How To Redesign A Library Service To Include Diverse Population

After working through this module, you volition be able to:

Evaluate your library's physical and digital space and policies through a racial disinterestedness lens.
Collaboratively develop a program to meliorate your library'south space and policies to ameliorate serve BIYOC.
Implement your plan and assess the touch on of changes to your library'southward space and policies on BIYOC.

In most cases, your library'south physical or digital space will be a kid or teen's get-go introduction to your plan. Their first impression of the library can exist fix in the time it takes to enter its doors. In a plethora of ways, the library space can communicate a sense of welcome, acceptance, excitement, and possibility – or, it tin communicate the opposite. The library's space also explicitly or implicitly communicates information about library policies – what is immune, encouraged, and prioritized in the space, and what is not. In this module, we volition explore enquiry-backed strategies for creating library spaces and policies that are welcoming and affirming for BIYOC, share examples of libraries that are putting these strategies to piece of work, and provide guidelines for effective library spaces and policies that you can use to program for improvements within your own context.

Get-go, let's consider effective library spaces.

Library Space

Read

Almost of the guidance that has been published related to library space for children and teens has been written without an explicit focus on race or equity. All the same, this guidance can provide u.s.a. with a useful place to start when we consider the question, "what are the features of an equitable and inclusive library space?"

Await over YALSA'south National Guidelines for Teen Space. As you read, endeavour to recollect about each guideline through a racial disinterestedness lens. For instance, Guideline 1.1 is "Create a space that meets the needs of teens in the community past asking teens to play a part in the planning procedure." Because racial equity in the process of reaching this goal would require librarians to empathise the demographics of their service population, consider the assets and strengths of diverse groups and communities inside that population, and ensure that the widest possible diverseness of teens is invited to participate in the planning procedure, especially racially marginalized teens.
Read the article "Learning from Librarians and Teens about YA Library Spaces" past L. Meghann Kuhlmann, Denise Agosto, Jonathan Pacheco Bell, & Anthony Bernier.
Look over pages 3-11 ofDesigning Spaces for Effective Learning: A Guide to 21st Century Learning Space Design [PDF]. This report, written by JISC UK, is focused on university learning spaces; however, most of the guidance is likewise relevant to school and public libraries at all historic period levels.
Review Demco'south "Early Literacy Space Planning Guide" [PDF], which focuses on library spaces for children ages four and under.

Review

In Module 21, we introduced the five-part framework of Constructive Library Services for Various Youth. Based on our own research and discussions with diverse youth as well as the research of others working in the library and education fields, we have identified six key features of effective library spaces for BIYOC.

Reply

In your response journal, reverberate on each of the six features of effective library spaces. For each characteristic, come with 3-5 specific ways that a library might embody that feature: What would a ________ library space look like? Effort to call back creatively and go beyond your brainstorming ideas from Module 21. Your examples might come from your ain library or libraries you've visited before, simply you can also think exterior the box to explore new means that library spaces might come across these benchmarks. Be certain to consider non simply physical space, simply also the library's digital infinite/website.

When you're done, click here to see some of our ideas - but note that our list is not exhaustive.

Affirming:Posters, bulletin boards characteristic not-stereotypical images of BIYOC. Books highlighted in library displays feature people of all races and cultures; depictions of BIPOC are featured inside all genres (not but on books most Civil Rights or slavery, for example). Diversity inside as well equally beyond racial groups is evident in displays and highlighted resource.
Responsive: High-involvement materials are displayed or shelved in a prominent location; these materials rotate with irresolute youth interests. There is a place for youth to provide feedback and suggestions (for example, a mailbox or online form). Youth are invited to contribute to the infinite (for instance, past sharing their artwork, contributing to message boards, or posting to the website).
Welcoming:Prominent signage welcomes all children and their families to the library and/or the library website. Signage is displayed in multiple languages. The library entrance is attractively decorated in an age-appropriate way. Security gates are not present. If they are posted at all, library rules are phrased positively (focused on desired behaviors) rather than negatively (a list of "do not'south"). If security guards are present, they are not stationed in the teen expanse, nor exercise they concentrate their attending disproportionately on the teen expanse.
Respectful: The library space communicates to children and teens that they are trusted (for example, by encouraging them to move furniture or allowing them open access to engineering science). Fine art, literature, and other elements of diverse cultures is used in an accurate and non-appropriative manner within the space (concrete and digital). Equally an example of what NOT to do, we saw an "author totem pole" in one library that consisted of writer images – all but ane of which was a white male – topped with a Native American figure. Using a totem pole, which has circuitous and symbolic meaning for many Indigenous communities, in this way fails to respect Native civilization.
Comfortable:Furniture is age-advisable and suitable for a range of users. Options such as bean bag chairs, standing desks, and wobble or brawl chairs are provided to help all children and teens be productive and comfortable within the space. Institutional features such equally fluorescent lighting, colorless walls and furniture, and immovable shelving and furniture are minimized, removed, or hidden if possible.
Flexible:Furniture and shelving are movable. The library is arranged so that multiple distinct areas are available (for case, a quiet space, a classroom space, and a social space). The library website takes into account major user groups (for example, students, teachers, and parents) and offers a different user experience for each.

