Celebrate Black History Month with Streaming Video from Films on Demand

Watch the film above, an interview with inspirational Congressman John Lewis, or those below and visit Films on Demand for more films and clips to celebrate and honor Black History Month.  Films or shorter film segments can be easily embedded into Sakai course sites. Visit our display window outside of the library for lots of books and DVD resources available for checkout.

Films on Demand logo

Famous Americans: Famous African-Americans

Features Frederick Douglass, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and  many other African-Americans who fought for American independence, the abolition of slavery, civil rights, and had a great impact on society.

4 Little Girls

Spike Lee’s documentary about a racially motivated bombing that may have been caused by — and most definitely helped define — the emerging civil-rights movement championed by Dr. Martin Luther King and others. 4 Little Girls is at once a moving human account by family members and friends of the four girls who perished in the September 15, 1963 bombing, as well as an important historical account of the forces that shaped race relations in Birmingham and the nation in the 1960s.

This program reveals a long-running struggle for racial equality starting with Civil War– and Reconstruction-era events, moving through the blight of Jim Crow and the formation of the NAACP and other groups, and depicting the drama of King’s movement in varied, evolving phases. The work of Malcolm X, the rise of the Black Power movement, and the future of America’s ongoing equality battles are also examined.

This five-part series features an all-star cast who read from a collection of letters, diaries, speeches, and military records that document and acknowledge the sacrifices and accomplishments of African-Americans across four centuries of warfare.

 

 

 

#ReadGreatThings2018: Books to Movies and/or Television

I don’t know if you’ve heard, but 2018 is here and the library is launching a reading challenge!

Read Great Things Challenge Logo

To help you discover books for the reading challenge categories, we will be highlighting books from our collection that fit into different categories (and also count towards that last one– librarian recommendations).

Get excited!

Stephen Colbert and Kermit the frog waving their arms around excitedly


This month we’re covering books that will be turned into movies or television shows this year.

These are only a few of all the page-to-screen adaptations happening this year, but you can find more here, here, and here.

#readgreatthings2018 protip: Many of these books can count towards 2 categories.

Remember, if we don’t have a copy of a book you’d like to read, we can get it for you through inter-library loan. Just ask a librarian.

Resources for evaluating news sources and avoiding fake news

Durham Tech Library has created an extensive online guide to help with evaluating and categorizing news sources.  You’ll find links to videos, infographics, articles, books, ebooks, handouts, games and activities, a research study from Stanford, and much more!

http://durhamtech.libguides.com/infolit

Feel free to link this guide to your Sakai course sites and share with students.

We also have some new books in the library for further reading and discussion on this important topic:

Overload

Call Number: PN 4888 .P6 S35 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weaponized Lies

Call Number: BC 177 .L486 2017

debunk it

Call Number: BC 177 .G736 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For fun, play the Factitious game to determine if stories are true or false.  This game was created by American University:  http://factitious.augamestudio.com/#/

Let the library staff know if you have recommendations for additional resources to add to the guide.

 

 

 

Ada Lovelace Day Celebrates Women in Science

The second Tuesday of October is Ada Lovelace Day and celebrates women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics with the hope of inspiring future generations of young women to study and work in STEM fields.

Image of Ada Lovelace

Image from http://www.rejectedprincesses.com

Ada Lovelace was an English mathematician and writer who created the first program for Charles Babbage‘s analytical engine. She is known as the first computer programmer and has a computer programming language from the Department of Defense named after her. (From The Hutchinson Dictionary of Scientific Biography)

Read more about Ada Lovelace and ways to support women in STEM fields here:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/sifting-the-evidence/2015/oct/13/why-ada-lovelace-day-matters?CMP=share_btn_fb

You can also explore these books in the library’s collection which feature Ada Lovelace and other important women in science, mathematics, and history:

Lab Girl cover

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

Rejected Princess book cover

Rejected princesses : tales of history’s boldest heroines, hellions, and heretics by Jason Porath

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Hidden Figures

Headstrong: 52 Women who Changed Science – and the World by Rachel Swaby

Headstrong: 52 Women who Changed Science – and the World by Rachel Swaby

Celebrate Banned Books Week Sept. 24-30

Banned Books Week is an annual event which celebrates the freedom to read and highlights the importance of open access to information for all. Banned Books Week brings awareness to issues of censorship in libraries and schools.

