Cultural Humility in Libraries: A Call to Action and Strategies for Success

Cultural Humility in Libraries: A Call to Action and Strategies for Success explores cultural humility as a framework for encouraging ongoing self-education and empathy to enhance understanding of the lived experiences of others. Including insights from more than 30 contributors, it offers best practice strategies tempered by experiences and wisdom and challenges information professionals to embrace cultural humility as a powerful tool for nurturing dialogue, understanding, and positive transformation.

The book is divided into three parts: "What is Cultural Humility?", "Applications in Libraries," and "Voices from the Field." Part I addresses what cultural humility is and the importance and relevance of its role in healthcare. In Part II, the authors describe how they apply principles of cultural humility in their work environments via lessons learned, practical strategies, development opportunities, and challenges when integrating cultural humility in library settings. In Part III, the voices of diverse professionals unpack the application of cultural humility through their lens, sharing their stories of what cultural humility has meant in their lives, how they have applied it in their work, and the challenges they have faced in doing so.

Cultural Humility in Libraries is a call to action for readers to look inward to assess the role and impact of cultural humility in their own lives. In particular, readers are encouraged to deliberately reflect and think critically about how their thoughts, words, and actions impact the people around them.

Shannon Jones (she/her/hers) is the Director of Libraries for the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Prior to her arrival at MUSC, Shannon worked as the Associate Director for Research and Education for Tompkins-McCaw Library for the Health Sciences at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Shannon focuses her research on staff recruitment and retention, diversity, equity, and inclusion in libraries, and leadership in academic health sciences libraries. Shannon is co-editor of Diversity and Inclusion in Libraries: A Call to Action and Strategies for Success. She holds an MLS from North Carolina Central University and an M.Ed. in Adult Learning from Virginia Commonwealth University. She is currently pursuing an Ed.D in Educational Leadership at Charleston Southern University.

Beverly Murphy (she/her/hers) has been a librarian for 40 years and holds a BS in Biology and an MLS from North Carolina Central University. She is the Assistant Director, Communications and Web Content Management at the Duke University Medical Center Library & Archives. She is also the Hospital Nursing Liaison for the Duke Health System and Liaison for the Watts College of Nursing. A Distinguished member of the Academy of Health Information Professionals, Beverly has served in several capacities for the Medical Library Association including service as the first African-American President. She is co-editor of Diversity and Inclusion in Libraries: A Call to Action and Strategies for Success. Her research interests include core competencies; diversity, equity, and inclusion; health literacy; library administration; and EHR and OpenInfobutton Technology.