In June, a student sit-in protest asked that the college begin discussions about its own history with racism, specifically dealing with minstrel shows and a fire in the dorm room of a Black student in 1998.  The college’s digital archive, CACHE, now has photos and documents related to both these events in the following collections: Minstrel shows, vaudeville, and blackface performances and Racist note and dorm fire, 1998. 

Please be aware that these collections contain offensive language and images.  Any questions about the collections can be directed to College Archivist Lisa Murphy via email (archives@kzoo.edu).

Ask us for help

Do you need help finding a book, film, or other resources for your class?  Having problems accessing library databases or an article or eBook? Any questions about library services?  Email us at Library@kzoo.edu.

Course Materials

Librarians are happy to talk with you about materials for your courses. We can help with off-campus links to articles and eBooks to make it easier for students to access the materials you assign. The library may have relevant eBooks, articles, and videos already in our collections, and we can suggest open access alternatives that may fit your course needs.

Customized Library Course Guides

We are more than happy to work with you to create a Library Guide tailored to your specific assignments. We can include video tutorials to walk students through how best to use library resources. Examples of Course Guides: BUSN/ECON 380 and HIST 242. Additional research guides include discipline specific research guides and the general Library Research Toolkit.

Embed a librarian in your Course Moodle or Teams site

Embed a librarian in your Course Moodle or Teams site – Having a librarian partnered with your course is another way for students to connect with a librarian. We can answer questions from students and share appropriate resources in your course site.

Research Instruction via Teams, Zoom, or Stream

Research Instruction via Teams, Zoom, or Stream – If you are holding synchronous class sessions, we can demonstrate resources and facilitate a discussion about research or information literacy. For asynchronous classes, we can recommend or create instructional videos to help your students understand how to access the library’s online resources. Individual students can sign up for Research Rescue through Teams or Zoom—thank you for continuing to send students our way!

Just ask!

Your librarians are available and willing to help make your classes this fall a success. Email reference@kzoo.edu or schedule an appointment to talk about your class needs.

The AntiRacism Reading KnooK (#ARRK) is a collaboration between the K-College library staff and our Inclusive Excellence (KCIE) leadership team.  This initiative is NOT a book club, but seeks to facilitate campus-wide engagement with the books in the KCIE #Reading for Change book collection. This collection was created to encourage learning about and facilitate greater access to antiracism information to all members of the campus community. 

#ARRK aims to:
(1) reduce barrier to entry into reading antiracism books,
(2) identify and highlight campus facilitators with experience teaching and/or disciplinary expertise who can provide context and guide discussions of specific texts,
(3) foster broader relationships among faculty and staff, and thus
(4) build greater capacity for an inclusive campus through sustained and focused engagement with shared texts.
(5) help catalyze members of the campus to engage in small group discussions of entire books in the collection (self-organized book clubs, if you will).  

Current employees and Board of Trustee members are invited join us virtually in the first #ARRK event to be held:
September 29, 2020
4-5 pm
#ARRK Meeting space (MS Teams – link)
Natalia Carvalho-Pinto and Francisco Villegas will lead a discussion of Chapter 3 from Beverly Daniel Tatums’  Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?

Every employee of the College and members of the Board of Trustees was sent a copy of this book in August.

If you did not receive a book, contact Regina Stevens-Truss (Regina.Stevens-Truss@kzoo.edu) or Bruce Mills (Bruce.Mills@kzoo.edu).

For further information on #ARRK or to volunteer to lead one of these sessions, visit https://libguides.kzoo.edu/ReadingforChange/arrk. 

The Library remains closed while we develop our plans for reopening safely. However, you may now return materials checked out to you before the campus closure.

If you are near Kalamazoo:

Please use the book drop on the Academy Street side of Upjohn Library Commons. Items returned in the book drop are quarantined for a minimum of 72 hours, so they may remain on your account for a few days after return.

If you are in Michigan:

You may return your items to a participating MelCat library. Please contact circulation@kzoo.edu and we will email a return label for you to print that includes your MelCat library’s name and code. Once you receive the label, package the items in a sealed box, and include a list of the items you are returning. Find a participating library in your area.

If you are outside Michigan or the U.S.:

If you are in the U.S but not in Michigan, or you are not in the U.S., please package the items and include a list of items being returned. Contact circulation@kzoo.edu and we will email a UPS return label for you to print.

If you are returning to campus in the fall:

If you are coming back to campus for the fall quarter, you may return your materials in person at that time. Happily, we do not charge overdue fines!

Questions?

Ask us! Contact circulation@kzoo.edu if you need assistance or have any questions. We are happy to help!

