October 31, 2018
Page 5
Ayn Reyes Frazee is in her fifth year as the librarian at Beach
Elementary School in north Portland.
Librarian
Builds on Equity
Wins
fellowship for
commitment to
diversity
As
Beach
Elementary
School’s librarian, Ayn Reyes
Frazee is committed to reflect-
ing the north Portland school’s
unique diversity in its book
collection, and her dedication
and diligence have earned her
a prized fellowship.
The Association for Library
Service to Children, a world-
wide professional organiza-
tion, has awarded Reyes Fra-
zee an equity fellowship, one
of six it awarded this year. She
impressed the selection com-
mittee with her dedication to
equity, diversity and inclusion.
In her fifth year at Beach,
Reyes Frazee started at the
school when it had not had a
certified librarian for sever-
al years. She curated Beach’s
book collection into one that
would benefit a school like
Beach with its 37 percent His-
panic student body; 11 percent
black and African American
enrollment; 16 percent English
language learners; Spanish
dual language immersion pro-
gram and 11 different language
spoken by families.
As she built Beach’s collec-
tion, Reyes Frazee made a pri-
ority of adding books that re-
flect “casual diversity.” There
were enough books featuring
black children that were about
slavery, and books featuring
Hispanic children that were
about migration or being un-
documented.
“We’ve got black and brown
children that go to our school
for whom that can feel real-
ly crummy if that’s the only
representation of your culture
that you’re seeing in litera-
ture,” she said. “I’m looking
for books that feature kids of
color and it’s about comput-
er coding, or it’s about mak-
ing crafts with your friends,
or it’s about something that
isn’t that stereotypical black
or brown experience that we
see represented so much in
media.
“That is really important,
just to have literature like that
available, and it hasn’t been in
the past,” she said.
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