“Earning While They’re Learning” is an occasional series of stories celebrating our library student workers. The Duke University Libraries employ more than 250 undergraduates and graduate students every year, making us one of the largest student employers on campus.
Tucked inside the Mary Duke Biddle Building on East Campus, the Music Library is not like most other libraries at Duke. It’s small, quiet, and out of the way. Many students might not even know it exists. But for senior Rachel Thompson, the library has become something of a second home over the past three years.
Rachel is one of the first people you typically see at the front desk when you walk into the Music Library. As a student employee, she does a bit of everything—working with patrons, stacking and reshelving, sorting through books, scores, microfiche, and CDs. In all her time at Duke, she’s never considered applying for any other job.
“A lot of times people complain like, ‘Ugh, I’ve got to go to work,’ ” she says. “But I’m like, ‘I can’t relate!’ ”
As you descend the steps from the library’s main floor into the stacks and study rooms below, it’s not hard to see why. Perfectly peaceful and still, it’s a little oasis of sanity, tucked away from the chaos of academic life.
“I really like the aura of this place,” she says when asked about why she enjoys working here so much. “I typically only study in this library.”
For Rachel, a pre-dental philosophy major with a minor in chemistry, working in the library gives her a chance to get in touch with some parts of herself that can be hard to find other places. She played trombone in high school and has played piano for most of her life, and she’s currently part of Duke’s gospel choir. Working in the Music Library lets Rachel immerse herself in music—not just scores, she’s quick to point out, but also books on music theory, music history, and music’s evolution across different genres and cultures.
When asked about her future plans, in fact, Rachel says her work in music libraries may not necessarily end with graduation.
“I actually wouldn’t mind working in a library later in life,” she says. “I like books, I like music … and music libraries are fun because you get to see the scores, which is a little bit different than just your run-of-the-mill book.”
When asked about an especially good day on her job, Rachel has a hard time picking out just one.
“Well, towards the end of the semester, the person who’s over us typically will have an end-of-semester party, which is always nice—free food, you know… but, let’s see…” her voice trails off. “Most days are pretty good!”
About this Series: Students like Rachel are an indispensable part of our library workforce. Their employment provides Duke students with valuable financial aid to support their education, and they learn useful skills that enhance their academic studies and careers after college. This year, to encourage senior giving to the Libraries, George Grody (Associate Professor of Markets and Management Studies) has set up the Grody Senior Challenge. Every gift made by the Class of 2018 to the Libraries Annual Fund will be matched by Professor Grody. All funds will directly support library student workers who provide research and instructional help.
“Working with the Library” is an occasional series of stories highlighting collaborations between librarians and the people around campus whose teaching and research we support.
Dr. Marion Quirici is a Lecturing Fellow in the Thompson Writing Program and a faculty advisor for the Duke Disability Alliance. This semester she is teaching Writing 101: Neurodiversity, Narrative, Activism. Her students are working on projects that fight stigma by educating the public about the social contexts of mental and psychiatric disabilities. Kim Duckett, Head of Research and Instructional Services, has been Marion’s course librarian for three semesters.. She recently asked Marion a few questions about how the library has supported her teaching and research in the area of disability studies.
What are your primary goals for your students working on their neurodiversity activism projects?
Student Sydny Long with her graphic novel, “The Lonely Brain.”
The goal is to train students to communicate an impactful message to a broad audience beyond the classroom. Their message should challenge mainstream assumptions and stereotypes about mental disabilities, and generate deeper understanding of the social contexts that make mental differences meaningful. The assignment is flexible in terms of format and medium. Students have a lot of freedom in figuring out what they want to say, how they want to say it, and whom they want to address. Some of their projects may involve more traditional forms of academic writing (articles, blogs, or op-eds), but students can also communicate their message through visual art, film, creative writing, posters, websites, social media campaigns, and dialogic forms of activism such as canvassing and teach-ins. What every project has to do is take the knowledge and skills cultivated in my course and transfer them into real-world situations. Through this assignment, I want students to come to terms with their own power and learn to use their research and writing skills to enact change.
What unique challenges does this assignment present?
