Belinda's INF505 Professional Development Blog

While I was completing my professional placement in a public library, a primary school-aged child came to see me at the circulation desk and asked whether we had any Harry Potter books. “It looks like they are all out on loan at the moment,” I replied. “Would you like me to reserve one for you?”

They sighed and, while turning away, said, “No, I just wanted to look at one now.”

Later, I reflected that this would have been the ideal opportunity for me to find something else that they would have enjoyed browsing through while waiting for their parents to choose books. However, it has been a long time since I was in primary school and knew which children’s books were popular; indeed, it seems that the more that I learn about the information profession, the more inadequacies in myself I discover. I find the diversity of needs within the children and young adult user group to be particularly challenging. This sentiment is expressed by many recent graduates, who feel ill-prepared to meet the gap between their level of training and what is expected of them (Luo & Hostetler, 2020).

The Australian Library and Information Association (2019) states that to be able to anticipate and meet the needs of users, which are constantly changing, information professionals must engage in relevant and varied professional learning. That said, access to professional development opportunities may be limited due to geography and lack of funding (Luo & Hostetler, 2020). In my own case, time is a major limiting factor due to caring responsibilities. My understanding of what constitutes professional development has changed over the course of this session; the process of producing a professional development blog has shown me that I can engage in professional learning outside of a formal setting. The last stage in the Framework of Skills for Inquiry Learning (FOSIL) is Reflect, whereby students assess their successes and challenges and consider what they want to learn next (FOSIL Group, n.d.). Similarly, professional blogging forces you to articulate your ideas and helps you to identify their strengths and weaknesses (Barnes, 2016). Indeed, there is growing recognition of social media – including blogs – as a valuable tool for professional development (Luo & Hostetler, 2020).

I felt that one disadvantage of blogging was the lack of immediate engagement with colleagues. Although blogging can generate valuable feedback from readers (Barnes, 2016), this depends on people being aware of the blog and having the time to respond. Of course, this may change towards the end of the session when students enrolled in this unit have more time to comment on each other’s blog posts. Going forward, I plan to connect with other information professionals via social media to share knowledge about working with children and young adults.

Featured image “A suited businesswoman working on her laptop indoors with a teapot by side” by shixart1985 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

References

Australian Library and Information Association. (2019). Professional development for library and information professionals. https://read.alia.org.au/file/1261/download?token=gVKFHGkA

Barnes, N. (2016, September 19). How I blog for personal professional development: You can do it too. EduResearch Matters. https://www.aare.edu.au/blog/?p=1770

FOSIL Group. (n.d.). Reflect: Evaluating how you have worked and what you have produced.  https://fosil.org.uk/fosil-cycle/reflect/

Luo, T. & Hostetler, K. (2020). Making professional development more social: A systematic review of librarians’ professional development through social media. Journal of Academic Librarianship, 46(5), 102193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2020.102193

For my final professional development activity, I chose to analyse the following article:

Davis, J., Pearce, N., & Mullin, M. (2021). Missing boys: The limited representation of Black males in Caldecott books. Journal of Children’s Literature, 47(1), 10-20.

I have provided my full analysis as an appendix. To summarise, the authors found that Black male protagonists were likely underrepresented in Caldecott books and tended to hold a narrow range of jobs. In addition, Caldecott books with Black male protagonists tended to focus on historical experiences such as slavery and the Civil Rights Movement at the expense of modern, more relatable experiences of Black males. Although the study described above looked at one US-based award, the results are likely to be relevant in Australia; Caple and Tang (2020) found that only 12% of main characters in picture books shortlisted for the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year over the past two decades were not white.

Young people’s book awards play an important role in promoting quality children’s literature. Winning books become widely read, readily available in both shops and libraries, and stay in print for a long time (Caple & Tang, 2000; Pearson et al, 2019). Awards also help shape children’s library collections. As I learned while completing my professional placement, selection and acquisition at public libraries is based on profiles; libraries have longstanding orders with suppliers based upon the demographics of the library’s local community, and these often include automatic selection of prize-winning books (E. Ward, personal communication, February 24). It is important that all children can both see themselves and see others in books that they read (Davis et al, 2021). There are a number of children’s book awards that focus on diversity and equality, such as the Rainbow Booklist and the Diverse Book Awards. However, limited portrayal of minority groups in prize-winning picture books is problematic because there is a lack of scrutiny of these books by collection managers.

