Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here is a selection of books you will find in these collections!
Pageboy by Elliot Page. With Juno’s massive success, Elliot became one of the world’s most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. He was forced to play the part of the glossy young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl, on and off set. The career that had been an escape out of his reality and into a world of imagination was suddenly a nightmare. As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do, until enough was enough. Full of behind the scenes details and intimate interrogations on sex, love, trauma, and Hollywood, Pageboy is the story of a life pushed to the brink. But at its core, this beautifully written, winding journey of what it means to untangle ourselves from the expectations of others is an ode to stepping into who we truly are with defiance, strength, and joy. Read The New York Times Book Review to learn more.
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters. Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn’t hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. When Ames’s boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she’s pregnant with his baby–and that she’s not sure whether she wants to keep it–Ames wonders if this is the chance he’s been waiting for. Could the three of them form an unconventional family–and raise the baby together? This provocative debut concerns what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can’t reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us with a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel. Read this The New Yorker book review to learn more.
Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millner. A dazzling love story in poems about one woman’s coming-out, coming-of-age, and coming undone. A woman lives an ordinary life in Brooklyn. She has a boyfriend. They share a cat. She writes poems in the prevailing style. She also has dreams: of being seduced by a throng of older women, of kissing a friend in a dorm-room closet. But the dreams are private, not real. One night, she meets another woman at a bar, and an escape hatch swings open in the floor of her life. She falls into a consuming affair–into queerness, polyamory, kink, power and loss, humiliation and freedom, and an enormous surge of desire that lets her leave herself behind. Maggie Millner’s captivating, seductive debut is a love story in poems that explores obsession, gender, identity, and the art and act of literary transformation. In rhyming couplets and prose vignettes, Couplets chronicles the strictures, structures, and pitfalls of relationships–the mirroring, the pleasing, the small jealousies and disappointments–and how the people we love can show us who we truly are. Learn more in this book review by The Washington Post.
The Great Believersby Rebecca Makkai. In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying, and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris, tracking down her estranged daughter, who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finally grapples with how AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness amid disaster. “A page turner . . . An absorbing and emotionally riveting story about what it’s like to live during times of crisis.” –The New York Times Book Review. Read more about this historical novel in the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Real Life by Brandon Taylor. A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice. Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he works uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his circle of friends–some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But throughout a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community. Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds and at what cost. Read The Guardian Book Review to learn more.
May 18th marks the 12th annual celebration of GAAD. This day serves to raise awareness of the need for digital inclusion and accessible web content for people with disabilities.
Why does web accessibility matter? People with disabilities have a right to access and enjoy web content and digital objects. Based on data from the World Health Organization, an estimated 1.3 billion people have disabilities, or 1 in 6 people worldwide. According to a WebAIM report from February 2023, 96.3% of the top million homepages on the Internet had accessibility errors based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The most common accessibility error is low contrast text. Other common errors include missing alternative text for images, empty links, and improperly structured headings (very important for people using screen-readers). Ensuring web pages are accessible makes the Internet a more equitable and inclusive space.
Another expanding area of accessibility and digital inclusion is in video games. You may have watched the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, but did you know that The Last of Us Part II’s release in 2020 was a landmark moment for accessibility in gaming? Organizations like AbleGamers and websites like Can I Play That? are advocating for a more inclusive gaming landscape. Game developers have also created a list of Game Accessibility Guidelines to make games more accessible for those with disabilities. If you are interested in this topic and want to learn more about accessibility and disability representation in gaming, you may want to check out the 2023 book Gaming Disability: Disability Perspectives on Contemporary Video Games.
What is a Vital Lilly Library Resource?
Meet Lilly Library’s Class of 2023
There is life outside of Lilly! Congratulations to Celine!
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Celine W., one of our graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate her as much we do.
Duke – and Lilly! – Senior Celine
A Lilly selfie with Celine
Hometown: Colleyville, TX
Family/siblings/pets: An older sister (with the cutest dog, Zoey!) and a younger brother
Academic major: Literature
Activities on campus: Asian American Studies Working Group
Favorite on-campus activity (besides working in the library):
Relaxing at the Duke Gardens
Favorite off-campus activity:
Ice cream at Pincho Loco
Favorite campus eatery: Beyu Blue!!
Favorite off-campus eatery: Wheat
Behind the Curtain at Lilly
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: I would like to sleep in the Stacks!! I think setting up a sleeping bag and napping amongst the shelves would be very cozy!!
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: There’s this Vivienne Westwood book that’s bound in the iconic tartan pattern, and I know we’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but it looks incredible and is filled with so many historically important runway looks.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at library? Least favorite? A: I love talking to the patrons and learning about their research! Especially when they come by to pick up a bunch of books from reserve! I do get a question about printing every shift, so I could do without that.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: Learning how to use the dumbwaiter or the microfiche, it’s like learning a piece of technology that would’ve been so revolutionary before.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: Using the dumbwaiter!! It feels like I’m living out a retro library experience!
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: I think any type of work where I get to talk to people and help them interact makes my life richer and grows my empathy toward serving others. I’m studying to become a doctor, and take every experience where I can help others as a learning experience!
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: The beautiful interior. Lilly was my home in freshman year, and I’m excited to see it become home to many students in the future.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: I’m taking a gap year before medical school, and will be working at a hospital.
Q: What is your spirit animal? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: A panda!!
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Celine and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries “family”. We appreciate Celine’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
What is a Vital Lilly Library Resource?
Meet Our Lilly Class of 2023
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Hailey B., one of our graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate them as much we do.
Hailey, Lilly student assistant and Duke Class of 2023
Duke – and Lilly! – Senior Hailey
Hometown: Palm Harbor, FL
Family/siblings/pets: I have one (much) younger 3-year-old half-sister and a dog named Carter
Academic major: Psychology, plus minors in Computer Science and Math
Activities on campus: Duke University Marching Band (DUMB), Duke Cyber, Durham Chi Omega
Favorite on-campus activity(besides working in the library 😉 ): Being at Duke games with the marching/pep band! My personal favorite is Duke WBB games
Favorite off-campus activity: Trying new restaurants with friends
Favorite campus eatery: Krafthouse
Favorite off-campus eatery: HeavBuffs
Behind the Curtain at Lilly
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: Probably the Thomas Reading Room at Lilly – it’s the most beautiful space and I’d love to wake up to the sunlight through those big windows. Plus the couches are great.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: Most interesting is definitely “First Person Singular” by Haruki Murakami. It’s a collection of short stories all about different narrators, all told from first person singular point of view. It’s super cool and I totally recommend it. Most strange would be a book of poems told entirely from the point of view of a cat – it was incredible. Also interesting that both my picks include playing with POV – maybe that kind of thing just really gets me.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at library? Least favorite? A: My favorite part is for sure the people – everyone who works at Lilly is incredible and they’re the best coworkers. I can always count on one of the other students or staff librarians brightening my day. My least favorite thing as an avid reader is that I constantly have to resist the urge not to check out 40 books every time I work a shift.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: I found out I had made it to the final interview round for a really competitive job while I was on shift and everyone was so happy and helped me celebrate. It was a really special moment.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: I honestly don’t think I’ve ever done anything super crazy – probably just printing out so many pages at one time that I stood at the printer for like 20 minutes.
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: Customer service is always applicable! Plus a great eye for detail and the ability to learn new things quickly.
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: Similar to my favorite part, I’ll miss the people. I’ll have to come back and visit so I can see some of them again! Note: Please do! We always love seeing our “Lilly alumni”!
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: I’m currently interviewing for jobs (I have another one this week, wish me luck) with nonprofit organizations and will be working for 1 gap year, before attending law school in Fall 2024. Longer-term, I plan to work in social justice law.
Q: What is the animal that you most identify with? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: I’ve been told I remind people of a chinchilla – I’m not entirely sure what that means but I love chinchillas so I’ll take it. Other answers I’ve received: orange cat, pangolin, and panther.
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to them and our other graduates, treasured members of our Lilly Library “family”. We appreciate Hailey’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish them all the best!
What is a Vital Lilly Library Resource?
Meet Our Class of 2023
Meet “Lilly'” Class of 2023 – Emma
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Emma L., one of our graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate her as much we do.
Duke – and Lilly! – Senior Emma
A Lilly selfie with Emma
Hometown: Oak Park, IL
Family/siblings/pets: One younger sister. The closest thing I have to a pet is a lot of houseplants.
Academic major: Biology and Chemistry
Activities on campus: Research, Duke Symphony Orchestra, avid Cameron Crazie
Favorite on-campus activity (besides working in the library 😉 ): Duke Symphony Orchestra!
Favorite off-campus activity: Walks at Eno
Favorite campus eatery: Late-night Pitchforks
Favorite off-campus eatery: The Parlour
Behind the Curtain at Lilly
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: The bottom floor of the Biddle library, it’s so calm and quiet.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: The locked stacks at Lilly have some really cool, really old books! No one book in particular stands out to me, but I love working in that room and seeing all the titles and publication years in there.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at library? Least favorite? A: The people are my favorite thing by far! I’ve met so many wonderful people at Lilly, from the librarians to the other student workers to the people who come up to the front desk. My least favorite part is when I just barely miss the bus after my shift, which isn’t even to do with Lilly.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: There was a tornado warning during one of my shifts this year, so we had to gather everyone up and go down to the basement. It only lasted 15-ish minutes, but it was interesting while it lasted.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: I’ve done several shifts without shoes on because it was raining so hard that they were too wet to wear by the time I got to work.
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: I’ve learned how to make searches specific enough to find what I’m looking for when finding sources for research. It’s also really helped me learn how to troubleshoot a printer (always a good skill to have).
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: How friendly everyone who works there is! Especially having worked at Lilly for four years, I’ll miss all the people (especially the librarians) who I met as a freshman. My favorite part of working an early shift this year is that I get to chat with everyone as they come in, and I’m sad I won’t get to do that anymore.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: I’ll be pursuing a PhD in molecular microbiology at Tufts in Boston!
Q: What is your spirit animal? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: A cat, purely because of how much they love napping in the sun
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Emma and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries “family”. We appreciate Emma’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Cierra H., one of the Duke Music Library‘s graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate her as much we do.
Duke (and Music!) Senior Cierra
Hometown: Roanoke Rapids, NC
Family/siblings/pets: Three younger siblings, Three dogs
Academic major: Biology
Activities on campus: Duke Med BEC Fellows/Root Causes/Project FEED, Duke Jazz Ensemble
Favorite on-campus activity(besides working in the library): Working in my research lab
Favorite off-campus activity: Bowling
Favorite campus eatery: Il Forno / Sazon
Favorite off-campus eatery: Guasaca
Behind the Curtain at the Music Library
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: The Music Library because it is always quiet in the evenings, there is plenty of space as well as a piano which would be fun to play.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: There was once a book full of slang that I thought was interesting. We tend to read more of the serious works and to read something that was serious, but lighthearted, was fun.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at the Music Library? Least favorite? A: My favorite part is finding new books to read and helping people out at the desk. It is also therapeutic to re-shelve or process new books as well as pull items. I don’t think I have a least favorite thing about working at the library.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: I will never forget two things. One is the freebies event we had where we gave away a bunch of scores and books. The second is when Jamie put up a skeleton behind the circulation desk named Skylar who pretended to be conducting music on Halloween .
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: I haven’t done anything crazy in the library.
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: I’ve learned to catalog books and how to better interact with people. I’ve gotten to work with some amazing staff and make friends amongst my peers that also work here. There is never a dull moment and some of the socialization skills I’ve gained will be useful in my future.
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: I will miss the staff: Laura, Sarah, and Jamie (and Jamie’s emails every week). They were very welcoming at first and over the two years, they have gotten to know me on a personal level and I’ve enjoyed every conversation we’ve had.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: Clinical research for two years while applying to medical schools.
Q: What is your spirit animal? … Well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: A dolphin
Graduation in May means the Duke Music Library will say farewell to Cierra and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries “family”. We appreciate Cierra’s stellar work and dedication to Music and wish her all the best!
Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here is a selection of books you will find in these collections!
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty. Blandine isn’t like the other residents of her building. An online obituary writer. A young mother with a dark secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents — neighbors, separated only by the thin walls of a low-cost housing complex in the once bustling industrial center of Vacca Vale, Indiana. Welcome to the Rabbit Hutch. Ethereally beautiful and formidably intelligent, Blandine shares her apartment with three teenage boys she neither likes nor understands, all, like her, now aged out of the state foster care system that has repeatedly failed them, all searching for meaning in their lives. Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom. Learn more about this National Book Award Winner in The New York Times Book Review.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. Authors June Hayward and Athena Liu were supposed to be twin rising stars. But Athena’s a literary darling. June Hayward is literally nobody. So when June witnesses Athena’s death in a freak accident, she acts impulsively: she steals Athena’s just-finished masterpiece, an experimental novel about the unsung contributions of Chinese laborers during World War I. So what if June edits Athena’s novel and sends it to her agent as her work? Doesn’t this piece of history deserve to be told, whoever the teller is? That’s what June claims, and the New York Times bestseller list seems to agree. But June can’t escape Athena’s shadow, and emerging evidence threatens to bring June’s (stolen) success down around her. As June races to protect her secret, she discovers how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. With its immersive first-person voice, Yellowface grapples with questions of diversity, racism, cultural appropriation, and the terrifying alienation of social media.
The Measure by Nikki Erlick. Eight ordinary people. One extraordinary choice. It seems like any other day. You wake up, pour a cup of coffee, and head out. But today, when you open your front door, a small wooden box is waiting for you. This box holds your fate inside: the answer to the exact number of years you will live. In an instant, the world is thrust into a collective frenzy. Where did these boxes come from? What do they mean? Is there truth to what they promise? As society comes together and pulls apart, everyone faces the same shocking choice: Do they wish to know how long they’ll live? And, if so, what will they do with that knowledge? The Measure charts the dawn of this new world through an unforgettable cast of characters whose decisions and fates interweave with one another. Enchanting and deeply uplifting, The Measure is a sweeping, ambitious, and invigorating story about family, friendship, hope, and destiny that encourages us to live life to the fullest. Read more in The New York Times Book Review. This intriguing novel was selected as this year’s reading for first-year students Duke Common Experience.
The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and Promise in Rural America by Monica Potts. Growing up gifted and working-class poor in the foothills of the Ozarks, Monica and Darci became fast friends. The girls bonded over a shared love of reading and learning, even as they navigated the challenges of their tumultuous family lives and declining town. Monica left Clinton for college and fulfilled her dreams, but Darci and many in their circle of friends did not. Years later, working as a journalist covering poverty, Potts discovered what she already intuitively knew about the women in Arkansas: Their life expectancy had dropped steeply—the sharpest such fall in a century. This decline has been attributed to “deaths of despair”—suicide, alcoholism, and drug overdoses—but Potts knew their causes were too complex to identify in a sociological study. In this narrative, Potts deftly pinpoints the choices that sent her and Darci on such different paths and then widens the lens to explain why those choices are so limited.Learn more in this All Things Considered NPR interview.
