A study of culturally diverse materials in elementary school media centers

Our country is more culturally diverse today than at any other time in its history, therefore there is a need for greater understanding among people and awareness of other cultures. A prime time to develop this understanding and awareness is during the elementary school years. School library media specialists can be foremost in providing materials that facilitate learning about all cultures. This study examined the multicultural collections of four elementary school media centers within the Pleasantville School District. The study was conducted by examining the Online Public Access Catalog for the identified variables and then by conducting a visual search of the corresponding shelves. The results of this study indicated that these elementary school media collections did not provide an adequate amount of current materials representing cultures, other than the predominant culture of the neighborhood, to be of value in educating children about diverse cultures. The results also indicated that these media centers pursued collection development in accordance with the current trends of providing an abundance of materials related to the predominant neighborhood culture or ethnicity