Images of Practice

At the Beatties Ford Regional Public Library in Charlotte, North Carolina, Teen Specialist Jamey Rorie works to ensure that all of the library's teen users feel ownership of the infinite. He has worked with his colleagues to design spaces, programs, and services that welcome BIYOC into the library and invite them to play a major role in shaping the space. In the video below, yous'll see not just the Beatties Ford space, but likewise how teens collaborate with it. As you're watching, think about what characteristics of constructive library spaces for diverse youth are evident hither.

School librarian Kathryn Cole was able to cross a major item off her professional saucepan list when she was given the opportunity to build a new library program from the ground upwardly – literally. Kathryn was hired at Northside Elementary School in Chapel Hill, N Carolina, as part of the team that designed and launched the new schoolhouse. In the years since the school was built, Kathryn has connected to improve her library'due south concrete space, e'er with a focus on students. Watch the video beneath and view the image slideshow to encounter images of the NES Library. As you're watching, think most what characteristics of effective library spaces for diverse youth are evident at Northside.

Getting the take a chance to design your own library space from scratch is rare. In most cases, you volition need to brand the nigh of the space you're given. That was the example for Julie Stivers, the school librarian at Mountain Vernon Center School in Raleigh, North Carolina. Mountain Vernon is an alternative school for students who take not experienced bookish success at their base of operations (neighborhood) schools. The library space at Mount Vernon is very modest (roughly 25′ 10 25′), and when Julie start arrived, the space was non inviting or attractive. Over the class of several years, Julie has transformed this space in means that meet the needs of Mount Vernon's students, the majority of whom are Latinx or African American. View the prototype slideshow to see images of the Mount Vernon Library and read the captions for more than data about the library space. Recollect virtually which characteristics of constructive library spaces for diverse youth are evident at Mount Vernon.

The physical library space is vital to an effective library program, only library spaces can also be digital. Before a child or teen visits your library in person, they may visit your library'south website. The same characteristics of constructive concrete spaces also use to digital spaces. In the slideshow below, we accept compiled screenshots of schoolhouse and public library websites designed for children, teens, and/or their families. For each of these images, we have noted at least one fashion that the site illustrates i or more of the characteristics of effective library spaces.

Act

Like improving other aspects of your library services, improving your library's physical and digital space should begin with an assessment of your current environment. If you haven't already done so, use the Culturally Sustaining Library Walk tool (introduced in Module 21) to collaboratively assess your current library'south space. Don't forget about your digital space, and be sure to include input from BIYOC.

Later assessing your electric current space, set three goals for improving your library space: one brusque-term goal that you tin attain immediately, one medium-term goal that you can accomplish over the next several weeks, and ane long-term goal that you can reach over the next year. Use the Goals for Improving Library Services for Diverse Youth [PDF] template to write these goals downward. We suggest printing this document (in affiche size if possible), laminating it, and using it to track all of your goals related to the material in the adjacent several modules. Post these goals somewhere in your library, and work with youth and other library stakeholders to achieve them. One time you have achieved a goal, replace it with another one.

Library Policies

Your library's physical and digital infinite provides visitors with explicit and implicit data almost how your library and its resource tin be used, and by whom. Your library's policies, both written and applied, also shape visitors' understanding of who and what is welcomed in the space.