Confronting racism requires white allies to listen, learn, and educate themselves.

Dismantling the legacy of white supremacy in America demands a deeper understanding of the systems of oppression we all live within. The Kalamazoo College Library has a wealth of anti-racism resources both in print and online.

Though the Library building is closed, our online resources are available 24/7. If you would like to read a title we only have in print, your local public library may have an online version or be open for circulating print copies. You can also get online books for free through the Open Libraries project of the Internet Archive. You can also purchase them (used or new) through black-owned booksellers such as Semicolon Bookstore, Source Booksellers, or Brain Lair Books; through local Kalamazoo bookstores This Is a Bookstore, Michigan News Agency, or Kazoo Books; and via other online retailers such as AbeBooks, alibris, Better World Books, or Powell’s Books.

Suggested Readings

Kalamazoo College Inclusive Excellence (KCIE) has purchased and recommends the following book collection to all K College Students, Faculty, and Staff looking to engage with antiracist ideas and practices. 

We have several titles recommended by ERACCE (Eliminating Racism and Creating/Celebrating Equity) both online and in print.

Further, Medium.com recently published a Detailed List of Anti-Racism Resources that includes books, movies, articles, and more.

Also check out these titles:

Ebooks

• Can we talk about race? : and other conversations in an era of school resegregation / Beverly Daniel Tatum.
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness / Michelle Alexander.
• Pagans in the Promised Land : Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery / Steven T. Newcomb.
• Settlers : the mythology of the white proletariat from mayflower to modern / J. Sakai.
• The souls of Black folk / W.E.B. Du Bois (another version is online here).

Print Books

• Investigating Christian privilege and religious oppression in the United States / Warren J. Blumenfeld, Khyati Y. Joshi and Ellen E. Fairchild [editors].
• An indigenous peoples’ history of the United States / Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
• The souls of black folk ; essays and sketches / W.E.B. Du Bois.
• Leading anti-bias early childhood programs : a guide for change / Louise Derman-Sparks, Debbie LeeKeenan, John Nimmo ; foreword by Mariana Souto-Mannin.
• The world that trade created : society, culture, and the world economy, 1400-the present / Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik.
• White by law : the legal construction of race / Ian F. Haney López.
• White fragility : why it’s so hard for White people to talk about racism / Robin DiAngelo.
• Chinese America : the untold story of America’s oldest new community / Peter Kwong and Dušanka Miščević.
• Creating contagious commitment : applying the tipping point to organizational change / Andrea Shapiro ; forward by Patricia Zigarmi.
• Thinking in systems : a primer / Donella H. Meadows ; edited by Diana Wright.
• Dying of whiteness : how the politics of racial resentment is killing America’s heartland / Jonathan M. Metzl.
• Islamophobia : the ideological campaign against Muslims / Stephen Sheehi.
• New perspectives on racial identity development : integrating emerging frameworks / edited by Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe and Bailey W. Jackson III.
• Cross-X / Joe Miller.
• Embracing cultural competency : a roadmap for nonprofit capacity builders.
• Walking on water : reading, writing, and revolution / Derrick Jensen.
• Social epidemiology / edited by Lisa F. Berkman, Ichiro Kawachi.
• This changes everything : capitalism vs. the climate / Naomi Klein.
• The revolution will not be funded : beyond the non-profit industrial complex / edited by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence.
• Color of violence : the Incite! anthology / Incite! Women of Color Against Violence.
• Working toward whiteness : how America’s immigrants became white : the strange journey from Ellis Island to the suburbs / David R. Roediger.
• 1491 : new revelations of the Americas before Columbus / Charles C. Mann.
• Teaching community : a pedagogy of hope / Bell Hooks.
• How Jews became white folks and what that says about race in America? / Karen Brodkin.
• Borderlands : the new mestiza = La frontera / Gloria Anzaldúa.
• A different mirror : a history of multicultural America / Ronald Takaki.
• Orientalism / Edward W. Said.

The Library joins the STEM Division to take part in the national #ShutDownAcademia strike today, June 10, 2020 (https://www.shutdownstem.com/). We support our black students and colleagues. To better educate ourselves, Library staff will engage in personal and collective anti-racist work. Black Lives Matter.

Confronting racism requires white allies to listen, learn, and educate themselves.

Dismantling the legacy of white supremacy in America demands a deeper understanding of the systems of oppression we all live within. The Kalamazoo College Library has a wealth of anti-racism resources both in print and online.

