Forward-facing Legacy
A dedicated scholar, educator, and lifelong learner, Dr. Janet M. Bennett amassed the intercultural field’s most comprehensive resource library, including while she led the Intercultural Communication Institute (ICI) for over 30 years. Read Janet’s biography here.
So that this exceptional collection may continue to serve new and future generations while evolving to accommodate emerging needs, it has been reconceptualized with the aim of digitizing and distributing it internationally as the Janet M. Bennett Intercultural Library.
About the Library
Janet recognized that the field of intercultural communication was built through the work of many individuals over time. One of her favorite sayings was, “We stand on the shoulders of giants.”
We now build on her shoulders—and we invite you to join us.
OUR PURPOSE
The Janet M. Bennett Intercultural Library is a comprehensive, non-commercial resource center that
- welcomes aspiring and budding colleagues —including students at all levels— as they begin their work,
- supports mid-career professionals and academics who are actively striving to advance the field, and
- assists seasoned scholars and practitioners to share their insights and life’s work with global peers
so that we might all learn and grow together.
HOLDINGS & ACTIVITIES
The Library consists of books, original papers, manuals, theses and dissertations, audio and visual media, posters, digital files and more.
There are over 150 Library categories including:
- Adaptation
- Bi-cultural/Bi-lingual
- Communication Theory
- Culture-specific Insights
- Experiential Learning
- ICI History
- Simulations
as well as contributions from the collections of David Hoopes, Dean Barnlund, E. T. Hall and others.
One of the initial, crucial tasks of the Consortium members that requires funding is to create a complete digital inventory of the materials and what has been distributed where to share with the field.
This helps make the holdings become more accessible worldwide.
Once an inventory of all holdings is available, we’ll begin to digitize high-priority items based on significance, fragility, and researcher/practitioner requests.
An overview of other current Library activities and upcoming plans is below.
CONSORTIUM MEMBERS
The Library is run by a voluntary Consortium of four organizations, each dedicated to furthering the Intercultural Communication field. These founding members are:
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Institute for Developing Across Differences – IDD (USA/Germany),
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Louisiana Tech University (USA),
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Purdue University’s CILMAR: Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research (USA), and
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University of Groningen (The Netherlands).
Click on the name of each to learn more.
All those interested in benefiting from the Library and/or joining the Consortium are warmly invited to contact Library co-leads, Dr. Kris Acheson-Clair (Purdue) and Melissa Liles (IDD), via email at info[at]interculturallibrary.org or by completing the form below.
How We’re Launching the Library
1. Re-housing a Beloved Collection
En route to new homes around the world
- Following an intensive planning, sorting, packing, and shipping period, the Consortium members will re-house all key physical Library materials within their respective campuses in Europe and North America.*
- Former ICI Librarian Sandra (Sandy) Garrison-Whitmore is overseeing the Library distribution and shipments working with volunteers.
- Materials have been distributed based on the specializations of each Consortium member.
- By September 2022, the Consortium members will have received the majority of the Library materials shipped from Portland, Oregon (USA).
*Other education institutions, particularly those in the Global South, are strongly encouraged to contact the project leads about becoming involved as additional Consortium members or otherwise.
2. Coordinating across Borders
Working “Together Apart” to set up, catalog and organize
- Although the materials will be geographically distributed, coordination will be centralized digitally so that the overview of the entire collection remains intact virtually and can be searched or perused as a whole or in parts.
- Initial efforts will focus on understanding the full scope of materials available with special emphasis placed on organizing original papers and files.
- Each Consortium member will input into a shared, publicly accessible and regularly maintained database so that the repository remains complete and cross-referenced.
- Once available, the Library catalog will be shared with Intercultural Communication academic and professional development programs worldwide so that they might promote its use by researchers and trainers.
3. Digitizing for Greater Accessibility
Reaching more audiences—more easily
- So that scholars and practitioners —no matter where in the world they are based— can benefit from the Library, an important early aim of the Consortium is to digitize and share as many materials as possible.
- Pending critical funding, digitization will take place in prioritized tranches (e.g. starting with materials that are already digital but in formats no longer commonly accessed such as floppy disks) and on an “as requested” basis.
- Additionally, users will be able to request “by-appointment” site access to the physical materials that may not be readily digitized (e.g. handmade artifacts).
- Volunteers are welcomed to contact us to support the digitization effort by providing your time.
How You Can Support Janet’s Legacy—and Future Interculturalists
In order to maintain and make materials more widely and readily available —as well as to incorporate new resources informed by and necessary for the evolving intercultural field— the Janet M. Bennett Intercultural Library and its volunteer Consortium members rely on your financial support.
Please contribute as generously as you can to help ensure that we honor the wishes of an individual who shaped the careers and lives of so many — and will continue to do so through the Library that honors her life’s work.
You can do this using the Library‘s crowdsourcing GoFundMe page (click).
Or, to make a tax deductible donation in the amount of US$500 or more, you can do so through Purdue’s CILMAR. You can do this:
To include the Library in your estate planning, please contact us via email at info[at]interculturallibrary.org.
Thank you for your support of Janet’s legacy and the future of the Intercultural Communication field.
Contact Us & Stay Informed
We welcome your inquiries or comments —including about possible future directions that you hope to see— and are happy to share periodic updates on the status of the Janet M. Bennett Intercultural Library, including news about when the catalogue of the collection is available.
