Competency C

Core Competency C: recognize the diversity (such as cultural and economic) in the clientele and employees of an information organization and be familiar with actions the organization should take to address this diversity.

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Introduction:

As a person who lives in California, I am very familiar with diverse populations. I only have to walk around my neighborhood or drive a few streets down to see thriving Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Cambodian communities. While the state of California might be more diverse than some other states in the U.S., all types of libraries serve diverse populations to some degree. Topics of diversity include cultural and economic diversity. These aspects often affect peoples’ library use, which in turn plays a role in how libraries offer their services.

Cultural Diversity:

A person’s culture can be shaped by many things, such as their ethnicity, religious affiliation, family history and traditions, social experiences, and so on. For librarians and information professionals, acknowledging the differences in culture requires one to be familiar with cultural norms, social customs, and linguistic preferences (Hirsh, 2015). These are all important elements of cultural diversity.

Cultural norms and social customs influence a person’s perspective of libraries. In some areas of the world, such as Guatemala for example; libraries are uncommon, used mostly for educational purposes, and often do not have book lending policies (Mering, 2011). This is because books are not usually read for leisure purposes in Guatemala (Mering, 2011). Thus, Guatemalans who immigrate to America might not fully understand what American libraries offer. The result is that Guatemalan immigrants may only use libraries for limited reasons (solely for matters of school-related education), may not realize that library materials can be borrowed, or they may not use libraries at all because they do not see a point to it.

In situations like this, cultural competency is vital. Cultural competency is defined as “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together and enable a system, agency or professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (Hirsh, 2015, p. 32). In scenarios like the one described above, culturally competent librarians would strive to learn about Guatemalan culture and social customs. With this knowledge, they can then promote library services—such as the many different types of library materials, programs, and book lending—in culturally acceptable and non-patronizing ways.

Linguistic preferences strongly dictate how people seek out and use information. As an example, many newly immigrated Asian individuals do not have strong English skills, and therefore want information/prefer to read materials in their own language (Hoffert, 1994). Libraries can respond to this scenario by offering more books, magazines, newspapers, etc. in the Asian language. However, cultural competency is also important here. Many dialects or versions of a language can exist due to regional differences (Hirsh, 2015). Librarians should be aware of community demographics and listen to the opinions of community members before picking foreign-language materials to add to the library’s collection, lest they unintentionally offend their patrons (Hoffert, 1994).

Economic Diversity:

Economic diversity refers to the differences in economic status among individuals. In the LIS field, many discussions of economic diversity are made in reference to the homeless population. Homeless individuals tend to be underserved in libraries, having historically been seen as “problem patrons” (Simmons, 1985). This likely came about due to stereotypical views that the general populace still hold towards the homeless: that they are “smelly” or mentally ill, and tend to use libraries for the restroom facilities (Bardoff, 2015). However, this view severely neglects other ways in which homeless individuals use libraries. In a study by Kelleher (2013), it was found that the homeless used libraries to fulfill information needs relating to housing, health, government benefits, and finding a job.

The types of information needs that homeless individuals have may be slightly different compared to the information needs of more economically advantaged people (who generally use libraries more for recreation purposes). Nonetheless, it is the responsibility of librarians and information professionals to provide service to all library users. Librarians can serve the homeless population by creating outreach programs that focus on topics important to the homeless. An example of such a program could be a computer literacy class for homeless individuals who have not had opportunities to use computers. Libraries can further serve homeless populations by giving them alternate methods of obtaining a library card, which can be difficult for homeless individuals as they lack a permanent home address (Kelleher, 2013). Such actions would provide the homeless with more access to helpful resources. Although not all libraries may be able to provide these sort of services either due to policy or budget constraints, it is essential that economic diversity is given the same amount of consideration as cultural diversity.

Coursework/Experience that Prepared Me for this Competency:

I have had much experience with issues of cultural diversity due to my heritage as a Vietnamese-American person, and from growing up and living most of my life in California. However, it was not until I entered the MLIS program that I learned about the efforts being made in libraries to address cultural diversity. All of my classes addressed diversity in some way, but I learned the most about this subject from my Info 275 (Library Services for Racially and Ethnically Diverse Communities) class. I have also been able to personally witness many programs aimed at raising awareness of cultural diversity at the library I volunteer at, which serves a large Asian immigrant community. While economic diversity was not touched upon as much in my classes, I was able to study this subject extensively in my Info 285 (Research Methods) class. It was a topic I personally chose to study over the length of the course.

References:

Bardoff, C. (2015). Homelessness and the ethics of information access. The Serials Librarian, 63(3-4), 347-360. doi:10.1080/0361526X.2015.1099590

Hirsh, S. (Ed.). (2015). Information services today: An introduction. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.

Hoffert, B. (1994). Dragon dancers and eastern westerns: Serving the Asian American community. Library Journal, 119(12), 42-45.