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati. A stunning debut follows Clytemnestra, the ancient world’s most notorious villainess, and the events that forged her into the legendary queen. As for queens, they are either hated or forgotten. She already knows which option suits her best…You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts. Because this was not the first offense against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly, you plot. But when your husband returns triumphantly, you become a woman with a choice. Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So, you bide your time and force the gods’ hands into the game of retribution. A blazing novel set in Ancient Greece, this is a thrilling tale of power, prophecies, hatred, love, and an unforgettable Queen who fiercely dealt death to those who wronged her.
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Duke senior Kari N., a David M. Rubenstein Scholar and one of our graduating student assistants, and you’ll appreciate her as much we do.
Duke (and Lilly!) Senior Kari
One of Lilly’s “Class of 2023” – Kari
Hometown: Chicago
Family/siblings/pets: I am an only child to my mother, Kimberly. I have a cat named Lex, sometimes lovingly called Lexthaniel or Lex Luther.
Academic major: Sociology with a concentration in Crime, Law, and Society. Education minor
Activities on campus: Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc, ARAC
Favorite on-campus activity(besides working in the library):
Going to the gardens and relaxing
Favorite off-campus activity: Going out to try a new restaurant
Favorite campus eatery: Ginger and Soy
Favorite off-campus eatery: Juice Keys
Behind the Curtain at Lilly
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: Definitely the breakroom. The couch will automatically put me to sleep.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: I didn’t realize how many fashion books Lilly had. That was super cool. I got to look through some Chanel and Louis Vuitton books.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at the library? Least favorite? A: Favorite part has definitely been learning about Duke history and hearing more about how things have changed over time from head librarians. Also, starting to recognize the people who come in often.
Least favorite: shelf-reading, OMG (it seems we’ve seen this response from more than one of our students)
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: When the little ponies (miniature therapy horses) were outside for finals week. They were so cute 🙂
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: I stayed there for hours (to study) and watched tv the whole time.
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: I think it’s helped me a lot with getting into a routine, knowing how to answer the phone for a business, and interacting with different aged people (from little kids to seniors)
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: Honestly, just sitting at the desk and watching who comes in.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: Currently, figuring out what my long-term career will be, but right now, I will be spending the summer working, traveling, and taking a bit of a break.
Q: What is your spirit animal? … Well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: An emu. I can’t explain. It’s just energy if you will.
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Kari’s and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries “family”. We appreciate Kari’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish her all the best!
The Lilly and Music Libraries are at the heart of East Campus, the First-Year Campus for Duke Undergraduates. To serve our community, during the semester, the East Campus Libraries remain open for 175 hours each week! Our student assistants are an essential element in maintaining a high level of service, and we want to introduce you to one of our “Class of 2023”. Get to know Brandon L., one of our graduating student assistants in this profile, and you’ll appreciate the importance of our student staff as much we do.
Graduate Student Brandon
Graduate Student assistant – Brandon
Hometown: Allentown
Family/siblings/pets: 1 younger sister, no pets 🙁
Academic major: Masters of Public Policy
Activities on campus:
President of the Sanford Energy and Environment Club; Chair of the Partnerships Team of Oceans @ Duke; Tutor for economics and statistics; Mentor in Duke F1RSTS; and Member of the Energy Week Leadership Committee.
Favorite on-campus activity (besides working in the library): Duke basketball
Favorite off-campus activity: Biking or hiking
Favorite campus eatery: Tandoor
Favorite off-campus eatery: East Cut
Behind the Curtain: Lilly Library
Q: If you could have a sleepover anywhere in the libraries, where would you choose, and why? A: Thomas Reading Room in Lilly because it’s spacious and comfortable.
Q: What’s the strangest/most interesting book or movie or music you’ve come across in the library? A: Feline Philosophy, a book about cats.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at library? Least favorite? A: Faculty delivery when it’s sunny. Least favorite has to be shelf reading.
Q: What is one memory from your time in the library that you will never forget? A: A student accidentally printed out 100 color copies of Caleb Love (a UNC basketball player). She meant to print 10 for her friends to hold up at the UNC game.
Q: What is the craziest thing you’ve ever done in the library? A: Worked two 6-hour shifts on back-to-back days. Note: We agree – that was crazy!
Q: How will your time working in the library help you in your future pursuits? A: Knowing all the resources and benefits that come with being a member of a library will be very helpful. There is so much people don’t know libraries offer.
Q: What will you miss most about the library when you graduate? A: All the little treats we got during holidays or the reading period.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation? A: Moving to Chicago for a job at the Federal Reserve.
Q: What is your spirit animal? … well, you don’t expect all the questions to be about working in the library, do you? A: An owl because that was my undergrad’s mascot and I love staying up late.
Graduation in May means Lilly Library will say farewell to Brandon and our other graduates, treasured members of our East Campus Libraries’ “family”. We appreciate Brandon’s stellar work and dedication to Lilly and wish him all the best!
You’re almost there! Here are some resources to power you through the end of the semester and beyond.
End-of-Semester Events
Academic Resource Center Consultations – The ARC is offering individual consultations at Perkins and Lilly for students to plan and prepare for final exams and projects. Schedule a consultation in advance or just drop-in! Consultants will be in Perkins near the front desk Thursday, April 27 and Friday, April 28 from 11 AM to 4 PM. ARC consultants will be in Lilly Library Monday, May 1st from 11 AM to 4 PM.
Lilly Relaxation Station – Friday, April 29th to Saturday, May 6th. Take a break and refresh during Reading and Exam Period! Open 24/7: Puzzles, games, Play-Doh, origami, coloring… just chill for a bit in Lilly’s 1st floor classroom! Light snacks will be provided in the evening May 1st through the 4th.
Crafternoon – Monday, May 1st from 2 to 4 PM. Stop by Perkins Library to relax and clear your mind with various crafting activities: coloring, origami, make-your-own bookmarks and zines, and more!
The library is always here for you! Maybe you already know that you can access many of our online resources from home or that you can check out books to take home with you. We also have movies and music that you can stream and some e-books that you can download to your devices. Here are some of the resources we have to do this!
Streaming Video includes:
Kanopy: Watch thousands of award-winning documentaries and feature films including titles from the Criterion Collection.
Go to duke.overdrive.com to access downloadable eBooks and audiobooks that can be enjoyed on all major computers and devices, including iPhones®, iPads®, Nooks®, Android™ phones and tablets, and Kindles®.
Streaming Music includes:
Contemporary World Music: Listen to music from around the world, including reggae, Bollywood, fado, American folk music, and more.
Jazz Music Library: Access a wide range of recordings from jazz classics to contemporary jazz.
Medici.tv: Browse an online collection of classical music, operas and ballets.
Metropolitan Opera on Demand: For opera fans, a large selection of opera videos from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.
Naxos Music Library: Huge selection of classical music recordings—over 1,925,000 tracks!
Post by Michael Edwards, Resource Sharing Librarian; Alex Konecky, Access and Library Services Assistant; and Sarah Park, Librarian for Engineering and Computer Science
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) is Duke University Libraries’ system for obtaining materials that are not available at Duke. This service is available to current Duke University faculty, staff, and students. Eligible users can submit an ILL request on the library homepage.
Go to the library homepage and click “Interlibrary Request” on the quick links menu. Then, click the “Request a Title” button to login, and fill out the form. If you haven’t used the service before, you may need to register for an account.
Alternatively, if you don’t want to fill out the form yourself, you can request an article through Google Scholar and avoid filling out the form. To do so, go to Scholar.Google.Com and search for the article you need.
Before you search, make sure that Google knows that you are affiliated with Duke. If you are on campus, Google already knows that you are affiliated with Duke. But if you are off campus, go to the settings under the three bars, clicking “Library Links,” and searching for Duke in the search box. Select Duke and press the “Save” button. A shortcut to the “Library Links” is https://scholar.google.com/scholar_settings?#2.
Once you have set up the library links, you will notice that search results show a “Get it at Duke” link next to the title whether you are on or off campus.
If you come across an article that doesn’t have the “Get it at Duke” link, like “Closed-loop insulin delivery: current status of diabetes technologies and future prospects,” don’t worry. You can still access it by clicking the double arrow at the bottom of the article. This will reveal the “Get it @ Duke” link. Click on it to proceed.
Next, click on “Request – University users” and make sure all the information is correctly filled out before submitting the request. You will receive a link via email, so you can access a PDF of the article.
If you have any questions about this or any other interlibrary loan services, please contact ILL department at Interlibraryrequests@duke.edu.
For the last several years, the Duke University Libraries has purchased copies of the assigned texts for a wide range of Duke courses and made them available to check out for free. It’s one of our most popular services, and students regularly tell us how much they appreciate it. And no wonder, when the cost of a single textbook can often exceed $300.
Now there’s a way you can help us make the program even better and do something about the ridiculous cost of textbooks at the same time. At the end of this semester, donate your textbooks to the library. We’ll make them available for other students to check out for free.
Don’t you wish someone had done that for you? Be that someone.
Look for the textbook donation bins in Perkins, Bostock, Lilly, and Divinity libraries starting this week. When you’ve finished with your classes, simply drop your books in the bin and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you’ve made some future Duke student’s day.
So if you passed your classes, pass it on. Donate your textbooks to us and make a Duke education more affordable for all.
(And if you didn’t pass, we’ll understand if you need to hang on to those books a little longer.)
Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature, and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here is a selection of books you will find in these collections!
The Skin and Its Girl by Sarah Cypher. In a Pacific Northwest hospital far from the Rummani family’s ancestral home in Palestine, the heart of a stillborn baby begins to beat, and her skin turns vibrantly, permanently cobalt blue. On the same day, the Rummanis’ centuries-old soap factory in Nablus is destroyed in an air strike. The family matriarch and keeper of their lore, Aunt Nuha, believes that the blue girl embodies their sacred history, harkening back to when the Rummanis were among the wealthiest soap makers and their blue soap was a symbol of legendary love. Decades later, Betty returns to Aunt Nuha’s gravestone, faced with a difficult decision: Should she stay in the only country she’s ever known, or should she follow her heart and the woman she loves, perpetuating her family’s cycle of exile? Betty finds her answer in partially translated notebooks that reveal her aunt’s complex life and struggle with her sexuality, which Nuha hid to help the family immigrate to the United States. But, as Betty soon discovers, her aunt hid much more than that.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton. A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. For years, the group has struggled to break even. To occupy the farm at Thorndike would mean a shot at solvency at last. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place: he has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Birnam’s founder, Mira, when he catches her on the property. A gripping psychological thriller from the Booker Prize–winning author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. Learn more about this novel in The New York Times Book Review.
The Trackers by Charles Frazier. Hurtling past the downtrodden communities of Depression-era America, painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming. Through a stroke of luck, he’s landed a New Deal assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new Post Office. A wealthy art lover named John Long and his wife Eve have agreed to host Val at their sprawling ranch. Rumors and intrigue surround the couple: Eve left behind an itinerant life riding the rails and singing in a Western swing band. Long holds shady political aspirations but was once a WWI sniper—and his right hand is a mysterious elder cowboy, a vestige of the violent old west. Val quickly finds himself entranced by their lives. One day, Eve flees home with a valuable painting in tow, and Long recruits Val to hit the road to track her down. American writer Charles Frazier conjures up the lives of everyday people during an extraordinary period of history that bears an uncanny resemblance to our own. Read The Washington Post book review to learn more!
The Only Survivors by Megan Miranda. A decade ago, two vans filled with high school seniors on a school service trip crashed into a Tennessee ravine—a tragedy that claimed the lives of multiple classmates and teachers. The nine students who managed to escape the river that night were irrevocably changed. A year later, after one of the survivors dies by suicide on the anniversary of the crash, the rest make a pact: to come together each year to commemorate that terrible night. Their annual meeting place, a house on the Outer Banks, has long been a refuge. But by the tenth anniversary, Cassidy Bent has worked to distance herself from the tragedy and the other survivors. This year, she is determined to finally break ties once and for all. But on the reunion day, she receives a text with an obituary attached: another survivor is gone. Now they are seven—and Cassidy finds herself hurling back toward the group, wild with grief—and suspicion. A propulsive and chilling locked-box mystery filled with the dazzling hairpin twists that are the author’s signature.
A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung. Nicole couldn’t hightail it out of her overwhelmingly white Oregon hometown fast enough. As a scholarship student at a private university on the East Coast, no longer the only Korean she knew, she found community and a path to the life she’d long wanted. But the middle-class world she begins to raise a family in – where there are big homes, college funds, and nice vacations – looks very different from the middle-class world she thought she grew up in. When her father dies at only sixty-seven, killed by diabetes and kidney disease, Nicole feels deep grief and rage, knowing that years of precarity and lack of access to healthcare contributed to his early death. Exploring the enduring strength of family bonds in the face of hardship and tragedy, A Living Remedy examines what it takes to reconcile the distance between one life, one home, and another – and sheds needed light on some of the most persistent and grievous inequalities in American society. Listen to Nicole discuss her work in this Fresh Air NPR interview!
The Duke University Libraries are undertaking a strategic planning process in order to define a clear sense of direction and identify priorities for the next five years. Griffin Reames and Ashley Garcia from Guideline Consulting are helping to support us in this important work.
We would very much appreciate your participation in a 1-hour focus group with Guideline Consulting to share your feedback and reflections on the biggest strategic issues impacting the library’s future. Focus groups will be conducted virtually via Zoom.
Please indicate your availability here no later than Friday, April 14 and someone from Guideline will reach out to confirm a final date and time. Discussion prompts will be shared by Guideline prior to the focus group, though no advance preparation is required.
Attendees will receive a $20 gift card via email. We hope to hear from you!
Are you an undergraduate who enjoys creative writing? You could win an award for your talents!
The Rudolph William Rosati Creative Writing Award
The Rosati Creative Writing Prize is awarded each spring in recognition of an outstanding work of creative writing. All Duke first year or sophomore students are eligible to submit work for consideration. Projects may be any genre and take any form (audio/video, digital media, etc.), but must include a substantial creative writing component.
The Styron Creative Writing Prize is awarded each spring in recognition of an outstanding work of creative writing. All Duke juniors and seniors (graduating spring 2023) are eligible to submit work for consideration. Projects may be any genre and take any form (audio/video, digital media, etc.), but must include a substantial creative writing component.
You may submit multiple, different projects in a given year but each project should be submitted individually with an accompanying application cover sheet
Submitted projects must have been written during the current academic year
Projects are judged based on quality and originality of writing
At this time submissions must be written in English
Need some escapism this time of the semester? Join Low Maintenance Book Club in sci-fi paradise with All Systems Red, the first novella in Martha Wells’ beloved Murderbot Diaries series (it’s not as morbid as it sounds!). We’ll discuss the work in its entirety at our next meeting on Tuesday April 25th at noon.