Your library policies may take multiple forms. Some policies are formal, written, and shared publicly with the library community. Frequently, this blazon of policy takes the class of a gear up of rules that must be followed in the library. Formal policies tin can also include collection development criteria, official procedures for book challenges, and guidelines for use of the library'due south infinite and resources. In some cases, you lot might not take much control over this type of policy – for case, in some school districts, a board policy certificate supersedes whatsoever local decisions. Or, you may have the ability to revise or completely rewrite your library's formal policy documents. Either way, you practise have command over another type of library policy: informal, de facto policies that are enacted and enforced within the day-to-day interactions between librarians and library users. This type of policy is unwritten but no less of import to structuring the library plan.

Equally an example of how these two types of policies interact, allow's examine i of the official policies of an bodily public library organisation. This library organisation serves a diverse urban and suburban population and has seven branch library locations in addition to the chief downtown branch. The system has a centralized policy certificate that applies to all branches. Officially, the policy for all 8 libraries within this arrangement is that:

Children age ten and under are to be supervised and must remain in the concrete presence of the parent, guardian or caregiver age eighteen or over during the child's entire visit to the library.

Retrieve near this policy from an equity lens. Though the policy is race-neutral on its face, we know that youth of color are more than probable to live in unmarried-parent homes. We likewise know that wealth disparities (discussed in Module 1b) hateful that families of color are disproportionately unable to pay for afterschool and summertime childcare compared to white families. Often, older siblings (teens and tweens) are responsible for supervising their younger siblings while their parents are at work. Nether this policy, however, a child under 10 would not exist permitted in the library infinite if accompanied only past a teenage sibling.

Of class, libraries demand policies that will maintain safety for all of their users, and having an unaccompanied vi-year-sometime in the library poses unacceptable risks for the child. All the same, limiting supervision to just adults has a disproportionate impact on families of color, and forces these families to find other public accommodations that may exist less safe than the library. In add-on, this policy takes a deficit view of youth, in that it implies that teenagers are unable to finer supervise a younger accuse. Technically, this policy also prohibits many teenage parents from bringing their children into the library.

Although this is the official library organization policy, in that location are many means that individual libraries and librarians might enact this policy in a manner that takes varying family unit needs and compositions into account. For example, libraries might offer an intergenerational program afterwards school hours, where (unrelated) children and senior citizens participate in activities together. They may piece of work with local organizations to arrange tutors and mentors to piece of work with children during afterschool hours and during the summertime. Of course, librarians may also choose to simply "look the other manner" and neglect to enforce this policy in their space. A amend option, however, may be to abet on behalf of or with teens at the system level to modify this policy.

For a deeper discussion of library behavior policies and how they may disproportionately impact BIYOC, see Module 15, specifically the "Subject area and Related Policies in the Library" section.

In Module 21, nosotros introduced the five-part framework of Constructive Library Services for Diverse Youth. Based on our own inquiry and discussions with diverse youth likewise as the research of others working in the library and educational activity fields, we take identified half-dozen key features of effective library policies for BIYOC:

Reply

In your response journal, reflect on each of the six features of effective library policies. For each feature, come up with 3-5 specific ways that a library might embody that characteristic: What would a ________ library space look like? Try to recollect creatively – your examples might come from your own library or libraries you've visited earlier, but y'all tin besides remember outside the box to explore new ways that library policies might meet these benchmarks.

When you're done, click here to come across some of our ideas - but note that our list is not exhaustive.

Context-Specific:Written policies describe the community for which they are written and take into account its unique strengths and needs. Informal/enacted policies are based on a deep understanding of the community served by the library. Policies are regularly updated to reflect changing community needs, interests, and makeup.
Explicit: Collection evolution policies include multifariousness (of characters and authors) every bit a principal benchmark for selection. Equity is discussed in written policies as a foundational library value. Librarians focus conversations near enacted policies or proposed policy changes on disinterestedness.
Equitable: As new policies are adult and when reviewing existing policies, stakeholders consider their touch on on BIYOC and their families. BIPOC children and teens and their family members are consulted about existing and proposed library policies. The library does not charge fines for tardily materials. Library hours are adamant with the needs of marginalized community members in mind.
Collaborative: BIPOC children and teens are involved in the process of writing and revising library policies. Procedures are in place for youth to challenge and/or discuss existing policies with librarians and librarians welcome and encourage these conversations.
Youth-Centered: Policies take into account the activities, resources, and services that youth desire in their library infinite.
Compassionate:Library codes of conduct are developed with youth and are phrased in terms of desired beliefs rather than prohibited behavior. If and when undesirable behavior occurs, librarians address it positively (for instance, by speaking with the children and teens involved or by using restorative justice techniques) rather than punitively. Librarians understand that policies are guidelines, but may not exist appropriate to apply in every situation with every child or teen, and they are willing to "bend the rules" when it is in the all-time interest of the children and teens they serve.

