[OLA-IF-News] Display policies are not just needed in public libraries

Tony Greiner anthony.greiner at pcc.edu
Tue May 7 13:07:19 PDT 2019


I think I see how this problem happened.  Librarians try to be impartial
about the data they convey...if someone wants material on a touchy subject,
we often will find it and say "here is what you wanted" without putting it
in context, or offering an opinion on the value of the material. (This is
contextual, of course.)  Cataloging in particular follows this...Holocaust
Denial books have the same subject heading as books about the Holocaust.

I think the librarian who put up the blackface display was thinking in
those terms...here is something in our collection that goes to the current
controversy, without commenting on it.

I showed some Home Owners Loan Corporation
<https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/#loc=11/45.5131/-122.6579&opacity=0.8>
neighborhood maps from 1937 to a one-shot class yesterday- they include
comments including "subversive races" that lived there.  (In 1937 Portland,
that was mostly Russians and Finns).  A couple of the students got upset at
seeing this material, but the teacher and I were able to get them to focus
on the historical value of having that original source material.  That
context settled them down, "Oh yeah, that's right" and we went on....but
without our intervention things could have gone off the rails.

Tony Greiner, Librarian/ Portland Community College, Oregon
971-722-5333. anthony.greiner at pcc.edu

PCCs largest underserved group is men. 54% of our student body is female,
43% male.  A headcount difference of 4,400.  Source: Higher Education
Coordinating Commission- Datamart


On Mon, May 6, 2019 at 5:00 PM Steve Silver <ssilver at nwcu.edu> wrote:

> Doane University president orders removal of library display and places
> library director on leave, following display of photos from the archives
> which included two photos from the 1920s of students in blackface:
>
>
>
>
> https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/05/06/doane-u-suspends-library-director-over-exhibit-included-1920s-era-students-blackface
>
>
>
> *Steve Silver*
> Library Director
> 541-684-7237
>
> *ssilver at nwcu.edu <ssilver at nwcu.edu>*
>
> http://www.nwcu.edu/academics/library/
>
>
>
> *NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY*
> Wisdom  *∙ * Faith  *∙*  Service
> 828 E. 11th Ave. │ Eugene, OR 97401
>
> [image: Description: Description: Description:
> https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRP2L8_F-3t_-RakEV5cDTJR6zNgGzo6Ownb-bFTUWNc8cGBQGsZg]
> <http://www.facebook.com/NorthwestChristianUniversity>[image:
> Description: Description: Description:
> https://encrypted-tbn2.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQoyn2jaI_88KOrhi3qm2qcX4saOE_wdej8mfsDFxVHqtKb8aaK]
> <http://www.twitter.com/@NCUCommunity>[image: Description: Description:
> Description:
> https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT6DL02dcigLst6BftW4PXHixdqLbO-Vo6d99c-GRpvVPUe-ayk]
> <http://www.youtube.com/NCUCommunity> <http://www.nwcu.edu/>
>
>
>
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