As always, you’re welcome to attend regardless of how much (or whether) you’ve read. Copies of the book are available through Duke University Libraries and your local public library.
The meeting will be held over Zoom, so make sure to RSVP to receive an invitation link the morning of the 25th. We hope to see you there!
If you have any questions, please contact Arianne Hartsell-Gundy (aah39@duke.edu).
Catch the livestream on April 27 at 6 p.m. No ticket required. See below for details.
In celebration of National Library Week, the Duke University Libraries are pleased to present an evening with National Public Radio’s Nina Totenberg in conversation with New York Times opinion writer Frank Bruni at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 27, in Duke University’s Page Auditorium.
One of the country’s most respected journalists and a doyenne of the Supreme Court, Nina Totenberg is NPR’s award-winning legal affairs correspondent. With more than 40 years’ experience at NPR, she has won every major journalism award in broadcasting for her in-depth coverage of our nation’s highest court. Her nuanced reporting and seasoned reflections shine a light on important judicial cases, helping audiences understand their impact on America’s future like no one else can.
Dinners with Ruth chronicles Totenberg’s longstanding friendship with “RBG,” which began 22 years before Ginsberg was appointed to the Supreme Court and 4 years before Totenberg started at NPR. As both women fought for and excelled in careers historically dominated by men, they paved the way for future generations by tearing down professional and legal barriers. At the story’s heart is a special relationship: Ginsberg and Totenberg saw each other not only through personal joys, but also illness, loss, and widowhood. During Ginsberg’s last year, they shared so many small dinners that Saturdays were “reserved for Ruth” in Totenberg’s house.
Totenberg will be joined on stage in conversation with Frank Bruni, nationally renowned author and New York Times contributing opinion writer and the Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University. Bruni is the author of five bestselling books, most recently The Beauty of Dusk: On Vision Lost and Found, a moving account of his diagnosis with a rare disorder that imperils his eyesight and left him blind in one eye. In 2021, he joined the Duke faculty and teaches media-oriented classes in the Sanford School of Public Policy.
Totenberg will be joined on stage in conversation with Frank Bruni, nationally renowned author and New York Times contributing opinion writer and the Eugene C. Patterson Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University.
The evening with Totenberg and Bruni will be presented as the Weaver Memorial Lecture, hosted by the Duke University Libraries in memory of William B. Weaver, a 1972 Duke graduate and former member of the Duke Library Advisory Board. Previous Weaver Lecture speakers have included Barbara Kingsolver, Oliver Sacks, Dave Eggers, Siddhartha Mukherjee, Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Colson Whitehead, among others.
Copies of Dinners with Ruth will be available for sale at the event, and Totenberg will sign books after the talk. The book is also available in print, e-book, and audiobook format through the Duke University Libraries, and at your local public library.
Reserve Your Ticket
Note: Ticket reservations made online or by phone carry a $1.50per ticket service charge. Credit card payments only.
IN PERSON (FREE): Visit the Duke Box Office in the Bryan Center on Duke’s West Campus during their regular business hours, Tuesday-Friday, 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Parking Info
Visitors to campus without a Duke parking permit are strongly advised to pre-purchase a $5.00 visitor parking permit for this special event. The permit is valid for Parking Garage 4 (PG4), adjacent to the Bryan Center and a short walk from Page Auditorium.
Visit the My Parking at Duke website and select the Nina Totenberg and Frank Bruni event. You may be prompted to register with OneLink (it’s free and easy) in order to complete your transaction. Pre-purchased permits greatly reduce wait times on entering and exiting the parking garage.
Visitors without a pre-purchased permit will be charged $10(CASH ONLY) to park. Cashiers will be available at the Parking Garage 4 entrance. If you wish to pay by credit card, you will be directed to other visitor parking locations on campus.
Watch the Livestream
The talk will also be streamed online for those who are unable to attend in person. No ticket needed. Visit the Duke Box Office website for the livestream link and tune in at the event start time.
While Duke’s March dance of 2023 has come to an end, Lilly Library brings you its own March Madness with 16 contrapuntal contenders. All of the movies competing in Lilly’s March Musical Movie Madness are available to watch online, with access brought to you by Duke Libraries and the Swank Digital Campus streaming platform. Contestants will be entered in a raffle, and Duke staff are eligible to win an electronic book plate in the online catalog record for the musical movie of their choosing. It’s shaping up to be a thrilling March at Lilly Library!
Lilly’s resident bracketologist, Nathaniel Brown, and film “reserves” aficionado, David Felton, will bring you all the highlights of this exciting competition. Watch their play-by-play videos highlighting each exciting round.
Four rounds of voting will open at 9am the first day of each round and close at 8pm the last day: Sounds of 16: 3/20-3/22 Eighth Notes: 3/23-3/27 4/4 Time: 3/28-3/29 Dynamic Duet: 3/30-4/2 Finale (winner announced): 4/3.
As part of our commitment to embody the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion in our work, the Duke University Libraries are pleased to announce a new residency program for early career librarians, starting with two full-time positions.
The Duke University Libraries Residency Program will be a three-year program providing enhanced professional development and mentorship to enable two recent graduates of an MLS or related graduate program to gain experience and expertise in a highly specialized area of librarianship.
As a member of the ACRL Diversity Alliance, we are launching the Residency Program as part of our organization’s commitment to “diversify and thereby enrich the profession” and “to build an inclusive organizational culture supportive of Black, Indigenous and People of color (BIPOC).”
Two Residents will be hired in tandem to create a cohort experience every three years.
This program seeks to provide meaningful work placements in specialized fields of librarianship, aligning the professional goals of Residents with the strategic goals of the Duke University Libraries. While learning on the job, Residents will work with colleagues who are highly skilled in these specialized areas and receive relevant development and training.
To this end, the residency program will guarantee professional development funding to Residents to fund travel, conference attendance, presentations, etc., related to skill building and their ongoing career trajectories. Additional professional development will also be offered to Residents through both DUL and Duke-wide programming. Formal and informal mentorship opportunities will also be provided to Residents.
While an offer for regular employment is not guaranteed after the three-year program, Residents will be placed intentionally with the goal of their positions becoming regular, ranked librarian positions if successful during their three-year terms.
Resident Librarian for Resource Description
The Resident Librarian for Resource Description works collaboratively with the Original Cataloging Team and with other library colleagues to assist in the creation, management, and configuration of DUL metadata for description. The Resident Librarian will gain experience in applying international cataloging standards to resources in multiple formats and across all subjects in a way that promotes inclusive and effective access, with a focus on a language or languages from the following collecting areas—Middle Eastern (e.g., Arabic, Persian, Turkish), East Asian (Chinese, Korean), Central/South/Southeast Asian languages (e.g., Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Sanskrit, Uzbek, Kazakh), or Slavic languages (e.g., Russian, Ukrainian). The resident will gain experience working collaboratively on projects and utilizing open-source tools that support better discovery of library resources. See the full position description.
Resident Librarian for South and Southeast Asian Studies
The Resident Librarian for South and Southeast Asia serves as the primary liaison for faculty and users in the interdisciplinary fields of South and Southeast Asian Studies at Duke University. The Resident Librarian develops and manages the collections from and about South and Southeast Asia, and provides specialized reference assistance and instruction. The Resident will gain experience working collaboratively with library staff, students, and faculty through teaching, research consultations, outreach related to library collections, and other special projects. See the full position description.
Virtual Info Session: April 6
Please join us to learn more about these positions and ask questions before applying! We are offering an information session over Zoom where we will share more information about Duke University, the Duke University Libraries, and the two residency positions. No registration is needed. Just click the Zoom link below at the listed date and time. Participants can login as anonymous—attendee names only seen by panelists.
Jameca Dupree, Associate University Librarian and Director of Financial and Facility Services
The Duke University Libraries are pleased to announce two appointments to our senior leadership team, after dual national searches. Both will serve as members of the Libraries’ Executive Group, reporting to the University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs.
Jameca Dupree has been named Associate University Librarian and Director of Financial and Facility Services, effective February 1.
In this role, she will have overall responsibility for the financial affairs and administrative operations of the Libraries, overseeing a $36 million operating budget and providing leadership over a division that includes Business Services, Facilities and Distribution Services, and the Library Service Center.
Dupree has led the division in an interim capacity since last July, following the retirement of Ann Wolfe, who had served in the role since 2002.
Dupree has worked at Duke for twenty-one years, including seventeen in the Libraries, in progressively responsible administrative, budget, and financial oversight roles. Starting out as a staff assistant in our Human Resources and Business Services Department (2005-2010), she was eventually promoted to Senior Financial Analyst (2010-2016) and Director of Business Services (2016-2022), before assuming her current responsibilities.
Dupree holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from North Carolina Wesleyan College, and a MBA from Fayetteville State University—both of which she earned while working full-time in the Libraries. She is also a graduate of the Managing at Duke program, the Triangle Research Libraries Network Management Academy, and the Duke Leadership Academy. In 2020, Dupree co-founded the Duke University Libraries Black Staff Alliance (DULBSA), a group that provides community, support, and ideas for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion among library staff.
“Jameca has excelled throughout her career in the Duke Libraries and most recently as Interim AUL,” said Joseph A. Salem, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs. “She was the ideal selection as we look for Financial and Facility Services not only to provide good stewardship well into the future, but also effective communication so that our staff have a shared sense of the resources needed to support our work and those available to innovate and push it in new directions.”
“I am delighted and extremely enthusiastic about this opportunity, especially continuing my career with the Duke University Libraries,” said Dupree. “It was a natural next step for me, and I am thankful that Joe, the members of the Executive Group, and library staff supported this direction. The Duke Libraries are moving forward in exciting and innovative ways, and I am honored to be a part of the leadership team that will see it through.”
Emily Daly, Associate University Librarian for Research and Public Services
Dupree’s appointment coincides with another addition to the Libraries’ Executive Group. Emily Daly has been named Associate University Librarian for Research and Public Services, effective March 1.
In this position, Daly will provide leadership, vision, and strategic direction to advance the core teaching, learning, and research services of the Libraries. The division she oversees is broadly responsible for providing individualized library help and outreach to students, faculty, university staff, and the general public. Research and Public Services includes Access and Delivery Services, the East Campus Libraries, International and Area Studies, Humanities and Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Engineering, and the Marine Lab Library.
Daly has served as Interim AUL for the division since last June, following the departure of Dave Hansen. During that time, she has overseen a structural reorganization of the division, working with staff to bring increased focus on public services and user spaces. The new structure is better positioned to meet the evolving demands of a modern research library.
Daly has worked at the Duke University Libraries since 2006, when she was hired as an intern in the Instruction and Outreach Department. Later she was appointed Coordinator of Upper-Level Instruction and Librarian for Education (2008-2012), before being promoted to Interim Head of Library Instruction and Outreach (2012), Head of Assessment and User Experience (2013-2022), and Interim Head of Research and Instructional Services (2021-2022), prior to assuming her current duties.
In addition to her work in the Libraries, Daly is active in the library profession. She serves on the advisory council of the Triangle Research Libraries Network, and she has chaired or served on numerous committees with the American Library Association and the Association of College and Research Libraries, where she recently concluded a term on the board of the directors. Daly also has an extensive record of service to Duke. She currently serves on the Master’s Advisory Council and has been an Academic Advisor to pre-major Duke undergraduates since 2010.
Daly holds a bachelor’s degree in English from North Carolina State University, and a master’s in Library Science from UNC-Chapel Hill.
“I have been impressed with Emily’s willingness to lead the division through organizational change during this interim period and look forward to working with her in this role on an ongoing basis,” said Joe Salem. “She has demonstrated the commitment to collaboration, to our students, and to our colleagues that I was seeking. She has also demonstrated a strong emphasis on innovation and continuous improvement, which make her an ideal leader for a division that will contribute to the mission of the university in new ways over the coming years.”
“I’ve been fortunate in sixteen-plus years at Duke Libraries to work in a number of departments and roles,” said Daly. “Whenever I’ve felt that I might make a greater impact doing something new, an opportunity has presented itself, or I’ve successfully advocated for a change. I’m extremely excited about this latest opportunity, and I’m eager to work and learn alongside talented, dedicated colleagues as we set direction for services and spaces in response to library users’ evolving needs.”
The other members of the Libraries’ Executive Group include Blue Dean, Associate University Librarian for Development; Dracine Hodges, Associate University Librarian for Technical Services; Timothy M. McGeary, Associate University Librarian for Digital Strategies and Technology; and Naomi Nelson, Associate University Librarian and Director of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Post by Hannah Rozear, Librarian for Biological Sciences and Global Health, and Sarah Park, Librarian for Engineering and Computer Science
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard the buzz about ChatGPT. It can write papers! Debug code! Do your laundry! Create websites from thin air! While it is an exciting tech development with enormous possibilities for applications, understanding what’s under the hood and what it does well/not-so-well is critically important.
ChatGPT is an Artificial Intelligence Chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched for public use in November 2022. While other AI chatbots are also in development by tech giants such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft, OpenAI’s early rollout has eclipsed the others for now – with the site reaching more than 100 million users in 2 months. For some perspective, this is faster widespread adoption than TikTok, Instagram, and many other popular apps.
What you may not know about ChatGPT is that it has significant limitations as a reliable research assistant. One such limitation is that it has been known to fabricate or “hallucinate” (in machine learning terms) citations. These citations may sound legitimate and scholarly, but they are not real. It is important to note that AI can confidently generate responses without backing data much like a person under the influence of hallucinations can speak confidently without proper reasoning. If you try to find these sources through Google or the library—you will turn up NOTHING.
Why does it do this? ChatGPT is built on a Large Language Model and has been trained on a huge dataset of internet sources. It can quickly and simply generate easy-to-understand responses to any question you throw at it. But the responses are only as good as the quality of input data it has been trained on. Its core strength lies in recognizing language patterns—not in reading and analyzing lengthy scholarly texts. Given that, it may not be the most reliable source for in-depth research. The following is a shortlist of what we’ve observed ChatGPT is good for and not good for.
What It’s Good For
Generating ideas for related concepts, terms, and words about a particular topic. I asked ChatGPT, what are some keywords for the topic of AI literacy? It replied with: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning, Neural Networks, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Robotics, Data Science, Big Data, Predictive Analytics, Ethics of AI, Bias in AI, Explainable AI, Human-AI Interaction, Cognitive Computing… These are all great leads for terms I might use to look for articles and books on this topic.
Suggestions for databases where I could find literature on the topic. I asked ChatGPT, What are some good library databases I could search to find more information about the topic of AI literacy? ChatGPT replied with: IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, ScienceDirect, JSTOR, Proquest, arXiv, and Web of Science. It also suggested checking with my library to see what’s available. A more direct route to this type of question would be consulting the Duke Libraries Research Guides and/or connecting with the Subject Specialist at Duke who is familiar with the resources we have available on any given topic.
