This year’s Vermont Reads book choice is The Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont, Drawn by New England Cartoonists. The library has multiple copies, so come on in, ask for a copy at the circulation desk, and check one out. You can see a preview of the book online.

On Thursday, April 13th at 6:30 pm in the Hoff Hall conference room, in a joint program put on by the Castleton University library and the Castleton Free Library, you can come discuss the book, and meet representatives of the nonprofit organization Migrant Justice as well as local farmworkers. They will talk about the challenges they face as well as the organizing work that Migrant Justice is doing to improve conditions for farmworkers through the Milk with Dignity Campaign.

Hoff Hall is Number 26 on this map.

You can learn more about this year’s book and how it was created, the experiences of migrant farmworkers in Vermont, and the Vermont Reads program on the Vermont Humanities Council website.

Library staff appreciate the appreciation!

On February 7th, Vermont State Colleges leadership announced a plan for the libraries in the system to go “all-digital” on July 1 when four of the colleges join to become Vermont State University. Castleton faculty, staff, students, and community members gathered in the library on February 13 to express their appreciation for library staff whose jobs would be eliminated on July 1 and the books in the library that are also at risk. You can read the coverage of these events in the student newspaper, The Spartan. You can read about the VSC’s plan for the libraries, and the media coverage of this plan and the opposition to it in this compilation of sources. Double click on an item in the list to open it in another tab.

The new display in the library is on this theme, with books about…books, reading, libraries, best practices in academic libraries, and digital media. All are welcome to come peruse this exhibit and consider and imagine libraries of the past and libraries of the future, and check out some of these books while you still can. You can see a list of the books included in the exhibit here.

The library is celebrating Black History Month this year with a book display on the theme of

Black Stories Matter

The books selected for the display in the library include recent popular and award-winning novels by Black authors, recent popular and award-winning books on the Black experience, like memoirs, books on important or previously neglected figures in Black history and culture, and books informing anti-racism work and education. Please come take a look and check out one of these books and learn from our most celebrated Black authors.

The books in this exhibit represent just a sampling of books we have on these topics in the library. To find more, consult our catalog. Also see a sampling of ebooks on anti-racism education in our EBSCO ebook collection. You can also access a wealth of additional resources on the library’s Race Matters guide, including reading lists and syllabi.

Eliminating racism in our society is the work of all of us. One way to get involved is to educate yourself. Reading is a way to educate yourself without asking people of color to do extra work.

If you are new to learning about racism and white supremacy in the U.S., library staff recommend So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo.

An important book on the history of racist ideas in America is Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi. There is an abridged version of the book available, and a version for young readers.

We hope all of you Spartans have an educational Black History Month this year!

And a big welcome to any new Spartans! The library is here for you! You can contact the library to arrange a one-on-one orientation to library resources and services. You can email library@castleton.edu with any questions. You can make an appointment with a librarian here. See our Ask a Librarian page to see all the ways you can get help using the library or get answers to questions you may have while doing research. Use the chat feature on our website to get help from a librarian any time of day or night, 24/7.

We use the Dewey Decimal System to organize our book collection by subject, like school libraries and public libraries. We have a few special sections, like our Casual Collection for recreational reading and self-help books. The stacks are “open,” meaning you can access all the books in the library on your own, with the exception of books professors put on reserve that we keep behind the circulation desk.

We hire work study students, so be in touch to learn more about these positions.

Again, welcome! We hope you’ll stop in and say hi and let us know how we can help you.

Come check out the bargains on hundreds of books in the library book sale, December 5 – December 22. The library gets donations of books from the community all year long, and we are also “weeding” our own book collection on a regular basis, so we can pass along these books to you for a song! (Not literally–it’s also a fundraiser for the library–but the prices are low!)

• Hardcovers $1.00 

• Paperbacks 50 cents

•  DVDs $1.00 

• Children’s books 25 cents

Come browse and shop! Grab a last-minute gift or treat yourself with a book for break!!

