Dear Library Director,
Today, I complete Advocate's for
Children's Responding to Child Abuse course. Over the last three
months, twenty professionals who work in Androscoggin county, and
specifically Lewiston /Auburn, visited the class to share their
perspectives on combating child abuse. I've learned how several
dozen agencies in our community address child abuse, but I've
discovered your institution is not fully preforming its
responsibility. The library is a community's cultural backbone; a
vault safeguarding and distributing knowledge. One gazes upon the
high shelves and envisions the answers to life's questions and
curiosities within the covers. Yet, your collection ignores the
query of one group; within your walls, teenage sexual abuse
survivors' plea for help goes unanswered.
My secondary education background
coupled with my recent coursework inspired me to seek out non-fiction
texts addressing sexual abuse specifically written for teenagers.
None of the texts recommended by Androscoggin Children's Advocacy
Center for teens are in your collection. Actually, only a handful of
copies are available through MINERVA. Hoping similar titles were
available, I visited both Lewiston and Auburn Public Libraries and
asked for assistance at the Reference Desk. While the librarians
were helpful and knowledgeable, no non-fiction texts on sexual abuse
exist within the YA collections at either library.
One factor for how traumatic
sexual abuse becomes for a child is the victim's access to age
appropriate information on sex, love and abuse. Information
distribution is the
business of the library. Texts on abuse included in the YA
collection is one venue for teens to find valid information to heal
from their abuse. Housing these books in the teen area not only
provides survivor patrons comfort and ease to find the information,
but also ensures that the texts are written for, rather than about,
teenagers.
One in four girls and one in six
boys will be sexually abused before turning eighteen – before
leaving the security of the teen room of the library. Imagine the
discouragement finding no help on those shelves. The implied
message: I must be alone, if not even the library has information
about what happened to me. Imagine the bravery required to admit
such a secret in order to ask a librarian for help, and the painful
wait that follows yielding no results. I don't see this experience
lessening a teen survivor's sense of isolation and worthlessness
either. The survivor then endures a longer wait as a librarian
researches further eventually leading the teen to the adult stacks –
to books not written for her, but parents or professionals, texts
that discuss teen survivors as a topic rather than speak to them to
as individuals.
The teen room contains
non-fiction on many health topics, so the dismissal of sexual abuse
is a glaring hole in the YA collection, and frankly, a disservice to
the teen population who use your library to gather reliable
information. Maybe young people who value the feel of a book, who
find its permanence a reassuring comfort, are unusual in this digital
age. But such bookish types should find help in your stacks once
gathering the courage look.
During my search, a librarian
mentioned that budget cuts may have caused this gap in the
collection. Titles with high circulation are what's purchased. How
sad my enlightenment; the library might choose to disregard valuable
information over the cost of a paperback. I wonder, how many teens
might not check out a book on abuse, too afraid someone might see the
title? No, I suspect the circulation numbers could be low, but teen
patrons would often reference such titles within the walls of the
library.
I hope you will investigate
adding non-fiction texts for teen survivors of sexual abuse to your
Young Adult collection. I suggest How Long Will It Hurt? by
Cynthia L. Mather and When Something Feels Wrong by Deanna S.
Pledge to begin your research; both titles are recommended for teens
by the Androscoggin Children's Advocacy Center.
Sincerely,
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