Because my courses are situated in the field of disability studies, there are two main challenges that we reckon with as a group when designing these projects. The first is upholding the mantra of the disability rights movement: “nothing about us without us.” In the “disability rights are human rights” conversation, we must center disabled perspectives. While some of my students identify as disabled and incorporate their own experiences into their activism,
Student Laura Benzing with her visual art piece, “Language of Autism.”
the majority identify as nondisabled and neurotypical. It is therefore essential that students rigorously consider the lived experiences of psychiatric consumers, survivors, and ex-patients in order to challenge their own assumptions. In advocacy work and activism, it is important not to place an onus of recovery on the individual. Instead, I ask students to research the social structures and cultural conditions that contribute to the challenges individuals face. To be good allies, students have to resist thinking of “us” and “them” — it’s just “us.”
The second challenge is accessibility. The activism project must be accessible not only to a general audience that is unfamiliar with the neurodiversity paradigm, but also to people with all kinds of disabilities. Students learned to use accessibility software to caption their videos, and create audio descriptions of the visual components of their projects. Some thought about ways to incorporate tactile elements into their artwork, while others created accessible maps and navigational aids to help guide participants to their events. I organized the projects into a website here: tinyurl.com/disabilityart.
How has the library supported your teaching?
The Thompson Writing Program follows a “writing in the disciplines” model, which means that every faculty member designs writing courses within a specific discipline in which they have advanced training and expertise. We each have an assigned course librarian with specialized knowledge of our discipline–you, in my case–who visit our classes once or twice a semester to train students in their research methods. This semester you visited twice: once to discuss non-traditional forms of research for the activism projects, for which students were expected to find first-person perspectives on topics relating to mental health, and a second time to train students to use the library databases to compile and analyze a variety of critical sources for their research papers.
Student work from Dr. Quirici’s class last year featured on the Campus Club wall in Perkins Library.
Duke’s librarians have collaborated on a number of resources that are useful for the teaching of writing, which they organized into a “Library 101 Toolkit.” The toolkit contains worksheets that help students choose a topic, consider their audience by identifying stakeholders, and evaluate their sources. My favorite handout is called “Classifying Sources: The BAAM Method.” It outlines four different ways a student might engage with a source in their writing: Background, Artifact, Argument, and Method. I find that having students organize their sources into these categories during the research process helps them structure their papers, and situate their own ideas alongside the work of others.
A really unique way that the library has supported my teaching has been their willingness to provide opportunities for my students to exhibit their work. Last year, the students who created visual art for their activism projects had their work featured on the Campus Club Wall in Perkins Library for a month, thanks to the help of Meg Brown. This year, librarians in Lilly helped one of my students organize a shelf display of recommended reading for Disability Pride Week and contribute a post to the Libraries’ blog.
How about your research?
The Duke Libraries have an online database called “Disability and the Modern World” that I have found useful for browsing for the kinds of resources I would not have known to search for, including periodicals, film and television sources, and archival materials. Resources are organized by subject, discipline, geographical
Students Jay Patel and Nick Saba with their children’s book, “New Friends.”
location, and people, which always makes for a really generative browsing experience. I was so excited to discover an Australian chat show called “No Limits,” which covers a range of topics on disability representation in the media, and features one of my favorite disability activists, Stella Young.
The Rubenstein Library also has an extensive History of Medicine Collection that has been useful to my research. When I was writing a lecture on Psychiatric Degeneration Theory for the Neurohumanities Research Group this past February, I was able to consult a first edition of Bénédict Morel’s 1857 treatise on the so-called “physical, intellectual, and moral degeneration of the human race,” and study the development of a harmful theory that would later be used to justify eugenics and racial cleansing.
What are three things you think that undergraduates should know about using information and the library?
First, to generate as many questions as possible about your topic before you start searching. It’s important at the beginning of the research process to consider your topic from all angles, and to keep an open mind about what you might argue until you’ve learned what other scholars have already written. The more questions students ask about their topic at the beginning of the process, the more options they will have for taking a unique approach on the subject.
Second, not to be overwhelmed by the amount of information out there. Disability is a topic people initially perceive as marginal, but this is a misconception, and there is scholarship connecting disability to almost anything you can think of. Students can feel daunted by this. But once they take the time to comb through what’s out there by engaging in distant reading, they find more sophisticated ways to articulate what exactly interests them. It can be really exciting to watch them discover the originality of their own ideas.
