14 Ways Libraries Can Help Immigrant Children and Families

The news around immigration to the US is heart breaking right now. If you find yourself wanting to do something, but are not sure what, here are a few suggestions curated mostly from a post in Library Think Tank.

Collection Displays

• Create a display related to Migration and Refugees to help inform patrons of why people are coming here.
• Display Central American Literature.
• Display books connected to epigenetics, showing how trauma can be passed down through subsequent generations.
• Always display books that include POC kids. When book talking, always talk them up and get them into kids' hands to grow empathy.

Information Displays

• Provide sanctuary locations and qualifications.
• Display information on immigration and legal rights/citizenship/etc. Include this information in multiple languages! Print out Know Your Rights cards in multiple languages.
• Highlight (or start) your collection on ESL Learning Materials, citizenship exam study books, and information on becoming citizens.
• Curate useful websites for your patrons: Informed Immigrant, Immi, and more. Check out Libraries Serve Refugees for great and local resources! 

Programming

• ‘I’m a Migrant, Ask Me Anything’ Program
• Invite authors to speak, like Reyna Grande (The Distance Between Us) and Luis Alberto Urrea (The Devil's Highway: A True Story). Offer programs in both English and Spanish!
• Invite an immigration lawyer or a local nonprofit immigration service to give a talk.
• Movie screenings about immigrants like El Norte
• Host a program where your patrons can become pen pals with an immigrant. 
• Currently, there's The Comfort Campaign going on right now which is open to anyone (ends July 4th). They're asking for letters of welcome and comfort, artwork and/or a teddy bear to be sent to a nonprofit which will send it out around the US to their 27 different locations. Might make a great and easy program.

____________________

On a Personal Level, If You Want to Help Out, You Can:

Connect

• Go to Informed Immigrant and find service organizations near you. Some like First Friends of NJ and NY will give you the opportunity to visit immigrants in detention (trainings are provided) or become a pen pal.
• Participate in the Stamp Out Despair Campaign by sending them mail materials needed to stay in touch with family.

Donate:

• Kid Lit Says No Kids in Cages 
  Teen and Children authors are collecting donations for mulitple organizations. More info here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/77293-kid-lit-campaign-rallies-against-immigration-horrors.html
• Facebook Fundraiser for RAICES: Reunite an immigrant parent with their child
  https://www.facebook.com/donate/490507544717085/
• Annunciation House: https://annunciationhouse.org/
• Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee: https://dmscelpaso.wixsite.com/dmscelpaso
• Las Américas Immigrant Advocacy Center http://las-americas.org/
• Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Center http://www.dmrs-ep.org/
• ALDEA: The People’s Justice Center https://aldeapjc.org/
• Santa Fe Dreamers Project http://www.santafedreamersproject.org/

Inform Yourself

• Read Shadow of the Wall: Violence and Migration on the U.S.-Mexico Border
• Challenge yourself to read immigration stories. The more you read, the more you can recommend. 

Make Phone Calls

• DOJ Comment Line: (202)353-1555
• Chief of Staff, John Kelly - 202-456-1414
• Attorney General, Jeff Sessions - 202-353-1555
• DHS Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen - 202-282-8495
• Acting ICE Director, Thomas Homan - 1-866-DHS-2-ICE
• HHS Secretary, Alex Azar - 202-690-7000
• Acting Assistant ACF Secretary, Steven Wagner - 1-877-696-6775​
• ORR Director, Scott Lloyd -202.401.9246

Do you have any additional suggestions? Please let us know in the comments!

Ready to Go Book Display: LGBT Pride Month

Welcome to our series, "Ready to Go!" Book Display. Once a month, we'll highlight the latest or greatest for every age group (Adults, Teens and Children) that you can promote within your library or order for your collection.

Recommendations for Adults:

And Then I Danced: Traveling the Road to LGBT Equality: A Memoir by Mark Segal (Oct 2015)

A dramatic and inspirational memoir from one of the world's top leaders of the movement for gay and lesbian equality.

