A Rainbow of Creativity: Exploring Drag Queen Storytimes and Gender Creative Programming in Public Libraries

Recently, there has been an increase in public libraries initiating targeted and inclusive programming for rainbow families (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer [LGBTQ+] caregivers with children or families with LGBTQ+ children). Specialized training programs have been offered to children’s librarians on how to create inclusive services and collections for rainbow families.1 As a result, many libraries in the United States and Canada have designed children’s library programs with LGBTQ+ themes and content, included among these is the drag queen storytime (DQS). A DQS generally includes a drag queen performer reading children’s books and sharing songs much like a traditional storytime program. Many of these programs often focus on creativity in general, as well as gender creativity, or include LGBTQ+ children’s literature as a way to normalize the experiences of rainbow families. Some public libraries market DQS programs for rainbow families while others promote these programs as an example of general inclusive programming for all families. DQS programs can be successful when used with all kinds of families, and many rainbow families appreciate a librarian’s meaningful gestures towards inclusivity.

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Restorative justice as a tool to address the role of policing and incarceration in the lives of youth in the United States

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science ◽

10.1177/0961000618787979 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 52 (1) ◽

pp. 106-120 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jeanie Austin

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Restorative Justice ◽

Public Libraries ◽

The United States ◽

Youth Of Color ◽

Disciplinary Practices ◽

Library System ◽

And Gender ◽

Cultural Shifts

Disciplinary practices utilized in public libraries in the United States carry echoes of the ways in which youth of color and/or LGBTQ and gender non- conforming youth are policed and incarcerated. This research includes interviews with librarians and staff engaging in relational disciplinary practices, namely restorative justice, to gain understanding of how altering approaches to discipline may create cultural shifts that lead to more culturally conscious services to youth made vulnerable by the state. Individual, open-ended interviews with librarians and staff at an urban library system in California addressed the implementation of restorative justice practices, individuals’ approaches and understandings of restorative justice, and the process of institutionalizing restorative justice throughout the library system. This research reveals that restorative justice offers one approach to creating social change through increased access to library services and resources.

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Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 2001

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e492162006-020 ◽

2003 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Adrienne Chute ◽

◽

P. Elaine Kroe ◽

Patricia O'Shea ◽

Maria Polcari ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Public Libraries ◽

The United States ◽

Fiscal Year

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Public Libraries in the United States: Fiscal Year 1999

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e492182006-011 ◽

2002 ◽

Author(s):

Adrienne Chute ◽

P. Elaine Kroe ◽

Patricia Garner ◽

Maria Polcari ◽

Cynthia Jo Ramsey

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Public Libraries ◽

The United States ◽

Fiscal Year

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Middle-Class Victorian Street Arabs: Modern Re-creations of the Baker Street Irregulars

International Research in Children s Literature ◽

10.3366/ircl.2012.0042 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 36-50 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Dominic Cheetham

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Children's Literature ◽

Middle Class ◽

Working Class ◽

Street Children ◽

Children’S Literature ◽

The United States ◽

Sherlock Holmes ◽

Upward Shift

In three of Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories there are brief appearances of the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of ‘street Arabs’ who help Holmes with his investigations. These children have been re-imagined in modern children's literature in at least twenty-seven texts in a variety of media and with writers from both Britain and the United States. All these modern stories show a marked upward shift in the class of the Irregulars away from the lower working class of Conan-Doyle's originals. The shift occurs through attributing middle-class origins to the leaders of the Irregulars, through raising the class of the Irregulars in general, and through giving the children life environments more comfortable, safe, and financially secure than would have been possible for late-Victorian street children. Because of the variety in texts and writers, it is argued that this shift is not a result of the conscious political or ideological positions of individual writers, but rather reflects common unconscious narrative choices. The class-shift is examined in relation to the various pressures of conventions in children's literature, concepts of audience, and common concepts of class in society.

