Category Archives: Just for Fun

2023 Durham Tech Library Poetry Month Bookmarks!

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Durham Tech Library's 2023 Poetry Month bookmarks: "Everything is Exactly the Same as it Was the Day Before” by Ina Cariño, “Allowables” by Nikki Giovanni, "Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale" by Dan Albergotti, "[after Ross Gay’s 'A Small Needful Fact' and Jay Ward’s 'Ars Poetica in Which the Dead Child is Renamed as a Flower']" by Durham's first Poet Laureate (2022-23) DJ Rogers, and “What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use” by current US Poet Laureate Ada Limón
Click on the image to go to the 2023 Durham Tech Library Poetry bookmark pdf file.

2023’s poetry month bookmarks have “Everything is Exactly the Same as it Was the Day Before” by  Ina Cariño, “Allowables” by Nikki Giovanni, “Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale” by Dan Albergotti, “[after Ross Gay’s ‘A Small Needful Fact’ and Jay Ward’s ‘Ars Poetica in Which the Dead Child is Renamed as a Flower’]” by Durham’s Poet Laureate (2022-23) DJ Rogers, and “What It Looks Like To Us and the Words We Use” by current US Poet Laureate Ada Limón.

The file is a pdf, so you can print your own (and color them in, if that’s your thing). Print 2-sided, short edge. Cardstock is recommended.

Bookmarks and bookmark sheets will be available for pick up at the Main Campus Library by Thursday and are currently available at the Orange County Campus Library.

Click through to download Durham Tech Library Poetry Month bookmarks from 2022, 2021, 2019, and 2017, which include poems from Jackie Shelton Green, Amanda Gorman, Terrance Hayes, Mary Oliver, Kay Ryan, Danez Smith, Rita Dove, Ellen Bass, and more!

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What We’re Reading: Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin

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Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin, translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
Available at the Main Campus
(PQ 2704 .U87 H5813 2021)

It’s winter in Sokcho, a tourist town on the border between South and North Korea. The cold slows everything down. A young French Korean woman works as a receptionist in a tired guesthouse. One evening, an unexpected guest arrives: a French cartoonist determined to find inspiration in this desolate landscape. She agrees to accompany him on trips to discover an “authentic” Korea, [b]ut he takes no interest in the Sokcho she knows. As she’s pulled into his vision and taken in by his drawings, she strikes upon a way to finally be seen. –adapted from the publisher summary

Title: Winter in Sokcho

Author: Elisa Shua Dusapin

Genre: Literary fiction; Novella

Read Great Things 2023 Categories: A book about an experience different than your own; A book that piques your curiosity; A book recommended by a Durham Tech staff member on the Library blog

This book was read by Kyle Minton, Reference Librarian.

Why did you choose to read this book?

I’m not too proud to admit it: Winter in Sokcho has an incredibly inviting physical design. The postcard-as-book-cover approach promises big feelings, but the generous use of white space inside offers plenty of contemplation between what ends up being a very sensual reflection on one’s own romantic and professional destinies.

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What We’re Reading: The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama (& A Request for Audience Participation)

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So far we’ve highlighted Black History Month on the blog with Black Visual Artists, Black History, and Black Musicians and Poets. We’ve got one left in queue for next week–Activists and Advocates–, but we’d like to finish the month by sharing a list of your favorite books by Black authors. 

Share your favorite 1-2 books by Black American authors. They can be fiction or nonfiction, classic or contemporary, any reading level (kids, middle grades, YA, or adult), any topic or genre, and they do not have to be from/currently in the Durham Tech Library collections. 

We’ve got a form to keep it all organized and orderly: Durham Tech’s Favorite Authors & Books for Black History Month [form]

Some favorite books by Black American authors (Legendborn by Tracey Deonn and The Sum of Us by Heather McGhee) pictured with a Durham Tech Library water bottle and fanny pack, both in an excellent lime green, to illustrate the possible prizes people who fill out our form can win

Participants will be entered to win either a Durham Tech Library water bottle or fanny pack if they so desire!

Respond to Meredith Lewis (lewisma @ durhamtech.edu) with any specific questions.

Now onto the main event!

the light we carry: overcoming in uncertain times by michelle obama
Available at the Main Campus (E 909.024 O24 2022) and as an audiobook through Dogwood Digital Library

This book, more self-help than memoir, draws on Michelle Obama’s personal struggles and shares her strategies for staying optimistic.  Yes, despite fame, financial success, and inestimable clout, Michelle has relatable doubts and fears (is the pandemic ever going to end?, will my family be okay?, how can I keep my balance in an uncertain world?). Creating connection and “going high” are tools we can all use. 

