In this guest post, cofounder of the Diverse BookFinder Anne Sibley O’Brien shares the newest features of their website and how to use it.
Diverse BookFinder aspires to be a go-to resource for librarians, educators, parents, book creators, and publishers who seek to create collections in which all children and young adults can see themselves — and each other — reflected in the books they read.
Their unique focus on collecting and analyzing ALL diverse children’s and young adult books allows us to expand the important discussion about representation within the diverse books movement, providing critical data that identifies common trends in how BIPOC are represented within the broader landscape of diverse books itself as well as translating this critical data so that it is accessible and useful to a wide and informed audience of users, creators, and advocates.
Original Features of DBF
A Unique Circulating Collection: We have collected and coded over 5000 picture books published between 2002 and 2022.
A Search Tool: We offer a first-of-its-kind online, searchable database that makes it easier for everyone to locate and explore picture books featuring BIPOC characters.
A Source of Critical Data: We provide real-time data on who (which BIPOC characters) is depicted and — using our unique book categories — how they are depicted in diverse picture books.
A Collection Analysis Tool (CAT): We offer a free, online tool designed to help libraries diversify their picture book collections.
Updates to DBF
An additional IMLS grant allowed us to expand to include older children’s literature titles. This includes titles published in 2022 on and was made possible by community sourcing our coding process.
Our just-relaunched website includes nearly 6,000 picture books through young adult novels, with more titles continuously added. There are a few important points to remember about our collection:
- As a research project, we collect all books we find with significant BIPOC characters. Inclusion in our collection does not mean a title is recommended. You’ll need to read reviews to determine the quality of a book.
- Our collection is a hybrid. We began collecting picture books in 2010 with titles ranging from 2002 until now; we recently began collecting books for older readers (early readers, chapter books, middle grade and young adult novels, graphic novels) so we have a preponderance of picture books.
How to Use DBF
Our DBF database is rich with detailed information that can help you discover the particular titles you are looking for. When you click on Search the Collection, you’ll arrive at our collection page. There you’ll find the grey menu with all the tags we use for coding.
Our two most significant coding schemes for representation are the who and the how–which groups are portrayed and what the messages are in how they’re portrayed.
Who
Our who is captured in nine racial/cultural groups. In the parentheses to the right of each group, you’ll see a number–constantly changing as books are added–that indicates how many characters are coded for each group. You can also search by Ethnicity/Nationality,Tribal Affiliation/Homelands, and Settings.
How
Next is the how, captured in our unique coding system of central theme categories. In the case of categories, the number represents the number of books coded for each. (Up to three categories can be chosen for each title.) The definition for each category is to the far right. Click on the question mark.
As we’ve expanded from picture books to titles for older readers, we’ve also multiplied the options in our tagging system to reflect the increasing complexity of middle grade and young adult content. Scroll through the options to find some of the areas that have seen the greatest changes, including representation of Disability and Gender, and Content codes, such as Diverse Families, Mind/Body, and Sacred Belief Systems. We’ve also added Creators Lived Experience, which identifies books that were written or illustrated by someone with a similar identity as the characters in their book.
We also feature a blog, and many other resources. Come explore our site and see what you can discover!
The Diverse BookFinder is a comprehensive collection of children’s and young adult books featuring and exploring representation of BIPOC characters. Since its first conception in 2010, the DBF has built a product and service with a proven track record of usefulness, enthusiastically embraced by our primary audience of librarians, educators, and parents. DBF was initiated by a Spark grant, and funded by two national leadership grants from the Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS). DBF recently secured a second grant to expand their work and mission.
