Hopeful Visions, Practical Actions: Cultural Humility in Library Work

by Sarah R. Kostelecky (Editor), Lori Townsend (Editor), David A. Hurley (Editor)

Cultural humility offers a renewing and transformative framework for navigating interpersonal interactions in libraries, whether between patrons and staff or staff members with one another. It foregrounds a practice of critical self-reflection and commitment to recognizing and redressing structural inequities and problematic power imbalances. This collection, the first book-length treatment of this approach in libraries, gathers contributors from across the field to demonstrate how cultural humility can change the way we work and make lasting impacts on diversity, equity, and inclusion in libraries. This book's chapters explore such topics as
how Indigenous adages can be tools for reflection and guidance in developing cultural humility;
the experiences of two Black librarians who are using cultural humility to change the profession;
new perspectives on core concepts of customer service;
rethinking policies and practices in libraries both large and small;
using cultural humility in approaching collection development and creating resource guides;
what cultural humility can look like for a tribal librarian working in a tribal college library; and
reflecting on cultural humility itself and where it is going.

Genres: Nonfiction, Librarianship

208 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2023

About the author

Sarah R. Kostelecky is the Director of Digital Initiatives and Scholarly Communication (DISC) for University of New Mexico Libraries. Her research focuses on outreach efforts to underrepresented communities, diversity in academic libraries and library collections, and Native American language resources. Previously at UNM, Sarah has served as the Education Librarian and Access Services Librarian in the Indigenous Nations Library Program (INLP). She earned both her MA in Information Resources and Library Science and BA in Sociology from the University of Arizona. Prior to working at UNM Libraries, Sarah was the Library Director at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, NM, the premiere educational institution for contemporary Native American arts and cultures. Along with David A. Hurley and Paulita Aguilar, she co-edited “Sharing Knowledge and Smashing Stereotypes: Representing Native American, First Nation, and Indigenous Realities in Library Collections,” a special double issue of the journal Collection Management. Sarah has enjoyed working in a variety of libraries including university, public, tribal college, and museum. She is a member of Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico.

Reviews

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was very excited by a conference presentation that said this was a solid anthology of cultural literacy which seemed to underlie the prin iples prescribed. I felt it dove tailed neatly with my own weird Venn diagram of leadership styles. Some of this is equally grasping, and that is fine, as I am consciously and ardently in grasping mode. Grasping is the sort of motif, actively listening and expanding the pure Socratic ignorance to be receptive to a lot of things that may or may not operate on the level of argument. Broad in application costs it a star, buy there are chapters here directly aimed at librarians that are academic or urban or indigenous or any number of thongs that put marginalized populations at the behest of otherwise provincial attitudes. This is a topic best pursued through the pro lit, I think. Nice gateway to that realization, though.

[Lex Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with any book containing a collection of pieces by different authors, this one is a bit up and down. Some chapters have a lot of perspective and/or information. These chapters inspire reflection and ideas, or they detail policies, programs, and even clever subversion of policies that could be cross-applied to the library and/or department others work within.

I feel some other chapters are weaker and have less to offer, though perhaps they're not chapters I personally needed and others will need them more.

On the whole, I really like the idea of approaching library work through this particular lens. I don't really feel there's one clear cut Method of approaching library work (or life) that will be the ultimate answer to interacting with people with lived experiences separate from your own, but I feel there are some valuable aspects to the idea of "cultural humility" that I hope to reflect on further and carry forward. I also really like the emphasis on lifelong learning for the sake of it because humanity is dynamic and so our experiences must be as well. Therefore any way we approach something like cultural humility must be dynamic as well.