Resource Guides -- Organizational Climate

Building Multicultural Organizations

Balderrama, Sandra Rios. (2000). This trend called diversity. Library Trends, 49(1), 194-215. Treated in this powerful article are issues of discomfort, professional pride, respect for differences, "bottom-up" programming, outreach and partnering, hiring and retention, leadership, etc.

Blank, R., & Sipp, S. (2000). From the outside in: seven strategies for success when you’re not a member of the dominant group in your workplace. New York: AMACOM.
How to rise in an organization while maintaining one’s individuality and cultural identities

Carr-Ruffino, N. (1999). Diversity success strategies. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Gender, ethnicity and ethnocentricity in the workplace as a competitive advantage.

Cox, T. (2001). Creating the multicultural organization: a strategy for capturing the power of diversity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
How to change the climate of an institution to open it to diversity.

Developing a Plan to Improve Minority Representation Throughout the Organization
http://www.omhrc.gov/clas/sec5ck4.htm
A brief step-by-step guide to increase opportunities for an institution’s employee diversity

Gardenswartz, L., & Rowe, A. (1998). Managing diversity: a complete desk reference and planning guide. New York: McGraw-Hill.
“How to recruit, retain, mentor, and promote diverse employees to eliminate high turnover rates and build cohesive, productive, cross-cultural work teams.”

Leading the Way: Making Diversity Real. (2004).
http://www.namme.org/career/publications/report_leading.pdf
From the National Association of Minority Media Executives: How a diverse organization operates, and checklists for how to achieve that reality.

National MultiCultural Institute: Leading With Diversity. http://www.nmci.org/store
For sale are materials for trainers in cultural competency.

Neely, T., & Lee-Smeltzer, K, eds. (2002). Diversity now: people, collections, and services in academic libraries. Binghampton, NY: Haworth Press.
Not just for college and university systems: diversity in collections and in recruitment, retention, and promotion of ethnically diverse staff. Notable is SCILS’ Dr. Mark Winston’s essay, “Communication and Teaching: Education about Diversity in the LIS Classroom,” which also applies to continuing education in libraries.

New Jersey Library Association Gay and Lesbian Round Table http://www.njla.org/sections/gay_lesbian
Since its inception, the Gay and Lesbian Round Table has advocated and educated on behalf of librarian, support staff, and patron gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersexed communities. The Round Table has served this role under a rubric of program initiatives, collection development advisory, provision of reference and access services, and collaboration with other professional organizations. Membership is open to lesbians, gay men, bisexual, transgender and intersexed library personnel. All librarians committed to diversity including GLBTI constituencies and to supporting colleagues and the profession's values are also encouraged to join the Round Table.

New Jersey Library Association Special Populations Section http://www.njla.org/sections/special_populations/newsletter.doc
Keep up with efforts to address services and collections for older adults, people with disabilities, new immigrants, prison inmates, and people wanting to learn how to read. The Special Populations Section is developing a list of model programs around the state as a follow-up to the Diversity Conference. In addition, this group is identifying librarians, support staff and trustees in the State who are willing to share their diversity, outreach, and special services expertise and knowledge with other library staffs.

Ocean County Library. Valuing Differences: Diversity Mission and Plan. http://oceancountylibrary.org/About/Diversity-Plan.htm
The history, goals, process, plan, and activities of this very well developed initiative are presented on the library’s website. For further information and analysis, look for Winston, M. (in press). Leadership diversity theory: a public library case study [of Ocean County Library], Public Library Quarterly, 28 pages.

Ohio Library Council Diversity Awareness and Resources Committee
http://www.olc.org/diversity/index.html
Age, disability, gender, religion, sexual orientation and ethnicity are addressed in well annotated links about adaptive technology, best practices, children’s services, language resources, professional development, selection aids and vendors, sample job descriptions, and much more. This valuable, inspiring website engenders such pride in our profession.

Riccucci, N. (2002). Managing diversity in public sector workforces. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
“Strategies and initiatives relied upon by public sector employers as well as the implications of effectively managing variegated workforces for the overall governance of American society.”

Walsh, J. (1995). Mastering diversity: managing for success under ADA & other anti-discrimination laws. Santa Monica, CA: Merritt Pub.
Employers will benefit from the explanations of issues ranging from sexual harassment to family and medical leave rights.

Winston, Mark. Diversity: More Than Just A Blip. (editorial). College & Research Libraries. 62 (January 2001): 6-8.
Research shows a correlation between diversity and success of organizations. Libraries are accountable for the preparation and continuing education of the country’s workforce.

Winston, M. (2001). The importance of leadership diversity: the relationship between diversity and organizational success in the academic environment. College & Research Libraries, 62, 517-526.
Applying private sector lessons that diverse staffs effectively target various market segments, librarians also can reach out to diverse communities. When we define priorities around a combination of organizational success and social responsibility, we provide responsive services that truly benefit our constituencies.

Winston, M., ed. (1999). Managing multiculturalism and diversity in the library: principles and issues for administrators. Lanham, MD: Haworth Press. Also published as 1999 theme issue on diversity, Journal of Library Administration. 27 (1/2).
The introductory statement sets the tone in this volume, which strides beyond generalized calls for pluralism to “defining what is meant by the concept of diversity, clarifying why it is important to address issues of diversity in a professional, interpersonal, and societal context, identifying goals related to diversity, and determining how to go about achieving those goals. In addition, it is necessary for us to define what is meant by success in achieving goals related to diversity.”

See also Staffing.

