The last day of the fall semester was December 18th, and the spring semester started on January 19th, the day after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday.
I don’t really have a whole lot of time in December as students are hurriedly finishing final papers. Our library media technician pulled some winter and holiday items out for a quick display, which always stresses me because we don’t have a whole lot of variety when it comes to holidays. I always forget to have the main library order me some children’s titles about Hannukah, Kwanzaa, and Ramadan, and I vow to ask by the end of today. We have a part-time child development instructor at our site, so we have a small children’s collection specifically for an assignment involving multiculturalism. As someone who worked as a bilingual (Spanish/English) library assistant in the children’s department at a public library, I desperately need to make this a priority before embarking on the next chapter in my library career (more on that soon). Because of those changes, my display game this term will be even simpler. I decided to forgo linking the titles in Smore and will just be posting photos.
Sure enough, I didn’t even have time to link the titles I used for the refugee display I had in December anyway. I was really pleased–people checked items out!
For the latter half of January, I had some Martin Luther King, Jr. books out, and I also highlighted some of our biographies (I did a little cleaning in this section, and I think I am done for now) about survival, failure, and success.
Lindsay Ann Davis 
Lindsay Ann Davis,
Great post! I wanted to ask for permission to use your image of the refugee book collection/sign on our website at https://publish.illinois.edu/projectwelcome/. Project Welcome is an initiative for helping refugees in libraries with UIUC’s Mortenson Center and ALA. If this is okay, we might also want to use this image on Clara Chu’s thought paper on the subject.
Thank you!
Treasa Bane
Mortenson Center Graduate Assistant
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Treasa, I approve! What a wonderful initiative. Let me know if/when you use it, so I can see. 🙂
I actually learned about my town’s local World Relief organization when I worked in the children’s department at the public library. A volunteer was showing a newly arrived refugee the library, and it made a big impact. I have donated to them on a yearly basis ever since, and I have often thought about a more formal partnership. Project Welcome is already helping me spin my wheels–I think I will talk to my former co-workers and our Friends group.
I will also share about Project Welcome to the Global Literature in Libraries initiative, which focuses on expanding library collections to include more translated works.
Thanks for reaching out.
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Thank you so much, Lindsay! I’ll ask my boss Clara where this would look best on our website.
I’m still in library school, but this project has made me more interested in public libraries and serving diverse communities. That’s so great that you donate, and I hope you can form a more formal partnership!
I’ll get back to you when we put your photo on the website and/or in Clara’s paper. Thanks again!
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Thanks, Treasa! I wish you the best while you finish school. One of the best parts of all the library jobs I have held is serving diverse populations–in a public library, community college library, and now a university library. California’s Central Valley makes for the perfect environment. I also love that I still get to work in my backyard. ❤
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I’m sorry for the delayed response. I’m quite jealous you live and work in California Central Valley! 😀 Your photo is on the Project Welcome site here: https://publish.illinois.edu/projectwelcome/resources/ and here: https://publish.illinois.edu/projectwelcome/resources/literature/
Thanks again!
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Thank you, Treasa! I appreciate it. What an amazing project. Thanks for your work on this. Happy 2017!
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