Native Americans in the U.S. Military is a website produced by the Naval History and Heritage Command. It has a main overview page that lists the beginning of Native Americans involved with U.S. service, then continues with some about the Native American Warrior. The top of the page has links to specific instances in history, including links to Native Americans awarded Medal of Honors, Native Americans role in WWII, and detailed links to various aspects of Navajo Code Talkers. I found this website refreshingly interesting, and I enjoyed its military perspective on culture. While this website mostly is about Native American culture with the military, I also enjoyed its historical context. This is a great website for something a bit different, but still timely in regards to culture.
Here is the direct link: Native Americans in the U.S. Military
Friday, October 22, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Social Bookmark #3: Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2010
The Smithsonian Folklife Festival has already taken place earlier in this current year. The website for the Festival gives great details on what was presented at the Folklife Festival, including the dates for the next one, in 2011. This past year, in 2010, the festival's focus was Mexico and Asian Pacific Americans. The Mexico exhibit explored voices and customs that were native to Mexico before Christopher Columbus. The Asian Pacific American exhibit explores diverse Asian Pacific American cultures by showing off the differences in dance, martial arts, language. The website boosts videos one can watch from the actual event, along with a blog to read, and there are plenty of pictures to enjoy. Overall, this looked to be a very significant cultural event that happened in D.C. Since I live in Richmond, VA, I will try to attend the one next year, since I now know about the event.
Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Friday, October 8, 2010
Scholarly Article #2: Cultural Competence
CULTURAL COMPETENCE: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE PROFESSIONALS by Patricia M. Overall
One of the great points this article makes is about how libraries create multicultural programs without really consulting or knowing the needs of those they hope to serve. On this same note, the author writes, "Among the reasons cited for low library use by members of minority groups are inadequate collections, services, and staffing. On staffing, for example, minority library users note the lack of adequate multilingual staff to assist minority patrons and the lack of library professionals who are knowledgeable and sensitive to language and cultural issues." This is one of the great points this article makes; is about the level of cultural competence most libraries have. Most libraries do take great aims to be culturally compent, but many still fail short of really recogizing what it means.
Another interesting theory in this article is the diagram that shows that general psychology has an underlying assumption that mind and culture are different "spheres" (if you will), but cultural psychology holds to the assumption that mind and culture are linked together, and cannot be seperated. I found this interesting. How many of us have mannerisms or do things unconciously based on the norms of our culture and the values that our culture taught us? The article also mentioned how many cultural norms librarians may not be aware of...such as a person's culturally take on things like even space and gestures. How many of us have our "comfort zones"? Many of us too, I'm sure, have personal spaces where we feel as if someone is invading that space. I wonder how much of our needing even a certain amount of "personal space" might relate to how we were brought up and our cultural values. It is very interesting to me that even culture may run that deep; that it may be ingrained into us and cannot be seperated.
The author suggests that for the LIS professional to develop cultural competence requires three skill-set using inward and outward perspectives: 1) culture domain, which includes developing one's own cultural sense and sense of others; 2) The language domain, which includes building language skills, and having multiliteracies; 3) Ethnicity, which includes recognizing and encouraging rules, regulations, and policies of different ethnicities. I feel if a LIS professional took these steps, even a few of them, they would be closer and better off to really understanding multicultural issues in the library.
This article just helped open me up to how deep the culture issue is, and got me thinking of it in a very pyschological way. It also got me thinking of the way I currently interact with different people, being that I work at a drugstore as a manager. I think about how many customers I sometimes had a hard time understanding and I wonder if I had treated them with enough respect as I struggled to make sense of the words. I hope I have treated them right, but this article has definitely made me understand culture on a deeper level.
References:
Overall, P.M. (2009). Cultural competence: A conceptual framework for library and information science professionals. Library Quarterly, 79 (2) 175-204.
One of the great points this article makes is about how libraries create multicultural programs without really consulting or knowing the needs of those they hope to serve. On this same note, the author writes, "Among the reasons cited for low library use by members of minority groups are inadequate collections, services, and staffing. On staffing, for example, minority library users note the lack of adequate multilingual staff to assist minority patrons and the lack of library professionals who are knowledgeable and sensitive to language and cultural issues." This is one of the great points this article makes; is about the level of cultural competence most libraries have. Most libraries do take great aims to be culturally compent, but many still fail short of really recogizing what it means.
Another interesting theory in this article is the diagram that shows that general psychology has an underlying assumption that mind and culture are different "spheres" (if you will), but cultural psychology holds to the assumption that mind and culture are linked together, and cannot be seperated. I found this interesting. How many of us have mannerisms or do things unconciously based on the norms of our culture and the values that our culture taught us? The article also mentioned how many cultural norms librarians may not be aware of...such as a person's culturally take on things like even space and gestures. How many of us have our "comfort zones"? Many of us too, I'm sure, have personal spaces where we feel as if someone is invading that space. I wonder how much of our needing even a certain amount of "personal space" might relate to how we were brought up and our cultural values. It is very interesting to me that even culture may run that deep; that it may be ingrained into us and cannot be seperated.
The author suggests that for the LIS professional to develop cultural competence requires three skill-set using inward and outward perspectives: 1) culture domain, which includes developing one's own cultural sense and sense of others; 2) The language domain, which includes building language skills, and having multiliteracies; 3) Ethnicity, which includes recognizing and encouraging rules, regulations, and policies of different ethnicities. I feel if a LIS professional took these steps, even a few of them, they would be closer and better off to really understanding multicultural issues in the library.
This article just helped open me up to how deep the culture issue is, and got me thinking of it in a very pyschological way. It also got me thinking of the way I currently interact with different people, being that I work at a drugstore as a manager. I think about how many customers I sometimes had a hard time understanding and I wonder if I had treated them with enough respect as I struggled to make sense of the words. I hope I have treated them right, but this article has definitely made me understand culture on a deeper level.
References:
Overall, P.M. (2009). Cultural competence: A conceptual framework for library and information science professionals. Library Quarterly, 79 (2) 175-204.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Bookmark 2: Library of Virginia: African-American Virginia Trailblazers
This time I wanted to keep my bookmark more local. Being that the Library of Virginia is a large library organization here in downtown Richmond, I wanted to explore its website and was happy when I discovered their African-American trailblazers page. There is an option on the main page to view the 2009 and the 2010 trailblazers. Once you pick a year, it gives you pictures, names, and a brief background about why the selected ten African-Americans are trailblazers in Virginia. I think the state of Virginia has a very important cultural history, for not only races, but as one of the first areas to be explored and settled by the Europeans. Anyways, this is great segment of the Library of Virginia's website, and will teach you a little about the history of African-Americans in Virginia.
Here is the link: Library of Virginia's African-American Trailblazers page
Here is the link: Library of Virginia's African-American Trailblazers page
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