What We’re Reading Online for Black History Month

Dogwood Digital Library

The Durham Tech Library is a member of the Dogwood Digital Library, a collection of online ebooks and audiobooks through the Overdrive/Libby app. Durham Tech faculty, staff, and students can check out books using their Durham Tech username and password, just like they can access databases off-campus. Ebooks and audiobooks check out for 21 days and can be read on your phone, tablet, or computer. 

Check out some of our staff recommendations that celebrate Black authors and experiences for Black History Month. 

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Getting Support During the Fall Semester

The semester has started! That means assignments, deadlines, work, school, family, friends, pandemic, economy, politics, and more, are all stressors as we move into pumpkin spice season fall. Find resources below to help manage that stress and take care of your mental health.

Self care poster with a pug wrapped in a blanket.
Current display in the ERC Lobby: Self Care
Trust me you want to read more. There is a jellyfish cam.

We All Scream For Ice Cream

It’s hot, y’all. 

It’s hot and humid and sticky and gross. This is that part of a North Carolina summer my relatives in Pennsylvania tell me is inhumane. (The joke is on them when they get snow in November though.)

Sometimes, when the sun seems angry at you personally and the world feels like it’s falling apart (see: pandemic, police brutality, climate change, the 24-hour news cycle), there’s nothing better than some ice cream to cool off and coat your insides with delicious sugar (or dairy-free with sugar substitute– do you). Want to surround yourself with ice cream history and recipes? The library can help with that. 

click here for ice cream recipes and more!

Read: Learning More about Race in America

So far, we’ve watched, listened, and learned more about civic engagement. If you’re looking for reading resources to help you learn about and engage in meaningful positive change related to race in America, the Durham Tech Library has curated a book list containing history, self-assessment, action and engagement advice, art, film, data science, travel, personal stories, and social science, just to name a few. 

Check it out! 

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR DURHAM TECH BOOK LIST

Watch: Learning More about Race in America

Recent protests have reignited larger discussions of race, African American history, and the Civil Rights Movement. To learn more, Films on Demand has some great documentary resources that are free for Durham Tech faculty, staff, and students. 

Click for streaming video resources

Celebrate Women’s History Month with videos from Films on Demand

Explore the powerful stories of influential women throughout history!

This documentary about the trajectory of an African-American girl wonder whose mathematical genius would catapult astronauts into space. Born in 1918, Johnson graduated high school at the age of 14, college at 18, and went on to a career with NASA where she broke race and gender barriers. Johnson not only succeeded in a white, male-dominated field, she excelled. 

In July of 1920, all eyes were on Nashville, Tennessee as anti- and pro-suffragists fought for their vision of a socially evolving United States. This program chronicles the dramatic vote to ratify the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote, and the years of debate about women’s suffrage that preceded it. 

This film explores the role of women in revolutions that transformed the modern world. It includes women in the French and Russian revolutions as well as women in America, like Margaret Sanger, who coined the term birth control and developed the pill which would finally give women control over when to have children.

For generations women have been seen as secondary or supplementary earners. Now women outnumber men graduating from higher education, and are taking their place in the global job market, and enjoying ever-greater financial independence. In this episode, we meet the women challenging professional expectations – from the Amazon to Iran – and transforming society around them in the process.

 This detailed program traces the lifelong odyssey of a woman who literally walked out of bondage, changed her name in 1843, and traveled the country as an abolitionist and women’s rights advocate. Along the way she would meet Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln and be further cast into fable by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Interviews with scholars and dramatic readings from Truth’s speeches and autobiography conjure more clearly a picture of this truly heroic woman.

This is the amazing true story of pioneering women, who for a brief moment in the darkest days of WWII, shattered the glass ceiling to become the first women to pilot American military aircraft. Surviving WASP relive their personal experiences and the challenges they faced while ferrying aircraft, flying as test pilots and towing targets for live anti-aircraft practice. They also bring to light their sixty-six year long struggle for recognition and veterans rights.

Films on Demand features more than 40,000 educational films and clips in many subject areas and disciplines.  Content from these reputable producers is included: A&E, PBS, BBC Learning, National Geographic, ABC News, NBC News, CNBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, HBO Documentary Films, Films for the Humanities & Sciences, and more.

The Library’s three Films on Demand collections can be found at this link: 
http://durhamtech.libguides.com/az.php?a=f

Films on Demand logo


You can also visit our book display on the lower level of the library for lots of inspirational reading.  Pick up a Women’s History Month bookmark at the Main Campus library desk. 

Read to honor Dr. King’s legacy on MLK Holiday

Durham Tech Health and Wellness Instructor, Wilma Herndon, invites you to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day  by participating in the Day of Reading event. Ms. Herndon is the “Reading is Power Chair” of the local chapter, Beta Zeta.  Sign up on Friday, Jan 17th after Durham Tech’s MLK Luncheon or by email at herndonw@durhamtech.edu.  There is also a form at Durham Tech’s Main Campus Library desk.

Please visit the library’s display of MLK books on the lower level of the library for potential books and videos to watch.  You can also pick up a special MLK bookmark at any of the campus libraries. 

Photo of Library Display

Not sure what to read? See some suggestions below which are available in our library. 

Banned Books Week Sept. 22-29, 2019

Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and open access to information for all. The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or censorship in libraries and schools. 

lightulb with text reading: Censorship Leaves Us in the Dark.  Keep the Light On!

Image courtesy of https://bannedbooksweek.org/promotional-tools/

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom compiles lists of challenged books in order to bring awareness of censorship that affect libraries and schools. 

Stop by our banned books display on the lower level of Main library and pick up a bookmark, sticker, or coloring sheet at the library’s desk to celebrate your freedom to read.

red book wrapped in yellow caution tape that reads Banned Books Week
Image courtesy of https://bannedbooksweek.org/promotional-tools/