Understand global perspectives on effective information practices that are supportive of cultural, economic, educational, or social well-being.
Libraries around the world are rapidly evolving in conceptual, functional, spatial and even ethical ways in response to a host of globally impactful factors ranging from technology to demographics and many points in-between. For a variety of reasons both happenstance and intentional, changes at a local level often develop in concert with the global trends that are shaping technology, institutional affiliations, and social values held by parent and peer organizations. In terms of changes in the way library materials and services are arranged physically and virtually (for electronic resources), from an aerial view these might look like the transformation of rigidly structured library spaces into what Hebert calls “casual multipurpose destinations” (2018) that draw “a diverse range of people, alone or in groups, to engage in a variety of media-centric activities, both day and night” (2018). A general movement towards virtual services, remote access and digital collections characterizes and helps explain these changes. Increasing numbers of library thought leaders recognize that segments from a broad cross-section of users want to access library resources and assistance in languages and formats and at times that are most tailored to and convenient for them. These same librarians must continue to deliver and expand the range of digital services, flexible spaces and multi-format content they offer in order to meet and support our new internationally connected, technologically sophisticated and culturally diverse patrons. While the values of diversity, equity and inclusion have arguably been part of librarianship from its somewhat murky origins, and were codified in the United States at least as far back as the original Library Bill of Rights set out by Forest Spaulding in 1938 (Wikipedia, n.d.), there has been a marked shift towards connecting library users with social services in the past decade or so. Many libraries have even hired social workers in order to more effectively reach patrons in need of the kinds of services they can provide. There has also been an enlargement of the group and individual identities protected by the Library Bill of Rights during this same time span. These currents of change are remaking everyday activity in libraries in both ways both large and small.
Additional trends contributing to the zeitgeist of contemporary global librarianship include a renewed emphases on consortia lending and other networked resources and services, drafting more equitable and inclusive library mission and values statements, soliciting input from broad array of stakeholders on strategic planning and various policies, codifying best practices related to community research and outreach, and expanding and fine-tuning collection development practices. The latter is an especially apropos and broad subject. One relatively new focus in collection development has been on optimizing the selection of print and digital resources to take advantage of Just-in-Time purchasing while still catering to patrons’ varied format preferences. There are many facets to the dynamic and complex marketplace faced by collection developers, with vendors offering various new and flexible options of packaging, subscribing, and buying print and electronic titles and serials. Tools which allow users to exert a more direct role in collection development – Demand Driven Acquisition platforms, ILL borrowing, eBook downloads, etc. – empower patrons with rapid delivery of the materials they want, and in many cases enable libraries to spend their collection budgets more efficiently. The proliferation of new purchasing and procurement options contributes to patron well-being by shortening wait times and goal achievement for those actively seeking source material related to their information needs.
Libraries globally are playing larger roles in fostering the work of groups that are attempting to use digital networking and publishing tools to increase their scope, influence and cultural footprint. Some evidence for this can be found in many libraries’ promotion of Web 2.0 technologies: desktop publishing and media creation tools, makerspaces for larger projects, even instruction on how to become more skilled content creators and publishers. There are many grassroots groups across the globe that want to form relationships with like-minded people in other countries for various reasons, among them to combine resources, share connections and advance the goals of their cause. It’s not uncommon for them to look hopefully towards libraries to provide help in amplifying their current efforts both domestically and frequently overseas. Not all such efforts are a good fit, but frequently they are, and there are scores of librarians that are keen to play an active role in improving the information literacy and web content creation skills of group members. Librarians can play key roles in helping these groups build their profile on the internet and connect to likeminded organizations.
Many libraries around the globe incorporate social justice as a core aspect of their institutional values. This concept intersects with an essential activity pursued by librarians around the world: the collection and utilization of demographic and qualitative information about their users. To make matters more complicated, it’s common for this research to reveal the fact that there are multiple user communities and that many patrons that don’t neatly fit within just one of these groups. Not all marginalized communities and users are comprised of immigrants or ethnic minorities; some are economically disadvantaged, others LGBTQ folks in potentially unsafe situations, still others are members of sectarian religious or minority political groups. While I lack the data to add precision to this observation, I’ve noticed that libraries in other countries, and not just “first world” countries, strive to play a similar role in providing services to these minorities. It’s much harder to uncover demographic data about these “segments” of the populace in reference materials or public data, yet there are myriad ways to survey, engage, and learn about these local and remote users and communities. Contacting leaders and advocates within local communities and asking for their help with creating awareness of the library in their communities is often an effective form of outreach. In turn, this often presents opportunities to establish new relationships with potentially lifelong patrons. Another approach is to use reference sources like census data and other government generated statistics. Perhaps the most compelling reason to continually seek out this information is the possibility it creates for attaining new insights into poorly understood communities. Ideally this allows for new awareness of current and potential patrons, which in turn may drive the creation of specific programming and new layers of collection development, among other targeted content and services. It can also form a basis of support for the cultural, economic, educational, and social well-being of these and other communities, particularly local ones.
