Michelle Harrell Washington, the Multicultural Services Librarian, was born and raised in Beloit, WI. She earned her bachelor of science degree in Child and Family Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While she worked on her undergraduate degree, she worked as a student assistant in UW Madison's Clinical Sciences Center Library (CSC-Weston) and also to Dr. Deborah J. Johnson, a developmental psychologist who researches cultural diversity and child development. Michelle worked with Dr. Johnson on her "Coping with Schools" study before finishing her undergraduate degree in 1990, and served as the project coordinator for the Milwaukee "Coping with Schools" study during 1995.

Post college, Michelle continued to work for UW Madison, moving on to the Center for Health Policy Program Evaluation, or CHPPE, where she was contracted to work in Milwaukee on the Milwaukee County Targeted Cities Project as a qualitative process evaluator. This project was designed to develop wrap around care for substance abuse populations particularly African American, Hmong, Latino, and American Indian populations. After that project she decided to stay in Milwaukee to begin her Masters in Library and Information Science program at UWM. While working on her graduate degree Michelle served as the Interloan Assistant at Cardinal Stritch University Library before coming to UWM Libraries to supervise the Reserve and E-Reserve Services and then graduating from the School of Information Studies in 1999.

As the Multicultural Services Librarian, Michelle had a number of goals and ideas on how to make her new position a success. Since 1999, the Multicultural Services Librarian has come a long way in providing information services and developing outreach efforts to students of color and disadvantaged students, as well as to faculty, staff and students who are teaching or doing research in the areas of multicultural studies and diversity.

Here are just a few of the things the Multicultural Services Librarian has been working on over the past five years:

• Developing relationships with campus departments such as Africology, Latino Studies, American Indian Studies, Asian Studies, and Ethnic Studies certificate programs.

• Working with the UWM Multicultural Affairs Council (MAC). The Multicultural Services Librarian is the Libraries' representative to the UWM MAC. MAC is comprised of faculty, staff and student representatives from all of the schools/colleges/divisions on the UWM campus, and is concerned with improving the campus climate, and with the recruitment, retention and graduation of African American, Hispanic/Latino(a), American Indian/Native American, Southeast Asian/Asian American and disadvantaged pre-college and college students. It was membership on the MAC that fostered the awareness of this new position in the Libraries' and planted the seed of collaboration with many of the campus units serving students of color.

• Library instruction sessions were specifically developed for each of the Cultures and Communities courses which aims to help integrate the goals of the Milwaukee Idea into UWM's courses and curricula, and emphasizes diversity, cross-cultural literacy, and community engagement.

• In 2000 and 2001, the Multicultural Services Librarian collaborated with other programs. Each of these programs has a specific focus on groups of students from the pre-college through graduate school range, and seeks to help recruit, retain and graduate students of color from UWM. The primary goal of all collaborations between the Multicultural Services Librarian and programs like these is to provide these students with the skills and knowledge they need in order to have a successful higher education experience.

• UWM School of Education's Urban Teacher World Program
• UWM Graduate School's McNair Achievement Program
• UWM GEAR-UP Program

• After Michelle attended the conference, Diversity Now: People, Collections and Services in Academic Libraries in April 2000, the Director of Libraries approved the idea of establishing the Library Advisory Committee on Diversity, and this group has been meeting and discussing initial cost-effective ways to improve services to our increasingly diverse faculty, staff and student body.

• Collaborating with the campus Union Multicultural Resource Center involved taking the library to the students who use that facility in the form of drop-in workshops during the noon hour. This definitely increased the number of students seeking the services of the Multicultural Services Librarian. The most rewarding results are that students of color are beginning to feel more at ease in using library resources to complete course requirements, and more secure in their sense of belonging at institutions of higher education.

• Michelle has also been working to strengthen linkages with student organizations that are just beginning to really form. This will be crucial in reaching groups of students from various ethnic backgrounds, some of whom may not yet be aware that such a librarian exists on the UWM campus. This effort will have long-term benefits in that these students are actively involved in student-centered events on campus, and will be able to make other students aware that assistance from a Multicultural Services Librarian is available to them.

• A very unique and exciting opportunity for this librarian is working with the School of Information Studies (SOIS) faculty on incorporating multiculturalism and diversity issues into the curriculum. Many faculty members have requested Michelle to speak to their classes on multicultural issues in librarianship. Further, this librarian provides internship and field placement opportunities for SOIS students, and will continue to do so, thereby increasing exposure to multicultural/diversity issues for students. These are excellent ways to share practical, hands-on knowledge and experience with students who are going to be working with our society's increasingly diverse population as they begin their careers in librarianship.

• "Promoting Information Literacy Through Coalition Building" A Research Project Funded by The American Library Association, Office for Diversity

• "Serving Diverse Library Users: The Multicultural Services Librarian at an Urban Research University" A Paper presented at the 3rd National Conference on Diversity in Academic Libraries. (2002)

• "Multicultural Services in an Academic Library" Presented Session at the Fifth Trejo Foster Foundation - Hispanic Library Institute. (2001)
  • UWM News article about the Trejo conference

• "How Well Are you Serving your Users?" (Collection Development for Diverse Populations) Panel Presentation at WLA's fall conference. (2000)

• Qualitative Process Evaluation Report: Milwaukee Target Cities Project Years 01 through 03. (1993)