Friday, November 23, 2012

What are the limits to serving diverse population segments?

Services for people with disabilities are mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act. There are almost endless population segments that a library (any type) might serve. Decision making is in order. How would you answer the question above?

About this blog

From 1977 till 2003, I taught courses with various titles on library services for people with disabilities, as well as library services in prisons and mental hospitals. Over the years, the courses were crunched together into a course called Diversity in Libraries. That course expanded to include all of the above plus services for people from many cultures and many religious perspectives, people from different gender perspectives, older adults, adult new readers, bi-racial, home schoolers ... You get the idea! I also included planning for, managing services, and PR issues. And we looked at employment issues as well. I'll share some of my ideas on these, but I hope that you (librarians and library users) will share your ideas, too.