Every day, libraries around the world welcome people from all walks of life. Readers are diverse, so why not have a collection that celebrates that?
Kirkus Collections gives libraries the opportunity to become more inclusive and be part of the solution. After a thorough search process, editors at Kirkus Reviews identify and categorize diverse books into thematic lists. At Baker & Taylor, we then publish these curated collections on Title Source 360 where librarians can exclusively order the titles with ease.
Kirkus’ diversity collections go beyond grouping by race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or dis/ability to consider the desired reading “experience.” This consideration of outcome—categorized as learning, cultural identification, or inclusion—is integral to the effectiveness of Kirkus Collections’ recommendations, as it addresses the demand for contextual information around diversity content.
For example, is the reader looking for a book to learn about a historical event or tradition (outcome: learning); is she trying to find a coming-of-age story with a main character who experiences similar social and family dynamics (outcome: identification); or does she want a rollicking science-fiction book with a hero who looks like her (outcome: inclusion)? Using Kirkus Collections, her librarian can help her find all three!
So what now?
Log in to Title Source 360 and browse Kirkus’ diversity collections. From here, you’ll be able to move the titles you’d like to add to your library into your shopping cart. You can also sort and filter these titles to weed out any duplicates just as you would for any other order from Baker & Taylor.
Then, don’t forget to tell your patrons that your library is now carrying more diverse books! We’ve created a “My Library. All Voices.” campaign kit that makes it easy to spread the good news, attract new cardholders and excite current ones. You can find all of our free materials for community outreach on the Kirkus website here.
Notes In The Margin 