Hide by Matthew Griffin (Feb 2016)

The love story of Wendell Wilson, a taxidermist and Frank Clifton, a World War II veteran, who have kept their relationship secret. Now in old age, Frank suffers a mild stroke and together they must navigate their fears, new and old.

Mislaid by Nell Zink (May 2015)

Running off with her 3-year-old daughter Karen, leaving her 9-year-old son behind, Peggy goes underground, and as time passes, Karen, not knowing that she has any other family, attends the University of Virginia where she meets her long-lost sibling.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Sept 2002)

Calliope's friendship with a classmate and her sense of identity are compromised by the adolescent discovery that she is a hermaphrodite, a situation with roots in her grandparents' desperate struggle for survival in the 1920s.



Recommendations for Teens:

Luna by Julie Anne Peters (Feb 2004)

Fifteen-year-old Regan's life, which has always revolved around keeping her older brother Liam's transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides to start the process of "transitioning" by first telling his family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy's body.

This Book is Gay by James Dawson (Jun 2015)

A British author of teen fiction offers basic information about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience, including terms, religious issues, coming out, and sex acts, for people of all orientations, including the merely curious.

Stonewall: Breaking Out in the Fight for Gay Rights by Ann Bausum (May 2015)

A dramatic retelling of the Stonewall riots of 1969, introducing teen readers to the decades-long struggle for gay rights.

Bleeding Earth by Kaitlin Ward (Feb 2016)

In this Stephen King-meets-Kafka-esque debut, author Kaitlin Ward shows the core of human nature with this blood-filled psychological horror novel.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Apr 2015)

Sixteen-year-old, not-so-openly-gay Simon Spier is blackmailed into playing wingman for his classmate or else his sexual identity - and that of his pen pal - will be revealed.

Draw the Line by Laurent Linn (May 2016)

A teen boy survives a hate crime against another gay student through his art.

Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash (Sept 2015)

In this graphic novel, a 15-year-old girl endures wrenching public and private challenges when she unexpectedly falls in love with a female counselor at her Appalachian summer camp.

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo (May 2016)

Amanda Hardy only wants to fit in at her new school, but she is keeping a big secret, so when she falls for Grant, guarded Amanda finds herself yearning to share with him everything about herself, including her previous life as Andrew.

The Gender Quest Workbook by Rylan Testa (Dec 2015)

This one-of-a-kind, comprehensive workbook will help you navigate your gender identity and expression at home, in school, and with peers.

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin (Feb 2014)

Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference.

Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings (Jun 2016)

A new book by one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity.

Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz (Mar 2015)

Auditioning for a New York City performing arts high school could help Etta escape from her Nebraska all-girl school, where she is not gay enough for her former friends, not sick enough for her eating disorders group, and not thin enough for ballet, but it may also mean real friendships.

Recommendations for Children:

Gay & Lesbian History for Kids by Jerome Pohlen (Oct 2015)

Offers a look at the history of the LGBT rights through personal stories and firsthand accounts, and chronicles events, organizations, and influential leaders of the movement.

This Day in June by Gayle Pitman (May 2014)

A picture book illustrating a Pride parade. The endmatter serves as a primer on LGBT history and culture and explains the references made in the story.

George by Alex Gino (Aug 2015)

Knowing herself to be a girl despite her outwardly male appearance, George is denied a female role in the class play before teaming up with a friend to reveal her true self.

I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings (Sept 2014)

Presents the story of a transgender child who traces her early awareness that she is a girl in spite of male anatomy and the acceptance she finds through a wise doctor who explains her natural transgender issues.

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell (Jun 2015 - 10th Anniversary Edition)

At New York City's Central Park Zoom, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches. Based on a true story.

Jacob's New Dress by Sarah and Ian Hoffman (Mar 2014)

Jacob, who likes to wear dresses at home, convinces his parents to let him wear a dress to school too.

Better Nate Than Ever by Time Federle (Feb 2013)

An eighth-grader who dreams of performing in a Broadway musical concocts a plan to run away to New York and audition for the role of Elliot in the musical version of "E.T."