Third, to be comfortable asking for help. Research should never be done in total isolation. Having a conversation with a librarian, classmate, or professor can help you not only articulate your project to yourself, but also to get feedback on how well others are understanding your ideas. They might raise questions, introduce perspectives you had not considered, and help you define your topic. Think of the librarians as extra professors outside the classroom. They have many years of experience organizing research and gaining access to information, and students should take advantage of all that expertise!
Exam season is coming. The nights are getting longer, the assignments bigger. Do you ever feel like you basically live in the library?
Now you can prove that you actually do! It’s National Library Week, and we’re celebrating with retro-looking postcards that you can mail to family and friends from your “home away from home” here at Duke.
Rediscover the lost art of postcard writing.
Join us Monday (Apr. 9) and Wednesday (Apr. 11) in Perkins Library and Tuesday afternoon (Apr. 10) at Lilly Library on East Campus. Choose from one of four attractive postcard designs and let the outside world know you’re still alive!
You know you want one of these.
Shoot your folks a quick hello from the “Browser’s Paradise” of Perkins Library, or let a friend or two know you’re “Living on the Edge” in Bostock. We provide the stamps (both domestic and international), so you can send your message anywhere in the world.
Choose from an assortment of old-fashioned fountain and feather pens to compose your lofty thoughts, then pop it in our mailbox—we’ll mail it for you that very day!
Everybody loves real mail!
Also, don’t forget to check out our postcard-inspired Snapchat filters the next time you’re avoiding real work in Perkins, Bostock, Lilly, or Rubenstein.
So what do you say? Celebrate National Library Week with a postcard from your favorite semi-permanent address here at Duke. Somebody out there will be glad to hear from you!
Director Nelson Oliver has spent the past decade working on a narrative retelling of the 1898 Wilmington Race Riot, the only violent government overthrow in U.S. history. In a free film screening coming to Duke on Wednesday, April 18, in Perkins Library 217, Oliver’s The Red Cape will explore the conspiracy, riot, and ensuing racially-motivated massacre that went largely ignored by historians until a 2000 historical commission by the North Carolina General Assembly.
The Red Cape follows the fates of a young black boy and his father in what was then North Carolina’s most progressive city. Incensed by the biracial makeup of the newly-elected city legislature, a group of white businessmen stage a coup—publicizing a “White Declaration of Independence,” replacing democratically-elected officeholders with white supremacists, and massacring untold numbers of black citizens in the resulting chaos.
The film is 40 minutes in length, and it will be screened twice: once at 4:00 p.m., and again at 5:30 p.m.
“Earning While They’re Learning” is an occasional series of stories celebrating our library student workers. The Duke University Libraries employ more than 250 undergraduates and graduate students every year, making us one of the largest student employers on campus.
Duke students live busy lives. That’s the name of the game at a university like this. Whether they’re studying, socializing, reading or working, it can sometimes seem like students around here never get a second off their feet.
When it comes to juggling time commitments, though, senior Gabriella Rivera is something of a pro. She’s been working various jobs around campus for the past four years—putting in around 20 hours each week on top of her coursework and other commitments. And at both The Edge and the Perkins Library Service Desk, we’ve been lucky enough to have her since this past spring.
“I like it here,” Bella said when asked about her work. “It’s a relaxed atmosphere… it’s helped me figure out exactly what you can do with the library.”
Before starting work here, Bella explained, she’d never had any experience working in a library. There was definitely something of a learning curve when she was first starting out—though nothing she couldn’t handle.
“I had no idea how it worked when I came in; I was basically starting from scratch,” she said. “When you first start there’s training, but you kind of just learn a lot on the job, too.”
Troubleshooting technology; answering questions; helping people find books, shelve books, look books up online—there’s a lot that goes into Bella’s work. She’s learned a lot about how the Libraries are run and organized, and she says she’s definitely appreciated the expertise it’s given her.
Asked what she likes most about her job, Bella says it’s all about the people. A big part of her job involves helping students iron out problems, and she loves being able to answer people’s questions.
