From the Colorado Virtual Library
Recent national events have brought a critical focus on racism in this country. To help address this topic in your library, here are some resources for youth services staff.
Professional Development
- Project READY: Reimagining Equity & Access for Diverse Youth, a free online professional development curriculum
- Embrace Race, a national nonprofit of parents and educators; website includes webinars, articles, and collection development tools with the goal of raising a generation of children who are thoughtful, informed, and brave about race
- Helping Kids Process Violence, Trauma, and Race in a World of Nonstop News, a webinar from Common Sense Media
- Teaching Tolerance’s webinars, podcasts, and self-guided learning
- Race and Antiracism Continuing Education Opportunities, compiled by Janet Ingraham Dwyer, Library Consultant, State Library of Ohio, with content provided by state youth services consultants, June 2020.
Collection Development
- Diverse BookFinder, a collection analysis tool and comprehensive collection of children’s picture books featuring Black and Indigenous people and People of Color from Bates College
- We Need Diverse Book, a nonprofit of children’s book lovers that advocates essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people
- Diversity Auditing 101: How to Evaluate Your Collection, School Library Journal
- Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children’s Books, Social Justice Books
- Reading for Change: Booklist-Recommended Antiracism Titles for All Ages, Booklist Reader
- Anti-Racism Reading Lists and Resources, compiled by Adrienne Butler, Youth Services Consultant of the Oklahoma Department of Libraries
- A recording of the Kidlit Rally for Black Lives, which brought together award-winning authors Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds and other popular YA writers is available on YouTube with additional resources for anti-racist education, parenting, and living provided on the Brown Bookshelf website.
Talking with Kids and Teens about Race
- Raising White Kids’ Author On How White Parents Can Talk About Race, NPR interview,
- Are Your Kids Too Young to Talk about Race? Nope. Silence about race can reinforce racism by letting children draw their own conclusions, Pretty Good Design.
- Let’s Talk: Discussing Race, Racism and other Difficult Topics with Students, Teaching Tolerance
- Confronting Anti-Black Racism for middle and high school students, PBS Media
- Talking about Race, National Museum of African American History and Culture