Money speaks and librarians have money. In 2011-2012, public libraries in the United States spent more than $236 million on books—about half on children’s and young adult books. According to the American Library Assocation, in that same time frame, public school libraries spent an average of $6,010 on books, school libraries funded by the Bureau of Indian Education spent an average of $7,800, and private schools dished out $3,342. With over 98,460 school libraries in the United States, this means that school librarians spent over $500 million for books in 2011-2012. The total sales for children and YA books, including print and ebooks, was $1.6 billion in 2013 (source:  Association of American Publishers StatShot Program). In other words, the $600 million spent by public and school libraries annually is not just a drop in the bucket—it is substantial. There are many editors who understand the need for more literature that represents our diverse society, but “their passion for publishing multicultural literature cannot always carry the day in meetings with bottom-line number crunchers wanting to know whether such books will sell,” writes Kathleen Horning and her cohorts, Merri V. Lindgren, and Megan Schliesman, at the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in their article “Thoughts on Publshing in 2009” on the CCBC website, First Book, a nonprofit that provides new books to kids in need, is showing publishers that diverse books will sell. In March 2013, First Book launched the ongoing Stories for All Project, purchasing $1 million worth of new books featuring diverse authors and characters from HarperCollins and Lee & Low Books. In May 2014, as covered in School Library Journal, they challenged publishers further, pledging to buy 10,000 copies of books published by U.S. and Canadian companies that feature new and underrepresented voices. Youth librarians, too, must stop settling for what the publishers provide. We need to say “no”—the well-being of the youth we serve is too important to continue to support an industry that consistently ignores the needs, and even existence, of children of color and Native-American children who, together, make up 46 percent of the child population in the United States. It's too important to our efforts to nurture a new generation that is more accepting of difference, less engaged in perpetuating otherness, and more willing to take action that will create an equitable and fair world. Youth librarians are well-positioned to embrace the social justice roots of librarianship. They can use their financial capital and professional credibility to demand that the large, mainstream publishers put out books that reflect the youth our libraries serve. All of the growth in the child population since 2000 has been among groups other than non-Hispanic whites. Three major groups experienced significant increases between 2000 and 2010:

• Children of mixed race grew at a faster rate than any other group over the past decade, increasing by 46 percent.
• The number of Hispanic children grew by 39 percent.
• The number of non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander children grew by 31 percent.

Today, more than one-fifth of America’s children are immigrants or children of immigrants. The audience has changed, and the books must follow. When we visit the vendor exhibits at national and state conferences, we need to make it clear to the publisher representatives that we want, need and that we will buy books that reflect the diversity of the youth that our libraries serve. We need to challenge the book distributors we use to add titles from small independent presses to their inventories. We need to encourage teachers, parents, and students to write letters to the publishers—not only requesting more titles that feature children of color and Native-American children, particularly titles by authors who are members of these communities, be made available—but also indicating that if these books are available, we will buy them. In addition, we can support small independent presses and bookstores, which not only focus on issues of multiculturalism and diversity, but are often owned and operated by people of color and Native-American people. CCBC provides an up-to-date list of African-American, American-Indian, Asian-American, and Hispanic-American presses. If buying from these entities sways library or school district financial officers to change outdated and arbitrary purchasing policies, then what are we waiting for? We are in a data-driven era—use data to make your argument. The youth we serve need us. Sandra Hughes-Hassell is a professor in the School of Information & Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her current research she focuses on social justice issues in youth library services and the role of school library media specialists in education reform.