The development of cultural competency skills and social awareness benefits LIS students, their future employers, and the library profession at large not to mention library customers and society as a whole.
This textbook and comprehensive resource introduces students to the contexts and situations that promote the development of empathy and build cultural competence, examines the research in the areas of diversity and social justice in librarianship, explains how social responsibility is a foundational value of librarianship, and identifies potential employment and networking opportunities related to diversity and social justice in librarianship.
Dr. Nicole A. Cooke is the Augusta Baker Endowed Chair and an Associate Professor at the School of Library and Information Science, at the University of South Carolina. Dr. Cookes research and teaching interests include human information behavior, fake news consumption and resistance, critical cultural information studies, and diversity and social justice in librarianship. Early, innovative courses created by Dr. Cooke bringing EDISJ issues to the forefront sparked a major shift in curricula across library and information science programs. Dr. Cooke was named a Mover & Shaker by Library Journal in 2007 and is the recipient of numerous honors including the 2016 ALA Equality Award, the 2017 ALA Achievement in Library Diversity Research Award (Office for Diversity and Literacy Outreach Services), the Illinois Library Associations 2019 Intellectual Freedom Award in recognition of her work in combating online hate and bullying in LIS, and the 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award (Association for Library and Information Science Education). In 2021 she was presented with the Martin Luther King, Jr., Social Justice Award by the University of South Carolina. Dr. Cooke has published widely and is a frequent speaker; her other books include Fake News and Alternative Facts: Information Literacy in a Post-Truth Era and Foundations of Social Justice.
