The library has a display on the lower level of medical memoirs written from the perspective of patients, nurses, doctors, and health care workers. We also feature a few related DVDs as well. A few of these titles are at the Orange County campus. Just let us know if you want to have a title sent over to your campus.
Category Archives: Focus on a Topic
Celebrate Women’s History Month with Streaming Video from Films on Demand
Althea Gibson was a trailblazing African-American tennis player, who crossed the color line of international tennis in the 1950’s.
March is Women’s History Month and a great time to celebrate women in history. Explore the film above or those below and visit Films on Demand for more films and clips. Films or shorter film segments can be easily embedded into Sakai course sites. Explore the following videos to learn about fascinating and important women in history:
Dolores Huerta is a labor leader and civil rights activist who advocated for the rights and wages of American farm workers. View “Born-Again Feminist: Dolores Huerta.”
Margaret Sanger devoted her life to legalizing birth control and making it universally available for women throughout the early 1900’s. View “Margaret Sanger.”
Gloria Steinem is a social activist, writer, editor, and champion of women’s rights since the late 1960s.View “Gloria: In Her Own Words.”
Makers: Women Who Make America Series is a 3-part series which tells the story of the most sweeping social revolution in American history, as women have asserted their rights to a full and fair share of political power, economic opportunity, and personal autonomy in the last 50 years. View “Makers: Women Who Make America Series.”
Read around the world
Image from https://pixabay.com/en/colorful-color-brush-painted-1974699/
This month the library is featuring a display of international authors on the lower level. Check out these authors and titles to explore the world. Many of these works have been translated from their original languages.
For more ideas, browse this Goodreads list of popular international authors for inspiration.
Search the library’s online catalog for additional titles and authors.
Distinguishing between factual and untrue news sources
There were several untrue news stories circulating on social media during the recent U.S. presidential election. It’s important to determine whether stories and news sources are reliable and accurate. Librarians at Northern Essex Community College Library in Massachusetts created and shared this useful resource guide: http://necc.mass.libguides.com/fakenewsvsrealnews/fakenews
Fake News Story Infographic, published by The Huffington Post, by Nick Robins-Early, 11/22/16
This guide links to helpful articles, videos, case studies, fact checking sites, and suggests tips for evaluating news stories. If you have questions or need help determining whether a source is reliable, feel free to ask your friendly librarians. We’re always glad to help you find accurate information.
Sources for more information:
The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Meet the Professor Who’s Trying to Help You Steer Clear of Clickbait:” http://www.chronicle.com/article/Meet-the-Professor-Who-s/238441
False, Misleading, Clickbait-y, and/or Satirical “News” Sources by Melissa Zimdars, Assistant Professor of Communication at Merrimack College: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10eA5-mCZLSS4MQY5QGb5ewC3VAL6pLkT53V_81ZyitM/preview
NPR: “Students Have ‘Dismaying’ Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds”: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/11/23/503129818/study-finds-students-have-dismaying-inability-to-tell-fake-news-from-real
Huffington Post: “How To Recognize A Fake News Story: 9 helpful tips to stop yourself from sharing false information:” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fake-news-guide-facebook_us_5831c6aae4b058ce7aaba169
School Library Journal: “Truth, truthiness, triangulation: A news literacy toolkit for a “post-truth” world:” http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2016/11/26/truth-truthiness-triangulation-and-the-librarian-way-a-news-literacy-toolkit-for-a-post-truth-world/
Your voice, your vote
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.
Celebrate your freedom to read during Banned Books Week
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!
New edition of the MLA Handbook
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.
I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts!
Prepare yourself for the new Ghostbusters movie by reading some ghost stories from the Durham Tech Library. Some are scary, some are funny, but they all have those opaque apparitions we love to fear!
Collected and introduced by the bestselling author of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Her Fearful Symmetry–including her own fabulous new illustrations for each piece, and a new story by Niffenegger–this is a unique and haunting anthology of some of the best ghost stories of all time. From Edgar Allen Poe to Kelly Link, M.R. James to Neil Gaiman, H. H. Munro to Audrey Niffenegger herself, Ghostly reveals the evolution of the ghost story genre with tales going back to the eighteenth century and into the modern era, ranging across styles from Gothic Horror to Victorian, with a particular bent toward stories about haunting–haunted children, animals, houses. Every story is introduced by Audrey Niffenegger, an acclaimed master of the craft, with some words on its background and why she chose to include it. Niffenegger’s own story is, “A Secret Life With Cats.” Perfect for the classic and contemporary ghost story aficionado, this is a delightful volume, beautifully illustrated. Ghostly showcases the best of the best in the field, including Edith Wharton, P.G. Wodehouse, A.S. Byatt, Ray Bradbury, and so many more.
Of all the things Anya expected to find at the bottom of an old well, a new friend wasn’t one of them. Especially not a new friend who’s been dead for a century. Falling down a well is bad enough, but Anya’s normal life might actually be worse. She’s embarrassed by her family, self-conscious about her body, and she’s pretty much given up on fitting in at school. A new friend–even a dead one–is just what she needs. But Anya’s new BFF isn’t kidding about the ‘forever’ part…
When Jeremy Johnson Johnson’s strange ability to speak to the ghost of Jacob Grimm draws the interest of his classmate Ginger Boltinghouse, the two find themselves at the center of a series of disappearances in their hometown.
Since losing both of her parents, fifteen-year-old Katie can see and talk to ghosts, which makes her a loner until fellow student Law sees her drawing of a historic house and together they seek a treasure rumored to be hidden there by illegal slave-traders.
Too Hot to Cook?
Summer has really and truly arrived, which means it may be too hot to use some of our awesome cookbooks,* but that doesn’t mean you can’t check out some of our awesome other food-related books and movies.
*Check out section TX in all campus libraries for cookbooks of all cuisines and sizes.
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month
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.