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This article originally appeared in the Winter 2003 edition of Colorado Libraries.

Can diversity be implemented in the absence of cultural competency? With a focus on libraries and their services to the community at large, I will try to explore this topic, keeping in mind that, in the absence of cultural competency, even fair and just implementations of meaningful and authentic inclusiveness are hollow, cannot be achieved, and will lack the impact intended.

In striving for diversity, libraries try to be inclusive in their programming, services, hiring, policies, collections, and relations with the various communities and organizations that support them. Diversity in this sense is the practical side (the hands on) of multiculturalism as a concept. It takes diversity to a higher level of understanding of the issues that face our society in general.

All of us want to do the "right thing," but what is right for some cultures is not right for others. Is it culturally accurate to say and implement, for example, the "golden rule" of treating people the way you want to be treated? How about finding out how members of other cultures want to be treated and use that as a guideline? This is one of the measuring sticks that enables us to find out how competent we are in some of our approaches to these societal issues.

The first step in cultural competency is in acknowledging the fact that we don’t know enough about other cultures. Then we need to agree that different people have different experiences, viewpoints and stories, sometimes contradictory ones. Yet each story and viewpoint carries its own truth as individual and authentic. Each viewpoint and experience is a valuable part of the whole picture and needs to be addressed and respected.

Some of the newcomers and minorities share the experience of "self-inflicted otherness." In homogeneous societies, or societies that require conformity for acceptance, the other is everyone who is different and does not fit, who is not us. Like internalized racism, "self-inflicted otherness," acts like the internal destroying agent to what the other holds dear, that which shapes the identity and gives the will to survive. Not only do newcomers and minorities share this, but they also share personal and collective trauma. They are almost always patronized and considered intellectually inferior or inadequate. Most of these people are survivors, all struggling to live a "normal" life in a divided community, some segments of which are more hostile towards them than others. In addition, some of these communities suffer more than others, regardless of their legal status in this country.

Certain segments of these communities are portrayed at times as "dangerously" different.  I consider these groups to be at-risk communities. Their mental health is suffering. They are exceptionally anxious, unsettled, insecure, and live with fear and nervousness. They feel the need to justify their own existence and activities. They are being violated and rejected and are put on the defensive with every interaction they experience.

When these communities (newcomers and minorities) come to the library, especially the public library, it is sometimes the only and last safe and welcoming place left in their lives. By the time they are at our doors they have already experienced discrimination at every stop on their way: the gas station, school, workplace, restaurant...the list goes on.

We need to recognize and admit that our society suffers from biases, stereotypes, prejudices, racism and institutional racism. It is not something we need to feel guilty about, nor should we be held responsible for the situation as long as we are working to end these injustices.

Keeping the above in mind as a background, how do we achieve cultural competency? First, we need to accept that we don’t know or are not aware of certain issues or cultures. Second, we sincerely need to seek knowledge from authentic sources. Because of the nature of the history of the United States of America, it is one of only a few countries in the world that has the capability of learning about various world cultures from the most authentic sources and resources, the people themselves. By consulting people from these communities during the process of achieving cultural competency, we gain authenticity and avoid cultural appropriation.

It is of utmost importance that we acknowledge that what is being learned does not make us experts or spokespeople, that we do not take over or try to represent an issue or a cause.  It is, after all, not our cause. Culturally competent diversity is, in a way, the ability to create a safe space to allow the owners of the cause or the issue to express their needs and aspirations and help fulfill them. These people need to come up with an idea, a project, a program or service, which might take a life of its own. Our role is to help them implement it. We need to empower them with information about our organizations, our policies, and how we function. In general, what do they need to do to make things work?  This will empower these communities with the information that allows them a space and allows us the opportunity for diversification and inclusion.

We should not lose sight of community issues and needs; as librarians, all of us are community activists. We need to pursue learning and come up with diverse approaches and techniques that will lead to improving our skills and job performance.

We also need to have the luxury of taking anything that comes our way with the will to seriously consider it, whether we have the time or not, even if what’s requested doesn’t fit what we’re doing at that point. We don’t know when it will fit into future projects that are not in sight at this moment. The sincerity of our openness will gain us many diverse ideas and learning styles that we all need; it will help us avoid patronizing. It will help us value all members of the minority communities as individuals who are the main component of our new collective wisdom.

We should start programs, services, and projects that can take on lives of their own and that we are able to let go of after a while, content to remain in the background helping things to move forward. This would be easily achieved through collaborations and networking with community organizations, schools, and businesses.

When working with diverse populations, and any population for that matter, we need to be aware that there are no “Ten Steps To...” but rather a culture of ongoing learning and teaching that goes beyond recipes for success.

We need to get involved in communities rather than surveying them. Our daily involvement is our way to gather information about their needs and aspirations. All library staff  members need to be  outreach agents for the library.

