Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cultural Humility In Libraries, David A. Hurley, Sarah Kostelecky, Lori Townsend

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to introduce the idea of cultural humility, distinguish it from cultural competence, and argue that it has a role in librarianship. Design/methodology/approach: We use an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept of humility to understand what cultural humility means and how it differs from cultural competence and other approaches to intercultural communication in libraries.

Findings: Despite some reservations with the term itself, we find that a practice of cultural humility is more appropriate to front-line interactions in library contexts than cultural competence models.

Practical implications: Libraries looking to address issues in intercultural communication and …