Posted on by Zoe W.

Library Display Recap: March 2020

Each month, the Campus Library staff create multiple thoughtful displays that can be found on the first and second floors. This post documents two of the library displays put out during March 2020.

March Displays

Open Education Week (March 2-6) – 1st Floor

Created by the Campus Library OER Team: Myra Waddell, Suzan Parker, Mary Yutani, Denise Hattwig, Heather Cyre, and Anne Tuominen

Book truck of open education resources.
Panel for Open Education Week panel display.
Section of panel display titled "tell us what you could have spent that money on", referring to money spent on textbooks. Students provided cards telling how much they've spent on textbooks and what else they could have used the money for.

Open Education Week is a week to raise awareness and showcase the impact of open education on teaching and learning worldwide. Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that allow for free use and repurposing by others. Replacing high-cost textbooks with open educational or library-licensed materials can:

  • Provide equitable access to instructional materials
  • Foster inspiration, innovation, and collaboration in teaching
  • Support student success, retention, and graduation

Geared primarily toward faculty, the OE Week display provided an overview to OER and how OER can be incorporated into courses. The panel was also paired with a book truck of several printed OER textbooks to allow faculty to see first hand examples of what an open textbook offers. The display also includes an interactive element, asking students what they could spend money on if they didn’t have to purchase textbooks as textbook affordability has a direct impact on the lives of students.

On this display, multiple students reported that they could have spent the hundreds of dollars from textbooks on other aspects of life such as their health, food, rent, and travel.

Arts and Crafts – 2nd Floor

Created by Kathy Vuu (Circulation Student Employee)

“March is National Craft Month, but I didn’t want to put my focus on only crafts for this month’s display. Therefore, I decided to expand the theme to arts and crafts! Throughout the process of looking for library items and creating decorations, I recognized the variety of activities that were considered “artsy” or “crafty.” My intention for balancing both elements is to present the idea where one should not be overly praised, while the other is underappreciated. Initially, I was only searching for items that were on different artists and their history or their methods in doing art. Although that may seem to be another interesting display idea, that was not my ultimate goal for this display. I eventually had to do some research on what activities or projects were considered art-based and craft-based. Thankfully, I found a number of books that displayed quite the variety of activities and projects within the theme of arts and crafts!” – Kathy

Cover for Children's Book: Cherries and Cherry Pits
Request Cherries and Cherry Pits (Audio, KCLS)
Cover for Children's Book: Henri's Scissors
Request Henri’s Scissors (eBook, KCLS)
Cover for Children's Book: The Patchwork Quilt
Request The Patchwork Quilt (Audio, Sno-Isle)

For more online children’s materials, such as eBooks and eAudioBooks, find out if you’re eligible for an eCard with your local public library:

As the Campus Library building is closed until further notice, library displays are temporarily paused. In the meantime, check out some of our past displays.

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.

Posted on by Zoe W.

Library Display Recap: April & May 2019

Each month, the Campus Library staff create multiple thoughtful displays that can be found on the first and second floors. This post documents all of the library displays from the months of April and May 2019.

April Displays

April’s displays featured books, media, information, and art pertaining to the topic of Poetry in different forms.

April Poetry Month Meets Earth Day – 1st Floor

Created by Cora (Circulation Lead)

“The question I wanted to pose to our campus: How creative writing about the natural world can become a catalyst for people to look a little closer and think more deeply about the delicate connection between humans and nature. And how this new understanding can inspire individuals to be more aware of their individual impact on the environment on a daily basis. With the help of student employees I was able to create my vision of display decor. I wanted to center the ‘natural’ with words – using the bold visuals to introduce folks to my materials which were a selection of poetry, critical analysis, introductions to eco-poetry, essay collections, writings from women, people of color, and even different languages. I tried to encapsulate a wide range of work illustrating that environmental conservation is not a movement only concerning the centric U.S. but is an issue that is worldwide – environmental degradation effects a wide range of countries and communities (if not all). Effecting the whole – not only a small number. The nuanced message is that beginning with self (decreasing our individual carbon footprint) is how we can reach the whole when thinking about trying to reverse or at least balance out the progression of climate change.” – Cora

Diverse Children’s Poetry – 2nd Floor

Created by Lucy and Zoe (Circulation Student Employees)

In honor of this year’s April Poetry Month and Celebrate Diversity Month, the theme for April’s Children’s Literature Display was Culturally Diverse Children’s Poetry! The display featured children’s poems of multiple countries, written in multiple languages. We had also included a few children’s poems for anyone to take for Poem in Your Pocket Day on April 18th.

May Displays

May’s displays covered a vast range of wonderful topics, including activist and scholar Angela Davis; sexual assault awareness; teaching social justice, equity, and inclusion; and biking.

