Social Bookmarking 3: Irish Culture and Customs

Irishcultureandcustoms.com

The Irish culture and customs website is a great example of an entire culture being accessible to everyone through the internet. This site explores all aspects of the Irish culture and their customs from literature to everyday life in modern Ireland to the myths and superstitions of Ireland in honor or Halloween. This look into the culture of the Irish people brings understanding and humor to the differences and similarities of culture and life from one town to the next. This site explores all aspects of Ireland and even has a section that helps visitors to understand some Irish phrases and words that would be helpful for anyone who may decide to visit Ireland on their own so as to avoid trouble or to help get out of a tough situation.

Social Bookmarking 3: One Society Many Cultures

http://www.onesocietymanycultures.org/

One Society Many cultures is a great website not only for it's message of acceptance of all cultures but also for it's ability to get information about all these different cultures out to the public. With news about the breaking stories dealing with different cultures this site allows everyone to keep current with what is happening in today's world along with giving the reader a background in the different terms used in today's world dealing with culture. With it's base in London they also have demonstrations and gatherings so that others can come out and meet to talk and support each other about the most current topics that are present.

Article 2: Diversity and intercultural issues in library and information science (LIS) education

Abdullahi, I. (2007). Diversity and intercultural issues in library and information science (LIS)

education. New Library World, 108(9/10), 453-459.

This article focuses on four characteristics that the best LIS teachers and library professionals have utilized to successfully reach out to the diverse population. First, LIS professionals need to be conscious of the sociocultural issues that exist in the world today so that they can see the impact that location and culture have upon individuals. This is important to LIS professionals because through understanding your own sociocultural identity you can understand the connection between the purpose of the library and the needed interaction from a library professional. Through this understanding, LIS professionals can help break down social barriers that have been created or perpetuated through discrimination by helping students and patrons to see diversity as a chance to improve . This is the second characteristic that allows LIS professionals to better help diverse populations - seeing students of all backgrounds as intelligent contributors to the classroom. The third characteristic is seeing oneself as a person responsible for bringing about change that would lead to schools being more accepting and receptive to all students. LIS professionals must “be the change” so that they can influence and affect all those who they come in contact with and to be aware and accepting of the cultural diversity in the library. Lastly, LIS professionals and teachers must assist in building upon current knowledge of students and using this to help expand knowledge beyond previous boundaries. These teachers must use the previous tenets to help students in creating new ideas in order to understand the world rather than depending on previous memorized knowledge.

These four qualities serve as the organizing framework for infusing attention to diversity throughout the library education curriculum. They represent the conceptual strands to be woven throughout the learning experiences of prospective librarians in coursework and fieldwork so that, collectively, those experiences cultivate the qualities of culturally responsive information professionals.

This quote by Abdullahi’s Diversity and intercultural issues in library and information science (LIS) education is extremely important because these characteristics are exactly what are needed to help create culturally conscious librarians. These four characteristics describe how a library professional must conduct themselves around students or library patrons to really make a great librarian. Each of the four characteristics are a skill that needs to be learned, but that involves using it in conjunction with all other skills to make it the most effective. Social consciousness, helping students see themselves as a contribution rather than a hindrance, being an agent on change, and building upon current cultural knowledge to create and accept new cultural ideas all are needed to reach the peak library professionalism and improve the lives of all of those they interact with.

It is incredibly important for the LIS community to both attend these classes and to eventually be able to teach these classes, because it gives a depth of understanding to the library professional and the community. These characteristics allow for a better understanding between cultures and, if properly utilized by the library professionals, it can become a starting point for incorporating ideas and acceptance of different cultural ideas to help create better programs and activities that are available to the patrons. These characteristics are incredibly important to the development of a degree in library and information sciences because without these skills you can only be as effective as the stereotypes that you may or may not be perpetuating because of a personal lack of knowledge. Without classes to teach library professionals these skills, and much more, the library would not be able to be the agent of change that it so drastically needs to be in relation to acceptance of different cultures.

The idea of multicultural classes and introducing students to sociocultural consciousness of both the individual and society should be mandatory to attend, because of the inherent knowledge you learn not only about yourself, but also about different cultures and the hardships and triumphs that they have been involved in. With knowledge of multiple cultures, it becomes easier to connect to different people, which makes assisting them easier and a much more comfortable situation. Without this knowledge of different cultures, it is harder to predict the needs of different patrons, leading to miscommunication, confusion, frustration and the inability to properly assist the person.

The lack of any one of these characteristics would leave a wide gap that would make the overall aim much less effective. If any of these skills were compromised, it would effect the individual's ability to properly utilize the other skills because they are so deeply intertwined. For example, without sociocultural consciousness, you would not be able to add to a student's knowledge base hindering them from creating new ideas and continuing learning on their own. It is imperative that all four skills are taught for this very reason.

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.