Students at LMU do not simply attend library events: they create and participate in the development of them as well. In fact, members from across our campus community, including faculty and staff, play key roles in the learning experiences of our students.
Haunting of Hannon: Collaborative Creativity
Our Haunting of Hannon, an annual collaboration with the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance, brings together faculty, staff, students, and librarians to transform the library into a literary Halloween experience. One of our most popular programs, it draws more than 200 guests from both the campus and the neighborhood each year.
Based on the topic of our fall Archives and Special Collections exhibition each year, scenes are performed by theatre students throughout the evening for two nights. We work strategically with LMU’s College of Communication and Fine Arts to create programming around and in coordination with students’ creative coursework, which further engages them with library resources and collections. The Haunting of Hannon is so integrated, in fact, that it is now a credit-bearing activity and has been institutionalized into the academic experience for theatre students (in addition to being a fun assignment).
Past hauntings have included “Haunting of Hannon VI: Out of Time,” based on early modern books from our exhibition “So Short a Lease: Early Reflections on the Human Timeline,” which brought to life stories of time lost, time forgotten, and time running out. Last year, we hosted “Dead in the West,” during which the ghost of Samuel Clemens led guests on a tour of the monsters and horrors of the old (and new) West, inspired by Mark Twain’s travel writing.
In 2018, we created “Haunting of Hannon VI: Inferno” in which guests met many of the inhabitants of Dante Alighieri’s hell, but with some unique modifications based on critical race and gender theory. Our tour guides (aka “the Virgils”) led guests through a hellscape of theatre that only the devilish mind of our faculty could devise, descending through the library’s basement where they might encounter a sadistic Malacoda, or a possessed spirit, only to ascend through the library to discover even more horrors. We saw the transformation of Dr. Jekyll, the ravages of the bubonic plague, and Cleopatra in the afterlife (she regrets nothing).
Fall 2021 marked our ninth year collaborating with LMU’s theatre arts program. The script, costumes, stage design, and performances are all produced by theatre students, faculty and staff, and based on the items on display in our fall Archives and Special Collections exhibition. We even have librarians in the cast occasionally! The Haunting of Hannon continues to showcase the creativity of our campus community and offer an alternative means to engage with our collections.
As writer and faculty director Kevin Wetmore noted:
“I am truly grateful to the library at my school, as they have given me the October of my childhood again. Best of all, I have dozens of people working with me to make a literary haunted house each year, and as a result we are able to give hundreds more that experience of horror, fear and a love of scary literature. I’ve done my job well if the audience is scared. I’ve done my job even better if some of those people go home and pick up Poe, Lovecraft, Stoker or Hodgson.”
LMU Speaks: Storytelling to Break Down Silos
In addition to working with faculty and students to share the stories of our collections, we invite the LMU community through a program we call “LMU Speaks” to share their stories. Similar to “The Moth” or NPR’s “Snap Judgment,” LMU Speaks is a storytelling program that brings together students, faculty, and staff from across campus units to foster connections between departments and open new channels of communication. Our goal is to invite our campus colleagues to be a part of the library community, to contribute to the institutional memory of LMU, and to strengthen the library’s position as an intellectual hub within the campus community and a bridge between disciplines and departments. Storytelling is elemental to any society and the library is a place where stories can be shared and preserved.
Each year, we work with the directors of LMU’s Ethnic and Intercultural Services unit to identify 2–3 students, usually from among the unit’s “Intercultural Facilitators” cohort: a group of students, highly skilled in principles of facilitation, to effectively engage other students in critical cultural conversations. In addition, we invite one faculty member and one staff. Together these 4–5 individuals tell a story around a central theme. For example, our first LMU Speaks was “The Fork in the Road.” Speakers told stories about a time in their lives when they needed to make an important decision. Other themes included “Off the Rails” and “The Unspeakable.”
At each LMU Speaks, we ask whether attendees spoke to at least one person they had never met before. More than 75% consistently answer “yes.” We additionally ask what attendees learn from attending the event. Past responses included:
“There are creative, inspirational people who are all around us. We just should pause and listen more.”
“Oral storytelling is important for building the LMU culture. It is okay to say no. Follow your dreams.”
“I received further confirmation of the amazingly diverse and gifted individuals (students, faculty, and staff) we have at LMU.”
The library brings together teaching faculty, student affairs units, and other staff to create programming that appeals to the whole campus community. The LMU community utilizes the library as a platform, not just for accessing stories, but for creating and sharing them as well. As a result of our work, students create and share experiences with the campus community that draw from their unique perspectives, highlighting their role as artists and intellectuals.
This article was first published in our 2021 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award dossier. For more information about the William H. Hannon Library, please contact John Jackson, Head of Outreach & Engagement.
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