Over the course of many years, shifts in the U.S. population have led to widespread changes in the backgrounds of students and staff in institutions of higher education. The ensuing cultural diversity and multilingualism brings a new richness to these environments, though not without challenges for members of respective groups to interact and work together effectively. In this column, M. Asim Qayyum suggests an approach for bridging the gap between divergent cultures. Building on an analysis of data drawn from a multicultural symposium, he suggests an intercultural training framework that can be utilized by information professionals and others.--Editor Demographic trends in the United States indicate that students and staff in higher education institutions are increasingly coming from culturally diverse and multilingual backgrounds. (1) So what are the challenges faced by educators, librarians/information professionals, and students when they work or study in multicultural settings? How does the management of these institutions ensure that interaction between cultures is improved, removing barriers and bringing the minority community into mainstream activities? Life experiences show that only effective interaction can help members of minority groups understand and adopt majority values, and by so doing, play a fuller and richer role in the community. The urgent need is to understand the characteristics of diverse communities so individuals can be taught how they can reach out and communicate with each other for effective knowledge transfer. An ideal state will be achieved when minority groups are able to connect with and be identified as part of the community, and the majority population is able to understand and accommodate minority cultures. To address the challenges and concerns outlined above, this article discusses the themes that can be used to design intercultural training workshops in academic settings. The objective is to prepare a ready response to the needs of the library community by understanding the culture in terms of the beliefs people hold about the world, the values they share about living in the community, and the way they treat one another. (2) The recommendations can be used by management teams to improve intercultural communication and to maximize the participation and amalgamation of minority cultures into the mainstream culture. WHY MULTICULTURAL TRAINING? The premise is that academics and librarians will successfully cross intercultural boundaries if they are aware of key tenets of intercultural communication and its implications on educational activities. For example, Nataowitz concludes that librarians need training in broader subject areas to serve international students. (3) Consider the presence of Latinos in the library profession: in 2003 there was only one Latino librarian for every 9,177 Latino patrons as compared to one white, non-Latino librarian for every 1,830 white, non-Latino. (4) The demographics are still changing, affecting not only the community at large but also the workplaces and educational institutions as having coworkers or clients from different cultural backgrounds becomes the norm. The invisible societal structure is no longer homogenous or familiar, and librarians must realize that the new information structure is deeply embedded in various cultural contexts that need to be understood. (5) Cultural competency-building practices in libraries, especially public libraries, were recognized and embraced some time ago, and existing information studies educational programs do offer some cultural awareness and internships. (6) However, there is still demand for on-the-job multicultural training programs to guide information professionals. (7) IMPORTANCE OF MANAGEMENT'S SUPPORT FOR CULTURAL TRAINING PROGRAMS Management's support for multicultural training programs is critical because they have no tangible outputs. The selling point is that cultural competency training helps build an understanding of the varied experiences of diverse cultural and ethnic groups so that communication barriers across cultures are addressed and bridged. …