As part of my reference services class, we got to practice providing reference service by email. After each of the two questions, I do my best to understand the question, questioner, and context of the request. I describe the approach I would take to find relevant resources to address the information need, and using the resources I’ve found I draft a response.
Question 1
Literary Studies: I need to write a short paper on a Canadian poet of my choice. I want to choose a writer of color. Can you help me find a poet to write about and then explain how I can find a book of their poetry and some secondary sources for my paper?
• Asked by an undergraduate student
Interpretation
Taylor (1968) suggests there are 5 factors that librarians consider when providing reference service. The first is determination of subject. We’re provided two here: help with finding a Canadian poet to write about, and help with a search strategy for identifying primary and secondary sources. Second is motivation: the inquirer needs the information in order to compose a short paper, presumably for a literary studies class. For the personal characteristics of the inquirer we’re given two details: they’re an undergraduate student, and they’re enrolled at Dalhousie University. Fourth, anticipated acceptable answers: an author, a book written by the author, and additional sources discussing the book (of indeterminate type and quantity, but suitable for reference in an undergraduate paper). Finally, the relationship of the inquiry to the information organization; which resources, within and outside of the library, would best serve to meet this information need, and how can we map the request to the available resources? The question hasn’t supplied these; that is our job when providing reference service.
There are a lot of things we might wish to have further clarity about. While the student has stated they want help choosing an author and book, it’s possible they simply want one chosen for them, which would make information on how to choose superfluous. We’ll take the request at face value. Having the full assignment description could yield additional information about the requirements for the sources, including their number, type, formality, currency, and completeness. The term “of color” here refers to a wide range of ethnic, racial, and cultural identities, and it’s possible the student has a more specific group in mind that they have not specified. We don’t know what research, if any, this inquirer has already conducted, so we run the risk of duplicating their effort. We can infer from the question that this is likely early in the student’s work on the assignment, but it is possible that they’ve encountered roadblocks in their original efforts and have circled back. We don’t have any information about the timeline of the assignment, and while the student would certainly like an answer quickly, there must be a balance between the thoroughness of our answers and responding in a timely fashion.
There is sufficient information in the request to make a start, but having additional information would be useful for providing a more complete response, especially on the topic of the additional sources. Since their evaluation necessarily comes after the author and book have been selected, it likely makes sense in this context to respond with more concrete direction for author and book, and suggestions for search strategies for the additional sources accompanied by the requests for clarification.
Search Strategy
While the Dalhousie library search allows one to search by specific author, it doesn’t allow for searching by author characteristics like racial and ethnic group or nation of origin or residence. The library also has a database of Latino literature including poetry, but that presupposes a specific ethnic group. Wikipedia has a list of Canadian poets, but each would need to be verified to meet the other criteria. Less formal sources like news articles and poetry associations have lists of Black Canadian poets for Black Poetry Day, or Indigenous poetry for Mi’kmaw History Month. Since the goal isn’t to have an exhaustive list of all poets of color from Canada, but rather to pick one useful for an assignment, it’s likely that such informal sources would be acceptable.
Once an author has been selected, we can proceed to the Dalhousie library website, limit our search to books, and specify the author’s name. Hopefully that will turn up books by the author the patron has selected. The book title itself can be used to search for book reviews, or the author’s name can be searched in other fields and material types to identify discussions of the author and their work.
Challenges and Satisfactions
The restriction that the author be both Canadian and a poet of color was a difficult intersection to identify. People of color include a wide variety of racial, ethnic and cultural groups. The limited information in the original request provides an interesting opportunity to strike a balance between the need to provide an initial useful response, the need to clarify the request, and the need to reasonably limit the research effort undertaken to produce the response.
I found it satisfying that the works of Marie Annharte Baker, one of which I’m currently reading, would potentially satisfy the inquiry. The advanced search features of NovaNet were straightforward to use once an author was selected, and getting to know the library’s collection of databases has certainly been useful.
An unexpected complication arose when I identified several secondary sources discussing the book I’m currently reading. Now my “to be read later” list of books has gotten longer.
Email response
Hi there! Thank you for using the Dalhousie Library email reference service. My name is Sarah, and it’s my pleasure to be assisting you with your inquiry today. I understand that you’re taking an undergraduate literary studies class, and are interested in composing a paper about a Canadian poet of color. That’s an interesting topic! You’ve mentioned that you’re looking specifically for a book of poetry by such an author, along with additional materials related to the author and the book.
