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Category Archives: Focus on a Topic
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
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.
Smithsonian Open Access: Open Educational Images (and a little bit about copyright)
Have you ever desperately needed the 3-D printed hands of Abraham Lincoln or a mammoth skeleton, but just couldn’t find the right file?
Good news, everyone– the Smithsonian has released over 2.8 million images (high resolution, 2- and 3-D) from across its 19 museums and institutions into the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license, meaning they are available for anyone to “copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.”
Continue Reading →What Happens When Students Take Classes with Open Textbooks?
Yesterday I announced that this is Open Education Week and described the characteristics that make a work “open.” I mentioned that Open Educational Resources (OER) in their digital form don’t cost anything and that print versions of OER textbooks are available at far less cost than commercial textbooks. Why is this important? Let’s talk about students’ needs.
March 2 – 6, 2020 Is Open Education Week
Happy Open Education Week 2020! Open Education is a movement that promotes using free educational tools–such as textbooks–that instructors have the right to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute. These five permissions are known as “The 5 Rs” of Open Educational Resources (OER).
Be on the lookout for more posts about Open Education this week. Today, we will start with an overview of what makes a resource “open.”
What do the 5 Rs mean?
Continue Reading →In Memoriam: Katherine Johnson, 1918-2020
Dr. Katherine Johnson, part of the human computer team at NASA and responsible for hand calculating NASA’s path to space, has died at 101. She graduated from West Virginia State College with degrees in math and French and briefly worked as a teacher before working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (which would later become NASA) at Langley Research Center. In 2015, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
To read about her influence at NASA and the team of black female mathematicians that helped the United States launch successfully into space, we’ve got Hidden Figures in three formats: book, DVD, and children’s book.
Available at the Main Campus (QA 27.5 .L44) 
Available at the Main Campus (QA 28 .S538 2018, Children’s Resources) 
Available at the Main and Orange County Campuses (PN 1997.2 .H53 2017 DVD)
Related reading also featuring Katherine Johnson:
Available at the Main Campus (Q 141 .I33 2016) 
Available at the Main Campus (QA 27.5 .E39 2017)
Black History Month-Celebrating Dance
Dance is wonderful. It is one of my favorite things in the world despite the fact that I’m only okay at it on a good day. Who cares? If I’m dancing I’m having a good time.
Many of the dances known in the United States were created by the Black community. Blues dancing, Swing, the Twist, Disco, Lindy Hop, Charleston, Jitterbug, Moonwalk, Cakewalk, and so many more. These are dances that have shaped the look and feel of decades.
See below for a video of Lindy Hop dancers back in the day and books that explore the history of Black social dancing.
Continue Reading →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.
Not sure what to read? See some suggestions below which are available in our library.
New books about Immigration
Are you participating in the library’s Read Great Things Challenge 2019? Do you need suggestions for books about immigration?
Here are some recent books, both nonfiction and fiction, that explore immigration and the immigrant and refugee experience. These are now available in the library collection.
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.
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.
