Cultural Intelligence: Increasing your Cultural Quotient

Our libraries are very diverse. Whether you work across international borders or interact with diversity closer to home, we deal with uniqueness and differences. Culture matters in how we market ourselves, how we market to our patrons, and ultimately can make the difference between whether you thrive or flounder when faced with an intercultural situation. Cultural intelligence is a form of intelligence that draws upon the ability to reformulate one's concept of self and others. It can be integrated with other forms of intelligence and applies to any cultural context (i.e., diversity initiatives, organizational culture, generational culture, gender culture, etc.). In this session learn what cultural intelligence is and how we can use cultural intelligence in order to ensure our biases and interactions do not influence judgments about others, as this directly affects a library’s inclusive work environment and the strength of the organizational culture.

Presenter: Dr. Michele A.L. Villagran, Assistant Professor, San José State University School of Information

Cost: FREE for REFORMA members, $15 for non-members.