[Libs-Or] Cultural Competency Guidelines for Academic Libraries - comments sought

[Robin A. Paynter]

FYI - Robin Paynter (Communications Coordinator)
=====================================

Over the last two years ACRL's Racial and Ethnic Diversity Committee has 
been working to develop Cultural Competency Guidelines for Academic 
Libraries. These guidelines may be used by libraries to foster internal 
development as well as help articulate the library's role in higher 
education in incorporating cultural competencies into learning, 
scholarship and service.

The committee is working to complete the necessary steps, as outlined by 
ACRL's Standards & Accreditation Committee, in order for the association 
to adopt these guidelines. The distribution of the attached working 
paper is one of those steps.  The working paper outlines the sections we 
plan to include in the final document. Your feedback and input will help 
us create a relevant and effective guide for academic libraries.

The Racial and Ethnic Diversity Committee looks forward to your comments 
and feedback by May 14, 2010; e-mails can be sent to: 
melaneevicedo at yahoo.com <mailto:melaneevicedo at yahoo.com>

The guidelines will address the following areas (in no particular order):

    * Cultural awareness of self and others
    * Building of cross-cultural knowledge and skills
    * Language diversity
    * Professional education and continuous learning
    * Development of collections, programs and services
    * Service delivery
    * Organizational change, strategy, planning, structure, policies and
      practices
    * Workforce diversity
    * Workplace climate
    * Cross-cultural leadership
    * Professional and organizational values
    * Research

The National Association of Social Workers has kindly allowed us to 
adapt their /Standards for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice 
<https://owa.ala.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.socialworkers.org/practice/standards/NASWCulturalStandards.pdf>/ 
for our purpose.

If libraries are to continue to be indispensable organizations in their 
campus communities, they must reflect those communities and be able to 
provide quality services to their diverse constituencies. Therefore, it 
is imperative that they attract and retain new and diverse talent. In 
order to do so, libraries must create an inclusive and respectful work 
environment, which necessitates supporting the development of cultural 
competencies among library faculty, staff, and student workers.

Thank you,

Melanee Vicedo, Chair
ACRL's Racial & Ethnic Diversity Committee
melaneevicedo at yahoo.com

-- 
Portland State University logo

*Robin Paynter*
Social Sciences Librarian
220D Library
Portland State University

503.725.4501
503.725.4524
paynter at pdx.edu
http://www.pdx.edu/library/paynter.html

"The fragmentation of rational knowledge in the postmodern world has 
produced a focus on information that is unaware of its history." -- 
Marcus Breen (1997)

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