In 2016, three library employees were looking for ways to highlight Dallas Public Library’s vast African American Children’s collection. This was prompted by repetitive inquiries from patrons who were struggling to find children’s books with Black characters that accurately reflected their communities. Therefore, each title selected for this newsletter is reviewed by the YBR team and added to the YBR's DPL What’s Next recommendation page on the DPL website.

YBR needed to create a platform that could become a part of library resources that would educate staff on authors and titles as well as to empower patrons the ability to access culturally appropriate recommendations. Not only does the newsletter circulate and provide recommends on the YBR What’s Next, but the YBR engages communities and explores local literacy by having an annual family event the acknowledges local Black children/youth authors and honors legendary black author/illustrator Jerry Pinkney.

YBR educated all staff on relevant authors/titles, developed a mailing list of interested readers and connected with community partners. A YBR member was tapped to lead a Novelist webinar on African American reader’s advisory. We made connections with several Black book shops, the African American Museum and increased the subscriber base in print and online. We are scheduling outreach opportunities to consistently educate communities about the relevance of Black authors and titles in children/youth books.