I have learnt that greater scrutiny of children’s book awards, including by information professionals working with children and young adults, is needed to ensure that library collections contain culturally relevant books. Information professionals who are aiming to build diverse children’s book collections cannot rely on simple measures of representation such as the presence or absence of diverse characters; they must also critically analyse the portrayal of minority groups. In future I plan to apply the approach modelled by Davis et al when assessing prize-winning children’s books. However, I recognise that there are gaps in my awareness of representation and cultural diversity. We Need Diverse Books (n.d.) provides book lists and free educational resources for librarians, parents, and teachers on their website, and I will explore these further in order to develop my understanding.

Featured image “R. Caldecott in The Hey Diddle Diddle Picture Book” by Crossett Library Bennington College is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

References

Davis, J., Pearce, N., & Mullin, M. (2021). Missing boys: The limited representation of Black males in Caldecott books. Journal of Children’s Literature, 47(1), 10-20. https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/missing-boys-limited-representation-black-males/docview/2575544523/se-2?accountid=10344

Pearson, L., Sands-O’Connor, K, & Subramanian, A. (2019). Prize culture and diversity in British children’s literature. International Research in Children’s Literature, 12(1), 90-106. https://doi.org/10.3366/ircl.2019.0293

We Need Diverse Books. (n.d.). About us. https://diversebooks.org/about-wndb/

Caple, H. & Tang, P. (2020, October 15). In 20 years of award-winning picture books, non-white people made up just 12% of main characters. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/in-20-years-of-award-winning-picture-books-non-white-people-made-up-just-12-of-main-characters-147026

Appendix

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) to the artist of the most distinguished children’s picture book. To be eligible, illustrators must be either a US citizen or resident (ALSC, n.d.). Davis et al (2021) investigated the representation of Black males in picture books that had been awarded a Caldecott Medal or Honor between 1995 and 2020. They found that only 15.7% of Caldecott books had a Black male protagonist. The authors argue that this indicates underrepresentation of Black males. However, they do not provide any data regarding Black males as a percentage of the US population; in fact, this figure is difficult to estimate because some members of this group may be classified in census data as multiracial (United States Census Bureau, 2021). It is also possible that this finding is due to underrepresentation of male protagonists in Caldecott books. The study could therefore have been improved by looking at Black males as a percentage of all male characters in picture books.

A strength of the study is how it explored the portrayal of Black male protagonists. Davis et al found that Caldecott books with Black male protagonists tended to be set in the past, with many focusing on slavery and civil rights; as the authors point out, these books are not always easy for young Black males to relate to their own lived experiences in the present day. In addition, adult Black male characters tended to have a narrow range of jobs. As Caple and Tang (2020) note, the diversity that children see represented helps to shape their view of the world and what their ideas about what they can achieve. Although this analysis was based on a small number of books – only 18 – it shows that it is important to consider the nature of representation when building a diverse picture book collection.

References

Association for Library Service to Children. (n.d.). Randolph Caldecott Medal. https://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecott

Caple, H. & Tang, P. (2020, October 15). In 20 years of award-winning picture books, non-white people made up just 12% of main characters. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/in-20-years-of-award-winning-picture-books-non-white-people-made-up-just-12-of-main-characters-147026

Davis, J., Pearce, N., & Mullin, M. (2021). Missing boys: The limited representation of Black males in Caldecott books. Journal of Children’s Literature, 47(1), 10-20. https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/missing-boys-limited-representation-black-males/docview/2575544523/se-2?accountid=10344

United States Census Bureau. (2021). QuickFacts. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST045221

Melissa by Alex Gino is currently one of the most frequently complained about and banned books in US libraries (American Library Association [ALA], n.d.). The book tells the story of a young transgender girl who wants to play the part of Charlotte in her school’s production of Charlotte’s Web. I decided to read the book after reading an interview that the author gave as part of Banned Books Week several years ago.

Reading Melissa taught me about how resistance to portrayals of diversity in children’s books is ultimately about some groups in the community attempting to exclude others. As Melissa becomes more confident and begins to express her gender identity, she receives mixed reactions from her peers, teachers, friends, and family. By the end of the book some of these people do not fully accept her. Most complaints about Melissa relate to its sympathetic portrayal of a transgender child (Price, 2021). Put simply, there are some groups that do not accept the basic premise of Melissa: that a person’s gender identity does not always match their biological sex. This is reflected in the diverse reactions of the characters.

