Minh Lê: The Librarian’s Role in Guiding Young Readers

If I had to give some advice to librarians — well, first I would say thank you because librarians play such a critical role in, in the reading lives and just the life in general of our community. But for me when I think about helping children find the resources that they need and the stories that they’re looking for, I would say provide children with access to as much as possible to allow them to discover what they’re looking for, and not be so prescriptive. 

Because I’ve had experiences growing up where someone would say, ‘Oh, you’re Vietnamese, you have to read this — or like, ‘You have to watch Miss Saigon.’ And just like that kind of prescriptive nature narrows a person’s personality and who they are to a prescribed notion of what they’re going to be looking for. I think as a librarian you play an amazing function of like being able to help that child discover what they’re looking for, and give them the opportunity to discover what the, what the stories that are going to resonate with them. 

So, to present them with the, the full slate of books and helping them narrow it down as needed, but to follow their lead to discover what their, what story is going to mean the most to them I would say is my advice.