Banned Books Week poster

Image from ALA: American Library Association

According to the American Library Association, “A challenge is an attempt to remove or restrict materials, based upon the objections of a person or group. A banning is the removal of those materials. Challenges do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others. As such, they are a threat to freedom of speech and choice.”

To see a list of the most frequently challenged, books visit: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks

Visit our banned books display on the lower level of the library and pick up a bookmark at the library’s desk to celebrate the power of words and the freedom to read.

banned books display

Solar Eclipse Viewing Party Mon. August 21

The Library and Durham Tech’s Student Government Association are excited to host a Solar Eclipse viewing party on the Main campus plaza next Monday, Aug. 21 from 2:00-3:00 pm.

solar eclipse images

The total solar eclipse of November 14, 2012, as seen in the South Pacific. Photo by Rick Fienberg / TravelQuest International / Wilderness Travel

For the first time in nearly 40 years, a total eclipse of the sun will be visible in the continental United States, which makes this a special and rare phenomenon for us to witness.  A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon covers the face of the sun as seen from earth.  It’s extremely important to view the eclipse safely.  The only safe way to look directly at the uneclipsed or partially eclipsed sun is through solar filters, such as eclipse glasses.  Eclipse glasses will be provided at our event as well as refreshments. Glasses will also be available at the Orange County Campus.  Please join us for this fun celestial celebration!  Also visit our display in the library window for books and materials related to astronomy and space.

Durham Tech Solar Eclipse Event Poster

To learn more about the eclipse visit these sites:

NASA
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/faq

American Astronomical Society
https://eclipse.aas.org/

The “All-American” Eclipse guide for libraries:
http://www.starnetlibraries.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2017-Eclipe-Guide-WEB-033117.pdf

Sky and Telescope magazine
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/total-solar-eclipse-august-2017/#observe

 

Celebrating LGBT authors and experiences

LGBT Book Month image

Image from ALA, American Library Association

This month the library has been celebrating the authors and writings that reflect the lives and experiences of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community.  We have a display of books on the lower level of the library that we will keep up through the end of July.

Explore the library’s guide to LGBTQ resources for books, ebooks, DVDs, streaming video, and recommended websites: http://durhamtech.libguides.com/LGBTQ

Pick up a bookmark at the reference desk to join the celebration!

What We’re Reading: Camino Island

Title: Camino Island

Camino Island book cover

Camino Island by John Grisham

Read by: Mary Kennery

Author: John Grisham

 Genre: thriller/suspense

Why did you choose to read this book?  I love mysteries and I have read other books by the author. This 30th novel written by John Grisham published in June 2017 is a different style for the author.  There is no young lawyer this time, but a young soon-to-be unemployed UNC-Chapel Hill English instructor/ struggling novelist Mercer who is pegged to infiltrate a rare book dealer Bruce’s bookstore with a black market connection after F. Scott Fitzgerald manuscripts are stolen from Princeton and find their way to Camino Island, Florida.

What did you like about it?  How the plot unfolds between Mercer and Bruce and the islanders and all gets resolved.  The island’s inhabitants are certainly characters!  The many fond memories that Mercer has of spending summers with her grandmother on the island are endearing.  You can imagine the author tours, rare book collecting and preservation and storage of prized books.

Did it remind you of any other book, or a movie?  Other mystery authors/ missing artifacts, but this one has a rare book angle.

Was there anything noteworthy about the book? References to UNC-Chapel Hill, Franklin St., and The Lantern Restaurant made it especially appealing.  These are places that Grisham likes to visit.

What feeling did the book leave you with?  Resolution plus wanting to know what future blockbuster novel will be next on the horizon for Mercer when she gets over her writer’s block.  Will Camino Island be made into a movie?  Plus another Grisham book is due out later this year.  I will add that one to my must read list.

Who would you recommend the book to? A mystery lover, a John Grisham fan, a bookstore afficionado.

What would you pair this book with?  Even though Camino Island mainly takes place in Florida, I enjoyed reading it on my front porch under a Carolina blue sky with a sweet tea while dog sitting.  I guess I should have read it on a favorite beach.

Were you one of the lucky ones to meet John Grisham at his first book tour in over 25 years?  One was held at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh in June.  Sorry to say, but I was not there.

John Grisham was interviewed recently in The News & Observer:
http://www.newsobserver.com/entertainment/books/article155357904.html

The library plans to purchase a copy of this book for our collection in July.  In the meantime, we have most of Grisham’s other novels available.

