For my final post I have chosen
to review a podcast aimed at young people (please see below). After a Google search of “podcasts
for children”, I chose to listen to a few episodes of “Fierce Girls” (ABC Listen,
2024). Each
episode tells the story of a girl or woman who did something important; the
stories are from all throughout history. I chose this podcast after scrolling
through the episode list and seeing that there was a large range of variety in
stories about Australian girls/women who did extraordinary things and read by women
and girls, some of whom are well-known and fierce themselves; they are stories of culturally
diverse, Indigenous Australians, neurodiverse, physically diverse and more, Australian women and girls. I
think you can see that I am aiming to discuss diversity in libraries in this
post and I am passionate about female empowerment.
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Figure 1: Fierce girls logo. (ABC Listen, 2018) |
Listening to the podcasts did not expose a shortfall in knowledge per se. However after I searched for articles on diversity in libraries; I followed a trail to a couple of articles on diversity in publishing. I know that library collections are curated by library staff, and I previously assumed that any lack of diversity in a library collection was likely due to the selections made by library staff. But I was mistaken, there is also a lack of diverse publications contributing to the issue. This is the gap in my knowledge that I discovered; that there is a whole ecosystem out there that is not always acting as it should to be culturally inclusive. As of 2014, only approximately 10.5% of books published in the USA that had human characters that were culturally diverse (Frederiksen, p. 4), and a 2019 UK report showed only 7% of books published in the UK has characters that are culturally diverse (Tripp, 2020, para. 1). What this information made me wonder is how can libraries, and myself as a selector of library books, truly create a diverse collection if there is not a diverse range of materials to choose from? This is relevant to my work as a library professional as I now know that I need to scrutinise my suppliers more carefully in order to contribute to a library environment that is inclusive to all.
Figure 2: sample of Fierce Girls: Nancy Wake, the 'white mouse' episode.
The “Fierce Girls” blog is aimed at the tweens and teenagers and probably even some pre-tweens. Three stages of young people, who according to the Queens (New York) Library’s Child Development Table, are similar in their advancing independence from family, but who are all often self-conscious at the best of times (Cerny et al., 2006, p. 8). They need to see themselves represented in the world around them, being so vulnerable any way, this is particularly important for young people who are culturally, physically or gender diverse from the community in which the live. I see libraries as being perfectly placed to provide a safe place for young diverse people, where they can see themselves represented; but, inclusive services and resources should be embedded into the library, not just tacked-on as an afterthought. Providing a library representing diversity will also allow young people to broaden their understanding of the diversity of world around them (Naidoo, 2019, pp. 1-2). The “Fierce Girls” blog is produced by ABC Listen and is free on almost platform you can listen to podcasts on. However, it highlighted for me that even though girls/women make up half our population, there’s a particular need to show girls they can be strong and adventurous, and that there are other young women who are just like them, doing extraordinary things that they too could do. Whilst this is not a traditional publication I could purchase for my library, it is encouraging to see that diversity is paramount in the creation of this podcast for young people, perhaps it signals change?
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| Figure 3. |
References
"No princess here. Woman warrior." [image]. (2013, March 9). flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tojosan/8541202874/
ABC Listen. (2018). Fierce girls logo. [image] ABC. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/fierce-girls
ABC Listen. (2018-2023). Fierce girls. [Podcast] ABC. https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/fierce-girls
ABC Listen. (2018, March 10). Fierce girls: Nancy Wake, the 'white mouse'. [YouTube video] ABC News. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV1qv_Ms8YI
Frederiksen, L. (2014). Diversity in libraries. Public Services Quarterly, 10(3), 224-228. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2014.931209
Naidoo, J. (2019). When all really means all: Creating library programs for children and teens that embrace all types of diversity. In Create, innovate, and serve: A radical approach to children's and youth programming. American Library Association. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=7MbVDwAAQBAJ
Tripp, R. (2020). "Insufficient degrees of representation": Examining racial diversity and book prizes in UK children's publishing. The Lion and the Unicorn, 44(2), 136-152. https://ezproxy.csu.edu.au/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/insufficient-degrees-representation-examining/docview/2494388615/se-2?accountid=10344
