1. “We must not confuse our ignorance of life with
a physical difference for an account of that life;
nor should we forget that the particulars of our
own ignorance are likely a more crucial
determinant of the disabilities manifest in some
lives than any differences in the physical makeup
of the people.”1
3. What we did;
Created a multi-year cultural competence program
Re-imagined how we provide service at our reference
desk
How we did it;
Getting buy-in
How other libraries can use similar strategies
Calling in the experts
5. Culture:
“a group and personal identity based on
common experience, a shared resilience in
coping with a world that may be oppressive, and
a unique body of tangible artifacts (e.g., art,
music, literature) derived from this shared
experience.”3
6.
7.
8. Intercultural Competence and Knowledge:
"a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills
and characteristics that support effective and
appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural
contexts.” 2
15. References and Figures
1. Ray McDermott and Herve Varenne. "Culture as Disability." Anthropology & Education Quarterly 26, no. 3 (1995): 329,
2. J.M. Bennet, as cited in Rhodes, Terrel L., ed. "Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE Rubric." Assessing Outcomes
and Improving Achievement: Tips and tools for Using Rubrics. Last modified 2010. Accessed December 27, 2012.
3. Eddey, Gary E., and Kenneth L. Robey. "Considering the Culture of Disability in Cultural Competence E ducation." Academic
Medicine 80, no. 7 (2005): 706-12. Accessed December 27, 2012. Ovid Journals (00001888-200507000-00019).
Fig 1. J. Willard Marriott Library. Source: Matthew Irsik and the Computing and Media Services Team. Not publicly available.
Fig. 2. DeEtta Jones, consultant. Source: DeEtta Jones, 2012, Digital Image. Available from deettajones.blogspot.com. Accessed
March 15, 2013
Fig. 3 Laurel and Hardy—You’re Darn Tootin’ (1928). Source: kndynt2099, 2011, Digital Image. Available from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kndynt2099/5739971284/
Fig 4. Static thumb frame of Animation of the structure of a section of DNA. The bases lie horizontally between the two spiraling
strands.. Source: 84user adapting file originally uploaded by Richard Wheeler (Zephyris) at en.wikipedia, 2009. Digital Image.
Available from Available from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:DNA_orbit_animated_static_thumb.png. Retrieve March 20, 2013
Fig 5. Public Domain Image
Fig 6: University of Utah President David Pershing. Source: ABC News, 2013, Digital Image..
http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/University-of-Utah-inaugurates-15th-
president/RqhPtytVQ0iKn4gXYDrpyQ.cspx
Fig. 7. 01.29.08. Source: Fort Worth Squatch, 2008, Digital Image. Available at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thedavisblog/2230010178/
Fig 8: Jigsaw Puzzles. Source: Patafisik, 2007. Digital Image. Available from
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Puzzle_pieces_1.JPG. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
).
Editor's Notes
White text on a black background that reads “We must not confuse our ignorance of life with a physical difference for an account of that life; nor should we forget that the particulars of our own ignorance are likely a more crucial determinant of the disabilities manifest in some lives than any differences in the physical makeup of the people.” No accompanying dialogue
[Image: Corner shot of the J. Willard Marriott Library showing several windows and white structural supports on a wide plaza. Blue sky in the background] Hello, and welcome. My name is Lorelei Rutledge, and this is my colleague Alfred Mowdood. We are both librarians at the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah. We are going to talk about our library’s plan for implementing a cultural competence program specifically focusing on serving people with impairments, share some of our experiences and strategies, and take some time to talk with you about your experiences.
[Image: small image of the library’s badge, which reads “Ask me” and then has a red U with “J Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah” underneath it.]Initially, we developed our cultural competence program for library staff specifically for the purpose of improving the experience of people with impairments who use our library and helping our staff feel more at ease using assistive technology. However, with the support of our administration, we transformed it into a multi-year project designed to focus on multiple aspects of cultural competence, including asking our staff to think about how their own culture influences the way they provide service to patrons, how we as individuals and as an organization can better relate to people from different cultures and get their feedback effectively, and how we can integrate cultural competence into our library systems and services. We will also talk about how we got support for and implemented the program, and strategies that we think might be useful to other libraries as they implement or strengthen similar programs.
