Cultural humility in libraries

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the idea of cultural humility, distinguish it from cultural competence and explore how it fits within librarianship.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept of humility to understand what cultural humility means and how it differs from cultural competence and other approaches to intercultural communication in libraries.

Findings

Despite some reservations with the term itself, the authors find that a practice of cultural humility is more appropriate to front-line interactions in library contexts than cultural competence models.

Practical implications

Libraries looking to address issues in intercultural communication and services to multicultural populations will find an approach that may be better suited to their contexts than prevailing models of cultural competency.

Social implications

Librarians need to commit to redressing the power imbalances and other structural issues that interfere with library service, for the benefit of the patrons, the library and librarians themselves.

Originality/value

While cultural humility is increasingly being used in librarianship, there has not been a systematic exploration of the concept and how it applies to library contexts.

Citation

Hurley, D.A., Kostelecky, S.R. and Townsend, L. (2019), "Cultural humility in libraries", Reference Services Review, Vol. 47 No. 4, pp. 544-555. https://doi.org/10.1108/RSR-06-2019-0042