CURRENT POSITION Children/Young Adult Consultant, Connecticut State Library DEGREE MLIS, Kent State University, 2017 FAST FACT Powe traveled to Kenya to help public and community libraries set up digital cataloging systems, reorganize library collections, and provide training on conversational reading to libraries across the country. FOLLOW bit.ly/CTLibGuidesYouthSvcsEquity; bit.ly/CTLibGuides-InclusiveCollections; bit.ly/CTLibGuidesGELS Photo by Vernon Powe

From Diversity To Inclusion

Growing up as a Black girl in a suburban neighborhood, Kymberlee Powe found it almost impossible to locate books reflecting her lived experience. “I am very aware of how the books I read growing up made me feel like a silent, side character in my own life,” Powe says. “Some of those feelings still linger.”

Today Powe strives to support libraries in growing their evolving role as community hubs, training librarians to curate collections that reflect a range of people, stories, and experiences. Powe has virtually traveled the national library network from Maine to Utah, sharing workshops that explore the makeup of the publishing industry, identify the difference between a diverse collection and an inclusive one, and discuss the logistics of—and need for—performing a diversity audit. With Ashley Sklar, adult services and community engagement consultant at Connecticut State Library, Powe created Growing Equitable Library Services (GELS), a workshop series that provides trainings that help libraries become strength-based, trauma-informed, anti-racist, social and emotionally conscious institutions.

Powe shares her presentations with a range of school districts and library roundtables, as well as a national audience in partnership with Niche Academy and on a global stage, giving the keynote for the LJ and SLJ professional development course “Creating Inclusive Library Collections”—for which she also served as course curriculum advisor.

“Kym is dedicated,” says Sklar. “She is energetically engaged and committed to children, teens, and families, particularly the underserved and marginalized. She beautifully integrates this into all aspects of her work, serving as an exemplary colleague, role model, and resource for the library community.”