2 LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Children’s Librarianship collecting materials, but in providing access through intentional placement, displays, and curricular inclusion.9 We wrote this book to help. Why Library Services for Children There are two reasons why we chose to focus on library services for chil- dren. First, we found that much of the work on LGBTQIA+ public and school library services, both professional and scholarly, tends to focus on issues ­ surrounding collection development. For example, while 46% of librarians surveyed by Naidoo10 included LGBTQIA+ picture books in children’s pro- gramming (often as little as once a year), only 7% planned specific programs for LGBTQIA+ children and their families. Examples of intentional program- ming, beyond collection development, for LGBTQIA+ children and their families in children’s libraries and school libraries do exist, but these are more difficult to find. Perhaps the best-known LGBTQIA+ children’s ­ program—certainly the one that has received the largest amount of press— is drag storytime, a program for children where drag performers read a story that “captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models.”11 Other programs include “rainbow family storytimes,” various types of pride programming,12 and activities that go beyond the use of LGBTQIA+ texts and consider pronoun usage and gender-neutral language in storytelling.13 Despite these efforts, the lack of consistent and widespread programming suggests that there are still children’s librarians who feel constrained or unprepared to implement services and programs that support children of queer caregivers, queer children and their families, and still others who may not believe this work is possible or necessary with young children.10 This brings us to the second reason for this book’s focus: acknowledging and validating the existence of queer children. Today, children and youth have much broader access to accurate information about sexual orientation and gender identity. The Family Acceptance Project at San Francisco State ­ University explains that children are identifying as gay much sooner than earlier generations of LGB adults—between the ages of 7 and 12.14 We also know that children begin to express a strong sense of gender identity as early as 2–3 years of age,15 regardless of the sex assigned at birth.16 Why School and Public Libraries School and public libraries (also joint-structure libraries) face challenges and opportunities for queer-affirming and inclusive library practices that are unique to their particular settings. We intentionally address school and public libraries together in this book because school librarians and public librarians share similar responsibilities: community outreach, curating and
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