Deed

If you haven't already done and then, apply the Culturally Sustaining Library Walk tool (introduced in Module 21) to collaboratively appraise your library's current policies. Every bit you piece of work through this process, examine both your written and unwritten library policies. Yous may observe information technology helpful to have photos of places in your library where rules or expectations are posted explicitly or suggested implicitly by the setup of the infinite. Be sure to include input from BIPOC children and teens; they may find many implied policies that are "invisible" to you as the librarian.

Afterward assessing your electric current policies, set three goals for improving them: one brusque-term goal that you can accomplish immediately, one medium-term goal that you can attain over the next several weeks, and one long-term goal that yous tin accomplish over the side by side yr. Employ the Goals for Improving Library Services for Diverse Youth [PDF] template to write these goals down. We suggest press this document (in poster size if possible), laminating it, and using it to rail all of your goals related to the material in the next several modules. Mail these goals somewhere in your library, and work with youth and other library stakeholders to achieve them. Once y'all take achieved a goal, replace information technology with some other ane.

Only Look!

In this section, we address common questions and concerns related to the material presented in each module. You may have these questions yourself, or someone you're sharing this data with might raise them. We recommend that for each question below, you spend a few minutes thinking well-nigh your ain response before clicking the arrow to the left of the question to see our response.

I would love to use these ideas, but I don't take whatsoever funds bachelor to redesign my library space.

Creating an inclusive library infinite is not most making a space that is glamorous or showroom-worthy. Think about ways to repurpose what you already have to make your infinite more welcoming. In some cases that may actually mean getting rid of things, similar security gates or negatively-worded rules posters. Use youth's artwork to beautify the space. Ask for donations from youth, teachers, and/or local businesses. If you do want to undergo a larger-scale space redesign, consider applying for grant funds. Instead of applying for 1 large grant to totally redesign the space all at once, consider multiple smaller grants that can gradually transform the space over fourth dimension.

My library's policies are set by the school district/canton. What tin I do if I don't take whatever official control over the policy documents?

A long-term answer to this question is to find out how your commune or county develops those policy documents and become involved in changing them. For example, public library district policies may be voted on by a board of directors. Find out when they meet and make a asking to address the board. In the shorter term, determine how much latitude you take to implement the existing policies in more equitable ways. For example, if you have a policy that states that talking at an "unacceptable book" is prohibited, you actually have a large amount of power nether that policy to define "unacceptable" in a way that allows for children and teens to socialize and accept some ownership of the space. Talk with your colleagues to brand sure everyone in the library, including security guards if your library has them, is on the aforementioned page virtually how the policies will be interpreted and applied.

Many li brary policies are non developmentally advisable and this tin can be challenging for library staff. In public libraries, everyone is expected to serve youth and then how you tin help library staff empathise the developmental needs of youth?

Both ALSC and YALSA include understanding kid and teen development as critical competencies for all library staff. Library staff who are knowledgeable most child and teen evolution are able to make broad predictions about what youth of a detail age grouping typically will be similar, what they typically volition and will not be capable of, and what strategies and approaches will most likely promote positive growth and outcomes. With this knowledge, library staff can brand decisions about infinite, materials, interactions, activities, and set appropriate library behavior policies.

In some communities, there may exist pediatricians, child psychologists, or educators who would be willing to provide workshops for library staff on youth development. National organizations like the Clan of Eye Level Educational activity or the National Association for the Didactics of Young Children ofttimes also provide workshops (face-to-face and online) for a fee.Many free online resources as well exist that can be used to educate library staff most children and adolescent development. Nosotros've listed a few here:

Ages and Stages of Children Development – Child Development Institute
Developmental Characteristics of Young Adolescents – Association of Eye Level Instruction
Understand Stages and Ages – The Search Establish

Source: https://ready.web.unc.edu/section-2-transforming-practice/module-23/

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