Encouraging and supporting diversity in a school's media center is a multi-faceted issue. The school media center should have resources that meet the academic needs, and promote a love of reading, for ALL of its patrons. As the school clientele changes, the media specialist should be aware of these changes when choosing new materials for the collection. At Hampton Elementary School we have had a large increase in students with Mexican heritage, in response to this population we have worked to develop a Spanish section and books that have both Spanish and English portions. These are very popular among all students as are the English/Spanish dictionaries--helping to promote diversity.
Another important aspect to keep in mind are materials that promote outdated or offensive stereotypes. When my mentor, Jane Mobley, took over the media center at HES, the collection was outdated and neglected. She found many titles using the term "Indian" instead of "Native American" and chose to weed and replace these books (they were old and in poor shape). Maintaining inventory and consistent weeding/collection management (and being familiar with the collection) can circumvent these problems.
Special needs students are another important population to consider when organizing and "stocking" the media center. Can all students see/reach materials? Do special education students have high interest materials (that support the standards) on their reading levels?
Diversity is a complex issue that is vital for a successful media center. Being familiar with your patrons and collection is the key.
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Your comment about weeding outdated and inappropriate materials is so true. I think it's one area that's overlooked by many media specialists, though. When I was going through the history section in LHS's center, I laughed when I found a romanticized splashy biography of Libbie Custer (wife of General Custer) written in the 1950's. But then I realized it was painting him as a complete hero, and I found that quite tasteless. It was gone in a recent weeding, thank goodness. Another thing you mentioned is your Hispanic section. When school's populations change, so must the media center adjust. I'm glad you had the funds to develop this area!
ReplyDeleteBravo to your media specialist for being sensitive to the changing culture at your school and her willingness to meet the student body where it is at. Additionally, weeding materials that contain outdated or sensitive materials is a feat all on its own. However, I do think that it is absolutely necessary and important to maintain inventory and be consistent in weeding in order to help remove these books from the shelves. When thinking of diversity my mind automatically goes to the issue of race and culture, whereas I do not even make notes of those with special needs. Can students get down the aisles of the media center? Are books heights suitable for all students to reach? If there are any seeing impaired students in the school, are there big books or braille books assessable to them? Each of these areas of diversity need to be considered and thought through, which it seems as if your media specialist has! Taking the time to care and realizing how important diversity and a collection that reaches every student is, is the foundation to taking this issue of diversity to heart!
ReplyDeleteYou make a great point about accomodating special needs students. Particularly on how we should set up the media center to ensure that they can move within it. I will begin paying more attention to how special needs students maneuver within these spaces to ensure that their needs are always met.
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