Service Response Discussion: Cultural Awareness
August 29th, 2006 by Andrea MercadoThis post is part of a series designed to further discussion of the PLA Results service responses, designed in 1998 to describe “what a library does for, or offers to, the public in an effort to meet a set of well-defined community needs.”
The bulleted comments below were gathered in conference sessions by the PLA Results team, in an effort to update the current service responses, which were originally written almost ten years ago. The PLA Results group is looking to the community for feedback on how to update these service responses to better reflect current public library methods and standards.
“A library that offers Cultural Awareness service helps satisfy the desire of community residents to gain an understanding of their own cultural heritage and the cultural heritage of others.” (definition care of the PLA Results site). The current version of the Cultural Awareness service response, is available for review on the PLA Results web site (the file is an Adobe .pdf file, and requires Adobe Reader to view).
Share your feedback on the current Cultural Awareness service response, as well as the starter comments listed below, by leaving a comment on this post page. You can help PLA Results bring public library service responses into the 21st century!
Cultural Awareness Discussion Group Comments
Should this service response be renamed?
- It could be called Building Unity.
- Building Community is better than Building Unity. The focus is more local.
Is this an overarching value or is it a specific service response?
- This is so important that it should be included in every service response – it’s a value.
What do people think this service response means?
- This is about buying collections and providing programs for diverse communities.
- This includes buying some collections that provide information about diverse cultures.
- This is not about buying Spanish books.
Should this service response be refocused?
- Staff and community members have found this confusing.
- This should be revised to reflect the original intent of the service response: the library takes a lead role in promoting cultural diversity in the community.
- This could be integrated with local history and oral history.
- This service response needs to stay but the description needs to be clearer.
- It should focus on Culture and the Arts. It would be clearer if Cultural Awareness goes away.
Go back to the Service Response Discussion Index.
Tags: PLA, PLA Blog, service responses
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October 5th, 2006 at 9:42 am
It seems to me that libraries should reflect cultural diversity, still a strong stance but perhaps less polarizing than promoting cultural diversity. Our place in the community as a place that serves all is an important one and should be maintained and expanded in a way that encourages exploration and inclusion.
October 8th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
I agree that reflecting cultural diversity rather than promoting it is more appropriate for a library goal. This may also be tied to the concept of the library as a community center.
Reflecting diversity within the library setting may result in diversifying what we offer. Adding a museum component or musical arena to library programs means our reflection of the various local community cultures broadens our scope of services. This is an opportunity for greater relevance as well as an obligation.
October 20th, 2006 at 3:27 pm
[…] Cultural Awareness (2 comments) […]
November 1st, 2006 at 8:19 pm
I like “Building Community.” I think it’s an overarching value and should be included in every service response. To not do so implies that there is one specific culture that we normally operate from and speak to, and that does not reflect today’s multicultural society.
November 5th, 2006 at 2:24 pm
What about a description that includes the word “Intercultural”? That would imply sensitivity as well as appreciation and acceptance. The word “building” always has the associations of “maintenance” to me.