Diversity Now: People, Collections, and Services in Academic Libraries

Citation

Hurych, J. (2003), "Diversity Now: People, Collections, and Services in Academic Libraries", Collection Building, Vol. 22 No. 3, pp. 149-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/cb.2003.22.3.149.3

Editors of this work served on the program committee for the Diversity Now conference, held in Austin, Texas, 3‐4 April 2000, where the papers selected for this volume originated. The 16 contributed papers cover “best practice” in dealing with diversity in academic libraries. They are divided into four sections.

The first two sections deal with people. Chapters on recruitment and retention discuss issues related to minority students as well as faculty of color. Various strategies and programs are covered, such as building partnership between the library and campus agencies, professional development for faculty, job satisfaction, benefits, supportive work environment, challenges and opportunities of working in multicultural environment. The authors of chapters on collections and access to collections present the historical context for library resources at African‐American colleges and they advocate librarianship as a desirable profession for African‐American students.

The section on instruction and library education includes chapters on cross‐cultural communication and teaching in a multicultural environment. Described are also individual programs, such as: a course on ethnic studies taught by a librarian, a multicultural storytelling project at Texas A&M University and a case study of indigenous Canadian students’ use of academic libraries and their information needs.

It is a well‐organized collection with a wealth of ideas, models and programs for diverse issues in academic libraries. It is recommended for all college and university libraries.