Overview

In the fall of 2020, the BFPL Children’s Department decided to undertake a diversity audit. The purpose of this audit was to see whether our collection is accurately representing the population of our town, and of our greater society. Diversity Audits serve as a tool with which to measure the level of diversity within a library collection, and gather information about what changes need to be made in order to improve the collection’s overall diversity.

For the purposes of this audit, we decided to focus on diversity as it pertains to race, culture, gender, sexuality, and disability.

As of the 2019 US Census, the racial makeup of the Bedford population was as follows:

74% White, 15% Asian, and 4% Black. Of the population under 65 years of age, 4% have reported living with a disability. There is no collected statistical data on the LGBTQ community in Bedford.

The “Own Voices” movement was created by Corinne Duyvis, and refers to “an author from a marginalized or under-represented group writing about their own experiences/from their own perspective, rather than someone from an outside perspective writing as a character from an underrepresented group” (Seattle Public Library, 2020). So, for a book to be considered “Own Voices”, the main character(s) and the author will share a marginalized identity.

Of the middle-grade books reported to have characters (main characters or otherwise prominent characters) with marginalized identities, 43% were “Own Voices” books. Due to the nature of this definition, we made some objective decisions regarding the determining factors of “Own Voices” as it relates to the author’s marginalized identity (i.e. there may be authors whose cultural identity, gender, sexuality, or disability is not publicly stated), and as such there may be some errors which might underestimate the number of “Own Voices” books in the collection.

To complete the Picture Book audit, we used the Diverse Bookfinder Collection Analysis Tool created by researchers at Bates College. For the remainder of the collection, we manually audited each title for diverse representation using a spreadsheet provided by a representative of the Massachusetts Library System.


Of the percentage of books featuring characters who are BIPOC, LGBTQ, or have disabilities, it’s important to note that not all of these representations are accurate or positive. The numbers included in this report reflect representation only.


The categories that we used are as follows:


  • Black/African/African American

  • Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American

  • Hispanic/Latinx/Latin American

  • First Nations/Native Nations/American Indian/Indigenous Peoples

  • White/Caucasian/European American

  • Multiple/Mixed Race/Race Unclear

  • LGBTQIA+

  • Disability

  • Non-human Characters