We started this program for a few different reasons. I (Lorelei) came to the library in February of 2012 with an interest in working with students with impairments and using accessible technologies. I worked with another staff member in our library to learn more about our services to patrons with impairments, and then joined a liaison team working with the Center for Disability Services on campus, the organization responsible for making sure that students have reasonable accommodations as specified by the Americans with Disabilities Act. After being at the university of a while, I learned that many of our library staff felt uncomfortable helping students with impairments use technology like screen readers or magnifiers and would, at times feel so uncomfortable that they would avoid working with the students. I initially organized this program as an opportunity to help them build experiences using accessible technologies. (Alfred starts): I (Alfred) have an interest in this because I am the head of Research and Information Services, and I wanted to library staffI supervise to have bothgreat experiences in meeting patron needs and helping them feel confident about their ability to work with people from diverse groups. I also work with various departments in the College of Health that offer courses in adapted physical education, therapeutic recreation, and have witnessed the changes that our University went through for the 2002 Winter Paralympic Games.
From the beginning, our program was grounded in both pragmatism and theory. The pragmatic piece was recognizing areas where we wanted to improve service. Onthe theoretical side, we realized from reading disability theory that libraries often identify this key population as “students with disabilities” which locates the experience of disability within the person. This is exacerbated by the focus in libraries that we have on meeting ADA requirements which, although important, can sometimes lead us to see the person as a problem that needs to be fixed, rather than a person with a unique cultural identity. For instance, we were able to separate the idea of impairment, or a physical difference, and disability, which is what happens to a person when they encounter an environment that prevents them from accomplishing their goals. We realized that people in libraries had gotten away with saying that there were people with disabilities, suggesting that the disability was an integral part of the problem, when really what was happening is we were creating spaces, like our old building that were disabling, and fostering attitudes among library staff that further encouraged that process of disablement
Our building is a great example of transforming disabling spaces. In 2004, we began a renovation/innovation project at the library, in part to bring it up to code with the Americans with Disabilities Act. During the renovation, we went from a building with lots of closed areas that was difficult for someone in a wheelchair to move to a much broader open space. As part of the change, we went from a very small room on the first floor that was difficult for patrons to open and use to a much larger room on the second floor that was integrated into the knowledge Commons.
[Images: Upper left corner is an image of our new computers and our new adjustable height desks in our accessible technology room. Top right corner: image of employees sitting at our new Knowledge Commons desk, which has both tall counters and shorter counters for patrons to either sit or stand. Lower right corner: Image of our KIC scanner, which allows fast scanning. Bottom middle: image of a wide hallway in our building; we redid our building to make our hallways wide and free of impediments. Lower left: Image of an anthropomorphic figure being wheeled down stairs in a stretcher chair by another person with the words Stryker evacuation chair around the image. This is one of the new Stryker chairs we got for emergency evacuation of people who use wheelchairs.]After this change in our physical spaces and after some of Lorelei’s observations, we decided that we wanted to work on improving our service to people with impairments. We did this byasking students with impairments to tell us what they needed to make the library an enabling space. We have made changes, added technology, added equipment, created open and inclusive spaces. However, we started this program because we wanted to develop an overarching theme in our reference service that emphasized excellent service standards;Did not have strategy beyond following ADA Did not have an overarching theme to guide innovation and better service in the 21st century
Although we began this program as a series of discrete training events, the ideas we learned from disability theory about remedying disabling spaces and attitudes really fit together with some of the other learning that we were doing about theories around cultural competence in general. As we did more training and discussion around serving patrons with impairments, we also realized that we wanted to improve our service to people from other cultures in the same way. Both of us had some experience in learning about cultural competence, but we were surprised by how little cultural competence programs described in the literature specifically mentioned people with impairments. We decided that we would like to learn more. We started by looking at cultural competence in a variety of disciplines, especially in the health and information professions. We looked at articles in the field, which we describe in more detail in our paper. We also looked at both the ACRL standards for cultural competence and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AACU) standards for intercultural competence, which describe the attitudes and skills needed to interact expertly with people from a variety of cultures. At this point, we decided to change our trajectory from a focus on patrons with impairments to a focus on a broader cultural competence program.
