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DEI Toolkit

New York State Office of Cultural Education

Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors

Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors is an article written by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop in 1990, that has become foundational in collection development, especially for younger readers. In it, Dr. Bishop wrote, "Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books."

Some selections from the article:

  • "When children cannot find themselves reflected in the books they read, or when the images they see are distorted, negative, or laughable, they learn a powerful lesson about how they are devalued in the society of which they are a part. Our classrooms need to be places where all the children from all the cultures that make up the salad bowl of American society can find their mirrors."
  • "Children from dominant social groups have always found their mirrors in books, but they, too, have suffered from the lack of availability of books about others. They need the books as windows onto reality, not just on imaginary worlds. They need books that will help them understand the multicultural nature of the wor1d they live in, and their place as a member of just one group, as well as their connections to all other humans. In this country, where racism is still one of the major unresolved social problems, books may be one of the few places where children who are socially isolated and insulated from the larger world may meet people unlike themselves. If they see only reflections of themselves, they will grow up with an exaggerated sense of their own importance and value in the world - a dangerous ethnocentrism."
  • "When there are enough books available that can act as both mirrors and windows for all our children, they will see that we can celebrate both our differences and our similarities, because together they are what make us all human."

Additional Resources

Own Voices

Coined by YA author Corinne Duyvis in 2015, #OwnVoices was created to describe materials about diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group.

Duyvis provided the following clarification on her website:

  • Use it for whatever marginalized/diverse identity you want (I personally like the WNDB definition), as long as the protagonist and the author share a marginalized identity.
  • “Author,” as in the actual author has this identity, not their spouse, child, sibling, parent, student, neighbor, friend, etc.
  • “Identity,” as in at least somewhat specific. Aim for: “character and author are both blind” and “character and author are both African-American,” rather than: “character is blind and author is autistic, thus both are disabled” and “character is African-American and author is Korean-American, thus both are people of color.”
  • And “a” marginalized identity, not “all.” Sometimes a character will be part of a group the author isn’t. For example: a neurotypical Muslim author writing an autistic Muslim protagonist. As long as there’s a marginalized aspect of their identity they do share, it’s #ownvoices.

Own Voices as a concept was quickly and widely embraced by authors, distributors, and libraries as a way to support marginalized creators, and was implemented by publishers, reviewers, and catalogers.

However, Duyvis later updated: “Regretfully, the hashtag is regularly weaponized against marginalized authors. I’ve seen this happen along pretty much every imaginable axis of marginalization, and I absolutely hate that a hashtag that’s supposed to uplift marginalized authors is being used to police and pressure them.”

The organization We Need Diverse Books has since advocated for ceasing the use of #OwnVoices and instead using tags specific to the identity of the author and protagonist. Others have echoed this and provided examples of ways to do so or suggested still using #OwnVoices but with the addition of specific identity descriptors.

Additional Resources

Accessibility

Accessibility is a crucial part of diversity. It is important to make materials available in multiple formats, to support patrons with a range of abilities. Large print books, graphic novels, and audiobooks provide ways to expand the accessibility of a collection to better reach more people.

New Yorkers have two dedicated libraries supporting those with visual, physical or reading disabilities: the New York State Talking Book and Braille Library (TBBL) and the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library. The Andrew Heiskell Library serves residents who live in New York City and Long Island, and TBBL serves residents in all other areas of the state. Both libraries offer audio and Braille books and magazines, digital books and players, readers advisory, and home delivery services.

A national resource that can be accessed through either of these or independently is BARD: Braille and Audio Reading Download service. Provided by the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, BARD provides instant access to hundreds of thousands of books, magazines, and music materials in audio and electronic braille (ebraille).

All New Yorkers can obtain a New York Public Library card and use it to gain free access to Bookshare, an ebook library for people with dyslexia, learning disabilities, visual impairments, physical disabilities, and other reading barriers.

Additional Resources

Awards

Diversity Audits

Diversity audits help libraries assess their holdings through a DEI lens. They provide a quantitative method for gauging the amount of mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors in a collection. There are several free and paid tools for conducting these. Diverse Book Finder offers a free online tool designed to help diversify picture book collections. Several vendors including Baker & Taylor, Ingram, and OverDrive offer diversity audit services.

While diversity audit discussions often focus on public and school libraries, they are implemented at academic libraries as well. Here is a helpful LibGuide focusing on the particular concerns and approaches for academic collections audits.

Additional Resources

Guidance and Discussion

Diverse Collections: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights states: "Library workers have an obligation to select, maintain, and support access to content on subjects by diverse authors and creators that meets—as closely as possible—the needs, interests, and abilities of all the people the library serves. This means acquiring materials to address popular demand and direct community input, as well as addressing collection gaps and unexpressed information needs. Library workers have a professional and ethical responsibility to be proactively inclusive in collection development and in the provision of interlibrary loan where offered."

A wealth of guidance and discussion on this topic exists in the library field. Here is a selection of just some of these:

Book Lists and Reviews

Children & Young Adults

Adults

Awards

Sources

Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books for the Classroom (1990). Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors.  Retrieved from: https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf