Librarians at Kalamazoo College have put together a book display to celebrate Black History Month! Check it out in person in the library lobby, or browse the virtual version below:

Black History Resources

We also recommend Kalamazoo College’s Praxis Center website for additional resources, local learning and growth opportunities, and community connection. The Arcus Center for Justice Leadership hosts this overall excellent and thoughtfully curated website with content from faculty and students engaged deeply in social justice work.

Kalamazoo College is participating in the MISO Survey this year. This survey asks randomly selected students, faculty, and staff about what library and technology services and resources are important to you, how successfully do we deliver these services, and how effectively do we communicate about service delivery.

The survey opens on Thursday, January 27. If you receive a link to the survey, please participate so we can serve you better!

Come check out our Soundproof Booth! Located on the second floor of the Library near the atrium windows, the booth is a sound-isolating room for one. It includes a seat and a moveable desk, so you can sit or stand with your phone, tablet, or laptop. The booth will be helpful for when someone needs a quiet place for telehealth or counseling appointments, interviews and calls, and other private conversations.

The booth has an electrical outlet, a USB C outlet, a small fan to vent the air, and is sealed across the top and at the door. Though not completely soundproof at high decibel levels, the booth does allow for privacy by muffling conversation.

Important: Library rules must be followed in the booth!

• Masks are REQUIRED
• No eating or drinking
• Students can book the booth through Media Services at Room.Booking@kzoo.edu or 269-337-7138
• Faculty and staff can book the booth through EMS
• Bookings are for two hour blocks

If someone pops in to use the vbooth without a booking, they will beed to vacate it for someone who has booked it.

We hope you like this exciting addition to our space!

Check out the New Books display on the library’s first floor in the lobby! Highlights include:

• Butterfly politics / Catharine A. MacKinnon
• The odyssey of Star Wars : an epic poem / Jack Mitchell
• A black woman did that / by Malaika Adero ; illustrated by Chanté Timothy
• Consuming religion / Kathryn Lofton
• The end of bias : a beginning : the science and practice of overcoming unconscious bias / Jessica Nordell
• You are enough : is it real love or your need for validation? : overcoming people pleasing and emotionally unavailable relationships / Rainie Howard
• In the dream house : a memoir / Carmen Maria Machado
• Caste : the origins of our discontents / Isabel Wilkerson (also available online!)
• Your computer is on fire / edited by Thomas S. Mullaney, Benjamin Peters, Mar Hicks, and Kavita Philip
• Call me American : a memoir / Abdi Nor Iftin with Max Alexander
• Hatred has no future : new thinking on relations with Japan / Ma Licheng ; based on the Japanese translation by Oikawa Junko

You can also keep up with our new books any time by checking out our new items collection through our catalog. If you need help finding a book or other materials, contact us at reference@kzoo.edu. We love to hear from you!

Over the winter break the library dusted off and brought up historical runs of 71 popular periodicals from the basement. For example, you can now find Time Magazine in the compact shelving on the 2^nd floor going back to 1930. While we have database access to many of these titles (and the databases are more complete), browsing through these titles in physical format is a much different experience. You can see articles in context, encounter advertisements, and get a much greater feel for these rich historical and cultural artifacts. 

We’ve added colorful signs to our shelves in order to highlight where you can find these titles. We’ve also added a description of the publication, and where relevant, a link to the online version of the publication.

We’re hosting two Open Houses to highlight these titles. Please come if you are able! 

• When: Wednesday, January 5th 11-12:30 and Thursday, January 6th 11-12:30 
• Where: 2^nd Floor of the Library, behind the compact shelving 
• Who: Faculty, Staff, and Students 

In addition, we will be adding these titles to our Research Guides. Please contact reference@kzoo.edu if you have any questions!