Suggestions for improving writing. As ChatGPT has been trained on a large corpus of text, it has accumulated a range of dictions and writing variations within context. I have found it particularly useful for checking grammar and sentence structure in American English, as well as for suggesting alternative phrasing, synonyms, or quick translations of my writing into another language. Additionally, I have experimented with asking ChatGPT to rewrite my paragraph, but if it produced an unexpected response, it may indicate that my writing contains parts that do not make sense in that particular language. Nonetheless, it is important to thoroughly review the text and ensure that it meets your criteria before taking it.
What It’s NOT Good For
DO NOT ask ChatGPT for a list of sources on a particular topic! ChatGPT is based on a Large Language Model and does not have the ability to match relevant sources to any given topic. It may do OK with some topics or sources, but it may also fabricate sources that don’t exist.
Be wary of asking ChatGPT to summarize a particular source, or write your literature review. It may be tempting to ask ChatGPT to summarize the main points of the dense and technical 10-page article you have to read for class, or to write a literature review synthesizing a field of research. Depending on the topic and availability of data it has on that topic, it may summarize the wrong source or provide inaccurate summaries of specific articles—sometimes making up details and conclusions.
Do not expect ChatGPT to know current events or predict the future. ChatGPT’s “knowledge” is based on the dataset that was available before September 2021, and therefore, it may not be able to provide up-to-date information on current events or predict the future. For instance, when I asked about the latest book published by Haruki Murakami in the US, ChatGPT responded with First Person Singular, which was published in April 2021. However, the correct answer is Novelist as a Vocation, which was released in November 2022. Additionally, ChatGPT did not seem aware of any recent developments beyond September 2021. It’s worth noting that Murakami’s new novel is expected to be released in April 2023.
AI chat technology is rapidly evolving and it’s exciting to see where this will go. Much like Google and Wikipedia helped accelerate our access to information in their heyday, the existence of these new AI-based tools requires their users to think about how to carefully and ethically incorporate them into their own research and writing. If you have any doubts or questions, ask real human experts, such as the library’s Ask a Librarian chat, or schedule a one-on-one consultation with a librarian for help.
Resources
Alkaissi, H., & McFarlane, S. I. (2023). Artificial Hallucinations in ChatGPT: Implications in Scientific Writing. Cureus, 15(2), e35179. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.35179
The 5 Titles series highlights books, music, and films in the library’s collection, featuring topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and/or highlighting authors’ work from diverse backgrounds. Each post is intended to briefly sample titles rather than provide a comprehensive topic overview. Liz Milewicz, Ph.D., Head of Digital Scholarship & Publishing Services and co-Director of Scholar Works: A Center for Scholarly Publishing, has selected the five titles this month to celebrate International Women’s Day.
Please note: The content linked in this post is punk-typically offensive and may also challenge notions of conventional femininity.
So, you may be thinking that “Five Titles” is supposed to be a blog series about books. Think again! Just as you may be thinking, punk rock is just about angry young white dudes. Again, think! If punk is anti-authoritarian, anti-establishment, and anti-corporate, who better to speak truth to power than women? And, true to that punk ethos, this list of five songs includes women of color, queer women, and women who push back on punk. A global movement that forms itself around and against powers that attempt to contain it, punk can’t really be contained in this list of five or even fully expressed in a blog post. If you think an important voice is missing, suggest your punk rock girl in the comments! Completely lost at this point in the paragraph and have no idea what girl-powered punk is all about? Then listen on and let the lesson begin…
Bikini Kill, “Rebel Girl”
With so many bands, songs, and scenes from the Riot Grrrl movement of the 1990s, it’s hard to choose just one that captures the audacity and exuberance of third-wave feminism expressed through music. So why not start with Bikini Kill, whose lead singer Kathleen Hanna embodied the band’s confrontational style, at times wearing pigtails and panties on stage while singing songs of female empowerment. “Rebel Girl” celebrates confident women, an anthem to walking with your head up and a sense of your own power: “That girl thinks she’s the queen of the neighborhood… She IS!” Bikini Kill pushed for women to connect and express themselves by starting bands and creating zines, and it influenced culture and politics as well as the music scene.
These Russian punks are not a band but a queer-feminist art collective that uses punk as a political protest. Unlike the Western punk scene formed around musicians and shows, Pussy Riot emerged in 2011 in response to political corruption by Vladimir Putin and complicit support by the Russian Orthodox Church. Their “punk prayer” asked Mother Mary to become a feminist, join their protest, and “banish Putin!” The band was imprisoned for hooliganism, but that didn’t quiet the group, which continues to release videos and songs online and whose support has only grown through the Russian government’s attempts to silence them.
If we’re going to talk about punk-rock women in the US today, then we have to talk about Fea. Based in San Antonio, this Chicana feminist punk band pushes hard (and humorously) against perceptions that the feminist movement is irrelevant. “Feminazi” pays playful homage to that torch song of punk, “Anarchy in the UK” (Sex Pistols), while bringing it home to the modern-day USA. This song in particular highlights the political activism of punk rock women as well as their inclusivity, as they speak for women’s rights throughout the world: “Yo soy, yo soy feminista!” – “私はフェミニストです!” – “I am, I am a feminist!”
G.L.O.S.S. (or Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit), a trans-feminist hardcore punk band, challenged conceptions of punk and gender. Fast tempos and aggressive lyrics define hardcore, not its audience or its artists. Yet, the predominance of heterosexual male bands and violent mosh pits tended to marginalize women, trans-women, queers, people of color, and people with disabilities. G.L.O.S.S. gave voice to people living on the edges of mainstream society, creating a hardcore scene where they were centered and raising awareness of a number of social issues, including transphobia and women’s rights. They also generated controversy, highlighting the complexities of intersectional identity when their violent lyrics attacked mainstream gender and sexuality norms.
This Black feminist punk band pushes against stereotypical punk with melodic, easy-going songs and lyrics that shift the boundaries between male and female, black and white, familiar and other. Their music sets a new stage for punk, creating space for Black women to inhabit and centering punk rock’s utopian values: fierce insistence on a better world and determination to live fully in the present. True to the ethos of 3rd Wave feminism and the Riot Grrrl movement, Big Joanie embraces DIY and the power to reshape culture — including making the punk music scene more inclusive and diverse through organization of the Decolonise Fest.
“When You are Waiting to be Healed” by June Eric-Udorie
“Canfei to Canji: The Freedom of Being Loud” by Sandy Ho
“How a Blind Astronomer Found a Way to Hear the Stars” by Wanda Diaz-Merced
“The Beauty of Spaces Created for and by Disabled People” by s.e. smith
Attendees are also encouraged to read other essays in the book (they’re all bite-sized, we promise!) and bring a favorite to discuss with the group. As always, though, anyone is welcome regardless of how much (or whether) you’ve read.
Proquest One Literature brings together one of the most comprehensive collection of primary texts, ebooks, reference sources, full-text journals, dissertations, video and more, for access to historical and contemporary content by and about celebrated and lesser-known authors from around the world. The international literature focus is especially useful!
After you search, the results are helpfully divided in to categories such as criticism, primary texts, reference works, dissertations, book reviews, etc. You can also limit results by aspects like peer reviewed, publication date, subject, and language.
Another nice search feature of this resource is that you can find both literary criticism and primary texts for poetry, drama, and prose. If you specifically search the primary texts, you can search by author nationality, author ethnicity, literary movement or period, or gender.
I also really enjoyed the Poets on Screen collection that is part of this database, where you can watch clips of poems being read aloud, sometimes by the poet.
Your feedback matters! We use data from this survey to make service enhancements, expenditures, and other library improvements. See the list of examples below for changes we’ve made in response to previous user surveys.
Here in the Libraries, we’re always trying to up our game. That’s why every two (or three) years we invite Duke students 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 about 5 minutes to complete and will remain open between now and February 15, 2023.
As a special thank you for participating, all student respondents will be entered into a raffle for a $150 Amazon gift card.
When libraries and students work together, everybody wins. Take a look at some of the improvements we’ve made in the past as a direct result of our user surveys.
Changes We Made in Response to Past User Surveys
Artwork that reflects diverse backgrounds: You asked for improvements to the artwork in our spaces to better reflect the diversity of the Duke community. We formed a visual diversity committee and completed several projects to feature new artwork in our spaces.
Inclusive spaces statement and signage: You asked for visible confirmation that Duke Libraries are open to everyone. We worked with students to develop an Inclusive Spaces Statement, used welcoming “Libraries are for everyone” artwork for buttons and wall art in Lower Level 2, and also posted wall-mounted “Welcome to the Library” signage near library building entrances.
Increased textbook lending: You asked for more textbooks to be available from the library. We purchased textbooks for the 100 highest enrollment classes at Duke and made them available for three-hour checkout at the library.
Easier access to online articles and research materials: You asked for help getting access to library resources while off campus. We collected helpful tools and instructions into a single, clear page.
All-gender restrooms: You asked for more publicity around the all-gender restrooms in the libraries. We created new signage in Perkins and Bostock libraries to direct people to the all-gender restrooms.
Hot/cold water dispensers: You asked for access to hot filtered water 24/7. We added two hot/cold water dispensers to Bostock (floor 3) and Perkins (floor 4).
Better incident reporting: You asked for easier ways to report problematic incidents in the library. We created a new library incident reporting form that can be submitted anonymously.
Library space design: You asked for our study spaces to work better for a range of needs. We formed a team to review how library spaces can be designed to support student needs, and we also worked directly with patrons with disabilities to learn more about their experiences with library spaces.
Help finding books: You asked for help navigating the book stacks on floors with dense shelving. We added signage near stairwells and entrances to point people in the right direction for different book ranges.
Lower Level 2 improvements: You asked for a better vibe in Perkins Lower Level 2. We replaced the carpet, changed the paint color, and added brighter lighting.
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 2023 survey—and thank you for your help in making the Duke University Libraries a better place.
The 5 Titles series highlights books, music, and films in the library’s collection, featuring topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and/or highlighting authors’ work from diverse backgrounds. Each post is intended to briefly sample titles rather than provide a comprehensive topic overview. This month, Librarian for Visual Studies and Dance, Lee Sorensen, has selected five titles focusing on Five Black Artists that we should know. Check out Lilly Library’s Current Exhibition Catalog section to discover additional established Black artists and emerging BIPOC artists.
Beauford Delaney: A Retrospective (1978). Delaney is the finest example of an early, crucial Black artist noticed by great writers of his time. James Baldwin and Henry Miller discuss his work, and Delaney was a friend of Georgia O’Keefe. This edition is a catalog from the Studio Museum in Harlem, one of the earliest venues where Black artists could be shown. Delaney painted in Harlem in the 1930s and 1940s but moved to Greenwich Village, partially to hide from his ethnic community that he was gay. Poor and introverted his whole life, he died a year after this show.
Howardena Pindell: Rope/Fire/Water. Howarden Pindell is one of the principal Black abstract expressionist painters. This book is a catalog of a German exhibition of her work, located in the Current Exhibition Catalogs section of the Lilly. Pindell’s multimedia exhibition includes a film mentioned in the catalog; she says, “I wanted the title to be a clear and obvious reference to what takes place in the film. Rope represents being hung during a lynching. Fire represents lynching where a flammable substance is applied to the body, such as coal, tar, oil, and the victim is burned alive. … Water represents the Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas of kidnapped and enslaved African men, women and children. Indigenous people were also kidnapped and sent to Europe to be sold.” The ‘Rope/Fire/Water’ catalog is in English.
Rashid Johnson: Message to our Folks (2012). Rashid Johnson is a multi-media artist best known for his paintings and conceptual drawings. His technique is powerful brush strokes (“slashes”) on larger canvases giving a feeling of immediacy to his work. However, in 2008, Johnson produced a series of clean-line metal sculptures of giant gun sights. Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos (2008) is at the Whitney (and an even larger one at The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond). Gun sights have been a constant theme of Johnson’s work, but this larger-than-life sculpture makes it possible to see anything through the crosshairs of a gun. “Johnson explores the complexities and contradictions of black identity in the United States, incorporating commonplace objects from his childhood in a process he describes as “hijacking the domestic” and transforming materials such as wood, mirrors, tiles, rugs, CB radios, shea butter and plants into conceptually loaded and visually compelling works that shatter assumptions about the homogeneity of black subjecthood.”
McArthur Binion: Re:Mine (2015). Binion lived at the edge of art fame for most of his 74 years before becoming iconic–his name appears in nearly every survey of art by Artists of Color–he worked steadily. Taking his inspiration from machines, i.e., geometric forms, Binion returns them to the humanness of hand painting. Stand back from the paintings; they seem to be color field work, move in closer, and see micro and macro simultaneously. “Influenced equally by music, storytelling, and individual history, McArthur Binion has described his approach to painting from the position of a “rural Modernist” and one through which he “bridges the lyricism of colour with a Black rural sensibility.” Binion’s paintings, predominantly composed of oil paint stick and paper on board, form the nexus of place and history, from Binion’s childhood in the South to his time in New York in the early 1970s and his current home of Chicago.”
Beverly McIver: Full Circle (2021). Duke faculty member Beverly McIver’s work is some of the most powerful paintings of any era. Her themes include the Black clown (based on learning that the circus didn’t hire Black people as clowns) and the painter’s layers of Black identity. Commissioned to paint the portrait of retiring NC Museum of Art Director Larry Wheeler, she painted him in blackface and red high heels. “From early self-portraits in clown makeup to more recent works featuring her father, dolls, Beverly’s experiences during COVID-19, and portraits of others, Full Circle illuminates the arc of Beverly McIver’s artistic career while also touching on her personal journey. McIver’s self-portraits explore expressions of individuality, stereotypes, and ways of masking identity; portraits of family provide glimpses into intimate moments, in good times as well as in illness and death.”
Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature, and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here is a selection of books you will find in these collections!
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin. On a bitter-cold day in December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees Sadie Green amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform. He calls her name. She pretends she hasn’t heard him for a moment, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts. Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Read or listen to NPR’s delightful review of this novel here!
The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, by Shehan Karunatilaka. Maali Almeida―war photographer, gambler, and closet queen―has woken up dead in what seems like a celestial visa office. His dismembered body is sinking in the serene Beira Lake, and he has no idea who killed him. In a country where scores are settled by death squads, suicide bombers, and hired goons, the list of suspects is depressingly long, as the ghouls and ghosts with grudges who cluster around can attest. But even in the afterlife, time is running out for Maali. He has seven moons to contact the man and woman he loves most and lead them to the photos that will rock Sri Lanka. Ten years after his prize-winning novel Chinaman established him as one of Sri Lanka’s foremost authors, Shehan Karunatilaka is back with a “thrilling satire” (Economist). Read what The Guardian wrote about this novel: “The scenarios are often absurd – dead bodies bicker with each other – but executed with a humour and pathos that ground the reader. Beneath the literary flourishes is a true and terrifying reality: the carnage of Sri Lanka’s civil wars. Karunatilaka has done artistic justice to a terrible period in his country’s history.”
