Category Archives: Focus on a Topic

Inspirational Women: Films for Women’s History Month

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March is Women’s History Month and a great time to celebrate important women in history. Explore the films below and visit Films on Demand for more films and clips. Films on Demand provides more than 20,000 high quality streaming videos and includes award winning documentaries, interviews, instructional and vocational training videos, historical speeches, and newsreels.  Films or shorter film segments can be easily embedded into Sakai course sites.

Happy Women’s History Month!

Sojourner Truth was an African-American abolitionist and women’s rights activist.

Marie Curie was a Nobel Prize winning physicist and chemist who explored radioactivity.

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were women’s rights and suffrage activists.

Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a abolitionist and led hundreds of slaves to freedom along the route of the Underground Railroad.

Shirley Chisholm became the first African-American congresswoman in 1968 and fought for education and social justice reform.

Books to Movies in 2016

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Books to movies in 2016. The 5th Wave and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

2016 brings a new crop of movies coming to a theater near you that are based on books. Below is a list of books you can check out from the Durham Tech Library to read before the movie comes out. Then you can proclaim the book better than the movie with confidence!

The 5th Wave by Richard Yancy-Theatrical Release on January 22nd (It’s already out!)

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith-Theatrical Release on February 5th

Allegiant by Veronica Roth-Theatrical Release on March 18th

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes-Theatrical Release on June 3rd

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins-Theatrical Release on October 7th

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness- Theatrical Release on October 14th

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain- Theatrical Release on November 11th

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs- Theatrical Release on December 25th

Take a walk! Explore NC State Parks, Trails, and more.

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Are you stressed by the end-of-semester crunch or the upcoming holidays?  Spend time outdoors!  It’s amazing what nature, walks or hikes, and fresh air can do for you!  We have many beautiful parks and trails in the triangle to enjoy as well as throughout the state.

Visit the NCpedia page, Exploring North Carolina: North Carolina State Parks, Trails, Lakes, Rivers & Natural Areas, which includes links to articles and contemporary and historic images of the parks from the NC Division of Parks and Recreation, the State Archives of North Carolina, the North Carolina Museum of History.  You’ll also find links to maps and web pages for the individual parks, trails, and recreation areas.

NCpedia is an online encyclopedia about North Carolina and highlights North Carolina’s unique resources, people, and culture. It is coordinated and managed by the Government & Heritage Library at the State Library of North Carolina, a part of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources.

Books About Writing

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Now that NaNoWriMo has started, here are a few books at the library that can help get the creative juices flowing. Here are tips, tricks, and advice from writers of both fiction and nonfiction. No matter what you are writing about you can find help here. Good luck!

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Don’t forget to add the Durham Tech Library as your writing buddy on Nanowrimo.org!

Ready for NaNoWriMo?

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National Novel Writing Month

November is known for Thanksgiving and the beginning of the holiday shopping season, but for writers it’s known for something else. November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), when people put their fingers to their keyboards and pound out 50,000 words in one month. That’s about 1,667 words a day.

You can do it, we believe in you!

There are as many ways to write a novel as there are writers, but for those who would like to plot their novel before writing we’ve collected some resources to help.

Writing a whole book in a month is a challenge and we want to support you. That’s why this year at the library we’ve made our own NaNoWriMo account. Search for us (username: Durham Tech Library) and make us your writing buddy! We will send our encouraging messages to our buddies and will answer any research questions you have. Suddenly find yourself needing to know how to build a canoe from a tree? Or what clothing was in fashion in the 15th century? How about first aid for a knife wound? Send us a NaNoMail and ask!

Check Out Mars

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Today, NASA announced that they’ve found proof of liquid saltwater on Mars. It’s an announcement that makes one day finding living microbes on the surface more likely than ever before. With the movie adaptation of The Martian by Andy Weir coming out soon it seems like a good time check out what science has to say about the red planet, and through fiction discover what our preoccupation with the red planet says about us.

All of the books below are available to check out of the library. This list includes both new and classic science fiction, as well as a guide to all the questions a person might have about space travel.

The Martian by Andy Weir

The Martian by Andy Weir

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive–and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old ‘human error’ are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills–and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit–he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him? Now a major motion picture!

Continue Reading →

Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month

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Each year, Americans observe National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 to October 15, by celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.  National Hispanic Heritage Month recognizes the contributions made by Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States and celebrates Hispanic heritage and culture.

Hispanic Heritage Month graphic image of colorful dresses

image from www.mhwest.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some recommended titles available in the library:

Latino Stats: American Hispanics by the Numbers   E 184 .S75 M363 2015Latino Stats bookcover

 

 

 

 

Latin American & Caribbean Art : MoMA at El Museo   N 6502.5 .L37 2004

Latin American and Carribean Art book cover

 

 

 

 

The Book of Unknown Americans   PS 3608 .E595 B66 2014

Book of Unknown Americans book cover

 

 

 

 

Pinholes in the Night : Essential Poems from Latin America  PQ 7087 .E5 P56 2014

Pinholes in the Night book cover

 

 

 

 

Translation Nation: Defining a New American Identity in the Spanish-Speaking United States  E 184 .S75 T63 2005

Translation Nation book cover

 

 

 

 

The library is also featuring a display window in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.  All of the materials are available for loan.

 

For more information about National Hispanic Heritage Month visit: http://www.hispanicheritagemonth.gov/index.html

 

 

 

How are you sitting?

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Here in the library we spend a lot of time on our computers, as do our students. It’s easy to start to slump and forget that spending so much time sitting still is hard on our bodies. Here are a couple resources to help us all stay on track, and prevent aches and pains later on.

  • The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has a handy guide to how to properly sit at your desk, as well as how to arrange your chairs and keyboards for maximum benefit.
  • The American Chiropractic Association has some tips for how to stand, sit, and sleep. 
  • Here is a short video explaining how to stop yourself from slumping at your desk. Use your webadvisor to log into Films On Demand to watch this video and/or see the other helpful segments about posture that are available.