Spotlight on Diversity: Are Your Library Shelves White-Washed?

As librarians, we strive to build a balanced collection that circulates, from a good mix of different genres to coverage of the big topics. This may lead to problems, though, if you are not paying a close enough attention to diversity. The Cooperative Children's Book Center just published results to their survey about diversity in the publishing world. The results are eye opening.

 Let's look at this a little closer and why this affects librarians:

1. Where are you buying your books?

According to the survey, the publishing world is primarily consisted of straight White Caucasians. That means the editors who are selecting the books, the advertisers who are selling them, the writers who are writing them-- every step of the process is dominated by this one segment of our population. And as such, there is little wonder why we don't have diversity in our literature. Up until recently, this was just accepted. Main characters are just white. If they were people of color, their images on covers were white-washed so the books would "sell". People are trying to make changes and bring this issue to the forefront, but it is very evident that it needs to happen on all levels. Public libraries - any library - is not immune to this, either.

Unfortunately, nothing ever happens fast. In fact, over the past 20 years, despite diversity growing in our population here in the US, diverse books have remained at 10% of all books published each year. It looks even worse when you divide up that 10% to show the individual categories that fall into diversity: LGBTQIA, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities (as defined by http://weneeddiversebooks.org). That's beyond pitiful.

WHERE IS THE DIVERSITY IN PUBLISHING? THE 2015 DIVERSITY BASELINE SURVEY RESULTS

2. Where are you getting your reviews?

Do your reviewers read diverse books? Focusing on only the big journals may not be your best source of information to find lots of new diverse books. 

Some great places to check out:

http://weneeddiversebooks.org/where-to-find-diverse-books/
http://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com/

http://diversityinya.tumblr.com/
http://bookriot.com/ (Most especially The Podcast)
http://blog.leeandlow.com/2014/03/21/where-can-i-find-great-diverse-childrens-books/

3. What books are you buying?

Are you only ordering diverse books that get starred reviews? Publishers will never publish more diverse books if we're not buying them. Of course, we don't want to fill our shelves with mediocre books; however, if we are willing to buy mediocre stories from white authors, we should be willing to buy mediocre stories from diverse authors, too. It isn't fair to only hold diverse authors to a higher standard.

4. What books do you promote?

What books do you have on your displays? Do you have book lists that make it easy for people to find diverse characters? Do you make sure diverse books are included in all of your lists?

Some Suggestions:

Stay tuned for Allie's Diverse Book Lists!

ALA awards (Many focus on diverse reads!)
Serving Diverse Teens @ Your Library
The Hub
End of the Year Booklists by We Need Diverse Books
1000 Black Girl Books Resource Guide by GrassROOTS Community Foundation

5. What books are you deleting?

Since it is a lot of work to find diverse books to order, can you imagine being a patron trying to find them to read? If we're not promoting them, people may not even know about them. When you are weeding your shelves, pay attention to how many diverse books you're taking out. Are you deleting more than you are buying?

6. What books are you reading?

We all understand the importance of diversity in literature. I don't have to list out to you why we need these books on our library shelves. However, I am embarrassed to admit that when I actually looked at my own reading history, nearly all of the books I have read were white-washed and written by white authors. I wasn't making an active effort to read these great diverse books, so I had fallen victim to the unconscious bias. I hate to say "victim" because I'm not the type to be a victim of any type if I can help it, but the problem was - is - that so many of us don't even realize it's happening. I thought I was doing well - I was reading award winners and top reviewed books - but my sources weren't strong in diversity and I was influenced by the book buzz. Now that I fully understand how deep our white-washed literature goes, I'm realizing that I need to be part of the change. I need to read more diversity, turning it from a buzz word to just a part of my every day reading life. We all need to, if we want to make any strides to a more inclusive literature.

So, how would you answer these questions if someone were to ask:
1. How many books have you read which featured a diverse character?
2. How many many books have a person of color as the main character?
3. How many books were written by non-Caucasians?

If your answers were not many, it might be time to #colormyshelf.