Acne: A Memoir by Laura Chinn. From the creator and star of Florida Girls comes a hilarious and profound memoir about family, happiness, and really aggressive acne. Despite having dirty-blonde hair and fair skin, Laura Chinn is mixed-race: the daughter of a Black father and a white mother, which on its own makes for some funny and insightful looks at identity. Laura’s parents were both Scientologists and nonconformists in myriad ways. They divorced early in Laura’s childhood, and she spent her teen years ping-ponging back and forth between Clearwater, Florida, and Los Angeles (with an extended stint in Tijuana for good measure). This is not a sad story. There is Jell-O wrestling. There is an abnormal amount of dancing. There is information about whether you can drink gallons of sangria while taking unregulated Accutane acquired in Mexico. But mostly there is love, and ultimately there is redemption. Laura explores her trauma through anecdotes riddled with grit and humor, proving that in the face of unspeakable tragedy, it is possible to find success, love, and self-acceptance, zits and all. Read a review from Oprah Daily to learn more.
The Dream Builders, by Oindrila Mukherjee. After living in the US for years, Maneka Roy returns home to India to mourn the loss of her mother and finds herself in a new world. The booming city of Hrishipur, where her father now lives, is nothing like the part of the country where she grew up, and the more she sees of this new, sparkling city, the more she learns that nothing—and no one—here is as it appears. Ultimately, it will take an unexpected tragic event for Maneka and those around her to finally understand how fragile life is in this city built on aspirations. Written from the perspectives of ten different characters, Oindrila Mukherjee’s incisive debut novel explores class divisions, gender roles, and stories of survival within a constantly changing society and becoming increasingly Americanized. It’s a story about India today and people impacted by globalization everywhere: a tale of ambition, longing, and bitter loss that asks what it really costs to try and build a dream.
The Family Izquierdo by Ruben Degollado. The tight-knit Izquierdo family is grappling with misfortunes none of them can explain. Their beloved patriarch has suffered from an emotional collapse and is dying; eldest son Gonzalo’s marriage is falling apart; daughter Dina, beleaguered by the fear that her nightmares are real, is a shut-in. When Gonzalo digs up a strange object in the backyard of the family home, the Izquierdos take it as proof that a jealous neighbor has cursed them-could this be the reason for all their troubles? As the Izquierdos face a distressing present and an uncertain future, they are sustained by the blood that binds them, a divine presence, and an abiding love for one another. Told in a series of soulful voices brimming with warmth and humor, The Family Izquierdo is a tender narrative of a family at a turning point. Read more about this book in The New York Times Book Review here!
The Duke University Libraries are proud to present the 2023 Andrew T. Nadell Prize for Book Collecting. The contest is open to all students enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate/professional degree program at Duke, and the winners will receive cash prizes.
Winners of the contest will receive any in-print Grolier Club book of their choice, as well as a three-year membership in the Bibliographical Society of America.
You don’t have to be a “book collector” to enter the contest. Past collections have varied in interest areas and included a number of different types of materials. Collections are judged on adherence to a clearly defined unifying theme, not rarity or monetary value.
Visit our websitefor more information and read winning entries from past years. Contact Kurt Cumiskey at kurt.cumiskey@duke.edu with any questions.
Sara Seten Berghausen (left) with Exhibits Librarian Meg Brown, October 2015. Photo by Lisa Unger Baskin. Thanks to Andy Armacost, Meg Brown, Rachel Ingold, Laura Micham, Naomi Nelson, and Roshan Panjwani for their contributions to this remembrance.
On Monday, December 5, 2022, the Duke University Libraries lost a longtime colleague and treasured friend. Sara Seten Berghausen, Associate Curator of Collections in the Rubenstein Library, passed away at the age of 53 after a heroic fight with cancer. She will be deeply and greatly missed by many in Durham, at Duke, and especially here in the Libraries.
Sara had a long career at Duke—so long that her email address was simply sara@duke.edu. She worked here for just over two decades, during which time her curiosity and expertise led her to hold positions across this organization.
She could boast degrees from both ends of Tobacco Road, including two from Duke. She came here as an undergrad on scholarship for flute performance, only to discover a passion for Russian literature and culture that led her to earn a bachelor’s in Comparative Area Studies and Russian (1991) and stay on for a master’s in Russian Literature (1993). Sara made many lifelong friendships while a student here, most importantly her future husband Alexander (Sasha) Berghausen, whom she met when they both played as undergraduates in the Duke Symphony Orchestra. They married in 1993. She added a second master’s from UNC’s School of Information and Library Science in 1996.
Sara as a Duke undergraduate (right), with future husband Sasha (center) and future sister-in-law Beth, celebrating a Duke men’s basketball team victory, 1991.
While a grad student at UNC, Sara returned to Duke as a library intern, first in our International and Area Studies Department and later in what was then called the Reference Department in Perkins Library. Several years followed working for the library systems at the University of Chicago and University of Texas at Austin, before she returned to Duke in 2001 as Librarian for Literature and Theater Studies, a post she held until 2014. Ever generous and open to new challenges, Sara also covered the occasional critical vacancy, spending a year as Interim Film and Video Librarian in Lilly Library and another as Interim Slavic and Eurasian Studies Librarian. In 2012, she was promoted to Head of the Humanities Section. Since 2014, she has served as Associate Curator in the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. It was a job she loved, as anyone who spent five minutes in a classroom with her could tell.
Her portfolio as curator included the Economists’ Papers Archive, where she worked with a number of Nobel Prize winners, and wide-ranging literary collections. The latter spanned a multitude of fascinating and notable collecting areas, covering a broad swath of British and American literary history, comic books, science fiction, utopian literature, and Southern writers, including a number with strong Duke connections, such as William Styron, Fred Chappell, Reynolds Price, Michael Malone, Anne Tyler, and Allan Gurganus. She also supported archives related to Duke, Durham, and theater studies, including the Synergetic Theater and Manbites Dog Theater. Sara loved working with scholars, writers, authors, and theoreticians to preserve their papers and develop curricula and public programming around them. Collection donors and researchers deeply respected her expertise and were drawn to her warm and lively personality.
With novelist Colson Whitehead when he visited the Rubenstein Library while on campus to deliver a guest lecture, February 2018.
As Sara’s supervisor and friend, Andy Armacost, put it: “Sara had strong relationships across campus and in the Duke community. In her time in the Duke University Libraries she helped our library, our campus, and our town feel a little more connected. She helped librarians, students, faculty, and the community to better know each other.” The person who knew your children’s names and where they went to school, asked about your ailing parents, or brought you food when you were home sick—that was Sara.
Sara was also an active campus citizen. Among the many Duke extracurriculars she participated in, one of her favorites was the Common Experience Reading Committee, where she spent nearly fifteen years reading and debating which book the next class of Blue Devils should read. She had a gift for bringing people together over books and ideas, and she shared that gift freely, enthusiastically, and daily. She was a committed undergraduate academic advisor and provided advice and guidance to hundreds of students over her career. Sara also provided support to fellow working parents by helping to establish the parents@duke listserv in the early 2000s as a way to connect and find parenting resources within the Duke community. It’s no exaggeration to say that Sara bled Duke blue, and her insider perspective as a Duke alum made her an especially good librarian, advisor, and co-worker.
Sara was committed to social justice, and to Durham, and she led by example both at work and in the Triangle community. The list of nonprofit organizations for which she volunteered or served as a board member could fill a whole page, including Schoolhouse of Wonder, Preservation Durham, Urban Ministries, and St. Phillips Episcopal Church, among many others. She greatly admired the work of the Equal Justice Initiative, and one of the highlights of her career was meeting founder Bryan Stevenson after his book Just Mercy was chosen as the summer reading pick for the Class of 2020, thanks to Sara’s advocacy on the selection committee.
Assisting a patron at the Perkins Library Reference Desk, February 2011.
After she died, those of us in the Libraries began to share some of our fondest memories of Sara with each other. But because she touched so many lives, we wanted a space for the entire Duke community to be able to share stories and reminiscences about her, virtually. If you’re reading this and would like to contribute your own memory of Sara, please drop it in the comments section below. We’ll be sure to include it.
Sara leaves behind many friends in Durham, at Duke, around the country, and internationally. We wish to express our deepest sympathies in particular to Sara’s family, especially her husband Sasha; children Alexander, Ellen, and Jane; parents Charles and Nancy Seten; and her brother Charles Seten. Her library family grieves with you.
The night before Sara passed away, her close friend and colleague in the Rubenstein Library, Meg Brown, sat with her and read her a poem by Wendell Berry, which we would like to close with—in grief and in cherished memory of our good friend, Sara.
The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives might be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Memorial Service
All are welcome to join in celebrating the life of Sara Seten Berghausen at a memorial service on Saturday, January 7, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. in Duke Chapel. The service will be followed by a public reception hosted by the Duke University Libraries in the Gothic Reading Room on the second floor of Rubenstein Library.
Gifts of Remembrance
The family has asked that gifts in Sara’s honor be directed to the Equal Justice Initiative. Donations can be made through their website. Be sure to check the box that says, “Dedicate my donation in honor or in memory of someone,” to indicate your gift is in memory of Sara Seten Berghausen.
Sara printing in the Durham studio of Brian Allen, December 2017.
Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here is a selection of books you will find in these collections!
Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender by Kit Heyam. Today’s narratives about trans people tend to feature individuals with stable gender identities that fit neatly into the categories of male or female. Those stories, while important, fail to account for the complex realities of many trans people’s lives. Before We Were Trans illuminates the stories of people across the globe, from antiquity to the present, whose experiences of gender have defied binary categories. Blending historical analysis with sharp cultural criticism, trans historian and activist Heyam offers a new, radically inclusive trans history, chronicling expressions of trans experience that are often overlooked, like gender-nonconforming fashion and wartime stage performance. Before We Were Trans transports us from Renaissance Venice to seventeenth-century Angola, from Edo Japan to early America, and looks to the past to uncover new horizons for possible trans futures. Read this The New York Times review to learn more.
Becoming Eve: my journey from ultra-Orthodox rabbi to transgender woman by Abby Stein. The powerful coming-of-age story of an ultra-Orthodox child who was born to become a rabbinic leader and instead became a woman. Abby was raised in a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, isolated in a culture that lives according to the laws and practices of eighteenth-century Eastern Europe, speaking only Yiddish and Hebrew and shunning modern life. Stein was born as the first son in a dynastic rabbinical family, poised to become a leader of the next generation of Hasidic Jews. But Abby felt certain at a young age that she was a girl. She suppressed her desire for a new body while looking for answers wherever she could find them, from forbidden religious texts to smuggled secular examinations of faith. Finally, she orchestrated a personal exodus from ultra-Orthodox manhood to mainstream femininity-a radical choice that forced her to leave her home, her family, and her way of life. Powerful in the truths it reveals about biology, culture, faith, and identity, Becoming Eve poses the enduring question: How far will you go to become the person you were meant to be? Learn more in this review by The Humanist.
Fairest: A Memoir by Meredith Talusan. Fairest is a memoir about a precocious boy with albinism, a “sun child” from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America. Coping with the strain of parental neglect and the elusive promise of U.S. citizenship, Talusan found childhood comfort from her devoted grandmother, a grounding force as others treated her with special preference or public curiosity. As an immigrant to the United States, Talusan came to be perceived as white. An academic scholarship to Harvard provided access to elite circles of privilege but required Talusan to navigate the complex spheres of race, class, sexuality, and her place within the gay community. She emerged as an artist and an activist questioning the boundaries of gender. Talusan realized she did not want to be confined to a prescribed role as a man and transitioned to become a woman, despite the risk of losing a man she deeply loved. Throughout her journey, Talusan shares poignant and powerful episodes of desirability and love that will remind readers of works such as Call Me By Your Name and Giovanni’s Room. Learn more about Talusan’s memoir in a review from The New York Times.
Sorted Growing up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place: A Transgender Memoirby Jackson Bird. When Jackson was twenty-five, he came out as transgender to his friends, family, and anyone with an internet connection. Assigned female at birth and raised as a girl, he often wondered if he should have been born a boy. Growing up in Texas in the 1990s, he had no transgender role models. In this “soulful and heartfelt coming-of-age story” (Jamia Wilson, director, and publisher of the Feminist Press), Jackson chronicles the ups and downs of growing up gender-confused. With warmth and wit, Jackson recounts how he navigated the many obstacles and quirks of his transition–like figuring out how to have a chest binder delivered to his NYU dorm room and having an emotional breakdown at a Harry Potter fan convention. From his first shot of testosterone to his eventual top surgery, Jackson lets you in on every part of his journey, explaining trans terminology and little-known facts about gender and identity along the way. Sorted demonstrates the power and beauty in being yourself, even when you’re not sure who “yourself” is. Learn more in this LGBTQ Reads guest post by Bird.
The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara. A gritty and gorgeous debut that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s and ’90s, inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza made famous by the seminal documentary Paris Is Burning. It’s 1980 in New York City, and nowhere is the city’s glamour and energy better reflected than in the burgeoning Harlem ball scene, where seventeen-year-old Angel first comes into her own. Burned by her traumatic past, Angel is new to the drag world, new to ball culture, and has a yearning to help create a family for those without. When she falls in love with Hector, a beautiful young man who dreams of becoming a professional dancer, the two decide to form the House of Xtravaganza, the first-ever all-Latino house in the Harlem ball circuit. But when Hector dies of AIDS-related complications, Angel must bear the responsibility of tending to their house alone. Told in a voice that brims with wit, rage, tenderness and fierce yearning, The House of Impossible Beauties is a tragic story of love, family, and the dynamism of the human spirit. Learn more here.
Look at all those joyous little faces. That’s the power of books! (Image courtesy of Book Harvest.)
In memory of Martin Luther King, Jr., and in support of our local community, the Duke University Libraries are running a children’s book drive now through January 10, 2023.
The books we collect will be donated to Book Harvest, a North Carolina nonprofit that believes in the power of books to change children’s lives and works to ensure that all children can grow up in homes full of books. Since it was launched in 2011, Book Harvest has donated almost 2 million books to children throughout North Carolina.
We need new and gently used books for children of all ages, especially board books and picture books for the youngest readers, as well as Spanish and bilingual books, and books with diverse characters and story lines. Please, no encyclopedias, dictionaries, or books in poor condition.
Where to Donate Books
Look for the book collection bins in the following locations, and please help us fill them!
Perkins Library, in the lobby across from the von der Heyden Pavilion
Perkins Library, Shipping and Receiving (Lower Level 1, near the Link)
Lilly Library, main lobby
Music Library, main lobby
Smith Warehouse, Bay 10, Shipping and Receiving
Ford Library, Fuqua School of Business
Goodson Law Library, Law School
Medical Center Library
Don’t have books but want to donate?
We’ve got you covered with the help of the Regulator Bookshop in Durham! Here’s how it works:
Upon checking out, use the code libraries to ensure your books count toward our book drive. (NOTE: This is not a discount code. You will not see a change in price.)
