Developing Library Collections for Today's Young Adults

Book excerpt: In the five years since the first edition of Developing Library Collections for Today’s Young Adults was published, numerous changes have taken place in the landscape of young adult literature and young adult library services. Informed by the professional activism—including the “We Need Diverse Books” (#wndb) movement—today’s professionals recognize that library collections for young adults are incomplete if they fail to address and reflect a diversity of racial, ethnic, and cultural identities; gender identities; sexual orientations; and identities related to ability and disability. Contemporary librarians working to diversify their collections select material in a number of formats and must consider the accessibility of both old and new media as they select titles and resources. Developing Library Collections for Today’s Young Adults, Ensuring Inclusion and Access, Second Edition, offers guidance to librarians confronted with an expanding universe of published material from which to select. With special emphasis on the principles of inclusion and accessibility, this new edition of Developing Library Collections includes guidelines for creating a young adult collection development policy, conducting a needs assessment, and evaluating and selecting print and nonprint material for the library’s YA collection.