Equity for All Students
​Led by School Librarians

Image source: https://sde.ok.gov/equity-plan

Articles about
​School Libraries and EQUITY

Resources older than 2017 can be found on a separate page.
​Authors A-Ma
Bailey, Nancy. "Poverty & Reading: The Sad and Troubling Loss of School Libraries and Real Librarians." Nancy Bailey's Education Website, 21 Apr. 2018. 
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​Belastock, Eileen. “School librarians can save democracy.” eSchool News, 7 Sept 2020. “When it comes to equity, critical thinking skills, and evaluating information, school librarians are critical for students.” 

Bevier, Dawn. "How to Help Your Child Reach Academic Success by Building Literacy: Proven Ways to Help Your Child Succeed in School." Better Humans, Medium, 3 July 2019. 
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Caprariello, Alex. "AISD Targets Literacy Rate for Low-income Students with Free Book Fair." KXAN, 27 June 2019. 
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Carter, Rob. "Concord-Carlisle High School Librarian's research Highlights Inequity in Commonwealth." Wicked Local Concord, 14 Aug. 2018.

Cashmere, D. J. "How Do We Teach 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and Honestly Confront Racism?" Yes! Magazine, 8 July 2019. Harper Lee‘s novel is the closest thing America‘s had to required reading. But the book‘s failings in confronting racism are more apparent than ever to White educators—and Black ones wonder what took so long. 
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Cedo, Kelli. "Equity through Literacy." (Scholastic EDU blog, Oct. 25, 2017). 

Cequea, Alex. VIDEO: Systemic Racism Explained (act.tv,16 Apr. 2019) 

Chapman, Ryan. "Build Empathy and Understanding by Pairing Comics with Novels." Edutopia: Literacy, 12 July 2019. Teaching with comics facilitates improved comprehension and social-emotional competencies. 
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Farkas, Meredith. "Unintentional Inequity: Examining Equity Gaps in Our Libraries." American Libraries, 1 Mar. 2019. 
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Ford, Anne. "Front-Loading Literacy: Laundromat Reading Initiatives Bring Together Books, Bubbles." American Libraries, 1 May 2019. 
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Frenette, Liza. "Librarians Play Pivotal Role In Keeping Students on Track, Helping Avoid the 'Summer Slide.'" NYSUT News, New York State United Teachers, 22 June 2018. 
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Greenberg, Karin. “Books of Our Roots: A Collection of Literature from The Countries of Our Origin.” KQ, AASL, 1 Aug 2019.  
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Heuvel, Katrina Vanden. "Want to defend democracy? Start with your public library." Washington Post [Washington D.C.], 18 Sept. 2018.  

Harris, Elizabeth A. “Judge, Citing Inequality, Orders Connecticut to overhaul its School System.” (NYT, Sept. 7, 2016)

• Harris, Elizabeth A. and Kristin Hussey.  “In Connecticut, a Wealth Gap Divides Neighboring Schools.” (NYT, Sept, 11, 2016)
• “Opinion Pages: Rich School, Poor School” (NYT, Sept. 17, 2016)

The bulleted articles refer to lead piece, all in the New York Times, all related to school inequality. 2016 BUT still important.
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Hartman, Angela. "One Penny and a Rock." Teaching Tolerance, 7 Sept. 2017. Teaching Tolerance, . Hartman is a secondary school librarian in Hutto, Texas. She is also a member of the Teaching Tolerance Advisory Board.
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“How Media Habits Relate to Voter Participation.” Knight Foundation, 8 Sep 2020. “In February 2020, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation released the 100 Million Project, a landmark study that surveyed 12,000 chronic non-voters nationally and in ten swing states in order to explore the underlying challenges of electoral participation. Americans who don’t vote in elections—approaching 100 million and comprising roughly 43% of eligible voters as of the last presidential election in 2016—differ from active voters along a wide range of attitudes and behaviors related to voting, elections and politics.”

Johnson, Doug. “The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations in Reading.” (The Blue Skunk Blog, March 28, 2016) 
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Kagan, Oleg.  "The Important Emotional Labor of Librarians Most People Never Think About." Medium, EveryLibrary, 26 Oct. 2017.