Select “In store pickup” as the shipping choice, and the Regulator will make sure the books get to Book Harvest.
You are also invited to volunteer for the MLK “Dream Big” community drive and to attend the 2023 celebration! Duke University Libraries is a proud sponsor of this annual event.
You’re nearly there! Here are some resources to power you through the end of the semester and beyond.
End-of-Semester Library Events
Miniature Therapy Horses at Lilly Library – Sunday, December 11th from 11 AM to 1 PM. Take a break from studying and drop by Lilly Library to de-stress with the miniature therapy horses from Stampede of Love and relax with some snacks and hot cider!
Let’s Create: Zine Making Party – Monday, Dec. 12th, 2:30 to 4 pm, and Thursday, Dec. 15th, 11 am to 12:30 pm in The Oasis, Room 418, Perkins Library – Studies show creating art reduces stress and enhances well-being. So come make a zine with us during finals week to reflect on your semester. Zine making materials and snacks will be provided.
Crafternoon – Tuesday, December 13th from 3 to 5 PM. Stop by Perkins Library to relax and clear your mind with various crafting activities: coloring, origami, make-your-own bookmarks and zines, and more!
Lilly Relaxation Station – Sunday, December 11th to Monday, December 19th. Take a break and refresh during Reading and Exam Period! Open 24/7: Puzzles, games, Play-Doh, origami, coloring… just chill for a bit in Lilly’s 1st floor classroom!
The library is always here for you! Maybe you already know that you can access many of our online resources from home or that you can check out books to take home with you. We also have movies and music that you can stream and some e-books that you can download to your devices. Here are some of the resources we have to do this!
Streaming Video includes:
Kanopy: Watch thousands of award-winning documentaries and feature films including titles from the Criterion Collection.
Go to duke.overdrive.com to access downloadable eBooks and audiobooks that can be enjoyed on all major computers and devices, including iPhones®, iPads®, Nooks®, Android™ phones and tablets, and Kindles®.
Streaming Music includes:
Contemporary World Music: Listen to music from around the world, including reggae, Bollywood, fado, American folk music, and more.
Jazz Music Library: Access a wide range of recordings from jazz classics to contemporary jazz.
Medici.tv: Browse an online collection of classical music, operas and ballets.
Metropolitan Opera on Demand: For opera fans, a large selection of opera videos from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.
Naxos Music Library: Huge selection of classical music recordings—over 1,925,000 tracks!
Celebrate the end of Fall Semester 2022
with the Stampede of Love!
Kiwi of the Stampede of Love – photo courtesy of Stampede of Love stampedeoflove.org
Have you heard about the “mane” event
at Lilly Library?
Where did Fall Semester go? December is here, and with it, exams await all Duke students. Because the First-Year students live on East Campus, the staff at Lilly Library does its best to offer support and relieve the stress of the fall semester for our “neighbors” experiencing their first finals at Duke. Extending our hours to a 24/7 schedule during exams, offering a study break with refreshments, and providing a room dedicated as a relaxation station are longstanding Lilly traditions.
Our favorite tradition is hosting the Stampede of Love, miniature therapy horses who bring smiles to stressed students (and librarians!). If you decide to trot over to East Campus neigh-borhood, saddle up for Lilly’s end of semester events:
Saturday, December 10th: 225 continuous hours!?!
Beginning at 10am, Lilly expands its schedule to 24/7 through the examination period, ending at 7pm on Monday, December 19th. Info for all Duke Library Hours
Studies show creating art reduces stress and enhances well-being. So come make a zine with us during finals week to celebrate and reflect on your semester. Zines are mini-magazines that can be anything you can imagine. For this project, we will create a personal storybook to remind us of the challenges and accomplishments we’ve nailed this semester. We will repurpose book jackets by cutting them up and adding collages to our zine pages; no two zines will be alike! All you need to do is drop in between exams and studying. Zine-making materials and snacks will be provided.
Where: The Oasis, Room 418, Perkins Library
When: Monday, Dec. 12th, 2:30 to 4 pm, and Thursday, Dec. 15th, 11 am to 12:30 pm
The 5 Titles series highlights books, music, and films in the library’s collection, featuring topics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion and/or highlighting authors’ work from diverse backgrounds. Each post is intended to briefly sample titles rather than provide a comprehensive topic overview. This month, the five titles have been selected by Librarian for Philosophy and Religious Studies, Cheryl Thomas. The “Love Medicine” stories of writer Louise Erdrich are an example of the ways in which fiction can be a catalyst for sharing the stories of marginalized communities and informing readers through the lyricism of prose about unfamiliar worlds and cultures. Erdrich’s stories introduce us to the lived experience of Native American Indians, drawing ley lines between the past and present, telling stories of loss, fragmentation, community, and a searing quest for identity in the face of deliberate erasure. Edrich is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians. She opened Birchbark Books in her hometown of Minneapolis in 2001 to birth a space where Native American Voices could be discovered. Her bookstore features a robust collection of current and emerging Native Voices. Begin your introduction to Erdrich’s writings with the “Love Medicine Series.”
Set on a North Dakota Ojibwe reservation, Love Medicine is an epic story about the intertwined fates of two families: the Kashpaws and the Lamartines. With astonishing virtuosity, each chapter of this stunning novel draws on various voices to lighten its tales. Black humor mingles with magic, injustice bleeds into betrayal, and through it all, bonds of love and family marry the elements into a tightly woven whole that pulses with the drama of life. Erdrich has written a multigenerational portrait of strong men and women caught in an unforgettable whirlwind of anger, desire, and the healing power of love medicine.
The Beet Queen covers the years from 1932 to 1972 and takes place primarily in the fictional town of Argus, North Dakota. One of the story threads centers on Russell, a war hero, highlighting the presence of Native Americans in the US Military, their sacrifice, and the grudging acceptance they found there. In November 2020, the National Native American Veterans Memorial opened in Washington, D.C., dedicated to the Native heroes and their distinguished service to the US military.
Tracks is a tale of passion and deep unrest. Over the course of ten crucial years, as tribal land and trust between people erode ceaselessly, men and women are pushed to the brink of their endurance—yet their pride and humor prohibit surrender. Tracks expose the tension – a thread throughout Erdrich’s novels – of traditional Indigenous culture and beliefs and Catholicism’s role in forcing assimilation and how the “old ways,” for some Native Indians, were abandoned to survive in a white Christian colonial society. Tracks characters also tell the stories of two significant epidemics that decimated the Ojibwe tribe; smallpox and tuberculosis.
The Bingo Palace was written shortly after the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988. At its essence, this story is about postcolonial capitalism, the gains and losses for the Indigenous community, and the complexities of casinos on reservation land. It is also a tale of spiritual death and reawakening; of money, desperate love, wild hope; and the enduring power of cherished dreams.
The final novel in the “Love Medicine Series” The Last Report on the Miracles of Little No Horse, centers on Father Damien Modeste, who has served his beloved Native American tribe, the Ojibwe, on the remote reservation of Little No Horse, for over fifty years. Now, nearing the end of his life, Father Damien dreads the discovery of his physical identity, for he is a woman who has lived as a man. Deftly Erdrich weaves a story through the lens of a gender-fluid priest who questions the very roots of his belief system; sent to the reservation to convert, he finds within Indigenous spirituality acceptance unavailable within Catholicism while also being honored by that very system for his “good” work with the Ojibwe people.
Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here is a selection of books you will find in these collections!
Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng. Twelve-year-old Bird Gardner lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father, a former linguist who now shelves books in a university library. For a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve “American culture” in the wake of years of economic instability and violence. To keep the peace and restore prosperity, the authorities are now allowed to relocate children of dissidents, especially those of Asian origin, and libraries have been forced to remove books seen as unpatriotic—including the work of Bird’s mother, Margaret, a Chinese American poet who left the family when he was nine years old. Our Missing Hearts is an old story about how supposedly civilized communities can ignore the most searing injustice. It’s a story about the power—and limitations—of art to create change, the lessons and legacies we pass on to our children, and how any of us can survive a broken world with our hearts intact. Learn more here, The New York Times Book Review.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is a story of a boy born to a teenage single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damage to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion and, above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Read more in The Washington Post’s book review.
Acceptance by Emi Nietfeld. As a homeless teenager writing college essays in her rusty Toyota Corolla, Emi Nietfeld was convinced that the Ivy League was the only escape from her dysfunctional childhood. But upward mobility required crafting the perfect resilience narrative. She had to prove that she was an “overcomer,” made stronger by all she had endured. The truth was more complicated. Emi’s mom was a charming hoarder who had her put on antipsychotics but believed in her daughter’s brilliance—unlike the Minnesotan foster family who banned her “pornographic” art history flashcards (of Michelangelo’s David). Emi’s other parent vanished shortly after coming out as trans, a situation few understood in the mid-2000s. Both a chronicle of the American Dream and an indictment of it, this searing debut exposes the price of trading a troubled past for the promise of a bright future. Told with a ribbon of dark humor, Acceptance challenges our ideas of what it means to overcome. Read this NPR review to learn more.
Carry: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen. Jensen is a Métis woman, and she is no stranger to the violence enacted on Indigenous women’s bodies on Indigenous land. In Carry, Jensen maps her personal experience onto the historical, exploring how history is lived in the body and redefining the language used to speak about violence in America. In the title chapter, Jensen connects the trauma of school shootings with her experiences of racism and sexual assault on college campuses. “The Worry Line” explores the gun and gang violence in her neighborhood the year her daughter was born. “At the Workshop” focuses on her graduate school years, during which a workshop classmate repeatedly killed off thinly veiled versions of her in his stories. In prose at once forensic and deeply emotional, Toni Jensen shows herself to be a brave new voice and a fearless witness to her own difficult history–as well as to the violent cultural landscape in which she finds her coordinates. Read more about Jensen’s debut book here and an interview with Clemson University here.
Dog Flowers: A Memoir by Danielle Geller. A daughter returns home to the Navajo reservation to retrace her mother’s life in a memoir that is both a narrative and an archive of one family’s troubled history. When Geller’s mother dies of alcohol withdrawal while attempting to get sober, Geller returns to Florida and finds her mother’s life packed into eight suitcases. Most were filled with clothes, except for the last one, which contained diaries, photos, letters, a few undeveloped disposable cameras, dried sage, jewelry, and the bandana her mother wore on days she skipped a hair wash. Geller, an archivist and a writer uses these pieces of her mother’s life to try and understand her mother’s relationship to home and their shared need to leave it. Geller embarks on a journey that will end at her mother’s home: the Navajo reservation. Dog Flowers is an arresting, photo-lingual memoir that masterfully weaves together images and text to examine mothers and mothering, sisters and caretaking, and colonized bodies. Read more about this story in the Southern Review of Books.
It’s Alive: Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Movie Posters
A hallowed tradition at Lilly is shining our collection spotlight on seasonal films and readings to reveal treasures hidden in our collections. For Halloween in 2022, a thirst for 1970s and 80s type horror film is all the rage. Dare to visit the Lilly Library Lobby to discover films and books that will haunt you!
What is it about Horror – Films
When gathering the frightful films featured, we asked Stephen C., the Duke Libraries’ Team Lead for Western Languages in Monographic Acquisitions for suggestions. Because of Stephen’s knowledge and interest in film, we invited him to curate (and order) new titles to give our horror collection a jolt! Enjoy Stephen’s latest batch of horror-ful Halloween picks just waiting for you below:
Death Screams – Lilly DVD 34682 (filmed in North Carolina)
DeathScreams A slow-burn slasher filmed in and around Shelby, NC in 1982. It’s the last night of the local carnival and a maniac with a machete is picking off the local teens. A low-budget marvel full of regional charm (Red Bridges Barbecue Lodge anyone?) with some of the best extended small-Southern-town fair/carnival footage ever.
Mutations Like an update on Tod Browning’s Freaks crossed with an unfunny Little Shop of Horrors, this British production from 1974 features Donald Pleasence as a mad scientist turning his victims into plant-infused monsters. Featuring a cast of sideshow performers; including Kenly, NC native Esther Blackmon, the alligator-skin woman (who also appeared inThe Sentinel)
Mystics in Bali
Indonesian supernatural horror from 1981 that is guaranteed to be one of the weirdest things you’ll ever see! The plot concerns an American woman named Cathy who ventures to Bali to learn about black magic but is soon a floating vampiric head with trailing organs/entrails under the control of a witch called the Queen of the Leák. And it only gets more odd from there!
Alison’s Birthday – VC 12657
Alison’s Birthday Any movie that begins with teens using a Ouija board is nearly guaranteed to portend evil befalling the cast and this 1981 horror from Down Under is no exception. Alison’s 19th birthday is upcoming and a wicked ritual is in the works for her that will transfer her soul to a crone. Acquired on the original VHS for extra experience enhancement.
Pieces A sick 1983 Spanish piece of chainsawsploitation from director Juan Piquer Simón. Filmed in Madrid but supposed to be set on a Boston college campus, this sordid tale tells of a madman sawing up co-eds for his own ghastly ends. If you can somehow survive the duration you’ll be “rewarded” with a shocker of an ending!
Bloodthirsty TrilogyA fangsome trio of early/mid 70s vampire films from Japan’s Toho Studios: ‘Lake of Dracula’, ‘Vampire Doll’ and ‘Evil of Dracula’. Creepy mansions, golden eyes, hellish prophecies, empty coffins, dark secrets, thunderous nights and terrifying nightmares reign in these atmospheric and stylish cinematic takes on the vampire.
Is it alive? Perhaps! Your appetite for the horror film genre may be alive, so also check out our collection spotlight books to satisfy. Explore horror films around the world, and learn about their creators and audiences. Classic movie posters, graphic novels, analysis of the use of music, and film criticism compel you, yes, compel you to read them.
Giallo! : genre, modernity, and detection in Italian horror cinemas
Giallo! : genre, modernity, and detection in Italian horror cinemas
Taking their name from the Italian for yellow– reflecting the covers of pulp crime novels–these genre movies were principally produced between 1960 and the late 1970s.
These cinematic hybrids of crime, horror, and detection are characterized by elaborate set-piece murders, lurid aesthetics, and experimental soundtracks.
Jordan Peele’s Get out : political horror
Jordan Peele’s Get out : political horror
This collection of sixteen essays is devoted to exploring Get Out’s roots in the horror tradition and its complex and timely commentary on twenty-first-century US race relations.
Scored to death 2 : more conversations with some of horror’s greatest composers
Scored to Death 2 collects 16 brand-new, info-packed, terrifyingly entertaining interviews with renowned composers who have provided the music for some of horrors most revered films, film franchises, and TV shows, including Get Out, Us, Martin, Re-Animator, The Walking Dead, Puppet Master, Saw, Creepshow, Day of the Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Dark Shadows, Burnt Offerings, The Terminator, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Ring, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Audition, Ghoulies, Happy Death Day, It Follows, Gretel & Hansel, and many more!
