Each month, the Campus Library staff create multiple thoughtful displays that can be found on the first and second floors. This post documents most of the library displays in the month of June and July 2019.
June Displays
CANDY – 2nd Floor
Created by Jolene Truong and Andrea Portugal (Circulation Student Employees)
June was National Candy Month! Since kids love candy the absolute most, the theme for this month’s children’s literature display was Candy!
Even though June has passed and this display is no longer up, any UW and Cascadia affiliates can still request these books online.
July Displays
BIS 490 Survivors Posters – 1st Floor LOBBY
Posters created by BIS 490 Sp’19 students Megan Marasigan, Klaudia Andrada, Mikayla Sullivan, Ian Schwarz. Display posted by Tami Garrard, Campus Library Access Services Manager.
“I decided to create a poster that was solely focused on offering support for victims and survivors of sexual and relationship violence. The silhouette background is what I thought would represent the victim or survivor, because when someone goes through a traumatic experience like sexual and relationship violence, they [often] feel alone and like no one understands them. However, this poster is aimed towards supporting them, to let them know that they’re not alone and that ALL of UW Bothell supports them. I thought it would be helpful to also include contact information for Elizabeth, our victim advocate, because she is here to help those in need and it lets victims/survivors know that there are resources available for them to use if they need help or just someone to talk to.” – Megan Marasigan
“There are so many identities that I hold close to me: woman of color, API, queer. I used to shy away from these ‘labels’ for I looked at them as if they were negative aspects of myself. But through this class and my own personal work, I’ve come to a point where I appreciate and love these identities that do define me but don’t make me ‘bad’. Centering these marginalized identities empower them and shed the ‘shame’ mask. I think holding any of these bring more color and depth to a person and love when I see people proud of their diversity.” – Klaudia Andrada
“I wanted to focus on people who may not identify with saying ‘no means no’ in English. While most students on campus speak English, this may not be the language that they primarily speak in other environments. We are such a diverse campus, we have international students and students who speak multiple languages. I wanted to highlight the fact that we don’t all say no in the same ways, and to bring awareness to survivors who give their consent (or don’t give consent) in different languages.” – Mikayla Sullivan
“UW Bothell is nothing without our students. They continue to be a driving force as we work together to build and sustain a campus that values all students, including all survivors of sexual and relationship violence. The BIS 490 class is dedicated to honoring past students who didn’t have a space to be part of that change, including Anna Bui who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend. We co-create an intentionally power-conscious and healing social justice space for current students, survivors and committed accomplices, to bring their wisdom, creativity, collective compassion, and fire to transform our immediate community. This poster project is about shifting our visual context – making space for survivors, particularly survivors of color, queer, genderqueer, (dis)abled, and other marginalized survivors, to feel seen and cared for by their own community. This is students saying to each other, ‘We see you and you matter.'” – Lauren Litchty, BIS 490 Professor
“The students in BIS490 used their academic learning as an opportunity to have a positive impact on the campus climate at UW Bothell—a brave and inspiring decision. National data tell us that 1 in 4 women, trans, and nonbinary people will experience sexual assault while in college. The same is true for about 1 in 16 men. While we work to eliminate sexual and relationship violence from UWB, it is imperative that we tell survivors that they are a welcome and valued part of our community. Everyone deserves to be able to access their education without experiencing harm and, if harm does occur, to be able to access resources and support.
“To UWB students: If you have experienced sexual or relationship violence, or something that just didn’t feel right, I believe you, and I support you. I encourage you to connect with me for confidential support and advocacy. You may email me at uwbvae@uw.edu or call me at 425-352-3851.” – Elizabeth Wilmerding, UWB Victim Advocate
Note: unlike the other July displays, this panel will be up throughout the summer.
Featuring the Life Skills Collection – 1st Floor LOBBY
Created by Laura Dimmit (Arts & Humanities Librarian)
“This month, I wanted to feature a newish collection that some folks on campus may not know about yet, the Life Skills Collection. This collection has books on a whole variety of topics — cooking, home repair, sexual health, identity, mindfulness, and interpersonal relationships, just to name some. What I like about this collection is that it acknowledges that there are so many important parts of life that may never be taught in a formal classroom setting” – Laura
For more information about this collection, please visit our Life Skills Collection Guide, managed by Heather Cyre!
Representing Women in STEM – 2nd Floor
Created by Zoe Wisser (Circulation Student Employee)
In my four years of studying Computer Science, I’ve always felt like an imposter, using failures to confirm my doubts of belonging in the field. Even when I did succeed, such as being accepted into my major, I usually thought of this as a product of luck or my gender, justifying the success to further doubt my capabilities.
I suspect many pieces of my life and computing contribute to this imposter syndrome, though the most visible is the lack of women in my computing classes, usually consisting of less than 20% women. This statistic reflects the U.S.’s larger computing field; according to the NSF/NCSES, in 2016, women received just 18.7 percent of the computer science undergraduate degrees. In the workforce, women make up about 22.5 percent of computer programmers, according to the Census Bureau.
Shifting focus to the larger STEM field, studies have shown that “63 percent of women who are pursuing a STEM degree have struggled with confidence in their abilities… [these] women reported that the lack of female role models was the biggest issue” (Cortez). This number is even greater with females belonging to other marginalized communities.
With all of this being said, it’s clear that the lack of female representation is a large issue in this country’s STEM fields. My intentions with creating a children’s display that focuses on Women in STEM, both through children’s books and recognition of successful females through artwork, were to celebrate women who are often cast out of the field’s limelight despite their major contributions, encourage female students to believe and be confident in their mathematical capabilities, and to also urge educators, parents, and other community members to support such female representation.
If you can, be sure to check out the July displays before the end of the month, and stay tuned for more!
Library Display Recaps are posted every couple of months, so if you’d like to receive notifications whenever our student employees post on this blog, please follow us by clicking on the “Follow” button on the bottom right corner of the screen.