[Image: Diagram in a circle shape. Four small circles are at 90 degree angles around the shape, reading “ADA/SCOTUS, Presidential Priorities, Demographics, and Service Gaps,” in clockwise order. Larger circle in the center with “Need: written in it.]One of our first and most important steps was conducting an environmental scan and tying this initiative into our broader goals. When we initially suggested the idea for training related to serving patrons with impairments, we faced concern that dedicating training time and money to such a task would not be feasible due to a variety of pressures ranging from budgets, staffing, technology issues and even our search for a new dean. However, by aligning the program with our broader university initiatives and overarching needs such as better and more consistent service, we were able to draw support. We started by talking about the needs we saw, including the need to respond to the service gaps we had recognized, to prepare for the changing demographics in the country that will bring students from a variety of cultures to our library who will expect excellent service. Also helping our argument was a new president whose priorities included a commitment to diversity and teaching students or as he likes to call them “creative doers” to value differences, and a commitment from our Executive Council to stay ahead of legal changes, like the recent changes to the scope of the ADA
[Image: Diagram in a circle shape. Four small circles are at 90 degree angles around the shape, reading “Prepare to implement changes required by law, Demonstrate commitment to embracing equity and diversity, Meet changing needs and expectations, and Enable employees to respond effectively to any patron, in clockwise order. Larger circle in the center with “Outcomes”: written in it.]Once we identified these needs, we worked with a member of Human Resources, Melanie Hawks, to tie our training outcomes to the needs that we saw. We explained that this program would help us prepare to meet the changes required by the law, to echo our commitment to the president’s goals by demonstrating our commitment to equity and diversity, to meet new students’ needs and expectations for excellent service, and to enable our employees to respond effectively to any patron.
[Image: Diagram in a circle shape. Four small circles are at 90 degree angles around the shape, reading “Visit from outside expert/consultant, Finalize program goals and components, Utilize local/on campus resources, and employee development week” around a larger circle with “2013” written in it.]Next we developed a training plan that would help us meet these goals. We spoke to our Executive Council and received funding to invite a national consultant to come in to help us think about how to formulate our program effectively and to kickstart our program by helping our staff consider how their own cultures affected interactions. We also invited in other campus groups (Campus Counseling Center, Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action, Environmental Health and Safety) and got permission to present additional programming throughout the year and during our employee development week which will be taking place in early August.
[Image: Continuum describing intercultural development going from monocultural to intercultural mindset and also provides an organizational impact model that goes from assimilation to bridging] From DeEtta Jones’ All-Staff presentation “This slide discusses each orientation with respect to an HR Model or the orientation at an organizational level. With her direction, we were able to develop a strategy for expanding the program and making it more inclusive. We invited our Utah Counseling Center to give presentations about cultural competence in public service, and our Office of Equal Opportunity to present about the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Our first strategy was to work with Melanie to call in some outside expertise. We contacted DeEtta Jones, an organizational consultant and former ARL employee to advise us about the future of the program. She gave presentations to our staff, and met with our managers group, our Executive Council, and our Employee Organization Committee to explain how cultural competence could help us improve our service. We also worked hard to build strategic partnerships with other campus organizations, like the Center for Disability Services, who could help us find and gather resources. You may be able to find other partners on your campus who could help you build this kind of initiative. We aligned with broader initiatives. For instance, President Pershing is heavily dedicated to diversity, and aligning with his goals was one of the reasons that executive council thought doing this program right now would be a good idea. You may need to look at your library’s mission, service standards, or other initiatives for evidence to support your plan. Our final strategy was to conduct assessment. At the end of the program, we will have both qualitative and quantitative data. We plan to analyze all of our qualitative data using NVIVO, a qualitative data coding software, to look for evidence that people did, as a result of the program, engage in learning that helped us meet our goals.
[Image: Black puzzle pieces scattered on a white background.]So far, we see all of the strategies we have used as important pieces of the puzzle that will help us build a strong and successful cultural competence program that will make us a better organization. Our entire organization is having informal conversations and discussions about cultural competence and providing help to patrons with impairments. Organizationally, we hope that cultural competence learning goals are written into our Organization-wide competencies, our New Employee Onboarding process, and a future revision our Best Practices documents. We hope to see cultural competence learning and expertise in helping patrons with impairments written into job descriptions. Ultimately, we hope that our future library strategic plan will have a section on cultural competence. <<Lorelei>>We also plan to use this to try to extend the program in the future by demonstrating its success, or by modifying it if we don’t see the changes we want.