“I like just talking to the people over at the service desk in Perkins and helping them figure out how to use everything here,” she said. “Especially talking to non-Duke students sometimes—it’s nice to break up from just students that you see on campus.”
And even when she’s off of work, Bella enjoys using her skills to help people around her.
“I’ll help my friends if they don’t know what they’re doing in the library,” she said. “I like being able to answer people’s questions both on the desk and off the desk.”
About this Series: Students like Bella are an indispensable part of our library workforce. Their employment provides Duke students with valuable financial aid to support their education, and they learn useful skills that enhance their academic studies and careers after college. This year, to encourage senior giving to the Libraries, George Grody (Associate Professor of Markets and Management Studies) has set up the Grody Senior Challenge. Every gift made by the Class of 2018 to the Libraries Annual Fund will be matched by Professor Grody. All funds will directly support library student workers who provide research and instructional help.
Thank you to everyone who enjoyed going out on a Mystery Date With a Book last week! If you didn’t get a chance to check out our display, or if you’re just curious to know what books we selected, here’s a complete list of our mystery picks, along with the library staff member who recommended them. Add them to your Goodreads list. Happy reading!
Selected by Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Head, Humanities Section and Librarian for Literature and Theater Studies:
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre: “A coming of age story featuring psychic connections, walks on the moors, and a house with a mystery.”
Naomi Novik, Uprooted: “The fairy tale you always wanted as a child…and finally got as an adult.”
Selected by Kim Duckett, Head of Research and Instructional Services:
Anthony Mara, The Tsar of Love and Techno: Stories: “A collection of beautiful interlocking short stories dipping back and forth through 20th century Russia.”
Matthew Kneale, English Passengers: “Twenty narrators tell a fascinating story of Manx smugglers, seekers of the Garden of Eden, and the plight of Tasmanian Aborigines.”
Bruno Schulz, The Street of Crocodiles: “In this little town the real and the imagined blend together in a way you’ve never quite experienced.”
Selected by Brittany Wofford, Coordinator for The Edge and Librarian for the Nicholas School for the Environment:
P. G. Wodehouse, How Right You Are, Jeeves: “For everyone who thought that Carson was the real hero of Downton Abbey.”
Naomi Alderman, The Power: “An electrifying read about gender and power.“
Selected by Elena Feinstein, Head, Natural Sciences and Engineering Section and Librarian for Biological Sciences:
Monique Truong, The Book of Salt: “Flavors, seas, sweat, tears – weaves historical figures into a witty, original tale spanning 1930s Paris and French-colonized Vietnam.”
Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife: “According to the author, the themes of the novel are ‘mutants, love, death, amputation, sex, and time.’ Many readers would include loss, romance, and free will.”
Selected by Jodi Psoter, Librarian for Chemistry and Statistical Science:
Amy Butler Greenfield, A Perfect Red: “Empire, espionage, and the quest for the color of desire.”
Stefan Fatsis, Word Freak: “Wonderful word weirdos. Glimpse inside the world of competitive Scrabble.”
Selected by Sarah Park, Librarian for Engineering and Computer Science:
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince: “It is a love story for the ages.”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese: “44 different ways to say ‘I love you’ for your valentines.”
Thomas F. Moser with Brad Lemley, Moser: Artistry in Wood: “A story of an extraordinary woodworker who built the furniture in Perkins and Bostock libraries.”
Jeffrey Brown, Darth Vader and son: “We need to take care of our family before conquering the universe. Short and comical.”
Selected by Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications:
Richard Hughes, The Innocent Voyage: “One of the best novels you’ve never heard of. A combination of Peter Pan, Heart of Darkness, and Lord of the Flies, all rolled into one.”
Ryszard Kapuściński, Travels with Herodotus: “ ‘Within every great book there are several others.’ One of those great books, by one of the great world travelers.”
Last week, the staff of the Duke University Libraries were treated to a fascinating presentation by Durham County Library Director Tammy Baggett-Best, who offered an update on the renovation of Durham’s Main Library on N. Roxboro Street.
With our own major library renovation here at Duke just a few years behind us, it was exciting to see what our colleagues down the street have planned. As downtown Durham continues to grow more vibrant, the renovated Main Library promises to be yet another point of pride for those who live and work in the area.
