#13: Take care with heritage displays

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If you’re an American library worker, you are probably at the beginning of heritage month season, and considering highlighting relevant items in your library’s collection. Be careful with this. If you are putting together a display for Asia Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage Month, Black History Month, or Native American History Month, take a few extra minutes to really think about the color scheme, decorations, and items from the collection that you are including. Showing off outdated, unattractive materials sends a message of “the library doesn’t actually care about serving the people in this group” and choosing things that reinforce stereotypes (even positive ones) can send a message of “the people who work here don’t understand this culture.” If you don’t have material for a good display on hand, it might be better to skip it this year than to put up something that sends the wrong message.