Building Bridges: Cultivating Partnerships between Libraries and Minority Student Services

Research on multiculturalism in libraries focuses primarily on collection development and on the recruitment of minorities to the profession. Although multicultural student outreach is relatively uncommon, it isessential in helping to combat the social, education, technological and financial barriers that leave many minority students at a disadvantage in their transitions from high school to university. A step-by-step approachto cultivating partnerships between the library and multicultural student services is discussed. Potential obstacles such as time constraints, limited resources and student interest are also noted. Ultimately, outreach initiatives produce positive publicity for the library, enrich student learning, and promotethe library as a campus leader in the academic process.