NoveList Helps Readers Find Their #OwnVoices

In October, Howard County Library System(HCLS) hosted New York Times best-selling author Jason Reynolds (pictured above) who has given voice in his popular books to many young people who identify not only with Reynolds' characters, but also with his personal story. Fostering diversity and practicing cultural competence is paramount to Howard County Library System as it works toward providing customers with enlightening, inclusive, educational experience. As the country, Howard County, and our local neighborhoods grow more culturally diverse there is a critical need for everyone to experience stories told from alternative points of view.

In 2017 the Cooperative Children’s Book Center reported these sobering statistics pointing to the underrepresentation of minorities in literature.

• Only 29% of books about African/African American people were by Black authors/illustrators
• Only 34% of books about Latinx folks were written/illustrated by Latinx people
• Only 39% of books about Asian Pacific/Asian Pacific Americans were created by Asian Pacific creators
• 53% of books with Native content/characters were written/illustrated by Native creators

And the majority of books (diverse or not) are still written by white heteronormative authors.

In 2015, Corinne Duyvis, an author of young adult literature and a disability activist, created the hashtag #OwnVoices. The term refers to books in which “the protagonist and the author share a marginalized identity.”

Thanks to NoveList*, an online book recommendation tool available to HCLS customers, #OwnVoices titles can be easily found! Here’s how:

• Go to hclibrary.org
• Click the “Research” link under the main slider
• Click “Book Recommendations”
• Select “NoveList”
• Enter your library card number and four-digit PIN (computers in HCLS branches will let you bypass this step and sign you in automatically.)
• In the keyword search box at the top of the screen, type SC Own Voices

More than 11,000 titles (which can then be filtered by genre, theme, character, etc.) are featured. By clicking the “View Items Available” button customers will see how many copies of a particular title HCLS owns. From that screen customers can then opt to visit the HCLS catalog to see branches where the title is available and also request that it be placed on hold.

* NoveList is a free, online research resource available through hclibrary.org. It is available via computers in all HCLS branches and remotely with a HCLS library card account. An application for a free, HCLS library card is available here.