Queer horror film and television : sexuality and masculinity at the margins
Moving from the margins to the mainstream, via the application of psychoanalytic theory, critical and cultural interpretation, interviews with key directors and close readings of classic, cult and modern horror, this book will be invaluable to students and researchers of gender and sexuality in horror film and television
Have you wondered if there are mobile apps that could assist you in conducting research from a smartphone or tablet? We did, and here are the ones we’ve tried and verified. These apps are accessible to you as a student, researcher, or faculty member affiliated with Duke. Each application was easy to download, authenticate, sign in, and begin using! Follow the hyperlinks for step-by-step instructions on uploading and using.
The Ebsco Mobile App is designed for library users to access library resources for scholarly research on the move. What can you do? Download and read EBSCO eBooks™., listen to your PDF articles via audio play, save articles for later reference, pull up your previously viewed or searched results, stay organized with access to the items you’ve saved across devices, and share articles or links with your peers easily. Imagine you’re on the C-1 bus thinking about that one research question you need to find peer-reviewed literature to answer. With the Ebsco app, you can type in your question and pull up relevant articles before you reach your stop!
The Ask a Librarian App is a hands-down winner. After you set up Duke University Libraries as your default library (instructions here), you can reach out via email or phone, but most importantly by chat, and a real-live librarian (no bots here!) will support you in answering all of your research questions. Chatting is as easy as texting! We love the convenience of this app and being able to help you find the resources you need in real-time. Hours of operation are here.
The DukeMobile App is an excellent shortcut for getting to the library catalog on the go. When you go to the menu bar, you’ll see an open book icon that says “Library” click on that, and then you’ll be taken straight to Duke University Libraries, where you can access all our digital resources. If you’re like us, sometimes our aha moments come when we’re away from the desk. If you’re walking between classes and think of a book or journal article you’d like to locate, you can instantly do so from your DukeMobile app without missing a step!
The Zotero App is a great research assistant that helps organize and manage your citations (and annotations), and now you can update references on the go. And if you prefer Endnote for your citation needs, there’s an app for you too! The Endnote Mobile App allows you to collect, collaborate, and create bibliographies anywhere. The benefit of both citation apps is that wherever you are, you can pull up your synced references and bibliographies, and if you are browsing an article on your phone that you want to save, you can quickly add it to your list.
What about library resources for research and pleasure? Forget Netflix; we recommend the Kanopy Mobile App for streaming educational documentaries, great films, and movies! Kanopy provides access to independent and documentary films ─ titles of unique social and cultural value from The Criterion Collection and Media Education Foundation. The beauty of the Kanopy app is that you can watch films on your phone or tablet regardless of where you are. Loung in the comfort of your dorm room while streaming that documentary you’ve been assigned for class!
Have you added the Libby by Overdrive Mobile App to your phone yet? Do it today, and start listening to popular fiction or nonfiction as an audiobook or curl up with a great eBook wherever you are. Libby offers offline access, which means when you download your selection, you can read or stream when you’re offline. The Libby app audiobooks are a great way to mix up your next gym workout and get to that booklist you’re dying to read!
We are always looking for mobile-friendly research resources that make your life easier. Please comment below the post if you have apps you use for research you’d like to share!
Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here is a selection of books you will find in these collections!
Celestial Bodies by Jokha Alharthi. This winner of the 2019 Man Booker International Prize and national bestseller is “an innovative reimagining of the family saga.” In the village of al-Awafi in Oman, we encounter three sisters: Mayya, who marries after a heartbreak; Asma, who marries from a sense of duty; and Khawla, who chooses to refuse all offers and await a reunion with the man she loves, who has emigrated to Canada. These three women and their families, their losses and loves, unspool beautifully against a backdrop of a rapidly changing Oman, a country evolving from a traditional, slave-owning society into its complex present. Through the sisters, we glimpse a society in all its degrees, from the very poorest of the local slave families to those making money through the advent of new wealth. The first novel originally written in Arabic to ever win the Man Booker International Prize, and the first book by a female Omani author to be translated into English. Read more about this striking novel in a thoughtful review by The New Yorker.
Crying in the Bathroom: A Memoir by Erika L. Sánchez. From the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, an utterly original memoir-in-essays that is as deeply moving as it is hilarious. Growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants in Chicago in the nineties, Erika was a self-described pariah, misfit, and disappointment–a foul-mouthed, melancholic rabble-rouser who painted her nails black but also loved comedy, often laughing so hard with her friends that she had to leave her school classroom. Twenty-five years later, she’s now an award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, but she’s still got an irrepressible laugh, an acerbic wit, and singular powers of perception about the world around her. Raunchy, insightful, unapologetic, and brutally honest, Crying in the Bathroom is Sánchez at her best–a book that will make you feel that post-confessional high that comes from talking for hours with your best friend. Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Erika’s poignant memoir, and listen to her interview with NPR to learn more.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy. A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy about her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life. In I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette recounts all this in unflinching detail—just as she chronicles what happens when the dream finally comes true. Cast in a new Nickelodeon series called iCarly, she is thrust into fame. Jennette is riddled with anxiety, shame, and self-loathing. These issues only get worse when, soon after taking the lead in the iCarly spinoff Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande, her mother dies of cancer. Finally, after discovering therapy and quitting acting, Jennette embarks on recovery and decides for the first time in her life what she really wants. Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, I’m Glad My Mom Died is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair. Read more in this review by The Atlantic.
The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison. Here is the Nobel Prize winner in her own words: a rich gathering of her most important essays and speeches, spanning four decades that “speaks to today’s social and political moment as directly as this morning’s headlines” (NPR). These pages give us her searing prayer for the dead of 9/11, her Nobel lecture on the power of language, her searching meditation on Martin Luther King Jr., her heart-wrenching eulogy for James Baldwin. She looks deeply into the fault lines of culture and freedom: the foreigner, female empowerment, the press, money, “black matter(s),” human rights, the artist in society, the Afro-American presence in American literature. And she turns her incisive critical eye to her own work and that of others. An essential collection from an essential writer, The Source of Self-Regard shines with the literary elegance, intellectual prowess, spiritual depth, and moral compass that have made Toni Morrison our most cherished and enduring voice. Learn more in Morrison’s candid interview with Bitch Media.
The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings. Reminiscent of the works of Margaret Atwood, Shirley Jackson, and Octavia Butler–a piercing dystopian novel about the unbreakable bond between a young woman and her mysterious mother. Josephine Thomas has heard every conceivable theory about her mother’s disappearance. That she was kidnapped. Murdered. That she took on a new identity to start a new family. That she was a witch. This is the most worrying charge because in a world where witches are real, peculiar behavior raises suspicions and a woman–especially a Black woman–can find herself on trial for witchcraft. But fourteen years have passed since her mother’s disappearance, and now Jo is finally ready to let go of the past. Yet her future is in doubt. The State mandates that all women marry by the age of 30–or enroll in a registry that allows them to be monitored, effectively forfeiting their autonomy. At 28, Jo is ambivalent about marriage. When she’s offered the opportunity to honor one last request from her mother’s will, Jo leaves her regular life to feel connected to her one last time. Read the LA Times Book Review to learn more.
The 5 Titles series highlights books, music, and films in the library’s collection featuring topics related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and/or highlighting the work of authors from diverse backgrounds. Each post is intended to briefly sample titles rather than provide a comprehensive topic overview. This month, the five titles have been selected by Graduate Humanities Intern Rebekah Cowell.
Audre Lorde wrote, “There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.” Discussing social justice issues without including disability justice and its intersections with race, sexuality, gender, and socioeconomic class is impossible. According to 2015-2016 data from the U.S. Department of Education, over 19 percent of all enrolled undergraduate students and 11.9 percent of post-baccalaureate students self-identified as having a disability. In higher education, disability justice is another access point to achieving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Disability at Duke is a robust student and faculty collaboration bringing disability justice and pedagogy together. These five titles selected for consideration come from Duke University Libraries and feature the lived experiences of activists who have fought and continue to fight for disability justice.
Year of the Tiger: An Activist’s Life by Alice Wong. In Chinese culture, the tiger is deeply revered for its confidence, passion, ambition, and ferocity. Drawing on a collection of original essays, previously published work, conversations, graphics, photos, commissioned art by disabled and Asian American artists, and more, Alice uses her unique talent to share an impressionistic scrapbook of her life as an Asian American disabled activist, community organizer, media maker, and dreamer. From her love of food and pop culture to her unwavering commitment to dismantling systemic ableism, Alice shares her thoughts on creativity, access, power, care, the pandemic, mortality, and the future. As a self-described disabled oracle, Alice traces her origins, tells her story, and creates a space for disabled people to be in conversation with one another and the world. Alice is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project and the editor of the acclaimed anthology Disability Visibility.
Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. A personal collection about creating spaces by and for sick and disabled queer people of colour and creative “collective access” — access not as a chore but as a collective responsibility and pleasure — in our communities and political movements. They write, “When we do disability justice work, it becomes impossible to look at disability and not examine how colonialism created it. It becomes a priority to look at Indigenous ways of perceiving and understanding disability…” Bringing their survival skills and knowledge from years of cultural and activist work, she explores everything from the economics of queer femme emotional labor to suicide in queer and trans communities to the nitty-gritty of touring as a sick and disabled queer artist of colour. Care Work is a mapping of access as radical love, a celebration of the work that sick and disabled queer/people of colour are doing to find each other and to build power and community, and a toolkit for everyone who wants to build radically resilient, sustainable communities of liberation where no one is left behind.
Exile and Pride by Eli Clare. Exile and Pride is essential to the history and future of disability politics. With a poet’s devotion to truth and an activist’s demand for justice, Clare deftly unspools the multiple histories from which our ever-evolving sense of self unfolds. His essays weave together memoir, history, and political thinking to explore meanings and experiences of home: home as place, community, bodies, identity, and activism. Here readers will find an intersectional framework for understanding how we actually live with the daily hydraulics of oppression, power, and resistance. At the root of Clare’s exploration of environmental destruction and capitalism, sexuality and institutional violence, gender and the body politic, is a call for social justice movements that are truly accessible to everyone. With heart and hammer, Exile and Pride pries open a window onto a world where our whole selves, in all their complexity, can be realized, loved, and embraced.
Haben: The Deafblind Woman that Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma. Haben is a human rights lawyer advancing disability justice. She believes disability is an opportunity for innovation and teaches organizations the importance of choosing inclusion. Haben grew up spending summers with her family in the enchanting Eritrean city of Asmara. There, she discovered courage as she faced off against a bull she couldn’t see and found in herself an abiding strength as she absorbed her parents’ harrowing experiences during Eritrea’s thirty-year war with Ethiopia. Their refugee story inspired her to embark on a quest for knowledge, traveling the world in search of the secret to belonging. Haben defines disability as an opportunity for innovation. She learned non-visual techniques for everything from dancing salsa to handling an electric saw. She developed a text-to-braille communication system that created an exciting new way to connect with people. Haben pioneered her way through obstacles, graduated from Harvard Law, and now uses her talents to advocate for people with disabilities.
Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist by Judith Heumann. One of the most influential disability rights activists in US history tells her personal story of fighting for the right to receive an education, have a job, and just be human. A story of fighting to belong in a world that wasn’t built for all of us and of one woman’s activism–from the streets of Brooklyn and San Francisco to inside the halls of Washington– Being Heumann recounts Judy Heumann’s lifelong battle to achieve respect, acceptance, and inclusion in society. Paralyzed from polio at eighteen months, Judy’s struggle for equality began early in life. From fighting to attend grade school after being described as a “fire hazard” to later winning a lawsuit against the New York City school system for denying her a teacher’s license because of her paralysis, Judy’s actions set a precedent that fundamentally improved rights for disabled people. As a young woman, Judy rolled her wheelchair through the doors of the US Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in San Francisco as a leader of the Section 504 Sit-In, the longest takeover of a governmental building in US history. Working with a community of over 150 disabled activists and allies, Judy successfully pressured the Carter administration to implement protections for disabled peoples’ rights, sparking a national movement and leading to the creation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Get spooky with the Low Maintenance Book Club! At our October 27th meeting, we’ll discuss selections from the award-winning short story collection Night of the Living Rez: “Burn,” “In a Jar,” “The Blessing Tobacco,” and “Night of the Living Rez.” As always, you’re welcome regardless of how much (or whether) you’ve read!
We are pleased to announce the winners of our 2021-2022 library writing and research awards. Every year the Duke University Libraries run a series of essay contests recognizing the original research and writing of Duke students and encouraging the use of library resources. Congratulations to this year’s winners!
Recognizing excellence in undergraduate research using sources from the Libraries’ general collections.
First/Second Year Winner: Laura Boyle for “Pop Prophet: King Princess’ Subversion of Dominant Desire,” nominated by Dr. Matthew Valnes
Third/Fourth Year Winner: Darren Janz for “Somlandela: Julius Malema and the Rise of a New South African Populism,” nominated by Dr. Karin Shapiro
Honors Thesis Winner: Caroline Petronis for “Blurring Contagion in the Information Age: How COVID-19 Troubles the Boundaries of the Biomedical and Socioinformatic,” nominated by Dr. Nima Bassiri
Recognizing excellence of analysis, research, and writing in the use of primary sources and rare materials held by the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Undergraduate Award: Adrianna DeLorenzo for “To What Extent Did British Prisoners of War During World War One Feel Ashamed as a Result of Captivity?” Nominated by Dr. Kristen Neuschel
Graduate Award: Mariko Azuma for “The Lure towards Comfōto: Japan’s Early Hotels of the 20th Century.” Nominated by Dr. Gennifer Weisenfeld
Recognizing excellence in undergraduate research using primary sources for political science or public policy.
Ana Herndon for “The Historical Merit of Ethnic Studies: A Study on the Importance of Diverse Higher Education on Social Change.” Nominated by Dr. Cecilia Márquez
Thang Lian for “Kan i ton than lai (We will meet again): A Lai Mi Family Oral History”
Tina Xia for “Waiting to be seen”
Join Us at the Awards Reception!
We will be celebrating our winners and their achievements at a special awards reception coinciding with Duke Family Weekend. All are invited to join us for refreshments and the opportunity to honor the recipients.
Films, Books, and Music of the 1980s in the Libraries’ Collections
Do you know that the creators of Stranger Things are from Durham, North Carolina?
The supernatural series may be set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, but creators Matt and Ross Duffer grew up in Durham. Although the identical twins grew up in the 90s, the series is awash with popular culture references from the 1980s. They lived in Durham County and attended the Duke School for elementary and middle school, graduating from Jordan High School. The Duffer brothers later attended Chapman University in California where they studied film and media arts.
Enjoy the ambience of Hawkins – we mean Durham – and immerse yourself in the 1980s. Discover movies, books, comics, and music of the era in our Duke Libraries’ collections.
Films of the 1980s
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain) DVD 30088
To give a sense of the world beyond Hawkins/Durham, we’ve highlighted international films from the same period including Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Spain), Police Story (Hong Kong), Cinema Paradiso (Italy), and My Neighbor Totoro (Japan).
