2016 MLA Annual Conference

The #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign was formed in 2014 to create a roar that can't be ignored, catalyzing the discussion of needing more diverse books in children's literature. While there has been some progress, more work needs to be done in public libraries to diversify collections and make sure that acquisitions are current and authentic. In this presentation, we will describe the results of our research investigating the new young adult acquisitions at an urban public library specific to Asian American young adult texts.   According to the latest census data, a sizeable portion of the library's community under the age of twenty is of Asian descent. We studied young adult acquisitions from 2010, 2012 and 2014 to determine whether or not there was any significant increase in materials having authentic representations of Asians and Asian Americans, and we locate our analyses within the larger context of scholarship, critical analyses, and book reviews on Asian American youth literature, particularly those that originate from the Asian American community. This research will provide a model for how we can analyze diverse collections at public libraries, as well as encourage librarians to conduct their own evaluations of how their systems are doing in diversifying their collections for this particular community.