Social Bookmark 4: Multiculturalism Rocks!

Multiculturalism Rocks is a primarily a blog about multiculturalism in children’s books; however, the blog does sometime venture into discussing other forms of media.  The blog is written by Nathalie Mvondo, who is also a contributing writer for the Multicultural Review. This blog presents readers with book reviews for books that feature minority characters.  There are also extensive author interviews and numerous links to other websites of interest.  One aspect of this blog that I particularly like is that the author brings up current controversies about books and other media.  One recent post discusses how movies tend to cast white characters in roles that should be for minority actors.   This blog is a great resource for anyone interested in multicultural issues, and this would be a great website for a librarian to look at when s/he is considering how to diversify the library’s collection.

Social Bookmark 3: Skipping Stones

Skipping Stones is a non-profit, multicultural magazine intended for children and teens (approximately ages 8-16).   This magazine is unique because it promotes diversity and children’s writing simultaneously.    The magazine features articles written by adults that discuss diversity and world issues, and it also publishes essays and poems written by children.  This magazine is an excellent resource for teachers and librarians alike.  Both teachers and librarians can use this tool to help children learn about diversity, and they can encourage children to publish here so their voices are also heard.  This site is also a great place to find out about multicultural books because it gives out annual honor awards to outstanding multicultural books and lists of those books can be found on the site.

Scholarly Review 2: "Unequal Legacies"

In her 2006 article “Unequal Legacies: Race and Multiculturalism in the LIS Curriculum”, Christine Pawley discusses the lack of multicultural education within Library and Information Science programs, and how this void in our education programs is hindering the library profession.  Pawley states that we need to think of libraries as “places where whiteness is no longer central and people of color are no longer marginalized. I argue that only by carrying on a continuous discussion about race can we achieve this transformation in LIS imagination” (149).  

            In this quote Pawley is claiming that there is significant problem in the LIS world and this problem needs to be rectified as soon as possible.  Pawley believes that libraries are very white-centered and that we need to work towards being more inclusive. Pawley believes that this change will not happen overnight, and that we will have to continually work to abate this problem. 

            In order to help set some changes in motion Pawley believes that we need to begin by altering the current LIS curriculum.  She is wise to note that we must begin by changing the way we educate our future librarians.  While many people may think that changes must immediately happen in libraries, this is not a realistic goal.  Changes take time, and many people who have worked in libraries for years will be resistant to these changes.   Therefore, in order to the change the collective consciousness of librarians one should start by changing the LIS education process so these new librarians can then take their new way of thinking with them into the working world.  Because the students who are currently in library school are the ones who will one day be the managers of their libraries, they will have influence over how the library is run and then changes can begin to happen on the ground level.

            In her article Pawley does propose a few ways that we can begin to change the LIS curriculum.  Some of her suggestions include hiring educators who are interested in studying race issues, and changing the way we teach so that students learn to think critically (149).  While Pawley does give some good suggestions, I believe that there are also other changes we could make to the LIS curriculum.  I believe that we should have library students spend time in a variety of different libraries, in very different areas, so that they can begin to study the racial make-up of libraries and see where we have been able to incorporate diversity and where we still need to make changes.  Many people do not believe that there is a problem until they are able to see it, and by taking library students out of their comfort zone and allowing them to see how libraries really work they will be more likely to recognize the problem and try to work to correct it.

            Once LIS students finally realize there is a problem, then we can begin to educate them and begin to make libraries more diverse.  It is important that we do this because libraries should be places where everyone is equal.  Libraries are community centers, and the whole community should feel comfortable becoming a patron or an employee.  There should not be one race of people who dominates the field.  A mix of different perspectives is necessary if we truly want to be able to serve all of our patrons to the best of our ability.

References

Pawley, C. (2006). Unequal legacies: Race and multiculturalism in the LIS curriculum.

Library Quarterly, 76, 149-168.