As Early Voting begins today in North Carolina, the library has a display of resources about voting rights and history to remind us of the importance of casting our ballots. There are also excellent ebooks in ebrary and streaming video in Films on Demand. Visit the NC Voter Guide to locate early voting places, your polling location, and more.
Here are some of the library’s books, ebooks, and DVDs about voting rights and history.
Image from: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/bannedbooksweek
Banned Books Week is an annual event which celebrates the freedom to read. Librarians, booksellers, publishers, and teachers across the country unite during Banned Books Week to oppose censorship and ensure free access to information and books.
Visit our library’s display window to see some of the frequently challenged books from schools and libraries over the last few years. Feel free to check one out! Visit the American Library Association’s (ALA) list of the most frequently challenged books and learn the reasons why they are challenged in libraries and schools: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks.
Come by the library desk to pick up a fun bookmark with the ALA’s superhero graphic and defend your freedom to read!
NC LIVE, North Carolina’s statewide public and academic library consortium, has added 980 new ebooks to Home Grown, a collection of fiction and nonfiction works from North Carolina-based publishers. The new additions were purchased with the generous donations of North Carolina libraries and feature a wide variety of titles, including novels by popular North Carolina authors, poetry, young adult, short stories and nonfiction. Readers may enjoy new titles such as And West is West by Ron Childress, and Southern Tailgating Cookbook by Taylor Mathis. The ebooks are available to all North Carolina citizens via the NC LIVE website.
All Home Grown ebooks have unlimited, simultaneous user access, meaning that classrooms, book clubs, or any other groups can access the same ebook at the same time. NC LIVE partnered with six local publishing houses to provide the ebooks in this newest addition to the collection, including Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, Crossroad Press, John F. Blair Publishing, McFarland & Company, Press 53 and UNC Press.
Let the library staff know if you have any questions about this collection.
We have lots of new feature films and documentaries! Come by the library to check them out.
This book was read by Julie Humphrey, Assistant Director, Library.
–It’s What I Do: A Photographer’s Life of Love and War by Lynsey Addario
Why did you choose to read this book?
I really enjoy nonfiction, biographies, memoirs, and reading about women’s lives. I am also interested in photography, photojournalism, and travel. This book about a woman war photographer sounded compelling to me.
What did you like about it?
I especially appreciated the author’s honesty and the vivid details she shared of living and working in conflict and war zones around the world. She has worked in Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, The Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Libya, etc… and lived in Istanbul and London. I was really glad the book included many of her photographs. These striking, award-winning photos really enhanced her story and brought it to life. I also liked learning about the logistics of this work and what happens behind the scenes with support staff like local drivers and translators. I have a new appreciation for everything and everyone involved in international reporting.
What feeling did the book leave you with?
Addario deals with sexism so often while working in the heavily male-dominated profession of war photojournalism. I felt really frustrated for her in many situations and admired her fight to be taken seriously. I also felt extremely afraid and disturbed when she shares her accounts of being kidnapped, assaulted, and abused while working. I ultimately feel a deep appreciation for the work of journalists around the world who risk their lives every day in order to document and tell important stories.
Who would you recommend the book to?
Readers who like a gripping and intense personal story. I would also recommend this to anyone interested in world politics and international conflicts. This is a must-read for aspiring journalists and photographers.
What would you pair this book with?
Fresh, cold water! She describes being severely dehydrated on some of her work assignments. Also, a bottle of cold beer, which she describes having from time to time, in order to unwind with her fellow journalists after an intense or grueling day of work.
Interested in reading It’s What I Do? Check it out from the library!
This spring the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) replaced its seventh edition handbook with a new eighth edition. The new edition includes significant changes that focus more on the process of writing and documenting sources. Previous editions of the handbook provided very specific guidelines for formatting and citing and the new eighth edition outlines basic core elements and principles of MLA documentation and explains how writers can use them in different situations.
Explore the MLA Style Center website for frequently asked questions and answers, teaching resources, tips on formatting a research paper, and information on plagiarism and dishonesty.
Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab has updated their MLA Formatting and Style Guide to reflect changes in the new 8th edition: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
Librarian Meredith Lewis is currently revising the Durham Tech Library’s MLA guide. We’ll let you know when it is available. Print copies of the MLA Handbook 8th edition are available at all three campus libraries.
Come by and visit our new bookshelves to browse for new books to read. There is also a display featuring new books on the lower level of the library.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, many soul, funk, and R&B performers lived and worked in Durham, NC. More than 40 groups recorded singles and full-length albums in this time period. Ten recording labels were based in Durham during those decades.
Durham County Library’s North Carolina Collection, put together a comprehensive web exhibit, Bull City Soul, where you can learn about this fascinating musical history.
Read about musical origins and influences, see profiles, images, and discographies of the musical artists. Learn about the politics of the time, local live music venues, and record stores that contributed to this vibrant culture and history.
Skull & Bones promotional photo,
© 2014 Joshua Clark Davis, Jason Perlmutter, Lincoln Hancock
This 2014 project was funded by the Durham Library Foundation, Duke University, and North Carolina Humanities Council. This web exhibit is based on two projects which began in 2005 by local record collector and record store owner, Jason Perlmutter. Perlmutter launched a website, Carolina Soul History to share his research. “The Carolina Soul website serves as a living encyclopedia of soul music made in North and South Carolina.”
Did you know our library has music CDs available for checkout? Search the online catalog to locate artists and albums. These are shelved on the lower level of the library.
During the month of June, LGBT Pride Month is celebrated each year in memory of the 1969 Stonewall riots in Manhattan. The Stonewall riots were one of the key events of the Gay Liberation Movement in the United States. The Library of Congress honors LGBT pride month and their “collections contain many books, posters, sound recordings, manuscripts and other resources produced by, about and for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community.” Explore the Library of Congress LGBT Audio and Video collections.
(AP Photo/Noah Berger) Image from www.msnbc.com
Films on Demand also features an excellent collection of films about the Gay Liberation Movement and LGBT history and culture.
You can also locate many books and DVDs in our library collection in support of LGBT Pride Month.
Check out our new books for June. Even thought these are primarily nonfiction, we have lots of popular and literary fiction for summer reading. Search the library’s online catalog by title, author, or subject to locate good books. We have a display on the lower level of the library featuring a lot of our new books and a new book shelf by the reference desk full of new titles. Enjoy!
