Could you take a second to answer this question for me? If you need another option, just leave a comment. Thanks!
It IS Asian Pacific Heritage Month! The Hub is running a nice Asian themed series which began with Cindy Pon and most recently featured Asian themed books. How are you celebrating this month?
One of the main purposes of blogging is to speak what’s on your mind. I don’t expect bloggers to have my same perspective on anything, but if you’re going to put it out there, be willing listen to opinions that may challenge what you say. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, as my mom would say! Recently blogger Jen Doll was criticized for provided an all white listing of outstanding YA girl characters of color. After much criticism, she paused, reflected and shared this.
I was just this morning reading an interesting post on a library blog that took thoughts from outside the library world and did a very interesting job of applying the principles to how libraries should evolve. Well, until I got to this.
My take – Celebrate diversity: How interesting it is to read in Kawasaki’s article that “former teachers make the best salespeople because they ask a lot of questions”. Often times our library patrons forget that those of us working in school libraries are teachers. With the dual qualification of teacher and librarian, we hold a powerful range of skills to engage and assist. Don’t lose sight of it! With the essential support of librarians, library technicians, library assistants and a range of volunteers working hand in hand with teacher librarians, we present our patrons with a very diverse range of talent, knowledge and skill.
While we all certainly all have diverse views on what diversity is, I found this one to be quite limited. So I posted a response which said something like “I was really enjoying this list until I got to the fourth item. If librarians are not able to see the world outside their own race, religion or sexual preference then they’re limiting their effectiveness. Librarians should open the world to those they serve.”
I say my response was something like that because my response was deleted! The only ones that remained were responses that praised the author for such a nice post. Talk about lacking diversity, about limited perspective! I cannot assume any ethnic or religious identity on this person, but I can clearly see someone who is controlling and limiting what could be a dynamic and engaging conversation. It really felt like the hand of someone who feels rather entitled and maintains a rather limited view of how immensely diverse the work really is.
Then, there’s the issue of deleting comments. I’ve done that quite sparingly. Most notably, when I kept going back and forth with someone who disagreed with me because I didn’t like a book. I’ve also deleted comments when I’ve posted a grant or scholarship and someone thought I was providing the funding. Other than that (and spam), I provide an open mic.
Many librarians, educato
Fascinating post. I really enjoyed the links to the ATLANTIC pieces since I’d not read them before. I’m glad she responded with the follow-up article. And Pinterest? I still don’t even know what it is let alone how it works!
Wow! Just noticed your pingback on my latest post and thought I’d explore further by visiting here. I’m totally taken aback by your comments above though. A few facts to clarify:
First up, . although the content of this particular post is about school libraries, my blog which you quote from – NovaNews – is not a library blog, but rather a blog reflecting my online learning journey.
Secondly, and most importantly, is the accusation of deleting your comment. No way would I delete comments posted to my blog consciously. In the interests of an open forum, if anyone takes issues with what I write, I would in fact post it and then respond. If I did, however, inadvertently, delete your comment, this may have been in the process of quickly viewing comments posted by someone I’d not ‘met’ before. Your comment unfortunately came in with some spam – a happening I’ve experienced very rarely. As you can see, the pingback alerting me to your post sits alongside other comments I’ve received to date. If my intention was to not allow negative comments to be posted on my blog, publishing this pingback would not have occurred. Please accept my sincere apologies for inadvertently deleting your comment. I’d be pleased if you would re-post your comment so I could reply there.
In brief though, my reference to Kawasaki’s fourth point “Celebrate Diversity” did, in fact, only elaborate on half of his point – that of teachers making great Apple salespeople. Conscious of not wanting to make my post too long, I chose only segments of Kawaskai’s comments to elaborate upon. By choosing to elaborate on Kawasaki’s comments about teachers being great Apple salespeople but not on his comments about the “diversity of customers”, or in library terms – patrons, should not in any way be construed by you or your readers that I am unwelcoming of the diverse range of patrons who populate our libraries. As you so clearly point out, discrimination on the basis of race, religion or sexual preference is totally unacceptable.
Hi NovaNews,
Thanks for responding.