Cultural sensitivity: Or, how to make the library a better place

Reference librarians interact with a broad range of customers and are expected to provide quality service to that clientele. In addition, library collections and services should reflect the community served and meet at least a portion of the information needs of that community. As the populations that reference librarians serve change and become more and more diverse, particularly in the case of those librarians serving academic communities, it is critical that the resulting library environments be conducive to the success of the populations served. As a result, librarians are compelled to become more culturally sensitive and to ensure that the library environment is open to all of those in the target population.