Kebede, Laura Faith. "Why One Memphis Principal Reads Bedtime Stories to Students via Facebook Live." Chalkbeat, 15 July 2019. 
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Kelly. “Want to Raise Smart, Kind Kids? Science Says Do This Every Day.” Happy You, Happy Family blog. N.d. “All you have to do is this: Read to your child. Even if they already know how to read to themselves.” 
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Klinenberg, Eric. "To Restore Civil Society, Start with the Library." New York Times [New York NY], 8 Sept. 2018, Opinion sec. 
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Korbey, Holley. "The Reading Wars: Choice vs. Canon.” Edutopia: Literacy, 9 July 2019. English teachers are wrestling with how to navigate the increasingly contentious terrain between student choice and assigning the classics. 
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Krashen, Stephen. "Do Libraries and Teacher Librarians Have the Solution to the Long-Term English Language Learner Problem?" CSLA Journal, 41(2): 16-19. 2018. (California School Library Association).
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LaGarde, Jennifer. "Where Are The 'Normal' Books?" Adventures of Library Girl, 30 May 2019. Recently, a friend of mine (who I won’t name here, but who is a librarian I greatly admire) shared her frustration related to a request she received from a teacher who  was looking for some book recommendations.

Langella, Peter. "Diversity and Inclusion in Libraries: More Than Books on the Shelves." KQ, AASL, 13 May 2019. 

"Librarians: Digital Literacy Experts." The Mind Online, episode 7, Teaching Tolerance, Episode 7.  Julia Torres & Louise Parker-Hennion are interviewed by Monita Bell.  
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Lopez, Steve. "In L.A. Unified Elementary Schools, Library Books Could Be Off-Limits to Many Students." LA Times [Los Angeles CA], 4 May 2019. 
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Martin, Michelle H. "Facing the Black Child: The Bold Direction of Twenty-First-Century Picturebooks." Children and Libraries: the Journal of ALSC, vol. 16, #3, 2019.
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Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners. The Massachusetts School Library Study: Equity and Access for Students in the Commonwealth: Report of Findings and Recommendations of the Special Commission on School Library Services in Massachusetts. By Carol A. Gordon and Robin Cicchetti, Mar. 2018. Massachusetts Libraries Board of Library Commissioners.
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​Research Linking School Libraries to EQUITY

HISD Librarian and Parent
​Ramos, Cynthia.  “School Libraries for EQUITY: Do What’s Right for ALL Our Students.” (TASLTalks blog, June 1, 2016)  Cynthia is an HISD librarian and parent.​

@RossJTodd
"Keep this thought - School libraries need to move beyond the Achievement Advocacy Discourse that dominates to an Equity Inclusion and Life Agency discourse and build evident accordingly." (Ballard, Susan. "At NCDE Summit @RossJTodd made a keen 'napkin' observation. ..." Twitter, 17 May 2019.) [NCDE - National Collaborative for Digital Equity]

Cube for Teachers. "Exclusion integration inclusion via @MissGhi93 #edchatIE #edchat." Twitter, 6 Oct. 2017, 4:56 AM, twitter.com/cubeforteachers/status/916270829230542848/photo/1.

Intellectual Freedom
ALSC Intellectual Freedom Committee. “Incorporating Intellectual Freedom into Youth Book Clubs.” ALSC, 17 Aug 2019.  
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Gregory, Jamie. “Don’t Leave Students in the Dark.” Intellectual Freedom Blog, Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Assn, 21 Aug 2019. Celebrate Banned Books Week, September 22-28, 2019.  
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​Gregory, Jamie M. "Eliminating Librarian Positions Limits Intellectual Freedom." Intellectual Freedom Blog, Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, 30 May 2019. 
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Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) of the American Library Association (ALA), editor. "IFRT Resources." Intellectual Freedom Round Table, American Library Association, 15 July 2019. IFRT offers four videos to engage non-librarians in the fight to protect intellectual freedom. The brief explainer videos below ⁠— created as part of the 2019 Emerging Leaders project ⁠— cover the basics of intellectual freedom, censorship, and privacy for a non-library audience with key definitions and everyday language.

