During the Fall ’21 and Spring ’22 semesters, I served as a Graduate Research Assistant with the Office of Digital Research and Scholarship (DRS) at FSU Libraries. Collaborating with Matthew Hunter, the Digital Scholarship Librarian, I worked to increase FSU Libraries’ support of research services that utilize 3D scanning and modeling, 3D printing, and extended reality technologies. Working on various immersive scholarship- and digital humanities-based projects, including a self-curated exhibition, has made this one of the most memorable experiences of my graduate student career!
It is estimated that the current population of people from the Caribbean in the United States is over 4 million. Since the founding of our Nation, our strength lies in our remarkable diversity. Caribbean Americans have contributed in immeasurable ways and strengthen our country through languages, culture, principles, and values. In recognition of our contributions, we are recognized in the month of June with National Caribbean-American Heritage Month supported by the House of Representatives. With appropriate ceremonies, celebrations and activities, people are encouraged to celebrate and observe Caribbean American Heritage Month. Caribbean Americans have contributed to every field, including science, technology, teaching, etc. to leave a long-lasting influence in our society. Our efforts, hard work and contributions are part of our Nation’s history.
This Pride Month, we’d like to honor the contribution the LGBTQ+ community has made to literature and to FSU Libraries. We had the opportunity to interview Haley McGuyre, a Graduate Assistant with Special Collections, and discuss their experience working on the LGBTQ+ Oral Histories Project at FSU Libraries. The full interview can be found below.
On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Texas to enforce the emancipation proclamation. This day, Juneteenth, celebrates the liberation of the last enslaved people in Texas. In 2021, the United States declared June 19 a federal holiday. There will be events in Tallahassee to celebrate Juneteenth, and there are many resources for you to learn more about the significance of this holiday.
June is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) Pride Month, a time to recognize and highlight the LGBTQ community as well as reflect on the history of the movement. One way to do that is to read books about and written by LGBTQ voices. This month’s pop lit picks will highlight several such fiction and nonfiction books in FSU Libraries’ Pop Lit Collection which include everything from memoirs to romance to science fiction/fantasy. Enjoy these LGBTQ titles this June and all year round!
Art in the Library is launching its first-ever call for Art Exhibition Proposals to display a student art exhibit at the Dirac Science Library this upcoming Fall 2022 semester. The purpose of the Art in the Library committee is to bring more art into the libraries, and enrich the library environment as an aesthetic and academic space. As part of this initiative, the committee is calling for artists to submit Exhibition Proposals for the upcoming Fall semester.
Are you an artist or group of artists looking to exhibit your work? Interested in sharing your art with the FSU Community? Have a curated exhibit you’re ready to share? Submit an exhibition proposal for the fall semester by July 1, 2022. This semester the Art in Library Committee is accepting proposals to exhibit at the Dirac Science Library, on the main floor in the hallway surrounding the central stairwell and elevators. This space is viewed by hundreds of students, staff, and faculty a day and can accommodate 10-15 hanging works depending on the size. For more information and to submit your exhibition proposal, visit this link.
May is National Pet Month! A time to celebrate our four-legged friends and furry companions! Our digital book display this month features titles that honor pets of all kinds and the wonderful impact they have in our daily lives. With this, we are also celebrating the pets of our library staff! Be sure to check out our digital pet gallery below.
Photo of American Jewish Congress Chartered Bus, New York to Washington for the March on Washington, 1963 found on https://ajhs.org
By Priscilla Hunt
First proclaimed by President George W. Bush in 2006, May is known for its commemoration of Jewish American Heritage. Since then, presidents have issued a proclamation each year commemorating the month. Read Joe Biden’s 2022 Proclamation here.
As we commemorate this month, I often reflect on my first experiences with Jewish culture and traditions through my education at Florida State University. While pursuing a minor in Religion, I was lucky enough to take a course titled “Jewish Tradition” which provided me an introduction to the history and culture of Judaism. Dr. Kavka soon became one of my favorite professors that semester and while I loved everything I learned, “Tikkun Olam” is one concept that I appreciated the most and has stuck with me through the years.
