Our Libraries Lifeline blog series is designed to support anyone working in a school library by answering their questions directly. If you have a question that you’d like to ask then please email us at worldofstories@literacytrust.org.uk and your question may be the focus of a future blog.
This month, we bring you a very special Library Lifeline post from our our ‘agony aunt’ – the School Library Association’s Member Development Librarian, Dawn Woods, as she reports her thoughts, insights and takeaway tips for schools and libraries from our inaugural Inclusive Libraries Conference.
What is the Inclusive Libraries Conference?
In September the National Literacy Trust, in partnership with the British Library and Lit in Colour (Penguin Books), held a conference for public and school librarians, and other library professionals. The event, which was hosted in both Leeds and London, was the Inclusive Libraries Conference: Exploring Race, Culture and Identity with Children and Young People in the Library.
It was the result of an identified need to develop a deeper understanding of aspects of inclusive provision, and funded by Arts Council England.
I attended in London and found the discussion compelling.
Who were the keynote speakers?
Authors Jeffrey Boakye, Dr Nazneen Ahmed Pathak and Sharna Jackson had been invited to share their thoughts. If you get a chance to hear these speakers yourself, do jump at it.
Something that struck me was the question posed by Jeffrey Boakye to consider how can we label others simply by looking at them, if we cannot articulate our own identity? He spoke of the importance of diverse books to reflect the lives of children and young people to support this notion of better understanding ourselves. Jeffrey was very aware that Black British history is not taught in school, despite the fact that many young people have the events as part of their own history. He challenged that we need to make space for multiple viewpoints – and so we need books written about many different children by authors who have lived experience to support us in this endeavour.
Dr Nazneen Ahmed Pathak spoke of the importance of libraries as a place to connect with your heritage at the same time as being able to go anywhere in world with the right book.
Sharna Jackson was entertaining and funny, laughing at herself for loving horror books as a child and now writing murder stories. She writes from her experiences growing up without a lot of money, experiences many children today will have and certainly should know about if they are not in that position.
Workshops for attendees
There were some brilliant workshops to choose from on the Lit in Colour campaign, the British Library Windrush histories and the importance of welcoming all new arrivals, especially refugees whose choice was made for them. There were also workshops about diversity in comics and the experiences in Bradford of the National Literacy Trust hub team.
My key takeaways from the workshops
There were a couple of key points of note from the workshops I attended and resources I took away, that can help all of us build more inclusive libraries.
I chose the option to listen to the Global Learning London organisation who spoke about their work alongside the Schools’ Library Service and public libraries to try to make experiences equitable for all.
One Ghanaian attendee spoke of his shock at his British school library stock and noted the lack of inclusive resources, something he had not experienced in Ghana. However, he did love Onjali Q Rauf's books and commented that his pupils saw themselves represented in this series.
The National Literacy Trust's research around the relationship between mental wellbeing and reading was also mentioned. This research shows that children who read are more creative, intelligent and have better mental health.
The speakers spoke about language constantly changing, and how it’s our responsibility to stay current. No terminology is perfect but being open to constantly learning helps.
The CLPE Reflecting Realities reports was also mentioned with their statistics on numbers of books featuring characters of different ethnicities.
It was remarked that in so many books featuring Black boys the plot revolves around knife crime. This is poor representation or stereotyping. It is important to develop children’s critical literacy skills in spotting this type of bias when reading.
Above all, the importance of allyship was emphasised, and the need for us to be open and learn, confronting our own biases.
How can we strengthen our own public and school libraries?
I enjoyed a panel discussion which asked us to consider who we could help in our own libraries and offered some recommendation on ways we could strengthen our own public and schools libraries with more a more inclusive approach. The recommendations included:
Introduce activities about lived experience and personal stories
Activities that incorporate lived experience and personal stories are a powerful part of the process of building inclusivity and decolonising art and literature. Dr Nazneen Ahmed Pathak talked about a long-term project in her own local library where women gathered to speak of their experiences, their languages, and contributed to a beautiful textiles craft project to celebrate their journeys and independence as individuals.
Artistic cultural practices
Have a conversation with your school and communities about artistic cultural practices they would love to see brought into the library space and build these into the calendar.
Book awards
Book awards are one of best ways to give power to children to vote for what they like to read. Matthew Stoppard from Leeds Libraries mentioned their own book award scheme, decided by the children and young people in the community. There are also a wealth of diverse awards already existing from which to choose, such as:
Embrace new authors
We also need to push ourselves to embrace new authors and book them for visits not just use the same names.
Make sure there's a wide range of choice
Choice is important. You can’t be what you can’t see. A wide array of books to choose from in which pupils see positive and even inspiring role models of who they can aspire to be, is essential.
Staff book talk
Staff book talk in schools is important as many teachers don’t have time to keep up with what is being published. So if you are the reading lead in whatever role – let your colleagues know about the new books you have purchased for the library, and discuss what groups of children in school might not feel seen on the shelves.
Avoid being tokenistic
You don’t need to ‘do a diverse' display and feel you’ve ticked the box. It could be a display of funny, fantasy, etc books but they need to include a diverse range of authors and voices.
Tips on where to start
If you need help purchasing diverse stock to help build a more inclusive range of books in your library, a good place to start is by looking at the award shortlists and the many booklists on this topic available from the following places:
- The School Library Association: BooksForTopics Publishes 2024 Year Group Lists (sla.org.uk),
- Books for Topics: BooksForTopics | Search Children's Books by Age or Topic
- The National Literacy Trust: Promoting diversity through literacy: our resources | National Literacy Trust
- BookTrust: BookTrust: Getting children reading | BookTrust