We need to be aware that these communities are exhausted from being surveyed and "celebrated" from being seen as exotic. We need to celebrate what they suggest for us to celebrate and work to help them do programs and projects the way they see fit. They need to be included in the decision-making process and in the implementation and evaluation of their suggested programs and services. The more ownership they have of their ideas, the more successful the implementation will be and the more time we will have to develop and evolve as learning individuals and institutions

The library’s environment —the physical place, the building, the meeting rooms, etc.— should reflect our inclusive policies and approaches. We should not shy away from translating literature such as signage, the library calendar of events, policies, etc.  At the same time, it is important to find the need rather than assuming that it exists and waste time and money just to look culturally diverse. Our programs, exhibits, author talks, music concerts or film programs  should strive to invite and include all cultures and diverse communities, especially the under-served and the under-represented.

Our collections should also include languages other than the English language. Our book clubs or discussion groups should introduce world literature; there is nothing better or more effective than learning a culture through literature and art.

When working for the first time with a community we do not know much about, we need to ask first and not assume. We need to check our own stereotypes and recognize that this community has its own stereotypes as well. We need to think of people as equals and not as charity cases. We should not fit them in our “own story.” We need to listen to their stories and find common grounds that help all of us move forward regardless of differences. We need to listen without pre-judgment or a pre-existing agenda. What makes us think, for example, that if we learn about Islam as a religion, it will help in understanding the recent violent events? Do we understand the Native American Indian experience after Columbus if we learn about Christianity as a religion?

Think of people as individuals and not as representatives of the cultures they come from. Think of them as authentic resources that know more than we do about their own cultures, issues and what matters to them most.

We need to be flexible in our approaches, keeping in mind that we do not negotiate matters of principle, especially regarding the civil and the human rights of people. Let them express their special needs, if any. Let us not assume that they have special needs. What is needed is better service on our part. What is needed is a better and safer environment for under-represented and under-served populations to enjoy and to allow a better quality of life.

When doing programs, we need to balance representation and points of view. Keep the bigger picture in mind as well as the point of view or story that is less heard, misrepresented, or totally unknown or undocumented. Keep in mind what the community at large needs to know  in order to enrich and broadens its views. We need to value stories and points of view whether we agree with them or not. We should not see differences as dangerous, mysterious, or "out-of-the-ordinary."

Hiring, mentoring, training, and retaining staff from diverse cultures is a key for successfully implementing the above. It is only fair and logical that people, regardless of the differences that separate them and make them who they really are, be given equal access and opportunity to be included. Much has been written and advocated for lately about the combined percentage of minority population numbers in the year 2020. This should not, in my opinion, change our approaches but rather enhance them. We need to continue to adhere to the fact that people are people, regardless. If we have a minority population, it still needs to be treated with the same respect, equality, equity and inclusion, regardless. Hiring staff, not as tokens of their cultures but for their skills and capacities, and announcing it as such, helps in easing the tension that some staff members who don’t deal well with changes in general feel. It is helpful if changes are seen as added skills rather than added duties. A culturally competent inclusion of staff from diverse communities should reflect only the shared ethics and commitment that we adhere to through awareness and education.

Diversity, multi-cultural and cross-cultural training for staff, board members and volunteers (training that includes input from the attendees and is tailored to library culture and function) is essential to secure an ongoing learning process, to the evolution of new services and programs, and to the improvement of the existing programs.

Ignorance and resistance to change can lead to wrong actions. We need to balance our role as leaders (we are the information source) with the communities’ needs, level of awareness, and willingness to be involved. This balance will lessen the intimidation some people feel around those  "who know more" or who have access to information.

Librarians and staff who deal with diversity issues need to get support for them to be sustained. To be effectively successful in this process, the tone needs to be set from above: the administration. When library administrations, library commissions and/or advisory boards adopt a policy of inclusion and diversity, it should be widely publicized to both the public and to the staff. If changes occur, they need to be well backed up with both the data and the philosophy that contributed to the implemented changes. This should be regarded as a priority of the library’s functions and goals and will more likely contribute to our striving for excellence.

When typing in a language other than the English language, the word processing application program usually underlines in red or highlights the "foreign," "unfamiliar," "unrecognizable" words. So, the whole document, depending on how many of those "alien" words are being used, looks decorated with smudges of unreadable words, telling us bluntly that they don’t belong. There is no place for them to look normal or familiar because they are not in the dictionary (memory) of the application program, unless individually added. This is how most of minorities and newcomers feel in their every day life. They are not recognizable, nor are they familiar. They are foreign. If included at all, they decorate but are never part of the whole picture.

I think our mission is to add minorities to our dictionary. Sometime in the near future, all our individual work will allow for a meaningful inclusion of these communities as integral and essential parts of the whole picture, the whole society.  I hope that in the near future we don’t need outreach librarians or outreach staff; that’s how I’ll know we’ve achieved these goals.

Ghada Elturk is the Outreach Librarian at the Boulder (CO) Public Library.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.