Cultural Diversity

By Larsen, Jens Ingemann

Description
Professional Publication

Excerpt
Preface: Cultural diversity is a rapidly growing aspect of society all around the world. It also creates a great challenge for libraries that must adjust their services to meet changing patron groups and demands. This is why the International Network of Public Libraries of the Bertelsmann Foundation chose to research this topic. The authors were motivated to work on this subject both by their strong belief that libraries should serve all members of society and by their conviction that there is a considerable amount to learn from other libraries towards improving services for their communities. As a by-product of this research, the authors were able to taste some of the benefits of cultural diversity: from Danish herring in Odense to Ethiopian food in Seattle and Moroccan dishes in Utrecht. And that?s only a taste of what was tasted. This could also have made an interesting report!

Table of Contents
Table of contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 From All Ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Cultural Diversity, General Opinions and Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Getting To Know Your Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Role Libraries Can Play in a Culturally Diverse Society . . . . . . . . . 11 Focus of This Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1 Organization and Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Getting Started and Organized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 2 Staffing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Staff Recruitment and Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Staff Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Project Staff Versus Long-Term Program Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Use of Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Cultural Sensitivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Pay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Recommendations, Opportunities and Thoughts for the Future . . . . . . . 23 3 Financing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Funding Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Foundations and Endowments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Role of Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Recommendations, Opportunities and Thoughts for the Future . . . . . . . 27 4 Collections, Acquisition and Cataloging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Pre-Selection Studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Materials Selection Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Acquisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31