Articulate a philosophy of client-centered information services based on the epistemological and ethical foundations of the library and information professions.

Artifacts

One of the great ethical strengths of the library profession lies in its democratic mandate. As public institutions, libraries exist to serve the information needs of all the members of their communities. In an increasingly multicultural world this often entails paying increased attention to the information needs of people from diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds. The two artifacts linked above address, from two radically different perspectives, how libraries can support patrons linguistic and culturally diverse populations.

The first paper was written for LI801: Foundations Of Information Transfer, the introductory course in the SLIM curriculum, and represents my attempts to bring my earlier experience and thinking on issues of language and identity into the library realm. I come from an academic background studying language use among bilingual and minority language communities within the United States. As such, I bring to my library thinking a strong appreciation of the difficulties faced by indigenous peoples and immigrant communities in preserving their cultural traditions in the face of assimilation pressures. In this paper I argue that libraries stand in a unique place to help minority or marginalized communities’ document and archive their cultural resources, both preserving them for their own future and increasing societal access to these traditions. Furthermore, I argue, libraries can then also play a role in the celebration and revitalization of these cultural resources. Through outreach efforts to ethnic communities, development of cultural programs, and promotion of their role as community resources, libraries can be centers of cultural revival and inter-cultural dialogue.

The second artifact, an annotated bibliography on multilingual cataloging issues, was written much further in to the program (for LI 804: Theory of Organization of Information). It represents a more focused (and more technical) examination of one particular aspect of how libraries are adjusting their practice to better accommodate linguistically diverse users - that of creating true multilingual cataloging and access standards. As the cultural and linguistic diversity of our patrons grows, the need for multilingual access becomes increasingly urgent. As well, the increasing globalization of our profession necessitates improved standards and systems for multilingual bibliographic control. It has only been quite recently that technology has matured to the point where this goal seems reachable, and these issues have therefore received major attention in recent years. Putting together this bibliography both made me aware some of the outstanding recent accomplishments in this field, but also highlighted some of the challenges that still exist towards ensuring equal access to library resources for all users.

Values

  • Advocate for others by displaying a commitment to quality and equity.
  • Value self and others, i.e., possess confidence in one’s decisions and value diversity in its many forms.
  • Exhibit professional behavior, knowledge, and attitudes, based on client-centered philosophy and ethical guidelines.
  • Imagine outside the box by demonstrating creativity in problem solving, management, and other professional activities.