The Main Library renovation started in early 2017 and is scheduled to be complete in late 2019. With over $44.3 million in funding and a planned addition of 19,804 square feet to the existing 65,000 square feet of library space, Baggett-Best explained that Main Library is undergoing some serious transformations.
“Pretty much the only thing that will be left is the foundation and the frames,” she said—joking that the library outreach program “Downtown Library Without Walls” was being taken rather literally by the renovation crew.
Simplified cross-section of Main Library before (left) and after renovations (right), showing the greater vertical openness, connectivity, and natural light in the new building.
And it’s true: with the goals of creating greater openness and visibility throughout the building site, Main Library may be almost unrecognizable to many Durham residents by the time renovations are complete. New roof terraces, glass walls, and horizontally integrated staircases are all designed to create a heightened sense of freedom and connectivity, while new meeting spaces, public spaces, and a comprehensive literacy and technology center are intended to improve community outreach.
A rendering of how the library will look once complete when viewed from the side facing Liberty Street.
Some areas of particular interest include a career development workspace, a MakerLab / S.T.E.A.M. space, a cultural/arts exhibition gallery space, and an expanded and more accessible space for the popular North Carolina Collection. The newly renovated library will also provide more social space for children, teenagers, and adults, along with multiple event venues.
Outside the building, meanwhile, the library grounds will feature numerous open areas for library and community use, including an art garden, an amphitheater, a public plaza, covered seating, an urban agriculture section, and an interactive play and gathering space. Baggett-Best hopes these and other programs will contribute to a sense of community and connectivity across social groups.
Indeed, the renovations are just one part of the Durham County Library’s mission to help Durham grow and thrive. Improved access and technological services feature heavily in their plans. Baggett-Best said they are currently working on a program that will allow all Durham County public school students’ ID cards to do double-duty as their library cards. They’re also working on a way to clear all outstanding overdue fees by public school students at the end of each school year.
Rendering of a community event at Main Library, post-renovation.
It was heartening to learn that Durhamites are big library users, even before the renovation got started. Approximately 71% of all Durham County residents have a library card, compared with 44% statewide. In a recent city/county survey, the only local government agency or service that gets higher satisfaction marks from residents is EMS. In 2017, Durham libraries circulated nearly three million physical items—a number that has been decreasing slightly in recent years in tandem with increased use of online resources.
This seems like a good time for a public service announcement to our Duke students: All Duke students are eligible to get a free library card at any Durham County Library location. Even if you’re not a North Carolina resident, you can still use the public library, and you don’t even have to leave your dorm room. If you love the hundreds of popular e-books and audiobooks you can get online through the Duke Libraries’ OverDrive app, consider the thousands and thousands more you have access to through the Durham County Library!
Overall, it’s clear that the renovations at Main Library represent one more sign of the ongoing revitalization of downtown Durham. The “library without walls” will have some pretty spectacular walls once again before long, and we can’t wait to help them celebrate its re-opening in 2019!
Does your reading life feel like it’s lost that special spark? Do you find yourself staring at your bookshelves at night, brooding over old flames?
Don’t worry—our love experts here at the Libraries are here to help. This Valentine’s Day, they’ve hand-picked some choice selections guaranteed to improve your circulation, if you know what we mean.
From now through the end of February, sidle up to our Mystery Date with a Book display next to the Perkins Library Service Desk and get a peek at some of our secret suitors.
Now, watch yourself—these books are a bit of a tease. They come wrapped in pink and red paper with “come-hither” teasers to lure you in. Will you get fiction or nonfiction? Poetry or short stories? Travelogue or fantasy? No peeking until until you’re ready to “get between the covers,” nudge, nudge.
Give your date a chance, but if it doesn’t work out, no hard feelings. After the two of you have gotten acquainted, don’t forget to let our matchmakers know how it went. Each book comes with a card you can use to rate your date. Use it is a bookmark, then drop it in our Mystery Date with a Book box when you return your book to Perkins and pick up a little Valentine button from us.
This February, don’t leave our literary lovelies all lonely by themselves. Take one home with you—you might find a perfect match!
