New York State Library

Division of Library Development

Making it REAL! Recruitment, Education, And Learning:
Creating a New Generation of Librarians to Serve All New Yorkers

IMLS Grant Partners Program Evaluation Workshops

Presentations, June 1-2, 2005

Diversity, Libraries and Community: Windows and Mirrors to Your World

Clara M. Chu <cchu@ucla.edu>, REAP Change Consultants
& UCLA Dept. of Information Studies

[Text version of presentation; also available in .PDF]


What is diversity?

Making it REAL! Recruitment, Education, And Learning: Creating a New Generation of Librarians to Serve All New Yorkers


Map of New York; select variables to view (i.e., "Percent Minority" in drop-down boxes at right of map, then "Refresh" map). From American Communities Project


What is diversity?


Who is of "diverse" background?

http://www.pink-triangle.org/ptps/symbol.html


First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me. -- by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945 (TIME, Aug. 28, 1989)

Martin Niemoller was an outspoken advocate for accepting the burden of collective guilt for WW II as a means of atonement for the suffering that the German nation (through the Nazis) had caused before and during WW II. On the other hand, I think that something is missed if one doesn’t understand that the words come from a man who also declared that he "would rather burn his church to the ground, than to preach the Nazi trinity of 'race, blood, and soil.'"

According to Harry W. Mazal, the exact text of what Martin Niemöller said, and which appears in the Congressional Record, 14, October 1968, page 31636, is:

When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the unions and I was not concerned. Then Hitler attacked me and the Protestant church — and there was nobody left to be concerned.


Diversity

from Sempra Energy


What does diversity mean for…

Resources:


Working Definitions

Cultural Diversity -The recognition that we live in a multicultural society, that each constituent contributes to the development of our society and should have equal opportunities, and that culture determines, consciously or unconsciously, much of our perceptions and behaviors.

Culture includes nationality, race, and ethnicity, as well as other variables, and is manifested in customary behaviors, cultural assumptions and values, patterns of thinking, and communicative style.

Race “a concept which signifies and symbolizes social conflicts and interests by referring to different types of human bodies”

(Omi and Winant, 1994; p. 55)


Perspectives

"American wins Gold, Kwan Second" (1998)

MULAN people

Institutionalized information practices and organizations ~~ are they value-free? Who/what are privileged?


Critical Concepts for Transformative Information Services


HOW: Transformation at work

Cultural Competence is the integration and transformation of knowledge about individuals and groups of people into specific standards, policies, practices, and attitudes used in appropriate cultural settings to increase the quality of services; thereby producing better outcomes (Davis, 1997 referring to health outcomes). [http://cecp.air.org/cultural/Q_integrated.htm#def]


Diversity affects all & it’s up to us all

Transformative Model:

Know------Care------Act
Knowledge------Attitudes------Skills

STEREOTYPES are GENERALIZATIONS
PREJUDICES are ATTITUDES
DISCRIMINATION is ACTION

MULTICULTURAL INFORMATION SERVICES - BOTH the provision of multicultural information to all types of users and the provision of information services specifically targeted to traditionally underserved groups.


What is diversity?


Multicultural Librarianship/Education in Action

Diseño de servicios bibliotecarios para poblaciones multiculturales


Diversity is People

Diversity is Collections

Diversity is Services

-- from an exhibit at Penn State's University Park Campus, Pattee Library


Imagine what you can do to diversify New York State libraries, librarians and education


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