Over the past decade or so, libraries around the globe have been providing more social services, particularly for their disadvantaged patrons – often in coordination with government agencies but also on their own. A common focus of this work is helping disadvantaged people find jobs, health and other issues permitting. Another group which struggles with many of the same problems are immigrants. As Hebert observes, libraries can make a major impact in the lives of this group by “[continuing] to act as a welcome center for newcomers into the communities; providing needed services and information for new immigrants to America” (2018). These are but two facets of the relatively new “library as community center” paradigm. In the US and Canada this model has frequently taken the form of hiring social workers and public health workers and running outreach and engagement campaigns (Hines, 2015). By offering programming and instruction alongside assistance with connecting to local government and non-profit organization resources, safe spaces for marginalized communities and other patrons at risk of harm, help with using and learning software, and other benefits in a variety of languages, libraries can reinforce the cultural, educational, and social well-being of local and even long-distance patrons. Library based safe spaces generated significant press coverage in California when ICE was conducting widespread raids a few years ago, but the concept also encompasses various other identities and situations as well, as for example when people of different biological sexes, race/ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities or expressions, cultural backgrounds, religious affiliations, to age or physical or mental ability are in need of a place where they can feel comfortable, welcome and safe (Jones, 2018).
Resources, professional contacts and conferences with relevant themes that attract similarly minded peers can be found through international organizations like the International Federation of Libraries Association (IFLA) and even the American Library Association (ALA), despite its ostensibly national focus. These and other organizations provide help to librarians in crafting and implementing policies intended to achieve the goals described above as well as numerous others. According to the ALA’s Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (2018), there are multiple, at times overlapping, practical applications of the principles detailed in the ALA Bill of Rights, the majority of which offer guidance to libraries both within the US and out. The ALA offers “interpretations” of these rights in the form of documents which explore principles and topics such as “Economic Barriers to Information Access,” “Equity, Diversity, Inclusion,” “Diverse Collections” and “Universal Right to Free Expression” (2019). While they may not explicitly address the well-being of library users, these ALA statements can be read individually and collectively as a foundation for just such a higher purpose. Unsurprisingly, one of the most universally important of these is the library collection itself, which the ALA notes “should contain content by and about a wide array of people and cultures to authentically reflect a variety of ideas, information, stories, and experiences” (2019).
IFLA and its various child organizations and projects arguably presents the most comprehensive and robust resources for its global membership and the public. It has issued guidelines for a wide variety of topics, including “Multicultural Communities: Guidelines for Library Services,” “Library Services to Prisoners,” “Library Services to People Experiencing Homelessness,” and “Continuing Professional Development” to name several that have strong social justice and equity dimensions (Current IFLA Standards, n.d.). These documents, covering a wide range of topics, are meant to attest to “current consensus on rules, principles, guidelines, best practice or models for a particular activity or service,” which are “internationally reviewed and created by consensus … [to] represent a global perspective on the most important issues facing libraries and librarians … [and] provide optimum benefit for the international library community” (Current IFLA Standards, n.d.). Both the ALA and IFLA are known to publish content and create events related to information literacy and instruction. IFLA offers various guidelines on information literacy, but they are erratically updated. In contrast, the ALA’s Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Learning (2016), which is of course much more applicable and well-known in the US, is updated frequently, though it’s more narrowly targeted at academic libraries and the students and educators they support. While not directly targeting patron well-being per se, information literacy and other educational programming which is aimed at imparting digital and associated skills may significantly impact an individual’s ability to obtain a job (or better job) and thus a greater chance of self-sufficiency. These facts alone go some distance towards establishing proof that libraries around the world are advancing improvements in the lives of their users in multiple ways.