From your question, it sounds like you haven’t picked an author to write about yet. While the library doesn’t include an author’s racial or ethnic identity or country of origin as search parameters, there are a variety of ways you might choose an author to write about. With Mi’kmaw History Month coming up, you might consider choosing an Indigenous author. Poetry in Voice has some resources on Indigenous poets at https://poetryinvoice.ca/teach/lesson-plans/indigenous-poets, and the Halifax Public Library has many entries from Indigenous History Month that highlight the works of Indigenous poets, for example at https://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/blogs/post/indigenous-life-in-poetry-and-prose/. You can find similar resources for Black Poetry Day (October 17th!) and other more specific groups. The Dalhousie library has a collection of Latino literature, including poetry, accessible at https://dal.ca.libguides.com/latinolit. Dalhousie has a wonderful Indigenous Student Centre (https://www.dal.ca/campus_life/communities/indigenous.html) and Black Student Advising Centre (https://www.dal.ca/campus_life/communities/black-student-advising.html), both of which could assist you in choosing an author. Wikipedia also has a list of Indigenous writers of the Americas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indigenous_writers_of_the_Americas), and a list of Canadian poets (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Canadian_poets), though neither is exhaustive. If you have a more specific ethnic, racial, or cultural group you’d like to focus on, let me know and I can try to find more resources for authors in that specific group.
As an example, let’s say you’ve selected Marie Annharte Baker, an Indigenous poet from the Little Saskatchewan First Nation, as your author. The next step is to find a book of poetry by that author. I’ve included screenshots of my search process so you can follow along. You can visit the library website at https://libraries.dal.ca/. To find a book of poems by the author, you’ll need to use the Advanced Search tool. Select “author” as the field, and enter the author’s name. Then select “book” for the material type. Hopefully you’ll get some search results for your author! In our example case, there are 5 results for our search.
For our continuing example, let’s assume you’ve chosen Indigena Awry (2012) as the book to write your paper about. Once you’ve selected a specific book, you can do another Basic Search of the book title or author name to find additional resources like reviews, articles, and interviews in the library’s collection. Since these are resources that discuss the book, they would be considered secondary sources. Some of the items may be available online, while others are available at the libraries around campus. You can see their availability in the search results, and even email yourself a citation for each item you want to examine so you’ll be all set when you arrive at the library.
I’ve included several screenshots attached to this email showing the details of using the library’s search functions. If you have specific requirements related to the additional resources, for example if they must include an interview with the author discussing the work, please let me know and I can help you narrow down that search further. If you need assistance locating the materials, refining your search, or if you have any further questions, I’d be happy to offer additional help via email. You can also get assistance using the live chat feature on the library website, call to talk to us on the phone, or visit the library service desk and we’d be happy to assist you in person. And if you’d like a deeper dive into the process of conducting this kind of research, or if you find yourself stuck, you can book a research consultation here at the library to get some one-on-one time with a specialist. Warm regards,
Sarah Moore
Question 2
Education (elementary): I am a 4th grade teacher, and I’m preparing a presentation for fellow teachers in my board about supporting gender non-conforming children at school. Can you help me prepare for my talk?
• Asked by an elementary school teacher at a Halifax Public Libraries.
Interpretation
This question is much more broad than the first. Identifying boundaries is a good first step. We know that the intended format of the result of the research will be a presentation. We know that the audience of the presentation is fellow teachers, and that the goal of the presentation is supporting 4th grade students (and possibly adjacent grades). We know the topic is limited to gender non-conforming children at school, rather than all 2SLGBTQIA+ children or children outside of school.
However, this still leaves an enormous number of potential directions to go. Is the goal of the presentation to equip the teachers with information about transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) children? Is it about protecting themselves from angry parents or potential interference from school governance or legal liability? Or perhaps to delineate the support that falls within the responsibility of a teacher, compared to a guardian or healthcare provider? Are the teachers expected to educate the children about the diversity of gender experiences within their classrooms, or is this solely for the edification of the teachers and no further? Is the focus on classroom interactions, or should support groups and healthcare and other holistic resources be noted for the teachers and/or the students and their families?
