Libraries, Integration, and New Americans: Understanding immigrant acculturative stress
Dr. Ana Ndumu will investigate the role of information in immigrant acculturative stress and how it impacts library access. For more than a century, America’s public libraries have provided services to immigrants. However, little is known about how information that is stressful to access, manage, or use is counterproductive to immigrant integration and well-being. The project deliverables will include a free, self-paced mini-course for library staff, a pilot course and curriculum on immigration and information, and a workbook for immigrant groups. The purpose of this project is to advance library and information science knowledge of immigrant well-being and increase capacity for libraries to serve as trusted spaces.
Development Grant category will support phenomenological studies that build on the researcher’s previous dissertation work involving information and immigrant integration. This multi-phase project will span from August 1, 2021, to June 30, 2024, and will:
- Operationalize acculturative stress or the strain caused by adjusting to a new culture, from an LIS standpoint
- Investigate connections between information and indicators of acculturative stress
- Distill community-centered recommendations on how libraries can respond to immigrant acculturative stress.
Duration:
8/1/2021 - 7/31/2024
Total Award Amount:
$379,957