Abstract

Preparing Librarians to Serve Diverse Communities Along our Nation's Border

Two California counties border Mexico - San Diego and Imperial Counties. With a wide range of economic, cultural, and linguistic diversity, these counties span a large geographic area that includes the City of San Diego and its surrounding suburbs, as well as numerous isolated rural communities, where 72% of residents are Hispanic, more than half of residents speak a language other than English at home, and nearly a third of residents were born outside the United States.

The 14 public libraries that serve these diverse communities range from two large multi-branch systems to small libraries with one location or with branches that have a single employee. These libraries have joined together to form the Serra Cooperative Library System. As with many other libraries in our nation, Serra libraries struggle to fill a growing number of librarian vacancies. They face the added challenge of filling those vacancies with librarians who understand how to serve the area's diverse communities and who want to live locally. Many Serra libraries, especially in the Imperial Valley, find it difficult to recruit candidates who are willing to work in small libraries where wages are low and overall funding is limited.

Serra library leaders believe the best solution to this challenge is to recruit future Serra librarians from among the 750 paraprofessionals who already staff Serra libraries - individuals who enjoy serving a diverse population, who reflect the community's rich diversity, and who want to live and work locally. In support of that solution, we propose to offer scholarships and other types of assistance to address the barriers that Serra paraprofessionals face when they choose to pursue an MLIS degree. Serra's leaders will create a supportive environment and a professional network for a distributed group of MLIS students, helping them balance family and work responsibilities with the demands of a graduate program delivered through distance learning.

Each year, we will remove barriers to MLIS program recruitment and retention by providing scholarships and other support to 20 Serra paraprofessionals. Through widespread recruitment efforts and careful screening of scholarship applicants, along with opportunities for professional networking and local support, we will increase the number of individuals who obtain an MLIS degree and understand how to effectively serve isolated rural communities, as well as multicultural and multi-linguistic communities.

In addition to financial assistance for selected Serra paraprofessionals, we will offer local workshops, open to all individuals who want to learn more about librarianship - bringing an expanded understanding of how libraries can meet the needs of diverse populations and an increased awareness of the various career pathways available in librarianship. Many Serra paraprofessionals are geographically isolated, and will benefit from the opportunity to network with peers and librarians from other communities at our workshops and at local professional conferences. Virtual networking will also be available to all Serra MLIS students through dedicated online space provided by our partner, the San Jose School of Library and Information Science. Serra's librarians will mentor our scholarship recipients, serving as role models and helping prepare students for the transition to professional positions. The entire community will be able to explore careers in librarianship at a local career fair, and all Serra MLIS students will have the opportunity to participate in local internships. Even after the grant ends, we commit to continuing to offer the mentoring program, online peer networking, local internships, local workshops, and local career fairs - all geared at growing a new generation of librarians who draw upon their community roots and cultural competency to design and deliver services that are truly relevant to local needs along our nation's border.