Every year, as the winter holidays approach, it always seems to induce a twist in my stomach - personally and professionally. The personal stuff is easy enough to deal with, since my friends know I don't celebrate any of the major holidays other than a general Seasonal Gift Giving and Donating to Charities in Your Name thing. Professionally, on the other hand, it's a whole other story.
The college where I work was founded by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). We have an active chapter of Hillel. We have a decent sized Buddhist community as well - lots of international students from Bhutan. There are plenty of Muslim students. I know we have Sikhs in our community. Kwanzaa is also celebrated. TL;DR: we have a highly multicultural community, some of whom celebrate a holiday this month, others of whom do not.
That leaves me asking what's a library to do? Should we decorate for every EVERY EvErY holiday? Or skip decorating in general? What is most respectful? In the case of the library where I currently work, we've opted not to decorate. Instead, I pulled a bunch of different children's books about snow and snow-related things, and created a display from them. We've acknowledged the season but not the holidays. I'm not sure if this is the right answer, but it's the one I came up with for this year.
It's not like there's a lot of pressure, though. Since this is an academic library, most of our constituents are way too busy right now to pay much attention to what's going on in the library - other than as a quiet place to study and get some work done - so it's kind of a moot point.
I'm still wondering how other libraries handle it. Do you base your decisions on the wants of the staff? Of the community? Do you decorate? Also: Happy Christmahanakwanzika. Or not.
Is decorating strictly relegated to the library/librarians, or do you have community involvement in your displays? For example, I am responsible for the library's displays, but the theater students (with permission) often pull materials and put up a display related to their performances. I'm not sure how your college handles it, but you might consider reaching out to the different groups and seeing if they would like to put up displays for the holidays. I understand that there are issues with this, and it might not be feasible. I personally lean toward decorating for the holidays and trying to include all that are relevant to our community, which, I have to admit, is less diverse than the one you describe.
ReplyDeleteI like that idea. I team up with community partners for displays during other times of year, so it makes sense to do it during the winter holiday season.
DeleteI live in the "Christmas Card Town", the library houses 22 snowy and festive christmas card pictures, and the city has a giant manger scene and Santa's workshop kind of thing set up the day after Thanksgiving in the main square. There's also a Christmas parade. It's a pretty small town and not really diverse. I generally put up snow/shiny things decor and we have lots of Santa in storytime, ornament making programs, cookie decorating, etc. People (including my director) expect it. I try to keep it non-religious, which of course means it's mostly commercial, but whatever. I put up a huge display of Christmas books and a lot of those are Christian, but again that's what most people ask for. I do have some Hanukkah books, but they almost never get touched, so I keep them in the holiday book storage (shelves by the bathroom, not a basement or anything!) unless called for.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense. It's all about context.
DeleteYeah, know your community! It was a bit of a culture shock for me when I moved here four years ago, since I grew up in Austin which is fairly diverse. It's interesting that even the small towns near us have different communities that want different things. My community wants lots of glitter and Santas!
ReplyDeleteI thought long and hard about how to decorate our library. In the end, I went for festive and seasonal rather than connected to a holiday. Lots of white lights, garland, pinecones, and snowflakes. The library feels special, but there's little reference to a particular holiday.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like the nicest idea I've heard so far. Thanks for sharing.
DeleteThanks for writing this.
ReplyDeleteI have generally worked for publicly funded libraries. I have issues with using tax funds for supporting religious holidays.
This is in addition to my personal feelings about this holiday which include the over-commercialization of a holiday which purports to celebrate the birth of someone who was totally anit-materialistic.
Oh, the the whole Seasonal Affective Disorder issue from the shortening of daylight.
Anyway. Thanks for taking a stand.
YOU'RE WAGING A WAR ON CHRISTMAS!!!!
ReplyDeleteJK. I'm with you. Just stay out of it.
Leah
I will say that having to stare at those 22 pictures (we get a new one every year) all year long makes me feel less than festive! I dislike celebrating holidays in storytime, apart from anything else the book selection is pretty blech, but it was made clear to me that celebrating holidays in storytime, decoration, and display was Required. I am simply greatful that I do not have to wear jingly sweaters.
ReplyDeleteWe always try to go more seasonal than holiday-related. We're in the south, where you get strange looks if you say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", but I'm Jewish and I know I can't be the only one in town who prefers to keep it more faith-neutral. We tend to decorate with faux greenery, ribbon, lights, and books related to all of that season's holidays (as well as some really sweet Jan Brett posters for The Mitten and The Hat).
ReplyDelete