In 1983, four authors captured the spirit of Kalamazoo College’s pioneer women who “found at Kalamazoo College enormous challenges, great work to be done, obstacles of tradition and prejudice which never fall easily and might have thwarted lesser spirits.” Celebrating the college’s sesquicentennial, Emancipated Spirits details the lives of four Kalamazoo College women who “had taken first steps and opened doors — or broken them down”:

• Lucinda Hinsdale Stone: abolitionist, feminist, suffragist, and educator;
• Frances Diebold: Professor of Biology who was “perhaps more responsible than anyone for its reputation in the sciences, that realm where women were supposed to tread so fearfully;”
• Pauline Byrd Johnson: the College’s first black student, who became the first black teacher in the Kalamazoo Public Schools; and
• Nelda Balch: Professor of Theatre, who was known for undertaking challenging and avant-garde plays and elevated theatre at the College.

Find Emancipated Spirits online or on our shelves. If you are interested in more pioneering women at Kalamazoo College, contact our College Archives!

Finals Week Hours

The Library’s hours for Winter Quarter Finals are:

Sunday, 3/14: 1 p.m. – 9 p.m.;
Monday, 3/15: 9 a.m. – 9 a.m.;
Tuesday, 3/16: 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.

Good luck – you’ll do great!

Spring Break Services

The Upjohn Library Commons building will be closed during Spring Break and the first week of the Spring Term. However, we will provide the following services to students, staff, and faculty. Beginning March 17th:

• Requested books from the Kalamazoo College Library will be available for pick up from 10am-2pm at the receiving doors on the Academy Street side of the library building (Monday – Friday, March 17 – April 2). Book pickup will NOT be available Friday, March 19.
• MeLCat & Interlibrary Loan services will continue to be available.
• Reference librarians will be still be available virtually​. 
• Book returns will continue to be accepted in the outside book drop on the Academy Street side of the building.

The Library will return to adjusted open hours for Spring Term on Monday, April 5th. A future announcement of Spring Term library services will be made in late March.

Did you know the Kalamazoo College Library has a Stream channel? The short videos on this channel can help you become more familiar with our resources and databases.

See how librarians at K are using Teams to support your research with Research Rescue, learn strategies to find primary sources, and delve into searching with Library OneSearch and several popular databases.

Have a suggestion for a video? Email us at reference@kzoo.edu!

K College students, faculty, and staff looking to engage with antiracist ideas and practices can find resources at the Library!

Kalamazoo College Inclusive Excellence (KCIE) has purchased and recommends the Reading for Change book collection. These materials are featured on the Reading for Change Guide. All are available through the Kalamazoo College Library!

These materials were purchased through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Inclusive Excellence Grant. 

Join the Kalamazoo Public Library (KPL) and award-winning author, Jacqueline Woodson for the 2021
Reading Together event!

“Every year, Kalamazoo residents gather together to read and discuss the themes of one book. This year, however, instead of focusing on one book, KPL has selected an award-winning author, Jacqueline Woodson, who has written dozens of books for children, teens, and adults alike. This way, people of all ages can come together as a community and celebrate story.”

Kalamazoo Public Library

Events and Opportunities

• There will be two virtual events available for K College students, faculty, and staff to attend. Please note that these events require registration in advance.
• Celebrating Story: Kalamazoo Reads Woodson – Would you like to participate through performance? Record yourself reciting or reading a passage from one of Jacqueline Woodson’s books.
• Celebrating Story: What’s Yours? – Record yourself reading your own original story, poem, or song!

Librarians at Kalamazoo College have put together a centralized resource for information about historical and current discrimination of African Americans in the United States, Michigan, and Kalamazoo College.

Black Lives Matter Guide

This guide contains historical contexts, current events, and anti-racist resources, including support resources for people of color and resources for allies.

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.

Pauline Byrd Johnson, Kalamazoo College class of 1926, the first Black woman to graduate from Kalamazoo College, shares her story in the book Emancipated Spirits. Besides her college days she tells other stories such as meeting Langston Hughes in the 1940s and arranging for him to visit Kalamazoo!

Read the book here: http://hdl.handle.net/10920/5623.

Black Scholars. Many Voices.

The Library created this guide to highlight the scholarship of black academics and scholars whose works are available at our Library.

The guide features scholars like Nigerian-American writer and Kalamazoo College alum Teju Cole, G. Gabrielle Starr, Toni Morrison, Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., and more. This list is by no means comprehensive! We welcome recommendations to build the library’s collection and for inclusion on this guide.