters. Of those 216, only 73 were written or illustrated by Latinx. Source: Las Musa
Tuesday, June 25th
5:00 – 7:00 pm Meet and Greet Reception at JBS (JBS conference shuttle to and from the hotel)
Music, drink, and appetizers under the stars on the Haertter Hall Overlook.
Wednesday, June 26th
8:15 – 8:45 am Conference check-in and continental breakfast – Lobby, S.T.A.R. Building
9:00 am – 12:00 pm Diversity in the Library: A Deeper Dive – Newman Auditorium, S.T.A.R. Building
When we say diversity, what do we mean? We will start this year’s Summer Institute with a diversity overview. As we come together as a group, we will work to establish a shared vocabulary, build trust, and explore our own biases. We will examine privilege, identity, and our perspectives on a number of issues surrounding the larger world of diversity. This session will set the ground-work for our diversity audit and will speak to the issues many librarians face as they work to identify and purchase the materials that reflect (and perhaps stretch) their communities’ interests and needs. If you have already taken diversity training, don’t worry! There will be something for everybody here! Our trainers promise to provide an Interactive, engaging and surprising morning for all involved!
Trainers: Jennifer Jones and Jennifer Kinney (click to read their bios)
12:00 – 1:00 pm Lunch at JBS – Stamper Family Library main reading room
1:15 – 2:15 pm Student readers panel discussion – Newman Auditorium
What do our students say and think about our library collections? What do they want and what aren’t they getting? What are they actually reading and how are they finding the books they love? This panel will feature JBS students who claim various identities and backgrounds ranging from rising 8th graders to recently graduated seniors. Jennifer Jones, the panel moderator, will start us off as we hear about each student’s experiences and points of view. Come ready to ask questions and interact with a very thoughtful, engaged, and opinionated set of young adults!
2:15 – 2:30 pm Break
2:30 – 4:00 pm Diversity audits 101 -- Newman Auditorium
The afternoon will be spent learning about diversity audits. We will discuss theory but then get settled into a more practical discussion about setting goals, planning and organization, identifying elements to audit, determining what part(s) of your collection you want to focus on, establishing procedures and timelines, and finally presenting the results. We will ultimately divide into groups according to the grade levels of our schools: elementary, middle and high school. Each group will be led by one or two librarians from independent schools representing each type of school.
Facilitators: Jennifer Millikan, St. Joseph's Academy, St. Louis, MO; Marybeth Huff, City Academy, St. Louis, MO; Kate Grantham, John Burroughs School, St. Louis, MO (click to read their bios)
4:15 – 5:30 pm Break: Go back to the hotel or remain on campus for a tour or just relax.
5:35 -- 7:00 pm Dinner on JBS campus
Enjoy dinner with your audit group; get to know each other and start talking about Thursday's audit activities.
7:00 pm -- Return to hotel and/or join with others to venture out into St. Louis. We can discuss options during the meeting.
Thursday, June 27th
8:15 – 8:45 am Continental breakfast -- Lobby, S.T.A.R. Building
8:45 am – 12:30 pm Auditing IRL -- Stamper Family Library, various locations
Using a set of grade-level specific samples of actual library collections, each group will establish their audit goals, criteria, and processes, and proceed to work on gathering data.
12:30 -- 1:30 pm Group presentations of audit work -- Newman Auditorium
1:30 – 2:00 pm Break – Lobby, S.T.A.R. Building
2:00 – 3:00 pm Panel discussion: What’s next? -- Newman Auditorium
Publishing trends, and advice on how to identify materials and market them to your communities. Representatives from Eye See Me African American Children's Bookstore, Lion Forge Comics, Left Bank Books and the St. Louis Black Authors of Children's Literature share their outlooks on publishing trends, their experiences working with readers, and their thoughts about our responsibility to find materials and how best to accomplish this. Come prepared to ask them questions as well.
1:00 – 4:00 pm Book Fair!
Bring back some of the materials that have been discussed during the workshop! Eye See Me African American Children's Bookstore, Lion Forge Comics, Left Bank Books and the St. Louis Black Authors of Children's Literature will have their books for sale – area outside Newman Auditorium, S.T.A.R. Building