As Price (2021) puts it, libraries serve the whole community; when one group tries to prevent the entire community from accessing certain subjects, librarians have a responsibility to resist. Overt censorship of children’s books in libraries is certainly an issue in the United States (ALA, n.d.). Despite the fact that books are rarely banned outright in Australia, pressure from some parts of the community to restrict children’s access to certain topics is still an issue; Toowoomba local councillor Tim McMahon recently called for children’s books on gender identity and anti-racism to be removed from libraries, arguing that ratepayers should not be funding what he saw as the indoctrination of children (Chen, 2021). After reading Melissa, I have a greater appreciation for the role librarians play in ensuring freedom of access. Steele (2021) points out that librarians act as gatekeepers to information resources, as decision that they make about whether to add or remove items from the collection influence whether the community will be able to access that resource. Further, Steele contends that covert censorship can arise when librarians are not mindful of their own personal biases. Covert censorship may also occur when librarians avoid making certain books available due to fear of backlash from the community (Jamison, 2018).

Much of the professional and scholarly literature about this issue focuses on the United States. I believe that increasing my understanding of how challenges to books are addressed by libraries would help me to identify and resist censorship in my professional practice. Sadly, I was unable to find any current research or reports relating to complaints about children’s books in Australian libraries. Another way of addressing this gap in my knowledge would be to participate in this year’s Banned Books Week at my local public library.

Note: Melissa was originally published under the title George.

Featured image “Bokmässan 2016. Alex Gino” by Bokmässan i Göteborg is marked with CC BY-NC 2.0.

References

American Library Association. (n.d.). Top 100 most banned and challenged books: 2010-2019. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019

Chen, D. (2021, November 2). Toowoomba councillor calls for review of children’s books about racism, gender identity. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-02/toowoomba-councillor-wants-review-of-books-about-racism-gender-i/100586814

Jamison, A. (2018, May 8). Librarians beware: Self-censorship. Intellectual Freedom Blog. https://www.oif.ala.org/oif/librarians-beware-self-censorship/

Price, R. (2021, November 10). Appeasing censors doesn’t work. Adventures in Censorship. https://adventuresincensorship.com/blog/2021/11/8/appeasing-censors-doesnt-work

Steele, J. E. (2018). Censorship of library collections: An analysis using gatekeeping theory. Collection Management, 43(4), 229-248. https://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2018.1512917

Many public libraries offer coding programs for children and young people and provide access to coding games via their websites (Australian Library and Information Association [ALIA], 2017; American Library Association [ALA], n.d.). It has been proposed that early exposure to foundational coding skills makes children more likely to eventually choose STEM careers (EBSCOpost, 2019). Bers (2017) argues that coding is more than a set of skills; she describes coding as a type of literacy that allows children to become producers of digital content rather than merely consumers. I was interested in trying these games for myself so that I could gain a better understanding of how they effective they were as educational tools.

Coding can be defined as “the process of assigning a set of symbols that can be interpreted by a computer” and is built around three main concepts: sequencing, loops and conditional statements (Pila et al, 2019, p 53). There are many free coding games for children available online, but I chose to try Blockly Games; I spent about two hours working through a series of games designed to introduce these foundational skills to children aged eight and older. Blockly (n.d.) is a JavaScript library that represents coding concepts as interlocking blocks.

For the first hour I found Blockly Games quite enjoyable; there were a variety of games and each was focused on a particular skill. As I progressed through the levels I felt that I was developing more of an understanding of how coding worked. However, as the games became increasingly challenging I often became stuck, and I found that some levels did not provide clear instructions. In addition, some of the games required a good understanding of mathematical concepts such as xy coordinates and angles, which many 8-year-olds would struggle with. Indeed, Pila et al (2019) found that playing tablet-based coding games did appear increase coding foundational skills, they noted that the presence of educators to assist children as they worked through the games was likely to be important. I learned that although coding games may be a useful tool for engaging children, they do not replace instruction from a teacher or librarian.

In light of this, I became concerned that my own knowledge gaps would make me an ineffective instructor. This is not uncommon amongst librarians; ALA (n.d.) found that many librarians feel intimidated by coding due to their own lack of experience, and so can be reluctant to deliver library coding classes. However, ALA point out that librarians answer reference questions about subjects that they often have no personal knowledge of, and so should be able to use similar skills to seek solutions for coding class participants. I feel that a good way of addressing my own concerns about delivering coding-related programs for children would be to explore professional and scholarly  literature about how other information professionals approach unfamiliar technologies.