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A content analysis of gender representation in Malaysian children's literature

Social and Management Research Journal ◽

10.24191/smrj.v5i2.5159 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 49

Author(s):

Ramesh Nair

Keyword(s):

Content Analysis ◽

Children's Literature ◽

English Language ◽

Children’S Literature ◽

Children's Books ◽

Children’S Books ◽

Minor Characters ◽

And Gender ◽

Mental Schemas ◽

Selection Of

Children's literature serves as a powerful medium through which children construct messages about their roles In society and gender Identity is often central to this construction. Although possessing mental schemas about gender differences is helpful when children organize their ideas of the world around them, problems occur when children are exposed to a constant barrage of uncompromising, gender-schematic sources that lead to stereotyping which in turn represses the full development of the child. This paper focuses on how gender is represented in a selection of Malaysian children's books published in the English language. Relying on the type of content analysis employed by previous feminist social science researchers, I explore this selection of Malaysian children's books for young children and highlight some areas of concern with regard to the construction of maleness and femaleness in these texts. The results reveal Imbalances at various levels Including the distribution of main, supporting and minor characters along gendered lines and the positioning of male and female characters In the visual Illustrations. The stereotyping of these characters In terms of their behavioural traits will be discussed with the aim of drawing attention to the need for us to take concerted measures to provide our children with books that will help them realize their potential to the fullest.

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Dilemmas and Prospects of Writing a Bahá’í Encyclopedia

The Journal of Baha’i Studies ◽

10.31581/jbs-2.1.2(1989) ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 17-31

Author(s):

Will C. Van Den Hoonaard

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Present Status ◽

Public Libraries ◽

High Standard ◽

The United States ◽

Primary Sources ◽

General Reader ◽

Encyclopedic Dictionary ◽

Current Stage

This paper addresses the need for a Bahá’í encyclopedia and describes the nature, organization, and editing of the multi-volume Bahá’í encyclopedic dictionary project endorsed in 1984 by the United States Bahá’í community. The encyclopedia will serve both Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í researchers arid scholars, the general reader; and university and public libraries. This paper considers the significance of the encyclopedia in terms of other Bahá’í encyclopedic works and in terms of the current stage in the development of the Bahá’í community. However desirable such a project may be, a number of dilemmas accompany its undertaking. These dilemmas relate to the present status of Bahá’í scholarship, the embryonic nature of primary sources, the high standard of scholarship exemplified by the works of Shoghi Effendi, and the relative newness of the Bahá’í religion. The prospects of the encyclopedic undertaking are expected to generate considerable scholarship and to provide intellectual vigor to issues raised by Bahá’ís and their critics.

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Subjective cognitive decline higher among sexual and gender minorities in the United States, 2015–2018

Alzheimer s & Dementia Translational Research & Clinical Interventions ◽

10.1002/trc2.12197 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jason D. Flatt ◽

Ethan C. Cicero ◽

Nickolas H. Lambrou ◽

Whitney Wharton ◽

Joel G. Anderson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Cognitive Decline ◽

The United States ◽

Subjective Cognitive Decline ◽

Sexual And Gender Minorities ◽

Gender Minorities ◽

And Gender

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Balancing race, gender, and responsibility: Conversations with four black women in educational leadership in the United States of America

Educational Management Administration & Leadership ◽

10.1177/1741143221991839 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 174114322199183

Author(s):

Natasha N Johnson

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Black Women ◽

Educational Leadership ◽

United States Of America ◽

Hermeneutic Phenomenology ◽

The United States ◽

Women's Leadership ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Race And Gender ◽

And Gender

This article focuses on equitable leadership and its intersection with related yet distinct concepts salient to social justice pertinent to women and minorities in educational leadership. This piece is rooted and framed within the context of the United States of America, and the major concepts include identity, equity, and intersectionality—specific to the race-gender dyad—manifested within the realm of educational leadership. The objective is to examine theory and research in this area and to discuss the role they played in this study of the cultures of four Black women, all senior-level leaders within the realm of K-20 education in the United States. This work employed the tenets of hermeneutic phenomenology, focusing on the intersecting factors—race and gender, specifically—that impact these women’s ability and capability to perform within the educational sector. The utilization of in-depth, timed, semi-structured interviews allowed participants to reflect upon their experiences and perceptions as Black women who have navigated and continue to successfully navigate the highest levels of the educational leadership sphere. Contributors’ recounted stories of navigation within spaces in which they are underrepresented revealed the need for more research specific to the intricacies of Black women’s leadership journeys in the context of the United States.

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