This accessible and compelling Special Report introduces cultural humility, a lifelong practice that can guide library workers in their day-to-day interactions by helping them recognize and address structural inequities in library services. Cultural humility is emerging as a preferred approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts within librarianship. At a time when library workers are critically examining their professional practices, cultural humility offers a potentially transformative framework of compassionate accountability; it asks us to recognize the limits to our knowledge, reckon with our ongoing fallibility, educate ourselves about the power imbalances in our organizations, and commit to making change. This Special Report introduces the concept and outlines its core tenets. As relevant to those currently studying librarianship as it is to long-time professionals, and applicable across multiple settings including archives and museums, from this book readers will learn why cultural humility offers an ideal approach for navigating the spontaneous interpersonal interactions in libraries, whether between patrons and staff or amongst staff members themselves; understand how it intersects with cultural competence models and critical race theory; see the ways in which cultural humility’s awareness of and commitment to challenging inequitable structures of power can act as a powerful catalyst for community engagement; come to recognize how a culturally humble approach supports DEI work by acknowledging the need for mindfulness in day-to-day interactions; reflect upon cultural humility’s limitations and the criticisms that some have leveled against it; and take away concrete tools for undertaking and continuing such work with patience and hope.

Developing Cultural Humility offers a unique look into the journeys of psychologists striving towards an integration of multiculturalism in their personal and professional lives. Contributing authors—representing a mix of “cultural backgrounds” but stereotypically identified as “White”—engage in thoughtful dialogue with psychologists from underrepresented communities who are identified as established and respected individuals within the multicultural field. The contributing authors discuss both the challenges and rewards they experienced in their own journeys and how they continue to engage in the process of staying connected to their cultural identity and to being culturally responsive. In addition, psychologists who represent historically disenfranchised communities have similarly reflected on their own journey, while offering commentary to the personal stories of White psychologists. This text is useful for stimulating discussions about privilege, power, and the impact race has on either bringing people together or creating more distance, whether intentionally or unintentionally. It demonstrates to readers how to engage in the process of examining one’s own “culture” in more intentional ways, and discusses the implications as we move towards engaging in more dialogue around multicultural issues.

The news and scholarly literature are replete with stories and articles describing the challenges that diverse individuals face in their local communities and workplaces. Diversity and Inclusion in Libraries: A Call to Action and Strategies for Success is arranged in three parts: Why Diversity and Inclusion Matter, Equipping the Library Staff, and Voices from the Field. This book tackles these issues head on and should appeal to a broad audience interested in diversity as it relates to libraries and librarianship, including professional librarians and paraprofessional library staff. Offering best practices strategies tempered by experiences and wisdom, this book will help libraries realize a high level of inclusion.

Cultural Humility in Libraries: A Call to Action and Strategies for Success explores cultural humility as a framework for encouraging ongoing self-education and empathy to enhance understanding of the lived experiences of others. Including insights from more than 30 contributors, it offers best practice strategies tempered by experiences and wisdom and challenges information professionals to embrace cultural humility as a powerful tool for nurturing dialogue, understanding, and positive transformation. The book is divided into three parts: “What is Cultural Humility?”, “Applications in Libraries,” and “Voices from the Field.” Part I addresses what cultural humility is and the importance and relevance of its role in healthcare. In Part II, the authors describe how they apply principles of cultural humility in their work environments via lessons learned, practical strategies, development opportunities, and challenges when integrating cultural humility in library settings. In Part III, the voices of diverse professionals unpack the application of cultural humility through their lens, sharing their stories of what cultural humility has meant in their lives, how they have applied it in their work, and the challenges they have faced in doing so. Cultural Humility in Libraries is a call to action for readers to look inward to assess the role and impact of cultural humility in their own lives. In particular, readers are encouraged to deliberately reflect and think critically about how their thoughts, words, and actions impact the people around them.

"Offers a historical-cultural context for the ethos of service in libraries and critically examines this professional value as it intersects with gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, and (dis)ability"--Provided by publisher.

Librarianship is still a predominantly white profession. It is essential that current practitioners as well as those about to enter the field take an unflinching look at the profession’s legacy of racial discrimination, including the ways in which race might impact service to users such as students in school, public, and academic libraries. Given the prevalence of implicit and explicit bias against Black and African American people, authors Folk and Overbey argue that we must speak to these students directly to hear their stories and thereby understand their experiences. This Special Report shares the findings of a qualitative research study that explored the library experiences of Black and African American undergraduate students both before and during college, grounding it within an equity framework. From this Report readers will learn details about the study, which focused on the potential role of race in the students’ interactions with library staff, including white staff and staff of color; gain insight into Black and African American users’ perceptions of libraries and library staff, attitudes towards reading, frequency of library usage, and the importance of family; understand the implications of the study’s findings for our practice and for librarianship more broadly, including our ongoing commitment to diversifying the profession; and walk away with recommendations that can be applied to every library and educational context, such as guidance for developing an antiracist organization and more equitable service provision.

