10 Surprising Ways To Offend People In Other Countries

This video is fun and informative! I really had a good time watching it, and I hope you will enjoy it too!!

ALA launched "Diversity Counts" in 2006 a great tool for diversity data research

Introduction

In October 2006, the American Library Association (ALA) released "Diversity Counts," a comprehensive study of gender, race, age and disability statues in the library profession. To complete the study, the American Library Association worked with Decision Demographics, a research firm in Arlington, Virginia, to analyze available U.S. data for the industry of “library.” Diversity Counts used 1990 and 2000 Census data to develop estimates for the distribution of gender, race, age and disability status within the library profession.

In many ways, Diversity Counts provided a benchmark for the initiatives of the American Library Association, documenting the state of the profession before the launch of several diversity recruitment initiatives—most notably the Spectrum Scholarship Program begun in 1997. It also served as a call to action, demonstrating progress within the profession, but confirming the continued need to invest time and resources into the recruitment of a more diverse workforce.

Since its release, Diversity Counts has been used by many researchers, program managers, and advocates as a tool to demonstrate the need for increased diversity recruitment within the profession. As the American Library Association and other programs have continued their work and embarked on new initiatives, there has been a regular and steady call to continue the work of Diversity Counts to help document the diversity of the profession. (...)

For full view of  ALA "Diversity Counts" description, please access link bellow. 

Reference: American Library Association. (1996-2014). Diversity Counts 2009-2010 Update. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/offices/diversity/diversitycounts/2009-2010update. 

Celebrating Cultures Around The World

A very interesting piece about diversity-related doctoral dissertations in LIS

Hey everyone!!

This past week I read a very interesting scholar article, and I would like to share my findings with you.  This was related to a school assignment for the Research Methods in Library & Information Science class.  Full citation of this piece follows before my writing.  Hope you all will enjoy it as much as I did!

Subramaniam, M.M., Rodriguez-Mori, H., Jaeger, P.T., & Hill, R. (2012).  The implications of a decade of diversity-related doctoral dissertations (2000-2009) in LIS: supporting inclusive library practices. Library Quarterly, 82 (3), 361-377.

This study was conducted among ALA accredited LIS schools in order to reveal the relevancy of diversity-related topics in doctoral dissertations in the field of Library and Information Science covering a period of 9 years, from 2000-2009.  The objectives were to raise awareness about the need to prepare our librarians and libraries to serve in a better way all types of diversity (gender, religion, age, gender, race, religion, physical disabilities, socio-economic backgrounds, sexual orientation, and thinking styles), and to promote awareness within the educational institutions in a sense that more courses on diversity would be offered to prospective LIS students. As stated by Subramaniam, M.M., Rodriguez-Mori, H., Jaeger, P.T., & Hill, R. (2012):

Libraries and other information organizations either are currently or will be serving an ever more racially diverse national population. The nation is becoming more diverse, but LIS is not embracing this change in its research, particularly in research that will support libraries in providing services, resources, programs, and outreach that will meet the needs of these diverse communities and patron populations.

Data for this study was collected from dissertations’ abstracts retrieved from ProQuest Dissertations and Thesis Database.  A list of 44 diversity terms were originated to analyze the content of such abstracts and to prove the level of relevancy of such terms within these dissertations  A total of 216 LIS dissertations were analyzed, and a total of 08 spreadsheets were created to illustrate the study results.  This study revealed that 89 dissertations from the total of 216 dissertations analyzed were diversity-related doctoral dissertations.  It also revealed that only 22.2% of recent LIS graduates had the option to take a course related to diversity in their program, and 21.3% of LIS recent graduates pointed out they didn’t know how to proceed in order to work with diverse groups.  Other factors that caught my attention during the examination of this study were:

·          Hispanic population increased 15.2 million between 2000 & 2009 in U.S.;

·          From 2000 to 2010, 83% of the U.S. population was non-white;

·          48% of all children born is U.S. nowadays come from minority groups;

·          And by 2050, minorities groups will represent a total of 54% of the U.S. total population.

In conclusion, it is clear that a need to include diversity in our LIS programs and libraries is a reality which is expanding faster and faster as the nation demographics changes rapidly.  As stated by Subramaniam, M.M., Rodriguez-Mori, H., Jaeger, P.T., & Hill, R. (2012):

The belief that it is essential to help all individuals who enter the library by providing materials and services that reflect the diverse range of perspectives and groups in society has been the underlying foundation to the code of ethics and the bill of rights of the American Library Association

Here are some Excel tables which were created in this study report for your knowledge, and better understanding of this study.