Over the past two decades there have been numerous committees and several organizations which sought to address the area of cultural diversity. Some of these efforts have focused on specific ethnic groups while others have been multi-ethnic. For example, affiliates of the American Library Association include REFORMA (the National Association to Promote Library Services to the Spanish Speaking); the Black Caucus; the Chinese American Librarians Association; the Korean American Librarians Association; the Ethnic Materials Information Exchange; and the American Indian Library Association. The Association of College and Research Libraries has a Task Force on Recruitment of Under-represented Minorities. At the statewide level the California State Library has funded several initiatives, the latest being Partnerships for Change.
During the latter part of the 1980s, the University made a renewed effort concerning cultural diversity. One of the principal initiatives which included a concern for libraries was a conference sponsored by the Presidents Committee on Undergraduate Education (PACUE) entitled "Cultural Diversity in Undergraduate Education: What's Working, What Could Work?" J. Ariel, a librarian from the Irvine campus, organized a session where librarians and faculty explored ways to integrate culturally diverse issues into the curriculum. The session highlighted the demographic, political, and cultural changes rapidly taking place in American society. One of the outcomes of this session was a call for the University to establish a system-wide ethnic librarians' group.
At the system-wide level, Library Council, a group made up of University Librarians, Office of the President staff and a Librarian Association of the University of California (LAUC) representative, also began discussing diversity during this period. Their discussions focused on culturally diverse collections, access and preservation and called for a meeting of librarians responsible for providing service within these areas. The convergence of these last two efforts helped establish the Ethnic Studies Librarians Network.
During this same period S. Starr, then President of LAUC, conducted a Delphi study to determine what issues librarians within the University considered most pressing. While the results did not initially put cultural diversity within the top three items, S. Starr re-prioritized it to be so. She recommended statewide workshops on cultural diversity to the LAUC Executive Committee. The Executive Committee affirmed her recommendation and asked her to meet with librarians in order to develop a proposal to carry out the workshops.
Several librarians met on August 8, 1989 at UCLA to draft a proposal for the workshops. Also discussed were the topics to be presented and the presentation format for these programs, as well as the recommendations for an ad hoc committee to fulfill the charge. S. Starr then forwarded the proposal to J. Gordon in the Office of the President to solicit funding for the workshops. The original $10,000 proposal was funded at the level of $3,000. Campus divisions were asked to select members for the ad-hoc committee. In December of 1989, LAUC President J. Horn created the Ad Hoc Committee on LAUC Regional Workshops on Cultural Diversity in Libraries. E. Fisher (UCSD) was appointed chair of the committee. In addition, E. Martinez (UCR) and F. Gaffney (UCSD) were appointed as faculty representatives to the Committee.
As a preface to the actual charge to the Committee, J. Horn wrote: 'The topic of cultural diversity is an important one for the University of California libraries. On your individual campuses we have been working to increase the awareness of cultural diversity in our libraries. We need to consolidate the excellent work that has taken place on the campuses and formulate new policies and programs for our libraries which will meet the needs of an increasingly diverse user population. In order to develop recommended changes . . . it is proposed that LAUC sponsor two regional workshops on cultural diversity. The goal of these workshops will be to present to the LAUC membership and the Office of the President recommendations for new or modified programs or services in the key areas of bibliographic access, collection development, reference service and bibliographic instruction." (The actual charge to the Committee is included in the Appendices.)
In order to promote discussion at the workshops and provide basic information on the topics to be discussed, the Committee decided at its first meeting to develop issue papers. This decision was based on the premise that issue papers would provide an opportunity to survey current and potential library and information projects both within and outside of the University of California. Through this process published and unpublished literature could also be surveyed. Issue papers were assigned to committee members. J. Ariel and E. Broidy were invited to be co-authors on the reference and bibliographic instruction papers respectively. After being reviewed by the committee these issue papers were to be disseminated to the LAUC membership prior to the workshop to provide common focal points for discussion at the workshop. The Committee decided that the other issues could not be adequately addressed without discussing recruitment, advancement and retention, so they added these topics to the general areas to be covered. This was consistent with the mandate by President Gardner and reflected the "reinvigorated" effort on the part of the University to increase the numbers of women and minorities in the UC community.
When the issue papers were completed, they were sent to each LAUC division and from there made available to the LAUC membership. Each campus was to hold a meeting to discuss these papers and develop comments and recommendations which would be forwarded to the committee before the workshop. This plan was carried out at each campus with the following exceptions: Berkeley held their meeting after the workshop, and Irvine did not formulate a local list of recommendations, but rather sent recommendations with each delegate attending the workshop. Facilitation training for the committee members and campus representatives were held in Northern California and Southern California. The training sessions were designed and led by V. Sykes.
In the initial plan proposed by S. Starr at the meeting held at UCLA in 1989, the budget for the workshops was recommended at the $10,000 level for two workshops. When this was amended to $9,300, several Committee members raised concern whether this funding level would allow the members to carry out the charge of the committee. The actual proposal sent to the Office of the President requested $6,500. The funding received was $3,000. The Committee in consultation with the LAUC Executive Board, decided it was possible to hold only one workshop.
The Workshop
The workshop on cultural diversity in UC libraries was held on October 15, 1990 at the Los Angeles campus. Copies of the invitation and flyer are included in the appendices. The workshop generated hundreds of recommendations which were later reviewed and synthesized by the committee. By all accounts the workshop was successful in not only generating recommendations and in the level of attendance, but in beginning a dialogue on cultural diversity within the LAUC membership.