Social Bookmark 2: Bridge culture

The Bridge culture website takes art and culture and combines them to help others understand culture from around the world. This site mostly caters to productions that are available at the Brooklyn Bridge park but also gives many links and information about the many cultures that are involved in these different productions. This site offers a fantastic chance to librarians, especially those in the New York/Brooklyn area, because this blend of dance, music, storytelling and culture helps to educate the people while entertaining them!
http://www.bridgeculture.org/

Article 1: Jaeger, P. T., Bertot, J. C., & Franklin, R. E. (2010). Diversity, inclusion, and underrepresented populations in LIS research.

Jaeger, P. T., Bertot, J. C., & Franklin, R. E. (2010). Diversity, inclusion, and underrepresented

populations in LIS research. Library Quarterly, 80, 175-181.

This article focuses on the lack of diversity in the population of library professionals compared to the widely diverse people whom they assist. With a more diverse library staff it can help encourage young children to become successful by seeing the success of many different types of people working in the library. It is with this thought that research is encouraged to explore the lack of diversity in the library profession and through this research the diversity issues can be addressed.

Research in diversity should be necessary for all professional fields because, as Jaeger states,

“Consistent exposure to this area of research stands as a key means through which students in LIS programs can become ready to provide inclusive information services to the wide range of patrons they will encounter in their professional lives. The diversity of the population in the United States is rapidly increasing and will continue to do so. If students are not aware of the range of issues of diversity, inclusion, and under-representation related to information and the ways to provide services that meet the needs and expectations of diverse populations, these students will not be able to adequately serve their communities or their profession.”

The research of diversity in library science is necessary to, not only keep current, but also be able to better assist those very diverse people who frequent the library. It is through research and study that students and library professionals can truly understand and better assist patrons, because it gives them insight into what they may need and without this knowledge it would be all too easy to have many miscommunication problems arise.

Students, like myself, can gain not only knowledge, but also confidence, by being comfortable in the knowledge that they are able to connect with people easier due to this research into the many issues of diversity that are constantly being faced in the world today. Students are not the only people who can gain from this research, but all library professionals and those involved in the library and information community. With a better understanding of today's issues the LIS community can help enable those who are negatively impacted by their diversity by bringing understanding support and new ideas to help them in any way possible.

Social Bookmark #1: Multicultural Children's Literature

 Multicultural Children's Literature 

(www.multiculturalchildrenslit.com)

This was a great website that I found about the multicultural books that are available and geared toward elementary school children. This is a fantastic resource for Library professionals because it gives a list of books on many different cultures all with summaries. This site helps children and parents to find materials about their own culture or other cultures for a better understanding and acceptance of different cultures. This is a necessary resource for any library professional because the website is constantly being updated with more books and links to websites that are similar in culture and purpose.

Cultural Mosaic

A mosaic is often times seen as a beautiful work of art that takes many smaller parts or pictures and arranges them in such a way as to show an even larger picture. This is very true of a person's cultural mosaic, because in the end everyone is their own work of art that works together to define and show the world who they are. Chao and Moon really came up with the perfect way to help create a definition of an individual's culture, because it allows a person to have multiple cultural identities that can mesh or clash with each other, but never disturb the integrity of who they are. This helps me to identify myself as: Generation Y, Female, American, Catholic, Detroiter, Student, Library Professional, Daughter, Sister, and Cousin.

The most influential aspects of my mosaic are my associative mosaic tiles with my place as a daughter and sister, because my family means everything to me. My parents have supported my four siblings and myself with everything that we have done, which helped to see all of my family members go through college. My parents showed us the value of having a college education and everything that we could achieve with it by both having a college education themselves and from watching my mother go through her master's courses when we were younger. This constant belief in my own innate abilities and the support of all of the family members enabled me to never see any of actions as failings. My place as a Student and Library Professional go hand in hand lately, because I'm working toward my Master's in Library Science. They impact my life by allowing me to gain more confidence in myself as a librarian and to allow me to continue to learn more about a profession that is constantly advancing and changing.

The geographic tiles of my mosaic are mainly as a Detroiter. Growing up in Detroit helped me to see people as people and that skin color, ethnicity, religion, and personal background were not weaknesses, but rather steel cores of strength that one can easily admire. Having lived most of my life growing up in Detroit, next to Harper Woods, I can identify with the nicer side of Detroit while also understanding the pitfalls and traps that many young people can stumble into in the Detroit area.

The demographics that I identify strongest with are that I am American, Catholic, Female, and Generation Y. I feel my American ethnicity has given me a very ingrained sense of being able to do anything that I want to as long as I put my mind to it. My Catholic faith has been an intricate part of my upbringing with Catholic elementary school and high school. I feel that this influences how I treat other people in that I love helping people in any way I can. My being a women of Generation Y I feel has empowered me with the abilities to adapt to any situation (especially computer situations where in the middle of a paper your computer decides it's just not going to work anymore!) and the knowledge that more and more opportunities are opening to me a a women with less of the glass ceiling feeling.

First Post

Hello, world! This is the first official post so that makes me officially a blogger! Super excited about the blog and can't wait to put it to good use!