I'm up late working hard on maintaining my 4.0
while finishing my second Master Degree (in Library and Information Science). One
of my courses is on Multicultural Librarianship. I found a wonderful newsletter
that details Tulsa County Library System’s Annual Asian American Festival. They
celebrate people from China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand,
Vietnam, and other Asian countries.
There are:
Chinese dragon, lion and folk dances
Classical Indian music
Manga exchanges
A traditional tea ceremony
Japanese bamboo flute ceremony
Martial arts presentation
Arts and Crafts
Educational opportunities
Asian cuisine
Diversity is a beautiful thing and
our job as library employees is to reach out to our communities and to
celebrate and honor their history, present and future. I would love to see more
opportunities for cultural awareness at the library!
Many years ago, I remember my own
local library celebrating the Cherry Tree Blossom Festival with dancers
performing while a traditional band played music. I remember the graceful
dancing, and the boom of the large drums. After the event, we were given green
tea ice cream to sample. It was great!
I started thinking—what could
libraries do to celebrate diversity?
1. Get the
community involved! Ask your community what they want. Give them a platform to
celebrate differences. Ask them to speak during a program. Maybe they can share
stories from their own history, or traditional tales and beliefs from their own
culture.
2. Books are
your buddies! Make a cultural display and highlight books about or by authors
of that culture. Don’t just do it the month of…highlight
diversity all year round.
3. Check out
your collection. The best way to integrate diversity is to make sure your
material includes contemporary literature about diverse groups. This means
children’s and young adult materials, as well. Do you only have one dusty copy
of a book about Jennifer Lopez? Time to upgrade!
It is
important to showcase biographies of famous culturally diverse Americans. Also,
it can be helpful for other children to appreciate a multicultural viewpoint
and grow up reading material from a variety of cultures.
4. Diverse
programming. We need more of it. Make sure even if it is a short, children’s
program, that we don’t just make it about being a cultural tourist. We want to
introduce children to cultural heritage, history, traditions, and to characters
that represent them. The biggest tip I can think of is DO NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
about a culture or country. An example of this is Mexico does not equal=Mexican
Americans. And also, many cultures are Spanish-speaking—Mexican,
Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Salvadorans, Dominicans, Guatemalans, Colombians,
Hondurans, Ecuadorians and Peruvians. Individuals from New Mexico, California,
Texas, etc. can also be Spanish speakers.
5. Increase
your own cultural knowledge! Read! Attend a webinar or professional development
session about various cultures, countries or multicultural awareness.
These are just a few minor tips from the top
of my head. I think these are wonderful first steps toward integrating cultural
diversity into your library.
