Serving Diverse Communities
Elective
Given the following resources are available to the candidate:
- Library’s vision, mission, core values, and strategic plan. Access to demographic data for the community served.
- Access to data on current library programs, services, initiatives, and facilities.
- Data on staff and board recruitment, selection, hiring, training & development, management, promotion, and firing.
The candidate:
- Understands the demographics trends of the community served.
- Assesses the degree to which services and programs meet the diverse needs of current and future populations.
- Develops a plan to enhance access to library services, programs, library spaces, collections and technologies by diverse populations.
- Develops a plan to market library services to diverse members of the community.
- Develops a plan to enhance staff and board diversity.
- Evaluates how well the library is meeting the needs of diverse populations (serving, employing, etc.).
The criteria to judge the adequacy of the performances are:
- Number and type of diverse populations served.
- Programs, services, resources, and facilities are meeting the needs of the community’s diverse populations.
- Management systems support recruitment and retention of a culturally diverse staff and board.
Learning Objectives:
- Has a heightened sense that all segments of a library’s community have a right and a need for the valuable services libraries deliver.
- Has the ability to develop an accurate demographic picture of cultural and ethnic makeup of their communities.
- Is aware of how the role of the library differs from culture to culture.
- Acquires techniques to create or adapts library programs, services, facilities, and collections so that people of various cultures find those programs and services valuable to them, and the library is a more useful and welcoming place for them.
- Understands the importance of having a diverse workforce and governing structure for the library – to not only create a more welcoming atmosphere for customers, but also to provide a richer internal information and decision-making environment among the staff.
- Knows both traditional and non-traditional sources and techniques for recruiting library staff and trustees.
Revised June 2023
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