Title: The Light We Carry

Author: Michelle Obama                       

Genre: Self-Help with a memoir twist 

Read Great Things 2023 Categories: A book to improve your mental or physical health; A book about an experience different than your own; A book recommended by a Durham Tech Library staff member or on the blog 

This book was read by Susan Baker, Main Campus Reference Librarian.

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Crafternoon: Creating Community and Cool Things Together

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Have you heard about Crafternoons?

All materials will be provided and all current students, faculty, and staff are invited to come hang out, create, and chat with each other (or not, if quiet crafting is your thing). You’ll need to sign in, so make sure you have your Durham Tech ID or know your Durham Tech ID number.

Spring 2023 Crafternoons. Main Campus events are Wednesday from 1-3 pm. Orange County Campus (OCC) events are Tuesdays 11am-1pm.

Crafternoons are hands-on workshops sponsored by the Durham Tech Library and the Student Enrichment Department.

Keep reading for a little more information about each event and don’t forget to put them on your calendar!

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Reading Greatly in 2023: The Durham Tech Library Reading Challenge

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A little unfinished business first–

Need to fill out your 2022 challenge form? Here it is! Since we’re a little late releasing the new list this year (and everyone deserves a little grace sometimes when we’re able), you’ve got until Friday, January 13, 2023 to complete and submit the 2022 Reading Challenge form.

If you’ve already filled it out, no need to do it a second time.

Want to revisit old challenges? Check out our new Read Great Things Challenge LibGuide website for the ghosts of reading challenges past.

Durham Tech Library Read Great Things Challenge 2023

What is the Read Great Things Challenge?

The Read Great Things Challenge is a personal reading challenge sponsored by the Durham Tech Library that encourages folks to diversify and/or increase their reading goals by completing books throughout 2023 that fit into at least 10 of the following 12 categories:

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What We’re Reading: The Nineties: A Book

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the nineties: a book by chuck klosterman
Available at the Main Campus (E 169.12 .K556 2022) and as an ebook through Dogwood Digital Library

Title: The Nineties: A Book
Author: Chuck Klosterman
Genres: history, essays
2022 Read Great Things Category(ies): A book with a number in the title; Blast from the past: A book of short stories or essays (2020); Our favorite category–A book on the Durham Tech Library Blog

This book was read by Main Campus Reference Librarian Stephen Brooks, who is still a playful, discouraged idealist. As such, this What We’re Reading blog is less a review or summary of the book and more of a personal journey. I listened to an audiobook version of The Nineties, which is a collection of essays in approximately chronological order, over several weeks while commuting to Durham Tech, folding laundry, mowing the lawn and working in the kitchen.

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Tap into your Creativity with Crafternoons!

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The Durham Tech Library in collaboration with the Student Enrichment Department is thrilled to announce the return of our Crafternoons for the Fall 2022 semester!

Fall 2022 Crafternoon Schedule (continue reading for additional details)

Take a few minutes to unwind with a creative break and chat with fellow Durham Tech students, faculty, and staff. Students, faculty, and staff from all programs and departments are welcome to participate. Materials will be provided.

Keep reading for more details about the upcoming Crafternoon events!

You can also find these listed on the College’s Events calendar by searching keyword: crafternoon.

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Body Parts: Microhistories of the Physical Self

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Unlike many of our health science folks, I was academically an English major (and then an education major and then a library science major), so my formal education surrounding anatomy and physiology is lacking. Maybe that’s why I love books about the human body so much, especially microhistories that dig deep into particular anatomical aspects.

Or maybe I remember The Magic School Bus and then the Futurama tribute episode fondly, both of which were inspired by the 1966 science fiction classic film The Fantastic Voyage.

Ms. Frizzle and Liz, the class chameleon, winking at each other from the animated children's television show The Magic School Bus

Maybe this is your genre, too? If so, check out some of our collection of books about body parts and systems and learn more about your insides and outside, too!

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Space! At the Library!

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Have you seen the new images of space from the James Webb Telescope?

Stephen's Quintet image from Webb, NASA 2022
Stephan’s Quintet, which consists of a group of five galaxies ranging between 40 and 290 million light years away from Earth

We have and we’re excited!

In addition to birds, octopuses, dinosaurs, plants, chess, cats, football, real estate, kelp, swimming, astrology, funny internet graphics, The Beatles, and art (to name a few of our department’s enthusiastic specific interests), we also like space!

Keep reading for some resources to learn more about space and even a little fiction to expand your imagination.

Lego man gif yelling "Spaceship!"
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