Abstract
Libraries employees interact with people from different cultures in numerous ways, including in our interactions with students in information literacy instruction sessions and reference consultations, as well as in our exchanges with colleagues, vendors, and other library patrons, underscoring the importance of librarian intercultural competence (Zanescu, 2018). The term culture refers to “the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group,” (Oxford University Press, 2010). Culture can be manifested internationally and domestically and can also apply to social groups, business organizations, and the departments, age groups, and teams within them. Intercultural Competence is defined as “how individuals fare in intercultural settings,” (Lou & Chan, 2022). Information literacy and intercultural competence are particularly connected, as in order to be truly information literate, one must understand the cultural context in which information is created, accessed, and evaluated as well as the cultural background of the information user (Bochenek et al., 2025; Hicks & Lloyd, 2016; Morrison, 2009).
At our academic institution we piloted the use of the two intercultural competence frameworks, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) (Hammer, 2003) and Cultural Intelligence (CQ) (Ang et al, 2007), to encourage library employees to intentionally think about culture in their workplace interactions and information literacy instructional practices. For several years we have been using the IDI as a tool for employees to evaluate and reflect on their own intercultural competence and we recently introduced CQ, a model that has been heavily used globally in the business community but is relatively new to libraries.
Through a pilot program, we recruited library employees to participate in a study where, over the duration of six months, they took pre-IDI and pre-CQ assessments, completed an online CQ learning module, debriefed with certified CQ and IDI facilitators, self-selected and participated in a series of intercultural learning activities, and completed post-IDI and post-CQ assessments. This session will introduce LILAC delegates to the IDI and CQ frameworks and share the pilot results from the 13 participants who completed our study. The presenters will highlight how other libraries and librarians may benefit from intentionally integrating IDI and CQ into their professional development practices. The 60-minute hands-on session will incorporate activities to engage attendees, including having the delegates take a brief portion of the intercultural competence assessments and activities that can be incorporated into the information literacy classroom.
References
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