Incorporating Cultural Humility in Online Library Instruction

Purpose This project aimed to incorporate cultural humility concepts into an existing online grant-writing course offered by NNLM SEA. Cultural humility involves ongoing openness to learning from the experiences of others, particularly members of marginalized groups. This practice is important for librarians’ educational offerings, which are a crossroads for people of many different backgrounds and identities. Methodology NNLM SEA staff reviewed the course, focusing on content addressing collaborative work and relationships with partner organizations for grant-funded health outreach projects. The course now emphasizes including people from a health outreach project’s target audience in every step of the planning process. It recommends forming relationships with groups serving these audiences outside of any grant application process, so these partners are not treated as a mere means of winning a grant. The course was also reviewed for microaggressions that might create an unwelcoming atmosphere for participants. The updated course debuted on September 30, 2019. NNLM SEA promoted it through its social media accounts that fall. Results/Outcomes 57 participants enrolled between the updated course’s debut and June 24, 2020, an increase of 21% over the same period one year earlier. 100% of participants who completed an evaluation survey agreed that they would use a resource they learned about, compared to 85% from the previous version. The course completion rate did not differ between these periods: 15% of enrolled participants completed the course, which is comparable to other NNLM on-demand courses. Discussion/Conclusion The course showed opportunities to incorporate cultural humility concepts even though the topic is not explicitly related to diversity and inclusion, suggesting that a similar approach could be valuable in a range of topics and settings. Survey results suggest participants might see cultural humility as valuable, but the small number of evaluation respondents prevents firm conclusions about this