Though the Library building is closed, our online resources are available 24/7. If you would like to read a title we only have in print, your local public library may have an online version or be open for circulating print copies. You can also get online books for free through the Open Libraries project of the Internet Archive. You can also purchase them (used or new) through black-owned booksellers such as Semicolon Bookstore, Source Booksellers, or Brain Lair Books; through local Kalamazoo bookstores This Is a Bookstore, Michigan News Agency, or Kazoo Books; and via other online retailers such as AbeBooks, alibris, Better World Books, or Powell’s Books.

We have several titles recommended by ERACCE (Eliminating Racism and Creating/Celebrating Equity) both online and in print.

Further, Medium.com recently published a Detailed List of Anti-Racism Resources that includes books, movies, articles, and more.

Also check out these titles:

Ebooks

• Can we talk about race? : and other conversations in an era of school resegregation / Beverly Daniel Tatum.
• Settlers : the mythology of the white proletariat from mayflower to modern / J. Sakai.
• Pagans in the Promised Land : Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery
• The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness / Michelle Alexander.
• The souls of Black folk / W.E.B. Du Bois (another version is online here).

Print Books

• Investigating Christian privilege and religious oppression in the United States / Warren J. Blumenfeld, Khyati Y. Joshi and Ellen E. Fairchild [editors].
• An indigenous peoples’ history of the United States / Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz.
• The souls of black folk ; essays and sketches / W.E.B. Du Bois.
• Leading anti-bias early childhood programs : a guide for change / Louise Derman-Sparks, Debbie LeeKeenan, John Nimmo ; foreword by Mariana Souto-Mannin.
• The world that trade created : society, culture, and the world economy, 1400-the present / Kenneth Pomeranz and Steven Topik.
• White by law : the legal construction of race / Ian F. Haney López.
• White fragility : why it’s so hard for White people to talk about racism / Robin DiAngelo.
• Chinese America : the untold story of America’s oldest new community / Peter Kwong and Dušanka Miščević.
• Creating contagious commitment : applying the tipping point to organizational change / Andrea Shapiro ; forward by Patricia Zigarmi.
• Thinking in systems : a primer / Donella H. Meadows ; edited by Diana Wright.
• Dying of whiteness : how the politics of racial resentment is killing America’s heartland / Jonathan M. Metzl.
• Islamophobia : the ideological campaign against Muslims / Stephen Sheehi.
• New perspectives on racial identity development : integrating emerging frameworks / edited by Charmaine L. Wijeyesinghe and Bailey W. Jackson III.
• Cross-X / Joe Miller.
• Embracing cultural competency : a roadmap for nonprofit capacity builders.
• Walking on water : reading, writing, and revolution / Derrick Jensen.
• Social epidemiology / edited by Lisa F. Berkman, Ichiro Kawachi.
• This changes everything : capitalism vs. the climate / Naomi Klein.
• The revolution will not be funded : beyond the non-profit industrial complex / edited by Incite! Women of Color Against Violence.
• Color of violence : the Incite! anthology / Incite! Women of Color Against Violence.
• Working toward whiteness : how America’s immigrants became white : the strange journey from Ellis Island to the suburbs / David R. Roediger.
• 1491 : new revelations of the Americas before Columbus / Charles C. Mann.
• Teaching community : a pedagogy of hope / Bell Hooks.
• How Jews became white folks and what that says about race in America? / Karen Brodkin.
• Borderlands : the new mestiza = La frontera / Gloria Anzaldúa.
• A different mirror : a history of multicultural America / Ronald Takaki.
• Orientalism / Edward W. Said.

Librarians can help your with your research — wherever you are in the world!

You can sign up for a one-on-one appointment with a Librarian through Research Rescue. We have Librarians available in the evenings and weekends, Michigan time. Just click on Research Rescue to see what times and days are available. We can talk with you via email, or in real time with Teams or Zoom. Just let us know what works for you!

You can also ask us questions through this online form, or email reference@kzoo.edu.

Check out our videos on Microsoft Stream! They cover everything from databases to primary sources and how to use ebooks.

The library building is closed, but we are still here here to help!

Many of our resources are available to you online anytime, anywhere you have internet access.

• There’s remote access to subject guides and research databases;
• For faculty, we have a guide to Library Resources for Faculty who are teaching online [outdated link removed];
• For students, we have a guide to Library Resources for Students who are learning remotely [outdated link removed];
• All of our online journals are available for you;
• Search Library OneSearch for e-books. Just type in your search terms and limit to “available online;”
• You can connect virtually with our librarians! Just email us at reference@kzoo.edu and we can connect with you via Zoom, Teams, or another method.

Librarians are working remotely and are here for you!