This March, Elizabethtown College’s High Library had a “Celebrating Diversity and Belonging in Children’s Books” exhibit from Dr. Katherine Hughes’s COM 130 Visual Communications class. This exhibit has been held in the library since early March and ends on March 24. Each COM 130 student has made a project using and applying their photoshop skills, which they learned from Hughes’s class. The goal was to have projects depicting children’s books that the students have read when they were younger or books that they know that show diversity and belonging. This is one of the many exhibits that are held in the library involving student work and student involvement.
Hughes is a communications professor here at Etown, and has worked here since 2014. Some other courses she teaches include Digital Photography and Photojournalism. This course is actually a required course for all communication majors, along with those who major in marketing and graphic design. “Our hope is that in that course, students are exposed to basic layout, design principles, color theory and introduction to typography,” Hughes said. “All of these different skill sets will be useful across their careers.”
Hughes was inspired by another event during March, and wanted her students to create something similar, since they would both be held in the library. Because her students just recently learned certain Photoshop skills, she believes that this was perfect timing for them to display their new skills for a broader audience, beyond the classroom.
Graphic design and digital media productions major junior Erin Moore had her work on the display.
Moore’s piece was based on the children’s book and TV show “Arthur.” Moore used what she learned from class to incorporate many pictures from “Arthur” that involved diversity such as examples displaying different religions, abilities and relationships. When asked what the best part of the project was, Moore said, “The design process was kind of fun once I got the hang of photoshop. I’m getting a little bit better with it each day. But the finished product is probably the most rewarding aspect.”
Someone else involved with this exhibit was librarian Josh Cohen. Cohen has worked at the Etown High Library since the fall of 2015.
The COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the High Library’s typical way of doing things. “Certainly with the pandemic we weren’t able to do things for a while,” Cohen said. “But we have a long history of having different kinds of exhibits with both student work and also brought in exhibits that are from outside organizations as well.”
Something that recently was at the library involving the College community was a club poster expo on diversity and identity, which included work from the following College clubs: Hillel, Asian Cultural Student Association, Catholic Campus Ministry, Spanish Club, International Business and the Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA). An example that was one of the library’s largest audiences was from 2016, where the library had a Shakespeare “First Folio” exhibit, which was displayed for all of Pennsylvania.
While the “Diversity and Belonging in Children’s Books” exhibit is ending, the new exhibit, which Hughes was inspired by, started on March 21. This exhibit involves education classes, along with the GSA club and senior Lauren Robitaille. Each group is contributing more diverse titles to the collection of books in theCollege’s library. This event, called “Mirrors and Windows: Diverse Picture Books and Young Adult Novels,” will be on display in the High Library until April 5.