Featured image “Campamento tecnolóxico de introdución á robótica e programación con Arduino, na Biblioteca Infantil e Xuvenil (Durán Loriga)” by Bibliotecas Municipais da Coruña is marked with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

References

American Library Association. (n.d.) Libraries and coding for children and teens: Key conclusions. https://www.ala.org/advocacy/sites/ala.org.advocacy/files/content/Libraries%20and%20Coding%20Writeup.pdf

Australian Library and Information Association. (2017). How public libraries contribute to the STEM agenda 2017. http://read.alia.org.au/file/594/download?token=htRNNdh3

Bers, M. U. (2017, September 29). Why kids should code. Tufts Now. https://now.tufts.edu/articles/manifesto-kids-code?utm_source=Tufts+ow+XHYPHENXX+acultynd+taff&utm_campaign=34cb1424ff-Tufts_Now_external_170927&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e2c82ed1e3-34cb1424ff-207435605

Blockly. (n.d.). https://developers.google.com/blockly

EBSCOpost. (2019, March 23). Coding in libraries: Benefits and tools. https://www.ebsco.com/blogs/ebscopost/coding-libraries-benefits-and-tools

Pila, S., Alade, F., Sheehan, K. J., Lauricella, A. R., & Wartella, E. A. (2019). Learning to code via tablet applications: An evaluation of Daisy the Dinosaur and Kodable as learning tools for young children. Computers & Education, 128, 52-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2018.09.006

On 17th March I attended a free webinar presented by Nancy Silberkleit, co-CEO of Archie Comics, titled Children + Comics = Reading, Knowledge and Confidence. Silberkleit advocates for the use of comics and graphic novels as tools to encourage children to read and as aids for introducing children to concepts such as diversity and inclusion.

Graphic novels are becoming increasingly popular among children and young adults (Short, 2018). Although this genre has previously been looked down on by many librarians and teachers, graphic novels and comics require users to decode text, images and other modes, and so there is growing recognition of the role of graphic novels in aiding the development of multiple literacies (Boerman-Cornell, 2016). I learned that the visual nature of comics can make them more engaging and – for some young readers – less intimidating than novels. Silberkleit proposed that librarians could also employ comic books and graphic novels as icebreakers for children to think and talk about difficult issues.

While not the intended topic of the webinar, the issue of how diversity is portrayed in library collections quickly arose. One of the attendees made the point that it is important for children to be able to see themselves in a story. When asked about how Archie Comics have evolved in terms of their diversity, Silberkleit pointed to the inclusion of a gay character and plans for an autistic character. However, representation is not just about the presence of diverse characters. It is also important to consider who is representing that diversity (Bladow, 2019). Silberkleit also spoke about her experience as the first female executive at Archie Comics and only the second female CEO in the industry, noting in particular the challenge of having no one to mentor her. Indeed, the comic book industry as a whole has struggled with diversity both in terms of how minority groups have been portrayed – if they are present at all – and of its staff (Hudson, 2015). The representation of minority groups should be an important consideration for information professionals when building graphic novel and comic library collections.

Following Silberkleit’s webinar I had both a greater appreciation for the complexity of diversity in library collections and increased awareness of my own limited knowledge of how information professionals can tackle this issue in practice. In their review of efforts by librarians to tackle racism in children’s books Salem (2021) points to the potential of using metadata to analyse collection diversity and identify gaps. Tools such as Social Justice Books’ Guide for selecting anti-bias children’s books (Derman-Sparks, 2013) are also available. However, as I hope to work in the public library sector I plan to do further research to learn how Australian public libraries have been addressing this issue.

Featured image “Comic Books” by Sam Howzit is marked with CC BY 2.0.

References

Bladow, K. (2019). Framing storytelling: Indigenous graphic narratives. Journal of Popular Culture, 52(1), 35-52. http://doi.org/ 10.1111/jpcu.12757

Boerman-Cornell, W. (2016). The intersection of words and pictures: Second through Fourth Graders read graphic novels. The Reading Teacher, 70(3), 327-335. http://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1525

Derman-Sparks, L. (2013). Guide for selecting anti-bias children’s books. Social Justice Books. https://socialjusticebooks.org/guide-for-selecting-anti-bias-childrens-books/

Hudson, L. (2015, July 25). It’s time to get real about racial diversity in comics. Wired. https://www.wired.com/2015/07/diversity-in-comics/

Salem, L. (2021). Documenting the portrayal of diversity in children’s books. Collection Management, 46(3-4), 174-185. http://doi.org/10.1080/01462679.2021.1888834

Short, K. (2018). What’s trending in children’s literature and why it matters. Language Arts, 95(5), 287-298.