The University of Washington Libraries currently has over 700 children's and young adult books published between 1881-2003 by or about African Americans in our Children's Literature, Coretta Scott King Awards, Historical Childrens' Literature, and Special Collections.
In 2003, these holdings were significantly enriched by Dr. Spencer G. Shaw, who donated his personal collection to the UW Libraries. The Spencer G. Shaw Materials are currently in process in our Special Collections Division and consist of children's and young adult literature, multicultural materials, storytelling programs, course materials, lecture notes, correspondence, articles, and awards from 1949-2001. The content also includes master reel-to-reel audio tapes (1961-1968) of Shaw's radio program, "Story Hour on the Air, Let's Go to the Library" that are currently scheduled to undergo audio preservation work. Regional materials are also available in this collection and include materials related to the Seattle Public Library and the Washington State Library Association. His expansive collection of children's literature is forthcoming and will enhance our African American Children's Literature collection.
You can find the breadth of materials in the Libraries' catalog by doing a Subject search for the phrase "African American" and limiting the results to the WHERE location of "Children's Literature." Results can also be limited to "Curriculum Materials" to specifically view holdings in that area.
Laura Labate, a MLIS candidate at the University of Washington Information
School, completed a Directed Fieldwork project in Winter 2004. Ms. Labate
began an assessment and evaluation of the African American Children's
and Young Adult Literature collection using comprehensive reference materials,
bibliographies, web resources, and reveiws of collections at other libraries.
Some of the bibliographies used to for this project.
Resources on this page provide online resources to aid in researching this genre as well as provide additional information on developing special collections in libraries, including multicultural collections and the African American genre.
Our collection strengths have been built from generous donations from individuals, libraries and other institutions. The current Children's and Young Adult collection development policy affirms that we will accept any Children's or Young Adult book in good condition that we do not already own. Please see our Gifts page for more information.