There are audience context questions as well. What other training have the teachers received on this and related topics? How much do they already know about the subject? How introductory does the information presented need to be, versus how much familiarity with TGNC topics is the audience expected to already know? Are there language or cultural dimensions that need to be tailored for? With Canada’s federal ban on conversion therapy in 2022, can we assume that support here means to affirm a TGNC student’s expressed identity, rather than “support” designed to suppress that identity?
For the presentation itself, is the teacher developing a slide deck? Is there a need for additional materials like handouts for teachers or classroom materials like inclusivity posters? How much time is the presentation expected to take? How much attention should be paid to different areas, for example affirming use of a student’s correct pronouns vs identifying common challenges and bullying behaviors? Do the presented resources need to be Nova Scotia-specific, or Canadian, or Western, or are there opportunities to include Indigenous viewpoints on gender experience and research from around the world?
What kind of materials is the inquirer after? How much research are they prepared to undertake? How long do they have to prepare for the presentation? Why did the inquirer pick this particular topic for their presentation? What kind of “help” is the inquirer asking for? Do they need help searching for resources to include, creating the presentation slides on the computer, printing handouts on the library printer, a place to host the presentation like a meeting room, or feedback on their delivery via a dry-run presentation?
With infinite time, we could examine every possibility here and provide a comprehensive answer with every possible resource. But since our time is limited, we have to make some choices about what to prioritize and what to seek clarification on. Since this was submitted as a reference question, we’ll focus on the identification of references and resources on which the teacher can base the presentation. We’ll focus primarily on a broad introductory interpretation of the information needs of the audience, and center the classroom for practical application. And we’ll include references to resources and organizations outside the library in an effort to include culturally diverse and lived experience context.
Search Strategy
An encyclopedia is a good place to start when collecting general introductory knowledge on a topic. There are many encyclopedias that contain information related to diverse gender experiences. However, with a search for “transgender encyclopedia,” we can narrow it down to a subject-specific encyclopedia like the SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies that provides more depth and breadth of coverage while still remaining accessible. That particular encyclopedia has, among many other articles, an entry on supportive classroom practices in K-12 education. A broad resource like this has the additional advantage of being widely applicable regardless of exactly what kind of information the teacher is hoping to include in the presentation, including a wide variety of non-Western cultural views on gender, legal positions, topics in psychology and medicine, and more.
For more depth, we can examine articles in educational journals related to supporting TGNC students. ProQuest’s Educational Resources Information Centre (ERIC) would be a good place to start, since it offers the ability to limit search results by student age/grade. An initial search for “transgender” in ERIC returns many results. Refining the search by selecting filters of the relevant grades returns around 150 results. While some of these focus on teachers providing support to TGNC students, others discuss the experience of TGNC teachers, or focus on student experiences outside of the classroom. By adding the additional term “experience” to the search, we can more easily find articles that describe the experiences of TGNC students as they navigate the educational process.
While many of the articles are applicable to educators in Canada, ERIC is sponsored by the United States Department of Education and focuses heavily on education within the United States. It also has a significant Western cultural bias; only two articles for the selected grade filter are returned for a search for “two-spirit,” a term used by some Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island. We can choose a more broad database to search, such as ProQuest One Education, which provides more diversity of included resources but lacks some of the advanced searching capabilities. We can also use the discovery search, providing even more results but requiring more effort to review each one for relevance.
Databases specializing in reading level-appropriate literature could be searched to find reading material that includes TGNC characters and discussions appropriate for the readers in the class. The Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database is an example. Other suggestions could be suggested by local and national organizations that support TGNC youth, and members of the community.
Challenges and Satisfactions
The country and cultural biases in the databases available through the public library (and Dal’s library) present some significant challenges when trying to provide an inclusive multicultural response. However, I was certainly surprised by the breadth and depth of resources available today. I wish my 4th grade teacher had asked this question, and that this level of support had been available to her and to me as a young TGNC student. I found it challenging to restrain myself from trying to answer all of the questions identified in the search strategy section. I hope the teacher who asked this question got a satisfactory result.
Email response
Hi there! Thank you for using the Halifax Public Library email reference service. My name is Sarah, and it’s my pleasure to be assisting you with your inquiry today. I’m so happy to hear that you’re working to make your classroom a safe and accepting place for all children, including those who are transgender and gender non-conforming.
