I’m a big believer that you should hire the most qualified person for any job you have (with minor exceptions – for example, I’ve passed on interviewing someone with a masters degree for a half-time page position because I was fairly certain they would move on – and they soon did from the branch that hired them.)
I also believe that, with all other things being equal, if you have the opportunity to hire someone that makes your workplace more reflective of your entire community, that’s a good thing.
I managed to accomplish both when I recently hired a new employee at my branch who has a background in libraries and also happens to be Muslim.
She’s been a great asset to our team in a number of ways – providing recommendations for our multilingual collection, correcting a typo in the label for that collection, and bringing pakoras to our staff meeting! 😉
We recently worked together to create this Ramadan display with her providing her knowledge and expertise in various ways – from creating an overview of what Ramadan is to correcting me when I put a multilingual title on the display backwards! 🙂
We looked at a few options we have for signs for our displays but I decided to let my employee pick. And instead of picking “Discover and Explore” or “Holidays” or something like that, I love that she picked “Local Interest.”
It’s not what many in Saskatchewan would think of as “Local Interest” (books about tractors or whatever) but having just attended an NDP nomination in the same area served by my library which had a huge presence from the Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian communities, not to mention that Regina’s only Muslim school is just a few blocks from our service area and their students are regular visitors at our branch, I can’t think of a better sign to use!
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