As the year draws to a close, various book-related publications and news outlets post their picks of the best books of the year. There are also several book awards that choose finalists and winners each year. Your librarians compile these best books of the year lists and award winners on a guide, and also create a link to books from these lists the CU library has ordered or already added to our collection that you can find in our catalog. Take a look to find some of the best reads of the year!

We can’t purchase all the books on these lists, so if you see a book on one of these lists that the CU library doesn’t own, you can request the book through interlibrary loan (for CU students, faculty and staff only) or suggest the library purchase the book.

Of course the library has lots of books not on these lists for you to peruse and find the ones YOU think are best!

November is designated Native American Heritage Month. From nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov: “The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum all join in paying tribute to the rich ancestry and traditions of Native Americans.” You can also read about how Native American Heritage Month came about on this website.

Some other websites dedicated to Native American Heritage Month:

• National Archives
• National Endowment for the Humanities (EDSITEment), a guide for teachers
• National Park Service
• Smithsonian Education

The library is featuring books by and about Native Americans this month. You can read memoirs, novels, histories, children’s books, and more, to learn about the experiences of contemporary and historic Native Americans. See the list of books included here. Some examples:

• An Indigenous People’s History of the United States
• An Indigenous People’s History of the United States for Young People
• Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians But Were Afraid to Ask
• There, There by Tommy Orange (a novel)
• Poet Warrior by Joy Harjo (a memoir)

For those who like to learn through other media, Kanopy has a featured set of films for Native American Heritage Month. And you can read about several new television series featuring indigenous stories in this article from The Guardian.

Also included in the exhibit in the library is a set of 3-D printed replicas of arrow points found around Lake Bomoseen in Castleton, from around 12,000 years ago. They were scanned here at CU’s Innovation Lab, and were donated to the college recently as part of the Benford collection.

November 8th is First-Generation College Celebration Day, sponsored by the Center for First-Generation Student Success. From their website:

“Since 2017, institutions, corporations, non-profits, and K-12 schools from across the nation have celebrated first-generation students, faculty, staff, and alumni on November 8 and highlighted the important contributions they make within their communities.”

“Join us in advancing an asset-based national narrative on first-generation student experiences and outcomes. Use November 8 to encourage your communities to better understand the systemic barriers plaguing higher education and the supports necessary for this important and resilient population to continue thriving.”

“November 8 was selected as the date…to honor the anniversary of the signing of the Higher Education Act of 1965…Much like other hallmark legislation of that era, such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, HEA was intended to help level a playing field that for too long had been weighed against Americans from minority and low-income backgrounds…Additionally, HEA ushered in programs, particularly the Federal TRIO programs, necessary for post-secondary access, retention, and completion for low-income, potential first-generation college graduates.”

The library has a book display up honoring authors and other accomplished individuals who were in the first generation in their family to go to college. You can see the list of books included here. Of course this is just a tiny sampling of the achievements of this resilient and persistent segment of the college graduate population.

October 24-28 this year is Media Literacy Week, created to highlight the importance of educating young people and the public about digital media literacy. This topic is vital especially in a democracy, where citizens need to be educated for intelligent civic participation, and is closely connected to information literacy education, a priority in General Education at Castleton.

The organizations promoting Media Literacy Week provide lots of resources for learning more about techniques for critical consumption of media, and for teaching media literacy. Take a look at United States Media Literacy Week from the National Association of Media Literacy Education, Media Smarts from Canada, and MediaWise from the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

The library has a book exhibit up right now featuring related books. You can peruse the list of books included here. You can also see a plethora of resources on a guide created by your CU librarians, News Literacy: Resources for Citizens, Students and Educators

The Soundings program included a presentation this week, “Sorting the News from the Chaff” by Professor Mark Timney from Keene State College.

For students reading this: Do you feel that your K-12 education included enough content on media literacy? Click here to rate your education and share some thoughts.

Media Smarts Canada offers presentation slides and other materials on ways to tell if something is true online. Below is a poster they created, with the four basic steps they emphasize and teach students how to do in their lessons.

With all the resources available and the importance of these skills to us as individuals and as a society–we can all make a difference by gaining in media literacy skills!