Críticas Magazine

Bruce Jensen

Super Wednesday: Programming diversity at your place
February 6, 2008

Looking for programming ideas, are you? The Diversity Exchange database is a work of librarianly genius that just might save you a whole lot of time and trouble. It’s a pile of good, concise blueprints for cultural programs. You could go there right now and quickly find something that would fly in your bookbarn, community center, or museum.

The 47 program "recipes" that are there right now all have a multicultural focus--some connection with the notion of diversity. The tool is maintained by the good folks at New Jersey’s Ocean County Public Library.

These are ideas that in many cases give you a pretty strong map of the steps you would take to bring the program off, start to finish. In other cases you’ll see carefully structured suggestions that can inspire local adaptation.

Librarians are all about that whole, whaddayacallit, organization-of-information thing, right? Even when they’re charged with tasks, such as programming, that might seem pretty far removed from that core function. The beauty of the Diversity Exchange database is that it makes it so easy to find information that fosters successful programming aimed at audiences of chosen age groups, cultural backgrounds, or linguistic or sexual orientations. Whether you are looking for an idea, or whether you have a good program idea you want to share with the world, bookmark the easy-to-use database at http://www.oceancounty.lib.nj.us/cookbook/index.asp, put it to use and help it grow into a towering monument to diversity in libraries and related cultural institutions.

Posted by Bruce Jensen on February 6, 2008 | Comments (1)