Kelleher, A. (2013). Not just a place to sleep: Homeless perspectives on libraries in central Michigan. Library Review, 62(1/2), 19-33. doi:10.1108/00242531311328122

Mering, M. (2011). Public, school, and university libraries in Xela, Guatemala and Lincoln, Nebraska: A comparative report. PNLA Quarterly, 75(3), 44-65.

Simmons, R. C. (1985). The homeless in the public library: Implications for access to libraries. Renaissance Quarterly, 25(1), 110-120.

Evidence:

1. Info 232 Homelessness Report (Group Project)

The first piece of evidence that I am submitting for competency C is a group report on homelessness from Info 232 (Issues in Public Libraries). For this assignment, my group was tasked with writing up an overview of the relationship between homeless populations and public libraries in the United States. To tackle this prompt, we decided to define homelessness; briefly discussed how homeless individuals used libraries; addressed the problems homeless individuals encountered when using libraries; and talked about how public libraries were providing services to the homeless. I was personally responsible for writing up the “Challenges and Barriers to Providing Library Service to the Homeless” section. I also contributed to this assignment by helping my group find scholarly articles in the LIS field about homeless populations, and helped to make final edits to the paper.

In my section of the paper, I emphasized that many homeless individuals were essentially being discriminated against: due to library policies that seemed to only target homeless individuals, as well as the unwelcoming attitudes of the library staff. All of these acted as barriers to information access, as homeless individuals who were aware of these things were more reluctant to use libraries. However, at the end of my section, I do make a mention to the many policies that ALA had enacted over the years in an attempt to support the homeless. In writing this section, I demonstrate my awareness of the economic diversity present within public libraries, and my knowledge of how economic diversity may impact a library (although the libraries reacted negatively in my examples). This section also demonstrates my knowledge of the policies that have been created to promote economic diversity within public libraries.

To protect the privacy of the other people in my group, I am only providing access to the section that I wrote for the report . My part of the report can be found in the MS Word document below.

2. Info 266 Library Collection Evaluation Assignment

My second piece of evidence is a collection evaluation assignment from Info 266 (Collections Management). For this assignment, I had to analyze a part of a library's collection to determine if it met the needs of the community. I decided to focus specifically on one public library’s collection of Asian-language materials, as that was a topic I was fairly knowledgeable about. To complete this assignment, I had to first gather the demographic statistics and census data of the library's community. I then looked at the library’s online catalog to determine how many Asian language materials there were. Finally, I went to the library in person to take a look at the Asian language materials.

The demographic and census data I gathered for the library's community revealed that Asians made up a significant portion of the population. I pointed this out in my paper, demonstrating my awareness of the ethnic diversity present in the community of this specific library branch. My observations and concluding remarks in the paper are ultimately one of disappointment in the lack of more Asian language materials. However, the presence of any Asian language materials at all seem to show that the library was aware of their community demographics—they most likely added these materials to their collection because they were aware that Asian individuals used the library. This paper thus demonstrates my understanding of how ethnic diversity can impact the development of a library’s collection.

I am unfortunately unable to include my completed assignment on this site due to privacy reasons.

3. Info 210 Discussion Post -- "Serving Special Populations"

My final piece of evidence is a discussion post from Info 210 (Reference and Information Services). For this discussion, we were asked to conduct research on and write about an underserved library population. We were also tasked with describing the challenges, as well as the opportunities, that arose when serving this group. For this discussion post, I decided to focus on children with disabilities.

I wanted to focus on this particular group as I had already heavily studied ethnically and economically diverse groups in the past. My focus on children with disabilities demonstrates my awareness of how diversity can include factors other than just cultural, ethnic, or economic diversity. Throughout my post, I discussed the challenges that may arise when providing services to this population. I gave suggestions for ways in which librarians could address these challenges, mainly by becoming better informed about children with disabilities. This demonstrates my knowledge of how diversity may impact libraries: in this case by making librarians more aware of issues relating to physical or mental ability, and making librarians more accepting of individuals who may have these conditions. Finally, I talked about how libraries could form partnerships with national or local organizations in order to create programs or outreach services for children with disabilities. This demonstrates my knowledge of the actions a library could take to be more inclusive of underserved populations. For these reasons, I submit this piece of evidence to demonstrate my mastery of competency C.

The entire discussion post can be found in the MS Word document I have included below.

Conclusion:

When thinking about diversity, I think it is important to remember that diversity encompasses many dimensions. While understanding the impact of cultural and economic diversity is necessary for information professionals, one should also realize that diversity also includes matters relating to gender, sexuality, age, physical and mental ability, education level, religious affiliation, and so on. As someone who plans to work in the public library environment, I am excited about the many ways I can increase awareness of diversity in the community. I plan to continuously analyze how my library is handling issues of diversity, and to engage in the creation of programs and outreach services to promote diversity.