INF330 Professional Development Activity Assessment :: Diversity

For the assessment topic 'diversity' (in regards to library services for children and young adults) I decided to first research this through the peer reviewed journals on the Charles Sturt University library catalogue.  I found there are many forms of diversity such as a person's illness, their living status, religious beliefs and race.

Children and young adults should be given the opportunity to read literature from various authors to provide an intelligent view of the world's people and its many different cultures.  It is appalling to note in America 'more books are written about non-whites than are written by non-whites' (Thirumurthy, 2011, p.446).  This note would have been found quite normal over fifty years ago in times of racial discrimination, but in today's society it seems we are still accepting literature from authors because of their race.  This gives children and young adults a very limited view on the world, and we should instead be giving them 'authentic and unbiased literary experiences' (Thirumurthy, 2011, p.446).

Children and young adults need literature that is written for them and not be judged on their own diversity, as 'if we want to turn at-risk readers into book lovers, we need easy-to-read books that depict their lives and their dreams' (Jules, 2010).

I then found an excellent online resource, The International Children's Digital Library, for children to find and read books online.  The website has a link for children to 'read books', which takes them to an online catalogue for children and young adults.  It is easy to use with large, bright buttons that have pictures and colours to help younger children learning to read.  The site has a large book collection in many different languages, providing many children all over the world the opportunity to read a book written from their own country.  This website would also benefit librarians looking for a larger range of books to add to their collection with its link 'award winning books'.



References:


International Children's Digital Library. Retrieved from http://www.childrenslibrary.org/icdl/SimpleSearchCategory?ilang=English

Jules, J. (2010).  My life is normal, too: diversity in children's literature. Colorín Colorado. Retrieved from http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/40002/

Thirumurthy, V. (2011). Building cultural bridges through international children's literature. Expanded Academic ASAP, p.446.  Retrieved from Gale - GALE|A266224229.