Go back and get it: Centering local, national, and cultural histories in international LIS education

Kerr, Paulette

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117959 Copy

Description

Title

Go back and get it: Centering local, national, and cultural histories in international LIS education

Author(s)

Kerr, Paulette

Issue Date

2022-10

Keyword(s)

• Cultural competencies
• Local history
• Cultural history
• Caribbean
• The University of West Indies
• Curriculum
• Continuing education
• Education program/schools
• Libraries in developing world
• Academic libraries

Abstract

Deep knowledge of national and cultural histories, and collections is fundamental for librarians, not only for engaging the "other" but for self-reflection and awareness of one's culture and values, and how they drive behavior. In the Caribbean, recent curriculum transformation and renewal have focused on benchmarking North American, and British traditions and practice, in which issues of technology and information were emphasized as against historical considerations, and there remain gaps in the important area of cultural competence (Montiel Overall, 2009; Ouvrard-Prettol, 2017) especially among academic librarians. A new narrative is needed to address this knowledge gap, since for Caribbean LIS professionals, this void relates not to 'other' marginalized, diverse cultures, but their own history and culture. The paper argues that in addition to knowledge of LIS history, there is need to reclaim national, regional, and attendant cultural histories in LIS programs. Strategies for addressing the imbalance in LIS professionals in the Caribbean are detailed.

Series/Report Name or Number

Proceedings of the ALISE Annual Conference, 2022

Type of Resource

text

Language

eng

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/117959

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21900/j.alise.2022.1112

Copyright and License Information

• Copyright 2022 Paulette Kerr
• This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).

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