References
Current IFLA Standards. (n.d.). In IFLA Standards. Retrieved November 2, 2021 from https://www.ifla.org/current-ifla-standards/
Diverse Collections. (2019). In ALA Issues & Advocacy. Retrieved November 5, 2021 from https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/diversecollections
Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Learning. (2016). In ALA Issues & Advocacy. Retrieved November 3, 2021 from https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
Interpretations of the Library Bill of Rights. (2019). In ALA Issues & Advocacy. Retrieved November 6, 2021 from https://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations
Hebert , L. (2018, February 27). ALA Library Trends . Retrieved November 2, 2021, from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a7ctrmhdP12M9gFL4OWRJmpm2F40yF0fpDwXi8zecK8/edit
Hines, S.S. (2015, August). Connecting Individuals With Social Services: The Library’s Role. Paper presented at the IFLA WLIC 2015, Cape Town, South Africa. Retrieved November 6, 2021 from https://www.ifla.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/assets/reference-and-information-services/publications/512-hines-en.pdf
Jones, G. A. (2018, October 24). Create a Safe Space. Retrieved from https://www.thedaringlibrarian.com/2018/10/our-library-is-safe-space.html
Library Bill of Rights. (n.d.) In Wikipedia. Retrieved November 9, 2021 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library_Bill_of_Rights
Evidence for Competency O
Evidence 1
For a course on Information Communities, we identified a set of people (a community) who had specific information needs and behaviors in common that we would investigate and write about throughout the semester. I chose to concentrate on community gardeners – or to be more precise, the community of community gardeners. People in this group used library resources in different ways, though it’s safe to say that many – perhaps even the majority – did not use them at all. That said, my study suggested that more than a few community gardeners and related associations around the world are using libraries in interesting ways: to research topics of interest and the “information gaps” in their understanding of community gardening and related subjects, to get help publishing literature and media that promotes their organizations and hopes to recruit new members, and to explore ways to connect and collaborate with similar groups. The ways in which libraries are trying to meet these publishing and networking needs follow some of the trends in global librarianship that I described in the above competency essay. What I discovered in my exploration of community gardens is a social movement that is growing rapidly, globally interlinked yet locally grounded, and comprised of a diverse set of organizations including university agricultural “extension” schools, international non-profit funding sources, and municipal “food policy councils,” among others. A thorough literature review brought up numerous international institutions, associations and grass root organizations dedicated to advancing the ideals of community gardening across the globe. In terms of individual practitioners, there is a wide spectrum of library patrons from these communities ranging from the well-informed and media savvy to the curious but inexperienced. In what might be a promising harbinger for future collaborations between libraries and the international community gardening culture, in 2019 the Biblioteca Publica Central Estatal in Mexicali, Baja won an American Library Association (ALA) Presidential Citation for Innovative International Library Projects for the Sustainable Library project it has been running since 2014. While the project aims to “address environmental sustainability with its patrons” though it does not focus on urban agriculture per se, it nevertheless gives one hope that libraries can be catalysts in the larger topic area of sustainability and conservation, which are very often concerns that urban gardeners and farmers and other organizations working in the “food systems” space share.
Evidence 2
This group project was the main assignment for course INFO 266 on Collection Management. The assignment was to imagine a fictional library and write a Collection Management Policy Manual for it that would elaborate on its collection development and selection guidelines. Our fictional library concept was “The Library of Living and Interactive Art,” and it included extensive sections on the specific titles / serials, formats, and vendors the library was already collecting, as well as parameters for adding new materials. Some of these materials were entirely imaginary, futuristic creations, but the majority could be found in libraries today – particularly ones devoted to the arts. Nevertheless, the imaginary formats illustrate the spirit of this competency insofar as new media and new services are global trends impacting libraries in multiple ways. The more important aspect however is the way in which the collection policies were written to be inclusive of as many communities as we could imagine that might use the library.
We used brainstorming sessions to produce an outline for the document, and then assigned chapters to each of the four team members. We also edited each chapter together after the first round of writing. I wrote chapters 1 and 11. In the latter I explored how collection policies were impacted by intellectual freedom and an anti-censorship stance. In chapter 2 we discuss principles behind these policies that relate to diversity, inclusion and equity such as acquiring content from marginalized and underserved communities, media formats that enhance accessibility for users with disabilities, and support for multiple languages.