Competency C
"Recognize the social, cultural and economic dimensions of information use."
Introduction
In competency B, I indicated that all libraries, regardless of their type, work to meet the information needs of their target communities. Communities can be composed of many different groups: graduate students (academic library), elementary school children (school library), doctors (special libraries), or the residents of a geographic area (public library). Although there are many different kinds of people who live within the bounds of, say, a county, there are demographic characteristics which define communities. It is crucial that the decisions librarians make with regard to library services take into account their user populations. Librarians need to understand the cultures of their library users (and non-users), including ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, language, religion, and education, to provide relevant materials, programs, lessons, and policies. This point--meeting the needs of target communities--is reiterated in many other competencies because, at the core, libraries are designed for people to use.
Evidence
As evidence for meeting competency C, I am submitting assignments from LIBR 210 Reference and Information Services; LIBR 287 Seminar in Information Science, which focused on information literacy; LIBR 266 Collection Management; and LIBR 283 Marketing of Information Products and Services. These assignments, many of them discussion posts, demonstrate my knowledge of the many social, cultural, and economic sensitivities librarians must have when making decisions that affect a community's library usage.
LIBR 210: Reaching Out to Spanish-Speaking Cannery Workers Discussion Post
One important unit of LIBR 210 was how to work with members of our communities who can be more difficult to work with, such as the homeless, mentally ill, or those who speak other languages. One discussion question for the unit asked us to consider "[h]ow our patrons' social, cultural, and economic statuses affect their information use...How should librarians consider patrons' social, cultural, and economic statuses when designing programs and services? How does this topic relate to the ALA documents (such as the Code of Ethics and the Bill of Rights) that we studied early in the semester?" For this post, I wanted to share some of my experiences growing up with parents (one who is predominately Spanish-speaking) who work labor jobs in canneries and how the kind of job they have makes library usage a little more complicated. In the county where I reside, food processing plants are a major source of jobs for Latinos and non-Latinos alike. These types of jobs do not fall within the typical "9 A.M. to 5 P.M." slot, and it is important to consider these factors when trying to reach out to a community in this line of work.
LIBR 287: Integrating New College Students into Academic Culture Discussion Post
One of the added challenges of library work in an academic library is working with faculty members. Many remark that today's college students are lazy and look to quick fixes for satisfying research requirements, but for many beginning students, lack of preparation and experience in college-level research and writing is much of the problem. In my work as a writing tutor in college, many of the first-year students I worked with really did not know how to tackle their first paper, which produced much anxiety. Students needed to become familiar with academic culture--to understand the purpose for the writing and reading they were doing--to succeed. Introducing students to academia cannot solely be accomplished by librarians and library staff and writing teachers and tutors. This philosophy must also be incorporated by faculty members in other disciplines. I write, "While it is important to share with instructors about the kinds of things we [librarians] can teach their students, too often we place most of the emphasis on library tools, resources, and strategies when we can also instruct faculty on how students actually approach research." This would help to lessen the cultural gap between research veterans and those students just starting out.
LIBR 266: Choosing Materials in Other Languages Discussion Post
Some librarians are responsible for choosing materials in languages that they do not speak or understand. This presents many obvious challenges. Books which may have been translated from English may not be good translations and print runs of materials in other languages tend to be small and difficult to find, but with a knowledge of good selection resources and tools, the task can be made a bit easier. In a discussion post addressing the following question, "What factors should you consider when selecting producers of materials for ethnic collections?," I indicated that it would be especially useful to use people as resources. Using the example of Chinese and Japanese resources available in Stanislaus County and surrounding areas in California, I wrote that reaching out to prominent members or organizations of the specific ethnic group can help provide understanding of the group, such as their history, issues they are facing, common dialects, information habits, and perhaps even sources where materials in the target language can be found. Only be working alongside the community can libraries truly be relevant.
LIBR 283: Costs in Using Library Services Assignment
Librarians and library staff must also consider the costs associated with library use, not simply in terms of late fees, but transportation (gas, rides, bus fare, parking, bike racks, etc.), emotions (such as embarrassment in seeking the help of a librarian), and time (waiting in long lines, waiting for holds, inconvenient library hours, etc.). In LIBR 283, I learned that besides the obvious economics "costs," there are three other types of costs that library users (and consumers of other organizations) are asked to pay in exchange for services, such as giving up old ideas, values, or opinions; learning new behaviors or giving up old behaviors; and giving up time and energy. All too often libraries neglect these costs because of the perception that libraries are doing a great service to the community for free. The astute library staff recognizes that residents not only pay taxes and students not only pay fees in order for libraries to exist but also have to pay these other, less obvious costs. In LIBR 283, one of the shorter assignments I completed identifies some of the costs that affect library usage in the Stanislaus County Library system, and I also discuss ways in which the costs involved in placing online holds could be reduced. Librarians, as champions for democracy and knowledge, should constantly look for ways to minimize monetary and non-monetary costs associated with using libraries in order to make them more accessible and meet our missions.
