Dr. Robert Ibarra

Dr. Roberto Ibarra, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of New Mexico, gave a fascinating and thought-provoking keynote address to conference attendees Monday morning. His background in anthropology lent a very scholarly, thorough, and research-oriented tone to his presentation, which focused on the history, current practices, and future directions for academic libraries within the larger context of the students and colleges they serve.

Dr. Ibarra opened with a detailed discussion and breakdown of 3 different "dimensions of diversity" (structural, multicultural and contextual), which helped to frame his larger argument about how librarians can help the "system adjust to the people". Some of the points Dr. Ibarra made regarding this adjustment that struck this librarian as especially cogent are: creating a college community attractive to diverse populations; making systemic changes, not just programmatic changes; and thinking in terms of "attracting and thriving" rather than "recruiting and retention".

Later in his talk, Dr. Ibarra drew our attention to the importance of interpersoanl transactions in a college environment, and the concept of "High Context" versus "Low Context" cultures. In low context cultures (e.g. Northern European cultures) communication focuses on words and tasks. In high context cultures (e.g. Asian, Arab, Middle Eastern, African, American Indian) community and socio-cultural contextualization are necessary for communicating effectively. This means gestures, social setting, tone and social status as well as words and tasks are important for communication. Put another way, words and tasks communicated without context are virtually meaningless in this culture. This knowledge could of course have important implications for librarians working at service desks or providing library instruction.

Dr. Ibarra has written extensively on these topics, giving much more detail and many references for follow-up. I encourage each of you to read his published paper from a past conference presentation, available on the ALA website: 2005 ACRL National Conference paper (PDF).

Submitted by Kate Hess, Newsletter Committee Chair