One of the summit goals was to provide school and public librarians with tools and resources to enable them to advocate for improved school and public library services/programs for African American male youth. Please use the tools and other resources included on this page in your work. We ask only that you attribute the work to the project.
Tool 1: Libraries, Literacy, and African American Male Youth (http://librariesliteracyandaamaleyouth.weebly.com/)
This is a free online professional development resource for school and public librarians to help them develop programs and services that will best meet the needs of African American male youth. This resource, developed by Amanda Hitson, is divided into ten modules that focus on research-based strategies for working with African American male youth in school and public libraries.
There is no need to register and individuals can work through any or all of the modules at their own pace. We recommend going through each of the modules in the order they are listed on the site since later modules build on the ideas established in the ones prior.
Tool 2: Culturally Responsive Library Walk
The Culturally Responsive Library Walk is designed to be a collaborative tool for school administrators, librarians, and teachers to assess the library’s responsiveness to the needs of the culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students who attend the school. Modeled on “The Library Learning Walk” developed by the New York City Department of Education, Office of Library Services, the goal of the Culturally Responsive Library Walk is to identify strengths, to discover areas that need improvement, and to develop a path to achieve a culturally responsive library program. It is an observation and planning document that is informed by research on culturally responsive pedagogy and is based on the philosophy of creating a student-centered library program.
Although the tool was developed for schools, we believe it can be adapted for use by public librarians.
Tool 3: Levels of Librarian Involvement
As shown in the attached figure, we have identified three successive levels, or approaches, librarians might take in their efforts to address the literacy needs of African American youth.
At the most basic level, librarians take an Additive Approach, adding culturally relevant and enabling texts to the library collection, including them on recommended reading lists, and displaying them in the library. Though providing culturally relevant and enabling texts is essential, without discussing why these texts have been selected or are necessary the Additive Approach does little to challenge the status quo or change the literacy outcomes for Black males. Moreover, it probably won’t reconnect these young men with powerful texts.
At the next level, which we have called the Transformative Approach, librarians utilize culturally relevant and enabling texts with African American males, promote the use with teachers and parents, and and involve African American males in the selection of these texts.
At Level 3, the Social Action Approach, librarians question and critique the literacy instruction of African American males and how it is being conceptualized. At this stage, they not only “give voice” to the literacy needs of African American males, but they also involve the young men themselves in projects and activities that allow them to take personal, social, and civic actions related to the educational outcomes of Black males.
We believe that in order to improve the education, social and employment outcomes of African American males, librarians must strive for Level 3. Social justice, which is reflected in Level 3, is an appropriate goal for librarians. In Empowering Learners (AASL 2009), school librarians are directed to be active leaders, to be change agents, and to use research to inform practice. Similarly, YALSA’s Competencies for Librarians Serving Youth calls for young adult librarians to “model commitment to building assets in youth in order to develop healthy, successful young adults” (YALSA 2010).
Tool 4: Identifying Enabling Texts
To help teachers, librarians, and parents identify enabling texts— those texts that have the potential to motivate African American males to become better readers and to help them define themselves—we have created the attached rubric. Unless otherwise noted, each characteristic was derived from Aflred Tatum’s research ( as described in Reading for their Life: (Re)Building the Textual Lineages of African American Adolescent Males. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2009).
Tool 5: Presentation Template
Supporting the Literacy Needs of African American Male Youth
This PowerPoint presentation was presented to administrators, faculty, and staff in the Orange County North Carolina Public Schools on January 17, 2013. Please feel free to use it as is, or adapt it, for presentations.
Tool 6: Poster
Bridge_to-Literacy-poster_2013
This poster was displayed at the 2013 Diversity and Outreach Fair sponsored by the ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services. It provides examples of ways libraries and other organizations are addressing the literacy needs of African American male youth.