Providing support to gender non-conforming children is a broad topic. For example, are you hoping this presentation will educate your fellow teachers about gender-related topics, or is your focus more on practical suggestions for classroom activities, or for sharing resources that teachers can refer students and guardians to? I want to get you started with some initial resources and suggestions, which I’ve included below, but I would also encourage you to make an appointment for a reference consultation here at the library. Having the opportunity to discuss your needs directly would help us find the best resources for your presentation, and would also allow us to introduce you to library resources like our meeting rooms and the events we host for the queer community here in Halifax. I’ll include more information about reference consultations and other ways to connect with us here at the library too.
The first thing I want to draw your attention to are the resources available through the Nova Scotia EdNet. For example, in 2014 they published the Guidelines for Supporting Transgender and Gender-nonconforming Students. Their Student Services Website is a great place to start when looking for policies and recommendations specific to Nova Scotia.
For an accessible introduction to many of the aspects of transgender and gender non-conforming student education, I’d like to recommend the SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies (Goldberg, 2016). In addition to a section on K-12 education, it includes articles on history, regulations and policies, medical and psychological support, culturally diverse viewpoints on gender, and more. It’s a great resource for building a foundational understanding of gender-related topics for this unique population. Some of the terminology used may be new to your audience, so you may wish to consult a glossary like the one published on GLAAD’s website.
The library also subscribes to several databases of research journals for a more in-depth look at specific topics. For example, the article “Teachers’ Strategies for Supporting Transgender and/or Gender-Expansive Elementary School Students” (Mangin, 2022) examines three strategies that elementary school teachers use. Another example, “Teaching Alternative and Indigenous Gender Systems in World History: A Queer Approach” (Dozono 2017). We also have books like “The reflective workbook for teachers and support staff of trans and non-binary students: your school’s transition as your students transition” (Maynard, 2021) which might be helpful if you wish to develop handouts for the teachers who attend your presentation. You can find these resources and more in the ERIC and ProQuest Educational Resources databases. I’ve included a link to the library’s guide on how to search these databases, along with screenshots of how I found these three particular resources, at the end of this email.
For healthcare, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standard of Care has detailed, evidence-based recommendations for how to medically support transgender and gender non-conforming youth. It’s important to note that not all gender non-conforming people wish to change their bodies, and each may have unique individual goals. The Nova Scotia Health Authority has information online about how one can access this kind of healthcare within the province. Because some types of care aren’t available here, the Government of Canada website has an overview of how one can access this kind of healthcare outside of Nova Scotia. You can find more information at this introductory guide to gender-affirming healthcare in Nova Scotia produced by the library: https://library.nshealth.ca/lgbtq.
The library also supports the local 2SLGBTQIA+ community by providing materials, including children’s literature and graphic novels featuring gender-diverse characters. We also host events, including some youth-specific events. You can find more information about materials and events at the library’s website. In addition to being able to refer your students to these opportunities, the organizers and participants could also help add the perspectives lived experiences to your presentation. Two other groups I would bring to your attention are pflag Canada, a group that offers support groups and resources to 2SLGBTQIA+ youth and their families, and Youth Project, who offer support groups, workshops, and social activities.
Unfortunately, many of the resources we have available are based in a very Western-centeric understanding of gender. The Wabanaki Two-Spirit Alliance website has a lot of great information about the different ways gender is understood by many of the Indigenous Nations within Canada. Trans Care BC has a collection of resources that discuss gender, and specifically gender-related healthcare, from an Indigenous perspective. Nova Scotia Community College has another collection. I hope that drawing attention to these resources will help you include a broad range of viewpoints in your presentation.
I’ve included several screenshots attached to this email showing the details of using the library’s search functions. We’ve really just scratched the surface here of what resources are available to you. If you have specific areas you’d like to focus on in the presentation, please let me know and I can help you narrow down that search further. If you need assistance locating the materials, refining your search, connecting with community groups, or if you have any further questions, I’d be happy to offer additional help via email. However, email reference services can sometimes have a longer response time. I would strongly encourage you to use the library’s website to book an appointment for a research consultation so we can discuss your needs in more detail. You can also get assistance using the live chat feature on the library website, call to talk to us on the phone, or visit the library service desk and we’d be happy to assist you in person.
Warm regards,
Sarah Moore
References
Taylor, R. S. (1968). Question-Negotiation and Information Seeking in Libraries. College & Research Libraries, 29(3), 178–194. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl_29_03_178