Angela Davis – 1st Floor (near elevators)

Created by Dani (American & Ethnic Studies Librarian) and Maya (Reserves Technician)

“This display was put together as a tie-in to the Angela Davis campus event on May 17th. I personally have been very interested in Davis’ work and look forward to attending the event.” – Maya

Sexual Assault Awareness – 1st Floor (middle of lobby)

Created by Tami (Access Services Manager) and Zoe

Although April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM), we decided to keep our SAAM display up through May because it is important that we discuss and support this topic throughout the year. The display consists of informational flyers on consent from the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, relevant books and media, handouts and bookmarks that highlight campus and community resources for survivors, and a station that invites library users to create healing circles or color pages.

Teaching Social Justice, Equity, and Inclusion – 1st Floor (near entrance)

Created by Julie (Nursing Librarian) and Caitlan (Education Librarian)

“The theme of teaching social justice, equity, and inclusion is important to both of us in our work as librarians. We want to support the work of instructors that are practicing and/or interested in inclusive teaching across UW Bothell and Cascadia College. We made an effort to select titles from multiple discipline areas (including education, STEM, social sciences, health sciences, arts, writing, etc.) to reflect the variety of subjects represented on both campuses.” – Caitlan

National Bike Month – 2nd Floor (near lobby)

Created by Kathy and Eva (Circulation Student Employees)

“Initially, we wanted to go with the idea of a physical fitness theme in order to encourage children to go out and stay active by playing sports or exercising. As we did our research, we found that May was National Bike Month, so we decided to follow that path for our May Children’s Literature Display.” – Kathy

If you can, be sure to check out the May displays before the end of the month, and stay tuned for more library displays coming June 2019! I intend to post a Library Display Recap here each month, so if you’d like to receive notifications whenever our student employees post on the blog, please follow us by clicking on the “Follow” button on the bottom right of the screen.

Posted on by libraryvoices · 2 Comments

UWB/CC Campus Library at UW Children’s Literature Open House

On the 25th of October 2018, the University of Washington held an open house for their children’s literature collections across a few of their libraries. UWB/CC Campus Library was among one of the libraries that had the chance to display a fraction of their children’s literature collection. The librarian in charge of representing the UWB/CC Campus at the event, Caitlan Maxwell (Education Librarian), chose to follow a theme centered around the hashtag “#OwnVoices”.

#OwnVoices was created by Corrine Davis, who wanted to have a hashtag for others to be able to recommend children’s literature to each other about “diverse characters written by authors from that same diverse group”. Using the idea of this hashtag, Caitlan selected a few books from the UWB/CC Library collection to display at the Suzzallo Library at the UW Seattle campus.

In addition to bringing these wonderfully diverse books, Caitlan asked if any of the student specialists (who oversee the 2nd floor Children’s Literature book displays) wanted to come along. The UWB/CC Children’s Literature book displays are a one-of-a-kind book display to the UW Libraries. UWB/CC campus library, is the only library who offers their student employees the chance to create children’s literature displays on a topic of their choice. In the recent years these displays have ranged from “Woodland creatures” to “Children’s Literature Around the World” and “Ramadan”.

Recently the focus of the children’s literature displays has been turned to education. Student circulation assistants at the UWB/CC Campus Library want to use these displays as an opportunity to educate children and people in our community on different topics.

For the open house, Caitlan gave me the opportunity to show off a mini display of what we might have here in Bothell, over at Suzzallo Library at the Seattle campus. I wanted to use books that Caitlan would already be bringing with her, following the #OwnVoices theme. With Caitlan’s support, I decided to title the mini display “Womxn” and have books centered around intersectional feminism.

We were not the only library on display that day, Tacoma brought books all around the theme of “Social Justice” which they purchased using a donation from a community member, the East Asia Library brought North Korean comics and literature, and Special Collections put some very old children’s books on display. The displays were all very unique, unfortunately I was unable to photograph them while I was there. I can attest to the special collections books being very antique-like, a little creepy, and heavily guarded from any liquids (I was told to step away from the display when I had a cup of water with me).

Children’s literature is something most adults are expected to stop reading when they reach a certain age. But, why does this have to be the case? In most cases children’s literature will end with the main character having learned a lesson, coming up with a resolution to a problem, or coming to terms with the people around them. These are all lessons we don’t stop learning as adults, children and adults can both take something away from reading children’s literature. I think it’s time we stop shaming adults for enjoying children’s literature, and it’s time we start encouraging it.

If you’re interested in reading some children’s literature, the UWB/CC Campus Library has a large selection. The north end of the third floor has a designated area for children’s literature with hundreds of titles. We also have children’s books available for check out (without fear of fines) in our Rec Reads Collection on the first floor to the left hand side of the front entrance.

– Andrea P.

Posted on by libraryvoices

To All The Books I’ve Loved Before…

You may have heard of “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before“, well this is “To All the Books I’ve Loved Before.” I know you have them, too.

These books are my most prized childhood memories. Everyone needed a Mr. Falker at one point, or felt like Chrysanthemum, where you needed a friend like Frog and Toad, and there was definitely a time when no one could break the confidence you had with your purple, plastic purse.

There are 5 books in total.

Lilly’s Purple Plastic Purse by Kevin Henkes,

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff,

Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco,

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes,

and… The Frog and The Toad Together by Arnold Lobel.

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