Where Can I find....

When I volunteered in my group this past Wednesday to look up and obtain books that have won the Asian Pacific American Award, I thought to myself "this should be easy enough. The book has won an award, it will most likely be in several libraries!". Was it a surprise to find out the opposite.
I immediately went to the East Lansing public library web page and to the library catalog to look up which books they had. They had almost every book that I typed in but the problem was, the majority of them were checked out. Since I had been in my home town for the weekend and several days during the week I decided to check out my pubic library and get the books from there. Upon going to the online catalog to see what books were offered, I was astonished. Book after book, author after author and nothing came up. Why were none of these books available at my library? Did they not have an interest in books about Asian Pacific Americans? I was still shocked and eager to find out the answer.
During class we discussed the availability of finding multicultural books and even books that have won awards and have been recognized in libraries. To think that a Librarian can use the excuse of not having books about a certain culture or race in their collection because that specific culture or race is not present in the community. How are students supposed to learn about people outside of their community if they do not have the opportunity to learn about them through books. Multicultural literature allows us to explore cultures and people we have no idea about. It allows us to make connections and see what is out in the world. It gives us a great opportunity to learn! Whether or not a book has won an award, I believe all libraries need to have representation of a variety of different cultures, races, etc.
I look forward to walking into my home library and asking them... "where can I find (insert multicultural book they do not have)? And when they say they do not have it, I can't wait to ask "why not?"