Training

Diversity Training

Bormann, T., Woods, S., et al. (2001). Resources for workplace diversity: an annotated practitioner guide to information. The Workplace Diversity Network: A Joint Project of The National Conference for Community and Justice and Cornell University ILR. http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/extension/wdn/links.html
Strategic approaches, team building, working across cultures, personal/work life conflicts, and theoretical frameworks (including opposing views), along with a directory of relevant organizations, training guides, and consultants. The 63-page document concludes with a detailed index.

Diversity Articles
http://www.diversitydtg.com/articles/article_mnu.html
A consulting firm’s offering of best practices, success stories, and arguments for diversity initiatives making good business sense.

Kavanagh, B.F., & Bucher, R. (2000). Diversity consciousness: opening our minds to people, cultures, and opportunities. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Covers teamwork, conflict management, racism, prejudice, and communication

Self-awareness, Cultural Competence and Communication Styles

ALA: Equity of Access
http://tinyurl.com/529cw
Use this checklist as guide for assessing how your library is addressing equity and setting goals for improvement.

Communicate to Make a Difference: Exploring Cross-Cultural Communication
http://www.nynj-phtc.org/cc/
Although this free, web-based interactive course is designed for public health professionals, it presents information of interest to all who work with a culturally diverse clientele. Learning objectives include:
o Increase the participant's awareness of his/her own cultural framework, including core assumptions in public health
o Recognize and choose effective methods/strategies for unbiased communication
o Develop increased awareness of diversity
o Understand how and why stereotypes/generalizations are created
Once you register and log in, you may complete the course at your own pace within a 45-day period. Completion requires approximately six hours. Developed by the UMDNJ - School of Public Health-Office of Public Health Practice, in collaboration with the New York New Jersey-Public Health Training Center.

Culturally Competent Services: Bibliography of Materials. http://tinyurl.com/3unw4
Prepared by the staff of the Maternal and Child Health Library of Georgetown University, this list of materials about cultural competencies for health care services have wide application to libraries.

Evaluating Current Training in Cultural and Linguistic Competence http://www.omhrc.gov/clas/sec7ck1.htm
Answers to this self-study will determine continuing education needs for staff.

Henderson, G. (1999). Our souls to keep. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural.
The author, dean of the College of Liberal Studies at the University of Oklahoma, elucidates some African American communication styles that white Americans may not understand.

Herbst, P.H. (2001). Wimmin, wimps, and wallflowers: an encyclopedic dictionary of gender and sexual orientation bias in the United States. Intercultural Press.
Etymology, the history of usage, current meanings and contemporary examples.

Holcomb, T.K, & Mindess, A. (2001). See what I mean: differences between deaf and hearing cultures. Eye to Eye Productions. El Paso, TX
“A humorous and enlightening look at the differences between Deaf and hearing cultures…helps viewers see Deaf culture with the same perspective as other world cultures.”

Implicit Association Test https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/selectatest.html
Explore your self-awareness around age, gender, race, sexuality, ethnicity, and weight

Institutional Audit Checklist
http://www.omhrc.gov/clas/checklist4.pdf
A self-evaluation for organizations to determine the current status of responsiveness to diverse communities, this document was prepared by the U.S. Office of Minority Health but is pertinent to libraries.

Intercultural Communication Institute
http://www.intercultural.org/
Along with a substantial resources list are the valuable Intercultural Development Inventory (measuring cultural sensitivity) and the very revealing Intercultural Conflict Style Inventory (identifying fundamental approaches for resolving conflict across cultural and ethnic differences).

Liu, M., & Redfern, B. (1997). Information-seeking behavior of multicultural students: A case study at San Jose University. College & Research Libraries, 58(4), 348-354.
“This study investigated how [college] students from diverse ethnic groups discover, select, and use information and the impact their cultural and educational backgrounds have on information-seeking behavior.”

Multicultural Pavilion: Resources and Dialogues for Equity in Education
http://www.edchange.org/multicultural
Librarians may recognize, in the “Lists, Tools, and Factsheets” pages, “Stages of Multicultural School Transformation” and “So You Think You’re an Anti-Racist.” Along with these and other self-awareness instruments are “Multicultural Education Paths,” (links to websites of use to teachers and learners at all levels).

National Association of Social Workers. (2001). NASW standards for cultural competence in social work practice. http://www.naswdc.org/practice/standards/NASWCulturalStandards.pdf
Ethics and values, self awareness, cross-cultural knowledge, cross-cultural skills, service delivery, empowerment and advocacy, diverse workforce, professional education, language diversity, cross-cultural leadership.

Seymour, R. (2000). 8 Steps toward cultural competence.
http://poynteronline.org/content/content_view.asp?id=9530&sid=5
Some guidelines for communication, originally written by the Poynter Institute for journalists, but useful to anyone.

The Soft Handshake…And 9 Other Myths about Interviewing Good Candidates. [2002]
http://www.notrain-nogain.org/Divers/interv.asp
Misinterpreted body language may deprive employers of excellent workers, even as it discriminates against a wide range of people.

Stringer, D., & Cassiday, P.A. (2003). 52 activities for exploring values difference. Yarmouth, ME: Intercultural Press.
The activities, complete with reproducible directions for participants, cover a broad spectrum…those who prefer experiential activities and those who learn best if they can reflect on ideas.

Summary of Normative Communication Styles and Values
http://www.awesomelibrary.org/multiculturaltoolkit-styleschart.html
Read a brief but thoughtful essay and then discover “My Communication Style” working with others and compare it to “Normative Communication Styles” to learn your differences. Then you may develop “a strategy to bridge those differences.”

Understanding Prejudice (2004).
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/
“…more than 2,000 links to prejudice-related resources, as well as searchable databases with hundreds of prejudice researchers and social justice organizations. Very useful for self-searching, as well as for sharing with others.