THIS SESSION REQUIRED RESERVATION DURING REGISTRATION.

Professional library and archives associations recognize the value of cultural competency skills in contributing to the advancement of diversity, equity, inclusion, and access (DEIA). Cultural competency (CC) is the ability to function with awareness, knowledge, and interpersonal skill when engaging people of different backgrounds, assumptions, beliefs, values, and behaviors. In this session participants will be challenged to examine personal perceptions and introduced to strategies that will increase their ability to employ CC. In 2007, the American Library Association (ALA) Committee on Diversity successfully recommended that the ALA Policy on Diversity include goals for inclusive and culturally competent library and information services. In 2012, the Association of College and Research Libraries offered the basic framework for its concept of cultural competence. In 2022, the ACRL Board of Directors approved “Cultural Proficiencies for Racial Equity: A Framework,” which calls on libraries to have a “have a clear and realistic plan to evaluate cultural competencies within their organizations and must demonstrate openness to critically look inward and make the necessary changes.” The framework refers to the related concepts of cultural humility and cultural fluidity and asserts cultural competency is limited as a construct but acknowledges its ubiquity and its utility.