FSU Libraries have officially wrapped up our first year with the Diverse Voices in STEM Speaker Series. In the summer of 2021, Denise Wetzel, STEM Research & Learning Librarian at FSU Libraries, as well as others around the libraries, wanted to start a speaker series aimed at showing undergraduate students the variety of journeys researchers take to get where they are today, while highlighting their current work. All of this was planned and done in hopes that those from historically underrepresented groups would see someone and hear a story of someone like themselves, and be encouraged to continue on in their STEM journey.
After accepting an amazing offer, Denise departed from the Libraries, and Kelly Grove, STEM Research & Learning Librarian and Emily McClellan, Student Engagement Specialist took over the project. The speaker series ran from September 2021 – April 2022, and included five speakers, a website, and blog posts interviewing FSU STEM alumni. We were able to connect with over 160 attendees across these five events. We want to give a special thanks to our STEM Libraries Team and our Marketing Partners who helped make these events possible.
We’re so grateful to our speakers for sharing their stories and research with the community. Catch up on the Diverse Voices in STEM Speaker Series with the videos below!
Scroll to peruse all the Popular Literature Committee’s “Tattoo Tuesday” posts for the summer.
(TW: This book contains references to Sexual Assault, Child Abuse and Violence). This #tattootuesday recommendation was submitted by @julno12 and designed by (IG:@leahdavinci). Roses often symbolize love and beauty in literature, but what results when that beauty is kept from the world. “The Butterfly Garden” tells of a beautiful escape, where young, kidnapped women are tattooed and held against their will. This horror/thriller has components like novels “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Maze Runner”, while being told through the lens of an FBI investigation.
Today we’re taking inspiration from @Keckster00 and their wings and taking it to the sky with this SciFi dystopian fantasy. Charlie Jane Anders’s All the Birds in the Sky is a tale of childhood friends who must come together to stop – or overcome – the collapse of society and the world around them. They work in their own teams of engineers and magicians to “repair the world’s ever-growing ailments.” As they work in their teams to save the world, something bigger than either of them from their past creeps up and is determined to bring them together again.
For Gargi, we have a wonderful tattoo of a compass with a plane taking off from the North and, below the Southernmost point, the word “Wanderlust” in fancy script. Gargi clearly has a taste for adventure, so for them we’re recommending Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders by Joshua Foer, Ella Morton, and Dylan Thuras. It is a “bucket-list guide to over 700 of the most unusual, curious, bizarre, and mysterious places on earth” ranging from Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, Canada, the United States, Latin America, and Antarctica. There’s something for every traveler in here, and we hope you’ll find the thing that inspires you. You can find Atlas Obscura in the Popular Literature collection in Strozier by the Starbucks, or on our online catalog here: https://fsu-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_FSU/pag4dr/alma990346216880306576.
Today’s tattoo features a sphere with an outer space theme vignette including two astronauts reaching out gloved fingers, much in the same vein as Michelangelo’s famous painting “The Creation of Adam.” Our submitter mentioned they loved space and the ocean. Also, the clean lines and bold features of the tattoo seemed to veer towards a nonfiction book. So, we’re recommending “Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void” by Mary Roach, which explores space travel and what humans give up making it happen. The title addresses everything from how to survive a bailout at 17,000 miles per hour to how to use the bathroom to what happens when you can’t walk for a year. You can find “Packing for Mars” in the Popular Literature collection in Strozier Library near the Starbucks or on our online catalog here: https://fsu-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_FSU/pag4dr/alma990222729590306576
What better book to talk about the music of the heart than Jazz, by Toni Morrison? For Morrison, Harlem in 1926 thrums with grace, power, love, betrayal, and murder. It is enlightened. It is haunted. It is alive with music, and so too will you be. If the complexities of the heart, mind, soul, and the body compel you, check out Jazz in the Pop Lit section by the Strozier Starbucks, or in our online catalog: https://fsu-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_FSU/pag4dr/alma990245192650306576.
