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

Tue May 7 13:40:11 PDT 2019

I've had some interesting conversations about this with a friend who's a museum curator. I think it's true that as librarians we're accustomed to offering information without comment/context, but I think sometimes this can spark issues. This isn't as much of a problem if, say, we do a display on "presidential elections" and include books both positive and critical of candidates, but in the case of displaying artwork, photographs, etc. people will come up with their own context if one isn't provided. The discussion my friend and I had was about the Aurora Public Library and the diplay of the poem "Hijab Means Jihad," and how the library could potentially have changed the way they displayed the poem to better contextualize it -- perhaps with a placard telling the public more about the display and its intended purpose -- and in that way they would have been better positioned to respond to criticism, even if the display still caused controversy.

I would love to have more details of the Doane University situation, given that the university's actions seem indefensible.

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Kirsten Brodbeck-Kenney, MLIS
LIBRARY DIRECTOR

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
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City of Lincoln City  |  Driftwood Public Library
801 SW Hwy 101  |  PO Box 50  |  Lincoln City, OR
P: 541.996.1251  |  E: kbrodbeck-kenney at lincolncity.org
W: Driftwoodlib.org | W: LincolnCity.org

From: OLA-IF-News <ola-if-news-bounces at listsmart.osl.state.or.us> On Behalf Of Tony Greiner
Sent: Tuesday, May 07, 2019 1:07 PM
To: Steve Silver <ssilver at nwcu.edu>
Cc: ola-if-news at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Subject: Re: [OLA-IF-News] Display policies are not just needed in public libraries

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<mailto: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<mailto: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

[cid:image002.png at 01D504D6.8DA74600]Steve Silver
Library Director
541-684-7237
ssilver at nwcu.edu<mailto:ssilver at nwcu.edu>
http://www.nwcu.edu/academics/library/

NORTHWEST CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY
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