Rate your mystery date, and take one of our fashionable buttons! You know you want one of these.
Sophomore Gretchen Wright in the Rubenstein Library stacks.
“Earning While They’re Learning” is an occasional series of stories celebrating our library student workers. The Duke University Libraries employ more than 250 undergraduates and graduate students every year, making us one of the largest student employers on campus.
An undeclared sophomore with an interest in English and Classical Studies, student worker Gretchen Wright has found a whole new outlet for her passion for research and the humanities through the Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Two hours a day, five days a week, this is where you’ll find Gretchen hard at work among the books she loves—shelving, sorting, and checking out the centuries-old manuscripts that have transformed her journey through Duke over the past two years.
“There are always things that are interesting to me,” Gretchen gushed when asked about her experience in the Rubenstein. “I like books, I like libraries, I like organizing things… I love it. It’s a great place to work!”
With an obvious excitement for history and literature, Gretchen never seems at a loss to find something to marvel at when she gets started talking about her work. Small wonder, too—Gretchen has interacted with some of the rarest, most engaging works in the world in her time at the Rubenstein. First edition Walt Whitman poems, complete with handwritten notes and edits; 16th-century prints of the Malleus Maleficarum, the first-ever witch-hunting manual; written exchanges between Alexander Hamilton and any number of people mentioned in the modern showstopper musical—Gretchen is working with documents that have changed the course of history, and her work at the Rubenstein remains a major source of inspiration for the research her classes often require of her.
“Duke has such a great collection of libraries, and the resources available are incredible,” Gretchen said. “Even though I work at the Rubenstein, we’re constantly interacting and touching and feeling books that I didn’t even know we had.”
Knowing about the documents available to her through the Rubenstein had a major influence on Gretchen. In her poetry class’s final project last fall, for instance, she incorporated a collection of late 19th-century photographs of Durham into a piece on the parallels between history and poetry. The semester after that, she enrolled in a course on the history of the book—held in the Rubenstein itself!
And although she’s not entirely certain where she wants to go in the future, Gretchen’s work in the Libraries has had a clear impact on the path she sees herself pursuing.
“I’ve definitely thought about going into library sciences as a career,” she said. “That’s definitely a possibility I could see myself going into.”
Overall, Gretchen seemed amazed at how much her perspective on research has changed since she began work in the Rubenstein. Before coming here, she had no idea how real and how powerful research in the humanities could be. Her work in the Libraries continues to thrill, challenge, and intrigue her, and the lessons she has learned here have changed her perspective on research forever.
“There’s so much, so many different directions you can take research of any particular topic,” Gretchen said. “Even if you spend hours and hours every day in the library, there will always be something else that you can look at—and I think that’s really great.”
About this Series: Students are an indispensable part of our library workforce. Their employment provides Duke students with valuable financial aid to support their education, and they learn useful skills that enhance their academic studies and careers after college. This year, to encourage senior giving to the Libraries, George Grody (Associate Professor of Markets and Management Studies) has set up the Grody Senior Challenge. Every gift made by the Class of 2018 to the Libraries Annual Fund will be matched by Professor Grody. All funds will directly support library student workers who provide research and instructional help.
Take our survey and you could win a $150 Amazon Gift Card (students), or a $75 gift card to your favorite restaurant (faculty)!
Here in the Libraries, we’re always looking for ways to make your life easier. That’s why every two years we invite library users to take part in a brief user survey to help us better understand their experiences and thoughts on library spaces, collections, and services.
The survey takes no more than 5 minutes to complete and will remain open between now and February 13.
Student Survey: As a special thank you for participating, all student respondents will be entered into a raffle for a $150 Amazon gift card.
Faculty Survey: All faculty members who respond will be entered to win a $75 gift card to their favorite restaurant.
When libraries, students, and faculty work together, everybody wins. Take a look at some of the improvements we’ve made in the last two years as a direct result of our last user survey.