Increasingly, libraries are struggling to deal with a growing diversity in the cultural background of their patrons. Problems arising from this cultural diversity afflict all library types--school, public and academic. Library Services for Multicultural Patrons is by and for all libraries that are striving to provide multicultural services to match the growing diversity in the cultural background of patrons. The book is designed to offer helpful tips and practical advice to academic, public, and school librarians who want to better serve the multicultural groups in their communities. The contributors to the book are themselves practicing librarians and they share creative ideas for welcoming multicultural patrons into libraries and strategies for serving them more effectively. Librarians will find in these chapters tried and true tips and techniques for marketing and promotion, improving reference services for speakers of English as a second language, and enhancing programming that they can easily implement in their own libraries and communities. The chapters are divided into the following categories for ease of access: 1) Getting Organized and Finding Partners, 2) Reaching Students, 3) Community Connections, 4) Applying Technology, 6) Outreach Initiatives, 6) Programming and Events, and 7) Reference Services. Librarians of all types will be pleased to discover easy-to-implement suggestions for collaborative efforts, many rich and diverse programming ideas, strategies for improving reference services and library instruction to speakers of English as a second language, marketing and promotional tips designed to welcome multicultural patrons into the library, and much more.

This first Special Report in a two-volume set on Black and African Americans’ experiences in libraries provides an overview of their historical exclusion from libraries and educational institutions in the United States, also exploring the ways in which this legacy is manifest in our contemporary context. A compelling call to action, it will serve as the beginning of many conversations in which librarianship reckons with its racist past to move towards a more equitable future. Still a predominantly white profession, librarianship has a legacy of racial discrimination, and it is essential that we face the ways that race impacts how we meet the needs of diverse user communities. Identifying and acknowledging implicit and learned bias is a necessary step toward transforming not only our professional practice but also our scholarship, assessment, and evaluation practices. From this Special Report, readers will learn the hidden history of Africa’s contributions to libraries and educational institutions, which are often omitted from K-12, higher education, and library school curricula; engage with the racist legacies of libraries as well as contemporary scholarship related to Black and African American users’ experiences with libraries; be introduced to frameworks and theories that can help to identify and unpack the role of race in librarianship and in library users’ experiences; and garner practical takeaways to bring to their own views and practice of librarianship.

Cultural humility offers a renewing and transformative framework for navigating interpersonal interactions in libraries, whether between patrons and staff or staff members with one another. It foregrounds a practice of critical self-reflection and commitment to recognizing and redressing structural inequities and problematic power imbalances. This collection, the first book-length treatment of this approach in libraries, gathers contributors from across the field to demonstrate how cultural humility can change the way we work and make lasting impacts on diversity, equity, and inclusion in libraries. This book's chapters explore such topics as how Indigenous adages can be tools for reflection and guidance in developing cultural humility; the experiences of two Black librarians who are using cultural humility to change the profession; new perspectives on core concepts of customer service; rethinking policies and practices in libraries both large and small; using cultural humility in approaching collection development and creating resource guides; what cultural humility can look like for a tribal librarian working in a tribal college library; and reflecting on cultural humility itself and where it is going.

We are only now coming to terms with how common trauma really is; a landmark Kaiser study that surveyed patients receiving physicals found that almost two-thirds had experienced at least one form of abuse, neglect, or other trauma as a child. Though originating in the fields of health and social services, trauma-informed care is a framework that holds great promise for application to library work. Empathetic service, positive patron encounters, and a more trusting workplace are only a few of the benefits that this approach offers. In this important book Tolley, experienced in both academic and public libraries, brings these ideas into the library context. Library administrators, directors, and reference and user services staff will all benefit from learning - the six key principles of trauma-informed care; - characteristics of a trusting and transparent library organization, plus discussion questions to promote a sense of psychological safety among library workers; - how certain language and labels can undermine mutuality, with suggested phrases that will help library staff demonstrate neutrality to patron ideas and views during information requests; - delivery models that empower patrons; - advice on balancing free speech on campus with students’ need for safety; - how appropriate furniture arrangement can help people suffering from PTSD feel safe; - guidance on creating safe zones for LGBTQIA+ children, teens, and adults; and - self-assessment tools to support change toward trauma-responsive library services. Using the trauma-informed approach outlined in this book, libraries can ensure they are empathetic community hubs where everyone feels welcomed, respected, and safe.