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

What Else You Can Do

• Black Lives Matter: ALSC’s Call to Action
• ALSC Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) Professional Tools
• YALSA’s Cultural Competence Taskforce Toolkit
• Hold a Culturally Responsive Library Walk
• Hold a Talking with Kids about Race Program Series (virtually, these days)