Added color and icon-based signage to make navigating Perkins and Bostock easier
Increased frequency with which we clean computers and study tables
Developed a workflow for checking broken power outlets
Ensured keyboard and computer equipment is cleaned regularly and replaced as need
Made improvements to public computers
Improved our Room Reservation page and made it easier for students to reserve group study rooms and access specialized spaces in the library
Added an Interview Room and made enhancements to both spaces
Evaluated and made improvements to ePrint
Worked with DSG to develop OASIS:Perkins
Developed clear signage to help students select study spaces based on their needs and preferences
Worked with security guards to enforce Quiet Zone guidelines
Feedback is what helps the Libraries grow, and the more input we get, the better we’ll be able to renovate, rethink, and improve.
So please, take a couple minutes of your time to complete the 2018 survey—and thank you for your help in making the Duke University Libraries a better place.
Forget about finals, forget about stress, you deserve a break. More importantly, you deserve a break involving snuggles, barks and happy wagging tails, because seriously, what’s better than puppies?
Don’t get like this poor pooch. Take a puppy study bark… er, we mean break.
Please don’t miss it! The puppies will miss you!
Sad puppy. Why wouldn’t they take a break to come see me?
We like happy puppies, and also happy students. Everyone will be happy! The puppies will be adorable! Come see them! We’ll make buttons! We’re full of exclamation marks just thinking about it!
What: Writing and research help, stress relief, and finals prep Where: The Edge When: Wednesday, December 6, 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year—finals season, of course! We know you can hardly stand the wait for those magical days ahead, but the Long Night Against Procrastination can help make extra sure we’re all working at maximum productivity.
Spend an evening getting on top of everything you have to do—or just come and de-stress with our soothing activities, door prizes, and free coffee and snacks! However you want to approach it, we’re doing everything we can to make sure finals week is as simple and pain-free as possible.
Staff from the Libraries and the TWP Writing Studio will be on hand for help with research and writing. Math and Chemistry tutors will also be available. Tutorial times:
Math 111: 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Math 212: 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Chemistry 101: 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Chemistry 201: 7:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Help us make the event green by bringing your own coffee mugs and water bottles, and let us help you ace finals week!
Sponsored by Duke University Libraries, the TWP Writing Studio, the Academic Resource Center, the Duke Student Wellness Center, and Duke Recreation and Physical Education.
Refreshments provided by Saladelia, Duke University Campus Club, and Friends of the Duke University Libraries.
This past Friday, October 20, Duke University Libraries was excited to host the reception of our 2017 writing and research award winners. With topics covering everything from the slums of Bangalore to medieval publishers to personal poetry and creative nonfiction, these student superstars ran the gamut of passions, questions, and creative impulses.
No matter how much their interests varied, though, all of the contestants were judged to have made major contributions to their fields. The response was warm, the students’ and advisors’ speeches were phenomenal, and we’re truly thankful to everyone who was in the audience for the pride and support you showed these winners.
McKenzie Cook, winner of the First/Second-Year Lowell Aptman Prize
Valerie Muensterman, winner of the
Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award
Kushal Kadakia, winner of the Ole R. Holsti Prize
Sabrina Hao, winner of the Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award
Jack Harrington, winner of the Third/Fourth-Year Lowell Aptman Prize, with History Professor Vasant Kaiwar
Hannah Rogers, winner of the Chester P. Middlesworth Award
The newly-renovated Perkins B09, ready for your big interview. Go get em, tiger.
Got a big phone or Skype interview coming up you just have to nail? Worried about noise, bad cell service, or nosy roommates jeopardizing that all-important first impression? The Libraries have felt your pain, and we’re here to help.
We now have not one but two beautifully renovated interview rooms in Perkins Library, designed especially for phone and remote video interviews and available to all Duke students, faculty, and staff.
To reserve one of the Interview Rooms, visit the online registration page, check the schedule for an available day and time, enter your name and Duke email address, and respond to the confirmation email within 1 hour (otherwise your reservation could be canceled). That’s it! The room is all yours.
The two rooms have similar but slightly different features. Perkins B09 (located on Lower Level 2) features a brand new all-in-one telephone/videoconferencing system, whereas Perkins 130 (located on the library’s main floor) features a landline system only. Each room has its own dedicated phone number, in case the person conducting the interview prefers to call you.
Also, in response to popular demand, we have increased the 60-minute time limit on the rooms to 90 minutes.
Questions? Comments? Fan mail for helping you land that dream internship? Let us know at asklib@duke.edu.
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