[OYAN] How do you holiday?

Tue Oct 31 13:55:06 PDT 2023

This is a fabulous question Lisa!

At Eugene Public Library it’s kind of a balance because the City itself does a Downtown Trick-or-Treat even and the library participates as a part of the Downtown area.

As far as programs and decorations are concerned, I feel like we lean into the Halloween-adjacent. We don’t have any specific displays or programs that are focusing celebrating Halloween, but we do lean into topics that patrons express an interest in this time of year: scary stories, cozy fall-vibes, and all things creepy. Specifically in Teen, we have a lot of teenage patrons who are very interested in the occult and creepy things year round and we just lean into it a little be more in October.

We would do something similar for other major holidays. Not necessarily celebrating the holiday itself, but we’d hover around the fringes with our programming and displays. With Thanksgiving, we do share more accurate accounts from the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples and I tend to do more “found family” displays because I have a lot of teens that have a very difficult time with their bio-families and holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas that focus on the traditional family can be really…hard.

For our children’s picture book holiday collection, we do have the books organized by holiday, but we have a large collection of holidays, not just major Euro-centric observances. Our current program policy is that we strive to present culturally authentic and relevant programs year round and we are very careful to not just celebrate communities once a year. The organizations we partner with have also made the shift to this approach as well.

Hopefully this is all of interest to folks!

And the gnarliest YA horror I’ve read? I tend to read more adult horror since sometimes I feel like YA horror is wrapped up a little to neatly, but I enjoyed Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell (p.s. the cover is AWFUL!) and I loved Katherine Arden’s Small Spaces series (which is technically middle-grade). The second book in that series is particularly creepy.

Best,
Caitlin McMahan (she/her)
Teen Librarian | Eugene Public Library
Unpacking (discussion group) Organizer | Oregon Young Adult Network (OYAN) Outgoing-Chair
eugene-or.gov/library | cmcmahan at eugene-or.gov<mailto:cmcmahan at eugene-or.gov>

From: OYAN <oyan-bounces at omls.oregon.gov> On Behalf Of Lisa Elliott via OYAN
Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2023 12:30 PM
To: oyan at omls.oregon.gov
Subject: [OYAN] How do you holiday?

[EXTERNAL ⚠]
Hey people! It’s that annual day of spookiness so beloved by so many. I’m sure many of your libraries try to avoid obvious celebrations of dominant culture holidays, but Halloween seems to get a bit more flexibility. I mean, it’s so fun, and what kid doesn’t love wearing a costume to the library? I too relish any opportunity to incorporate ridiculous sartorial choices into my professional life. It’s worth pondering, though, who are we excluding when we don the slay apparel and slap pumpkin stickies on our spines? What about the next holidays? You know, the annual colonialism commemoration feast and the day of gift-giving with dubious ties to the birth of a particular resident of Galilee…

I’m curious to know how your libraries handle holidays: Do you let them pass without remark? Do you decorate? Do you put on programs? Do you put out displays? What holidays do you choose to acknowledge? Do you have holiday spine labels in your teen collections? Do you have a written policy? Have you worked with community partners or your staff to plan culturally competent celebrations? Please, share!

And a bonus question in recognition of the day: What is the gnarliest YA horror book you’ve read? I know Hell Follows With Us<https://wccls.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S143C4064744> has made a lot of people queasy. There were some delightfully gruesome moments in Half Bad<https://wccls.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S143C2066338> and The Honeys<https://wccls.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S143C4094922>, and this isn’t YA, but there was a scene in Mexican Gothic<https://wccls.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S143C3774660> that was so gross and surprising I had an audible response.

Happy hauntings!
-Lisa

Lisa N Elliott
Young Adult Librarian
Tigard Public Library
(503) 718-2654
lisae at tigard-or.gov<mailto:lisae at tigard-or.gov>
she|her|hers

Work Schedule
Tuesdays-Saturdays

[cid:image001.png at 01DA0BFE.92A0C760]

________________________________

DISCLAIMER: E-mails sent or received by City of Tigard employees are subject to public record laws. If requested, e-mail may be disclosed to another party unless exempt from disclosure under Oregon Public Records Law. E-mails are retained by the City of Tigard in compliance with the Oregon Administrative Rules “City General Records Retention Schedule.”
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/oyan/attachments/20231031/d8de3c0d/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 23365 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <https://omls.oregon.gov/pipermail/oyan/attachments/20231031/d8de3c0d/attachment.png>