In competency B, I indicated that all libraries, regardless of their type, work to meet the information needs of their target communities. Communities can be composed of many different groups: graduate students (academic library), elementary school children (school library), doctors (special libraries), or the residents of a geographic area (public library). Although there are many different kinds of people who live within the bounds of, say, a county, there are demographic characteristics which define communities. It is crucial that the decisions librarians make with regard to library services take into account their user populations. Librarians need to understand the cultures of their library users (and non-users), including ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, language, religion, and education, to provide relevant materials, programs, lessons, and policies. This point--meeting the needs of target communities--is reiterated in many other competencies because, at the core, libraries are designed for people to use.
Evidence
As evidence for meeting competency C, I am submitting assignments from LIBR 210 Reference and Information Services; LIBR 287 Seminar in Information Science, which focused on information literacy; LIBR 266 Collection Management; and LIBR 283 Marketing of Information Products and Services. These assignments, many of them discussion posts, demonstrate my knowledge of the many social, cultural, and economic sensitivities librarians must have when making decisions that affect a community's library usage.
LIBR 210: Reaching Out to Spanish-Speaking Cannery Workers Discussion Post
One important unit of LIBR 210 was how to work with members of our communities who can be more difficult to work with, such as the homeless, mentally ill, or those who speak other languages. One discussion question for the unit asked us to consider "[h]ow our patrons' social, cultural, and economic statuses affect their information use...How should librarians consider patrons' social, cultural, and economic statuses when designing programs and services? How does this topic relate to the ALA documents (such as the Code of Ethics and the Bill of Rights) that we studied early in the semester?" For this post, I wanted to share some of my experiences growing up with parents (one who is predominately Spanish-speaking) who work labor jobs in canneries and how the kind of job they have makes library usage a little more complicated. In the county where I reside, food processing plants are a major source of jobs for Latinos and non-Latinos alike. These types of jobs do not fall within the typical "9 A.M. to 5 P.M." slot, and it is important to consider these factors when trying to reach out to a community in this line of work.
LIBR 287: Integrating New College Students into Academic Culture Discussion Post
One of the added challenges of library work in an academic library is working with faculty members. Many remark that today's college students are lazy and look to quick fixes for satisfying research requirements, but for many beginning students, lack of preparation and experience in college-level research and writing is much of the problem. In my work as a writing tutor in college, many of the first-year students I worked with really did not know how to tackle their first paper, which produced much anxiety. Students needed to become familiar with academic culture--to understand the purpose for the writing and reading they were doing--to succeed. Introducing students to academia cannot solely be accomplished by librarians and library staff and writing teachers and tutors. This philosophy must also be incorporated by faculty members in other disciplines. I write, "While it is important to share with instructors about the kinds of things we [librarians] can teach their students, too often we place most of the emphasis on library tools, resources, and strategies when we can also instruct faculty on how students actually approach research." This would help to lessen the cultural gap between research veterans and those students just starting out.
LIBR 266: Choosing Materials in Other Languages Discussion Post
Some librarians are responsible for choosing materials in languages that they do not speak or understand. This presents many obvious challenges. Books which may have been translated from English may not be good translations and print runs of materials in other languages tend to be small and difficult to find, but with a knowledge of good selection resources and tools, the task can be made a bit easier. In a discussion post addressing the following question, "What factors should you consider when selecting producers of materials for ethnic collections?," I indicated that it would be especially useful to use people as resources. Using the example of Chinese and Japanese resources available in Stanislaus County and surrounding areas in California, I wrote that reaching out to prominent members or organizations of the specific ethnic group can help provide understanding of the group, such as their history, issues they are facing, common dialects, information habits, and perhaps even sources where materials in the target language can be found. Only be working alongside the community can libraries truly be relevant.
LIBR 283: Costs in Using Library Services Assignment
Librarians and library staff must also consider the costs associated with library use, not simply in terms of late fees, but transportation (gas, rides, bus fare, parking, bike racks, etc.), emotions (such as embarrassment in seeking the help of a librarian), and time (waiting in long lines, waiting for holds, inconvenient library hours, etc.). In LIBR 283, I learned that besides the obvious economics "costs," there are three other types of costs that library users (and consumers of other organizations) are asked to pay in exchange for services, such as giving up old ideas, values, or opinions; learning new behaviors or giving up old behaviors; and giving up time and energy. All too often libraries neglect these costs because of the perception that libraries are doing a great service to the community for free. The astute library staff recognizes that residents not only pay taxes and students not only pay fees in order for libraries to exist but also have to pay these other, less obvious costs. In LIBR 283, one of the shorter assignments I completed identifies some of the costs that affect library usage in the Stanislaus County Library system, and I also discuss ways in which the costs involved in placing online holds could be reduced. Librarians, as champions for democracy and knowledge, should constantly look for ways to minimize monetary and non-monetary costs associated with using libraries in order to make them more accessible and meet our missions.
Files
Below are the files to my pieces of evidence.
LIBR_210_reaching_out_to_spanish-speaking_cannery_workers_discussion_post.pdf | |
File Size: | 165 kb |
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LIBR_287_integrating_new_college_students_into_academic_culture_discussion_post.pdf | |
File Size: | 193 kb |
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LIBR_266_choosing_ethnic_materials_discussion_post.pdf | |
File Size: | 153 kb |
File Type: |
LIBR_283_costs_exercise.pdf | |
File Size: | 175 kb |
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