• "Introduction to Intellectual Freedom." YouTube, uploaded by Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) of the American Library Association (ALA), 15 July 2019.
• "Introduction to Censorship." YouTube, uploaded by Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) of the American Library Association (ALA), 15 July 2019.     
• "Why Privacy Matters." YouTube, uploaded by Intellectual Freedom Round Table (IFRT) of the American Library Association (ALA), 15 July 2018.

Gregory, Jamie M. "Eliminating Librarian Positions Limits Intellectual Freedom." Intellectual Freedom Blog, Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, 30 May 2019. 

Gregory, Jamie. "Teens and Teaching the First Amendment." Intellectual Freedom Blog, Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association, 8 July 2019. Definitely NOT boring! 
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​Price, Sallyann. "No Minor Concern: Privacy Experts Clarify the Rights of Minors in the Library." American Libraries, 25 June 2019. 

​Rand, Lisa. “‘How can I find out?’ Fielding teens’ reference questions.” Intellectual Freedom Blog (Office for Intellectual Freedom for the American Library Assn.), 7 Aug. 2019.  

Authors  Mi-Z
Miller, Donalyn. "Education is a Political Act." Nerdy Bookclub, 23 July 2017. 

Miller, Donalyn. "If Kids Can't Read What They Want in the Summer, When Can They? | Opinion." School Library Journal, 17 June 2019. 
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Moore, Belinda. "2 Ways to Choose Books for Picky or Uninterested Readers (And Get Them Loving the Process)." ALSC Blog, 31 Mar. 2019. 
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Pisoni, Adam, and Diane Conti. "What Does Your School Schedule Say about Equity? More than You Think." EdSurge, 20 Apr. 2019
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Plemmons, Andy. "The Power of First Lines: Another New Library Orientation." Expect the Miraculous, Barrow Media Center, 16 Aug. 2018.    “One standout comment was how a window keeps you safe from things going on outside and a book lets you explore dangerous situations without getting hurt.” 
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Rand, Lisa. “‘How can I find out?’ Fielding teens’ reference questions.” Intellectual Freedom Blog, Office of Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Assn., 7 Aug. 2019.  
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Scholastic. 2019 KIDS COUNT Data Book 2019: State Trends in Child Well-Being. Scholastic, 2019.
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School libraries help to bridge digital divide. Parent Today (Posted in Elementary, High School, Middle Years), 13 Feb 2019.
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Sheneman, Laura. The School Librarian is an Equity Champion: with KC Boyd. The Librarian Influencer  Podcast, 12 Oct 2020. 
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Stewart, Kara (Sappony) and Dr. Debbie Reese (Nambe Pueblo). “Native Stories: Books for Tweens and Teens by and about Indigenous Peoples.” School Library Journal, 20 Aug 2019.  
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Stivers, Julie. "Building Inclusive Libraries Youth-driven Frameworks and Initiatives Are Key to Welcoming All Students." American Libraries, 3 June 2019. 
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"Stories for All of Us." Jambo Book Club. Jambo Book Club sends your child two beautiful high-quality books each month that star a child of color in an engaging story. Jambo makes it easy to add fun multicultural children‘s books to your home library.  
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Vedantam, Shankar. Examining Links Between Academic Performance And Food Stamps." Podcast: Hidden Brain: A Conversation about Life's Unseen Patterns, NPR Morning Edition, 21 Sept. 2017. NPR.

Wexler, Natalie. "Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong." Atlantic Magazine, Aug. 2019. In the early grades, U.S. schools value reading-comprehension skills over knowledge. The results are devastating, especially for poor kids. 
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White, Shana V. "Educational Equity….the onion of our schools……." Medium Education, Medium, 21 Oct. 2018. 
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​Witteveen, April. "Libraries Welcome All Families: Community Partnerships to  Fund Collection Development for English Learners in Urban Connecticut."  KQ, AASL, 29 Nov. 2018. 

​Woolls, Blanche. "A New Literacy." KQ, AASL, 16 Apr. 2019. Every school librarian may begin helping students with high poverty by teaching a new literacy: life skills. Life skills literacy includes occupational/career, finance, and civic engagement.