[Libs-Or] Is there any discussion in the library community about the EOU Pierce Library controversy?

[Elena Gleason]

I hadn’t heard about this, thank you for bringing it to our attention, Bryan! I would certainly like to see OLA and ACRL-OR release statements in support of a name change.

Here is a link to the petition referenced in the article: https://www.change.org/p/1000-change-the-name-of-pierce-library

To counter the tired argument about “remembering our history,” please take a look at the library’s current webpage about its name<https://library.eou.edu/about/info/>, where the lives and careers of Cornelia and Walter Pierce are detailed without ever once mentioning Walter Pierce’s KKK ties or his support of eugenics, and only hinting at his racist and xenophobic views toward immigrants and Japanese Americans with a phrase about his stance against “alien land ownership.” As an afterthought, there’s an extremely unobtrusive link to a pdf of a photocopy of the “Pierce Library Name Report<https://library.eou.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Pierce-Library-Name-Report-1999.pdf>,” completed in the ‘90s, in which a group of four white faculty and one white trustee recommend against a name change because…Pierce wasn’t an actual, full-fledged member of the KKK? This is also when they decided to shoehorn Cornelia Pierce in there, even though the library was definitely originally named for the governor alone. For an academic library to whitewash history on its own website like this is, in my view, appalling and only illustrates why name changes like this are necessary.

Elena Gleason | Readers’ Advisory Librarian | Pronouns: she/her
City of Hillsboro, Oregon | Hillsboro Public Library
503-615-6500 x2487 | email Elena.Gleason at hillsboro-oregon.gov<mailto:Elena.Gleason at hillsboro-oregon.gov>
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From: Libs-Or [mailto:libs-or-bounces at omls.oregon.gov] On Behalf Of Bryan Miyagishima
Sent: Monday, June 29, 2020 11:54 AM
To: libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Subject: [Libs-Or] Is there any discussion in the library community about the EOU Pierce Library controversy?

A friend of mine who works at EOU let me know what's going on with possibly renaming the library<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.lagrandeobserver.com_news_local_eou-2Dstill-2Dconsidering-2Dname-2Dchange-2Dfor-2Dpierce-2Dlibrary_article-5Ff744ee4c-2Daa79-2D11ea-2D90d8-2D0b3f78cb9a88.html&d=DwMFaQ&c=jVj56eFZMBdw2XTy1WmujjlEfwGR4yGcPx8hs15Otm8&r=FJp3qRtUoxlm4xpPIToHBd8jWFlkdyZFx8Sqk3PbAW_axg9jSWe5fvV9PQ7BisTA&m=Kse5e1sxgAjuEYsQ8JR28keUgYD4C8w9W63l4jjeMzI&s=YsqdUOfm8esXb5rcbRbhiNfNbT7Ue8eVqVGjd8AqjTA&e=>. I'd like to know if there's any discussions within OLA or ACRL-OR taking place as to whether the greater library community could lend support to this cause. And I suppose I'd like to know if the associations are taking a neutral stance and why.

I know that various of our groups have done advocacy work many times in the past for individual libraries. It could be that we could do some advocacy for EOU students and faculty as well in this particular case.

Bryan Miyagishima, Linn-Benton Community College Library
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