Hi, A few years back we started hanging posters of notable African-Americans in January and February for Black History Month. A year after that we added in posters of Immigrants or First Generation Americans that we hang up in September and October to go along with an International Festival. These posters feature a photo of the individual along with the name, date of birth and death (if applicable), their profession and a quote from them. It's a mix of nationally known figures and locally known people. This has been curated by one staff member primarily and she's done an amazing job. However, as you can imagine some issues have come up over the years such as: some of the issues that have come up over the years: ● Whitney Houston should not be on the Youth floor because she was a drug addict. ● Only American born people should be included on Black History Month posters. ● Some patrons complained about the quote that was on a poster. ● Complaints that not enough people of a particular culture or race are included on the International posters ● A patron insisted Barry Gordy's poster be taken down ● So-and-so is a criminal and did time in prison- or so-and-so has been accused of sexual misconduct (but not been charged or convicted) We are looking to develop a policy on who should be selected (we add in a few new posters each year) and who should be deselected (we deselected Bill Cosby). Does anyone have a policy or guidelines to anything similar to this? I've attached a few of the posters to give you a better idea of them. Thanks, Kelly Kelly Ireland Rembert Outreach Librarian Southfield Public Library 26300 Evergreen Rd. Southfield, MI 48076 (248) 796-4367 krembert@southfieldlibrary.org www.southfieldlibrary.org
