PSC Library Newsletter

February

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What’s Newsworthy

The library has a busy February schedule. All events are free and open to everyone. We encourage instructors to bring their classes. Come to the library for the events, but stay and enjoy the comfortable new furniture! (More on that below.)

image for Lunch 'n Learn which includes a fork, pen, and the PSC logo

Lunch ‘n Learn: Improving your Health & Wellness

Monday, February 10, 2025

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Library Classroom

Please join the library and the Physical Therapist Assistant Program (PTA) for a lunch 'n learn featuring PTA students' service projects on Monday, February 10th, at noon in the library classroom. This event is free and all are welcome. Classes are encouraged to attend.

image for Lunch 'n Learn which includes a fork, pen, and the PSC logo

Lunch ‘n Learn: HBCUs and the Divine Nine

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

Library Classroom

PSC Counseling and the Library are partnering to bring you a Lunch ‘n Learn. Counselor and Transfer Coordinator Sarah Hein will discuss Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Danielle Brasfield, an accomplished author, educator, and proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., shares insight into her sorority experience. Lunch ‘n Learn: HBCUs and the Divine Nine will be on Wednesday, February 12th, at noon in the library classroom. This event is free and open to all. Classes are encouraged to attend.

Were you a member of one of the Divine Nine? If so, please fill out this form to be listed during this program.

image for the African American Read-In. It includes the words, 'African American Read-In' in a yellow banner with a black font. There is the logo for the National Council of Teachers of English. An upward fist in red, yellow, and green, and the words, 'we're not going back.'on a lower banner

African American Read-In

Monday, February 24, 2025

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM

North (back) end of the library along the windows

The African American Read-In is a national event held throughout February to celebrate the works of African American authors. Participants are welcome to listen to the works of African American authors or bring short excerpts to read aloud. The African American Read-In will be in the north (back) of the library on Monday, February 24th at noon. This event is free and open to all. Classes are encouraged to attend.

How To Find a Good Read

One of our newest databases is called NoveList Plus. NoveList Plus recommends books, authors, and genres based on your tastes. This database is aimed at librarians, who often do a task called readers’ advisory, or making book recommendations to patrons. However, anyone with a PSC login and password can use it. You may enjoy using it to find books for yourself or make recommendations to students. This database might be of particular interest to our Humanities faculty.

You can search for specific titles, authors, genres, age ranges, and more. Once you find a book, you can read a brief description and reviews from multiple outlets. The search results also include a Goodreads rating. Each search result also has “read-alikes” which will show similar books. Since you are likely looking for books while on the library’s website, it makes a nice accompaniment to our collection.

Take a look at this video to see a demonstration of NoveList Plus in action.

Something New: Furniture!

At the end of last semester, the library started removing some of its old furniture to make room for our new look. The old library furniture was at least 30 years old and served its purpose well. We donated some of it, and other departments took some too.

Dean William Condon and Dawn Sterning spent months figuring out exactly how our patrons used the library and how they navigated the space. In addition to some of the furniture being worn out, it didn’t suit our students’ needs. Students were making do, but they often had to move heavy furniture to be closer to power outlets and study in groups. Our students generally needed charging stations, which we didn’t have.

Libraries have changed a great deal since our library furniture was purchased. The older furniture reflects that. Libraries were quiet places for study, and independent work, maybe with study rooms for groups. While libraries still offer spaces for quiet study, they also have areas for group work now. Instead of the entire library being geared towards one kind of learning, they typically have different areas for quiet study and groups. We tried zones for different types of learning, but our old furniture and space have limitations as we don’t have multiple floors. Laptops and cell phones were a rarity when the original furniture was purchased, and therefore students had no charging needs. The hope is that new furniture will assist in partitioning the space and even reducing noise.

Furniture should be mobile and functional for all bodies. This means several things, including:

Furniture should move easily, preferably on wheels that lock in place.
A variety of seating options.
It should be lightweight.
It should work for different bodies.

Finally, this new furniture will bring the PSC Library into the 21st century. The way patrons use libraries has changed, so our furniture should change too. Seating should be comfortable and accommodate patrons with disabilities. Our students deserve nice things that work, as do we all! Stop into the library and enjoy the space and the new furniture.

Librarian Water Cooler: Books for Troubling Times

by Valerie Moore, Outreach and Engagement Librarian and Associate Professor

In this water cooler, I would like to talk about library services in the current political climate and provide a few recommended readings for troubled times. Please feel free to skip ahead to the ebooks if you like.

The PSC Library will continue its work and has no plans to make any changes or adjustments to our services or collection. We are not going to remove items from the collection, except through the normal process of deaccessioning, often called weeding. Weeding is a normal process of what we call collection management. (To learn more, read this newsletter from February 2022, or this one from February 2023.)

If anything, we will highlight more banned books and cohost more projects that highlight your First Amendment rights. We support your right to gain accurate information and read unapologetically. We will continue teaching PSC students information literacy, how to sort fact from fiction, and how to navigate the vast gray area in between. Our professional ethics from the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights demands it.

The following is a book list for troubling times. These are books I have personally read or come highly recommended. The titles are hyperlinked and can be accessed like any other ebook or audiobook.

Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny

There is also a graphic novel edition with illustrations by Nora Krug, which I can’t recommend enough.

Historian and Yale Professor Timothy Snyder provides a list of actionable ways to fight back against tyranny. He is an expert on the history of Eastern Europe.

M. Gessen, Surviving Autocracy

Journalist and activist M. Gessen writes about the erosion of norms in the first Trump administration.

Heather Cox Richardson, Democracy Awakening

Historian and professor, Heather Cox Richardson, takes essays from her Substack (which I recommend) on the waxing and waning of democracy in the United States.

Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present

Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat discusses what tactics 20th-century dictators used to consolidate power.

Cover: Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present

Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy

Historian and journalist Anne Applebaum discusses the appeal of authoritarianism.

Mariann Edgar Budde, How We Learn to Be Brave

Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde writes about navigating the more difficult junctures in life.

Featured eBooks

For Black History Month, the library will highlight the works of African American women. This display will feature classics, such as Harlem Renaissance writer and anthropologist, Zora Neale Hurston, political activist Angela Davis, and social commentator Roxane Gay. Enjoy a preview of the ebook collection below, and stop in the library to see the full display. As always, you are welcome to check out the books on display. To access the ebooks, click on the hyperlink in the book title below, and hit the “borrow” button. For more detailed instructions, the library has this research guide that will walk you through how to access ebooks.