PSC Library Newsletter

April

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What’s Newsworthy

Game Days

Gotta case of the Mondays? Join the library for games! We’ve got games every other Monday through the end of the semester. These events are free and open to all, and the schedule is below.

Monopoly and Anti-Monopoly
Monday, March 30th
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
2:00 - 3:00 PM
Library Classroom

Pictionary
Monday, April 13th
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
2:00 - 3:00 PM
Library Classroom

Catan and Ticket to Ride
Monday, April 27th
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM*
2:00 - 3:00 PM
Library Classroom
*Please note that this game day starts earlier.

Lunch ‘n’ Learn: Fungus Among Us: Insights on Fungi in Illinois Ecosystems
Wednesday, April 15th
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Library Classroom
Explore the diverse, fascinating world of fungi in Illinois and the surrounding states. This presentation highlights some common, and not-so-common, regional varieties of mushrooms as well as explores the essential role fungi play in local ecosystems. Participants will learn useful field identification tips, seasonality, and habitat and come away with an enhanced understanding of the local mushroom landscape. This event is free and open to all. This lunch ‘n’ learn is Wednesday, April 15th at 11:00 AM in the library classroom.

Lunch ‘n’ Learn: Resume Writing
Monday, April 27th and Monday, May 4th
12:00 - 1:00 PM
Library Classroom
South Suburban Cook HRA, an association of human resource professionals, is coming to PSC for a lunch ‘n’ learn about resume writing. Learn how to write a resume, or bring your own for review. We’ll have this lunch ‘n’ learn twice at 12:00 PM in the classroom on Monday, April 27th and Monday, May 4th. This event is free and open to students.

How to: Watch Movies without Ads

The PSC Library has a movie streaming service called Kanopy which is free with your PSC username and password. This streaming service has movies from the Criterion Collection, international movies, documentaries, indie movies, and so much more. To watch, simply go to Kanopy, search for your movie, or scroll through their highlights, and hit play. You can watch on your device, or stream on your TV with their app. The best part is that during the climax of Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, you won’t get a prescription drug ad. Enjoy streaming!

Something new(ish): Career Services Research Guide

Some time ago the library made a research guide on Planning Your Career to guide students through the process of selecting a career, and transferring credits to a college they select. This was created with a certain event in mind, but still has useful information. With lots of students graduating, we added a section to the guide on resume writing. This dovetails nicely with our lunch ‘n’ learn at the end of the month on the same topic.

Librarian Water Cooler: Book Displays

By Valerie Moore, Outreach and Engagement Librarian, Professor

Each month during the academic year the library features book displays on a certain theme. March was gardening and farming. April has an Earth Month theme, and will cover consumerism and fast fashion. Libraries display books for lots of reasons, including:

To inspire your interest and engagement with the collection
To increase circulation
To highlight titles that reflect students’ interests and lived experiences
To celebrate contributions of groups, highlight celebrations, and holidays
Highlight parts of the collection you might not be aware of

Typically I start a massive Google Sheet at the beginning of each academic year, with a tab for each display. I start dumping in my own ideas, and those of colleagues. While not every idea will spark interest, I try to select topics that reflect our student population and their interests. I also research the topic to make sure I’m being thoughtful about which books are highlighted. (For example- during Native American Heritage Month in November, I was sure to only highlight Indigenous authors with a Tribal enrollment.) Then throughout the course of the month, I start researching on the theme and put titles into the sheet. We can display ebooks, audiobooks, or print books. Then I create display materials in Canva. Around the 1st of the month, the new displays go up, and the old ones come down.

My favorite part is finding a theme, and then seeing what we have in the collection. Often, I’m delighted that we have an embarrassment of riches. (Once in a while we don’t have enough to create a display though, which always makes me a little sad.) There are areas of the collection I know better, and other parts that are less familiar. The library has far too many items for me to be personally familiar with them all. For example, when I did a book display for the 2024 solar eclipse, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that we have a huge collection of books on astrophysics. In other words- I get to learn, and then share something cool with you!

Book displays are so enjoyable. I love showcasing a little slice of the collection with the campus each month. It’s a way to highlight snapshots of the collection, to highlight the contributions of groups, and spark joy, thought, and discussion. Unlike a museum, the books we display are not precious or fragile; they are meant to be touched, flipped through, and checked out.

Featured ebooks: Fast Fashion

April brings showers, and three different book displays for Earth Month and spring. (What can we say? This winter was brutal.) Below, we’ll highlight one book display on fast fashion. Fast fashion is cheaply made clothing that is terrible for the environment and has horrific working conditions for the people who manufacture it. This display also highlights how thrifting and repairing clothing can combat fast fashion, because we don’t want to bring up a problem without providing a call to action. A sneak peak is below, or you can see the full display in the library starting in April.