Diversity exists inside and outside the walls of a library. Diversity is all around us, and in library and media centers we see diversity in many forms. Knowing how to manage diversity, in both internal and external settings, is important because we live in a culturally diverse world, but not only is our world culturally diverse, it is also, socially, economically, physically, and educationally diverse. For a library, that diversity exists in both internal and external customers. Diversity requires a manager to be flexible and to plan accordingly in an ever changing environment. Being able to see things through another person's eyes is difficult, but we must try. Kathleen commented "everyone sees/experiences things differently," so a manager must try to understand where another person is coming from, what their experiences might be. In order to do that, a manger must be clued into the community that they and their organization are serving. Katie mentioned the importance of focusing "on diversity in both populations that you serve and also in staffing." Amy echoed that thought by stating the relevance of "looking at the community being served outside and the staff inside, too." Libraries are anchors in their communities and knowing the population being served is vital to maintaining a libraries relevance. With so many technological advances a library must stay in touch with the community it serves, it must know the needs of the people it is serving and understand the diversity of those being served in order to meet those needs. Inside the library, a manager must understand the diversity among staff members. Failure to acknowledge diversity in the workplace can have legal, as well as ethical and moral, implications.
(Credit: Gardenswartz & Rowe, 1995)
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