Wondering About Wonder Woman?

Have you seen the new Wonder Woman movie? Have you heard about it? Are you curious about the super-heroine who is breaking box office records all over the place?

We have the books for you!

Secret History of Wonder Woman

A riveting work of historical detection revealing that the origin of Wonder Woman, one of the world’s most iconic superheroes, hides within it a fascinating family story—and a crucial history of twentieth-century feminism.

Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has uncovered an astonishing trove of documents, including the never-before-seen private papers of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman’s creator. Beginning in his undergraduate years at Harvard, Marston was influenced by early suffragists and feminists, starting with Emmeline Pankhurst, who was banned from speaking on campus in 1911, when Marston was a freshman. In the 1920s, Marston and his wife, Sadie Elizabeth Holloway, brought into their home Olive Byrne, the niece of Margaret Sanger, one of the most influential feminists of the twentieth century. The Marston family story is a tale of drama, intrigue, and irony. In the 1930s, Marston and Byrne wrote a regular column for Family Circle celebrating conventional family life, even as they themselves pursued lives of extraordinary nonconformity. Marston, internationally known as an expert on truth—he invented the lie detector test—lived a life of secrets, only to spill them on the pages of Wonder Woman.

The Secret History of Wonder Woman is a tour de force of intellectual and cultural history. Wonder Woman, Lepore argues, is the missing link in the history of the struggle for women’s rights—a chain of events that begins with the women’s suffrage campaigns of the early 1900s and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later.

Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine

This close look at Wonder Woman’s history portrays a complicated heroine who is more than just a female Superman with a golden lasso and bullet-deflecting bracelets. The original Wonder Woman was ahead of her time, advocating female superiority and the benefits of matriarchy in the 1940s. At the same time, her creator filled the comics with titillating bondage imagery, and Wonder Woman was tied up as often as she saved the world.

In the 1950s, Wonder Woman begrudgingly continued her superheroic mission, wishing she could settle down with her boyfriend instead, all while continually hinting at hidden lesbian leanings. While other female characters stepped forward as women’s lib took off in the late 1960s, Wonder Woman fell backwards, losing her superpowers and flitting from man to man.

Ms. magazine and Lynda Carter restored Wonder Woman’s feminist strength in the 1970s, turning her into a powerful symbol as her checkered past was quickly forgotten. Exploring this lost history adds new dimensions to the world’s most beloved female character, and Wonder Woman Unbound delves into her comic book and its spin-offs as well as the myriad motivations of her creators to showcase the peculiar journey that led to Wonder Woman’s iconic status.

But wait, there’s more! Have you seen the Black Panther teaser trailer? Get ready for the film by checking out the graphic novel written by Ta-Nehisi Coates from the Main Campus Library.

Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book 1

A new era begins for the Black Panther! MacArthur Genius and National Book Award-winning writer T-Nehisi Coates ( Author of Between the World and Me) takes the helm, confronting T’Challa with a dramatic upheaval in Wakanda that will make leading the African nation tougher than ever before. When a superhuman terrorist group that calls itself The People sparks a violent uprising, the land famed for its incredible technology and proud warrior traditions will be thrown into turmoil. If Wakanda is to survive, it must adapt–but can its monarch, one in a long line of Black Panthers, survive the necessary change? Heavy lies the head that wears the cowl!

World Oceans Day

Today, June 8th, is World Oceans Day, which encourages protection and conservation of the oceans.  “World Oceans Day is a global day of ocean celebration and collaboration for a better future.”  For resources and information visit the World Oceans Day website coordinated by The Ocean Project and sponsored by many aquariums and organizations around the world. You can join their mailing list, participate in actions and events, and join their social media campaign.

http://www.worldoceansday.org/

Have you visited any of the four amazing North Carolina Aquariums?  These can be great places to learn about ocean ecosystems, North Carolina marine life, and conservation.

http://www.ncaquariums.com/

You can also take a virtual dive!  Explore the oceans and national marine sanctuaries with NOAA’s (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) 360-degree panoramic images! These virtual reality tours highlight habitats found in our national marine sanctuaries.  Happy exploring.

http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/vr/

The library is featuring an ocean display in our front window this month.  You are welcome to borrow any of the books and DVDS on display.

library display windowLibrary display window

Here are a few books and DVDS from our collection:

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