Films that the Hellfire gang watched include popular titles like Ghostbustersand E.T. – and, yes, those are in our film collection.
Visit the Library Things Collection Spotlight in our lobby to browse these films* – and more (the full list is here) – that we’ve selected from our film collection.
Note: The list incudes some titles which you can stream via your Duke NetID.
Music of the 1980s
LL Cool J’s Radio (1985)
Heavy Metal, Punk, Rock, Electronic, Pop, Rap – the 1980s are calling! Songs and artists featured in the show are seeing a resurgence of interest and gaining new audiences. If you wonder why “old” music such as Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (1985), Metallica’s Master of Puppets (1986), and the Clash have been at the top of playlists, you can thank Stranger Things. The 1980s also saw the rise of Rap as a musical force with the emergence of iconic performers such as LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash, and Run D.M.C.
The Duke Music Library has a collection of CDs embracing all musical genres including rock, folk and rap. Don’t want to immerse yourself in the 1980s with a boombox or other older formats? Your Duke NetID provides access to streaming music platforms. Interested in the same sort of 1980s (and more recent) music of Stranger Things? Alexander Street Music database can lead you directly to genres of popular music.
Books of the 1980s
Stephen King’s It
While film, music, and the rise of gaming of the 1980s populate the atmosphere of Stranger Things, books about – and of – the period illuminate popular culture. A selection of suspense and fantasy novels by writers such as Stephen King, graphic novels (which evolved from comic books), and books examining contemporary culture are available in the Lilly Library lobby. Peruse these highlighted titles, plus a few eBooks in our Lilly Collection Spotlight Reading List.
To quote Stranger Things‘ character Dustin:
… I am on a curiosity voyage, and I need my paddles to travel. These books… these books are my paddles…
Our Duke Libraries and your Duke NetID provide “paddles” that encompass books, film, music, and a breadth of online resources. Explore Duke Libraries’ “library things” and embark on your own curiosity voyage!
When you open the app on your device, it will show you a world map and give you locator options. Navigate or browse to Duke and save the location.
When our chat service is not available the chat option will not show on your screen. The app also provides access to the library homepage, email, and phone number. The app is a mobile version of Ask a Librarian
Looking for something new to read? Check out our New and Noteworthy, Current Literature, and Overdrive collections for some good reads to enjoy! Here are a selection of books you will find in these collections!
Carolina Built by Kianna Alexander. Josephine N. Leary is determined to build a life of her own, and a future for her family. When she moves to Edenton, North Carolina from the plantation where she was born, she is free, newly married, and ready to follow her dreams. As the demands of life pull Josephine’s attention- deepening her marriage, mothering her daughters, supporting her grandmother- she struggles to balance her real estate aspirations with the realities of keeping life going every day. She teaches herself to be a business woman, to manage her finances, and to make smart investments in the local real estate market. But with each passing year, it grows more difficult to focus on building her legacy from the ground up. Moving and inspiring, Josephine Leary’s untold story speaks to the part of us that dares to dream bigger, tear down whatever stands in our way, and build something better for the loved ones we leave behind. If you’d like to learn more about Josephine N. Leary’s life, we have some of her papers in the Rubenstein Library.
Sticker by Henry Hoke. Stickers adorn our first memories, dot our notebooks and our walls, are stuck annoyingly on fruit, and accompany us into adulthood to announce our beliefs from car bumpers. They hold surprising power in their ability to define and provoke, and hold a strange steadfast presence in our age of fading physical media. Henry Hoke employs a constellation of stickers to explore queer boyhood, parental disability, and ancestral violence. A memoir in 20 stickers, Sticker is set against the backdrop of the encroaching neo-fascist presence in Hoke’s hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, which results in the fatal terrorist attack of August 12th and its national aftermath. We have other books in the Object Lessons series, if you are interested in exploring the cultural context of everyday objects.
In The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of our World, Riley Black walks readers through what happened in the days, the years, the centuries, and the million years after the impact, tracking the sweeping disruptions that overtook this one spot, and imagining what might have been happening elsewhere on the globe. Life’s losses were sharp and deeply-felt, but the hope carried by the beings that survived sets the stage for the world as we know it now. Picture yourself in the Cretaceous period. It’s a sunny afternoon in the Hell Creek of ancient Montana 66 million years ago. A Triceratops horridus ambles along the edge of the forest. In a matter of hours, everything here will be wiped away. Lush verdure will be replaced with fire. Tyrannosaurus rex will be toppled from their throne, along with every other species of non-avian dinosaur no matter their size, diet, or disposition. They just don’t know it yet. Check out this New Scientist book review to learn more.
Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde. In the bustling streets and cloistered homes of Lagos, a cast of vivid characters–some haunted, some defiant–navigate danger, demons, and love in a quest to lead true lives. As in Nigeria, vagabonds are those whose existence is literally outlawed: the queer, the poor, the displaced, the footloose and rogue spirits. They are those who inhabit transient spaces, who make their paths and move invisibly, who embrace apparitions, old vengeances and alternative realities. Eloghosa Osunde’s brave, fiercely inventive novel traces a wild array of characters for whom life itself is a form of resistance: a driver for a debauched politician with the power to command life and death; a legendary fashion designer who gives birth to a grown daughter; a lesbian couple whose tender relationship sheds unexpected light on their experience with underground sex work; a wife and mother who attends a secret spiritual gathering that shifts her world. As their lives intertwine–in bustling markets and underground clubs, churches and hotel rooms–vagabonds are seized and challenged by spirits who command the city’s dark energy. Whether running from danger, meeting with secret lovers, finding their identities, or vanquishing their shadowselves, Osunde’s characters confront and support one another, before converging for the once-in-a-lifetime gathering that gives the book its unexpectedly joyous conclusion. To learn more, you can read an NYT review and a Guardian review.
Pandora: A Novel in Three Parts by Susan Stokes-Chapman. A pure pleasure of a novel set in Georgian London, where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations and romance. Dora Blake is an aspiring jewellery artist who lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents’ famed shop of antiquities. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigued by her uncle’s suspicious behaviour and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antiquarian scholar. Edward sees the ancient vase as key to unlocking his academic future. Dora sees it as a chance to restore the shop to its former glory, and to escape her nefarious uncle. But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth she starts to realize that some mysteries are buried, and some doors are locked, for a reason. Here’s a review from the Guardian. You might also enjoy this YouTube video where the author discusses the Greek mythology that inspired this book.
For the last several years, the Duke University Libraries has purchased copies of the assigned texts for a wide range of Duke courses and made them available to check out for free. It’s one of our most popular services, and students regularly tell us how much they appreciate it. And no wonder, when the cost of a single textbook can often exceed $300.
Now there’s a way you can help us make the program even better and do something about the ridiculous cost of textbooks at the same time. At the end of this semester, donate your textbooks to the library. We’ll make them available for other students to check out for free.
Don’t you wish someone had done that for you? Be that someone.
Look for the textbook donation bins in Perkins, Bostock, Lilly, and Divinity libraries starting this week. When you’ve finished with your classes, simply drop your books in the bin and enjoy the satisfaction of knowing you’ve made some future Duke student’s day.
So if you passed your classes, pass it on. Donate your textbooks to us and make a Duke education more affordable for all.
(And if you didn’t pass, we’ll understand if you need to hang on to those books a little longer.)
April 3-9, 2022 marks National Library Week. Celebrate libraries and librarians by “checking out” (get it?) one of these excellent films in Duke Libraries’ collection:
dir. Alain Guillon, 2020
Chut…!
Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis. In a society where everything is commercial, where time is limited, where transmission is devalued, there is a place of gratuitousness and encounter where all kinds of people, cultures, practices meet, where we constantly fight inequalities and social violence, a place of sharing, a refuge, an island. Quietly, joyfully, something important is being made here, invisible to the hurried or accounting gaze: the development of a new social contract.
dir. Frederick Wiseman, 2017
Ex Libris: New York Public Library
“I’ve always loved and used public libraries for what I can learn and discover and for the surprises and stimulation they offer. I was not familiar, before I made the film, with the depth, scope and range of the New York Public Library and the wide range of services they provide to all classes, races and ethnicities in the main library and its 92 branches.” — Frederick Wiseman
dir. Vivienne Roumani-Denn, 2013
Out of Print
Every aspect of the written word is changing—from publishing to writing and selling to reading. If books are the foundation of civilization, how does that change the world of ideas? And how does it change us? With the unique perspective gained as a director at the Library of Congress and the UC Berkeley Library, filmmaker Vivienne Roumani tackles the questions confronting today’s word industry and shows that much more is at stake than how quickly we can access the latest byte. Out of Print is narrated by Meryl Streep and features Jeff Bezos, Scott Turow, Ray Bradbury, Jeffrey Toobin, Robert Darnton, Jane Friedman, Alberto Manguel, booksellers, cognitive scientists, architects, educators, parents, and students.
dir. Megan Rossman, 2018
The Archivettes
For more than 40 years, the Lesbian Herstory Archives has combated lesbian invisibility by literally rescuing history from the trash. The Archivettes provides a comprehensive look at the history of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the personal lives of the women involved in it, and the materials it protects and the challenges arising as the founders face their final years. The Lesbian Herstory Archives began in 1974, when a group of women involved in the Gay Academic Union realized that lesbian history was disappearing as quickly as it was being made. It is now home to the world’s largest collection of materials by and about lesbians and their communities.
dir. Julian Samuel, 2004
Save and Burn The first half of the film discusses the history of libraries and how they have facilitated the cross fertilization of ideas from one culture to another throughout history. The second half switches focus towards libraries in the political realm, including a discussion of the fate of libraries and their collections during periods of social unrest. Topics in this portion include the Patriot Act, the destruction of Palestinian libraries by Israeli soldiers, and the fate of Iraqi libraries during the country’s “liberation.”
dir. Terry Sanders, 1987
Slow Fires: On the Preservation of the Human Record
This award-winning documentary tells the unforgettable story of the deterioration and destruction of our world’s intellectual heritage and the global crisis in preserving library materials. Sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources. Millions of pages of paper in books, photographs, drawings, and maps are disintegrating and turning to dust. This remarkable film provides a comprehensive assessment of the worldwide situation, demonstrates methods of restoration and preservation and suggests ways to prevent new documents from facing ultimate destruction.
Change the Subject
No human being is illegal. When Dartmouth College students challenged anti-immigrant language in the Library of Congress, their activism sparked a movement–and a cataloging term became a flashpoint in the immigration debate on Capitol Hill.
Films curated by Danette Pachtner, Librarian for Film, Video & Digital Media and Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
Relocating Duke’s priceless special collections 4,700 miles away from the researchers who need to consult them will help ensure their long-term preservation.
With Duke’s recent addition of Hawaii to the list of states where university employees are allowed to work remotely, the Duke University Libraries announced today that its entire 250-person staff will be working full-time from the Aloha State, starting this spring and summer.
In what’s being described as a radical experiment in putting the lessons of the pandemic to work, Duke will have the first library system in the nation to be operated entirely remotely, from nearly 5,000 miles and five time zones away.
Though it will take some getting used to, the change will come with major benefits for students, said retiring University Librarian Deborah Jakubs, who has already gone ahead to the popular vacation destination to oversee the staff move.
“For years, Duke students have been asking us for more study space in the libraries,” said Jakubs from a private lanai overlooking a breathtaking Pacific sunset. “Now we’re finally able to give them what they want. With staff offices empty and all of us out of the way, students can finally have the entire place to themselves,” she added between sips from a tall, cool Mai Tai.
How exactly will a remotely operated research library work? Largely on the honor system and with the help of student employees, said Dave Hansen, Associate University Librarian for Research, Collections & Scholarly Communication. “The past two years have prepared us well for maintaining high levels of service even when we’re not onsite,” said Hansen, sporting a three-day beard under a wide-brim sun hat. “The Libraries employ almost 200 highly trained student workers who are already accustomed to assisting patrons and performing various support functions that keep our operations going.”
Books and other materials in the circulating collection will be available on a self-checkout basis, Hansen explained. The Libraries are purchasing additional self-checkout stations, which will be installed near every library entrance.
“And here’s the best part—once you’re done with your books, DVDs, whatever, you just put them back on the shelves where you found them,” said Hansen, the faint sounds of a ukulele strumming somewhere behind him. “We totally trust you.”
“Our librarians will still be available for consultation via Zoom,” said Emily Daly, Interim Head of Research and Instructional Services, casually waxing a Duke blue surfboard. “Whenever students or faculty need help with a class or research project, we’ll be just the click of a button away,” Daly added, as dolphins could be seen cavorting in the gnarly whitecaps behind her “office.” When scheduling Zoom appointments with library staff, Duke students and faculty are advised to add a 30-minute buffer on either end to account for “island time.”
While books and other materials in the Libraries’ general collection will remain onsite in Durham, some 65,000 linear feet of archival material in the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library will be relocated to a secure facility on Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island.
“We believe the best way to preserve Duke’s priceless special collections is to put about 4,700 miles of distance between them and the researchers who need to consult them,” said Naomi Nelson, Associate University Librarian and Director of the Rubenstein Library. “With its low temperatures, low humidity, and clean air, Mauna Kea has some of the best environmental conditions anywhere on earth for preserving rare books and historical papers,” Nelson explained, tossing a few more logs into a fire pit where she planned to slow-roast a pig over the course of the day. “Not to mention the billions of stars you can see out here at night. Really helps you keep all that important ‘research’ in perspective, you know?”
Nelson confirmed that the Rubenstein Library will continue to staff a reading room for researchers who wish to consult special collections material in person, “assuming they don’t mind a 15-hour flight.”
With Duke’s current University Librarian Deborah Jakubs set to retire in May, one unanswered question is whether her eventual successor will join the library staff or remain in Durham as the “face” of the Libraries on campus.
“We appreciate everyone’s patience and flexibility as we work to serve Duke better,” said Jakubs, reclining into a hammock slung between two palm trees that gently swayed in the sea breeze. “Mahalo.”
Can this flexible work arrangement be for real? Unfortunately it’s not a “remote” possibility. Happy April Fools’ Day, Dukies!
Blue Dean, Associate University Librarian for Development
The Duke University Libraries are pleased to announce the appointment of L. Blue Dean as Associate University Librarian for Development, effective March 28, 2022.
Reporting to the University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs, Dean will serve as a member of the Libraries’ Executive Group and lead organizational efforts to sustain and expand philanthropic support for one of the nation’s top research library systems.
A seasoned fundraiser with more than twenty years of experience in higher education and the nonprofit sector, including prior appointments at Duke, Dean comes to us from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she has served as Executive Director for Library Development since 2019. Previously, she was the Executive Director of Development for Duke University’s Department of Medicine and the Duke Heart Center, earning a strong record of progressively successful fundraising leadership over eight years.
Dean has also led development efforts at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville—her alma mater, where she earned a B.A. in English—as the Director of Development for the University Libraries and, later, the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. She has also held fundraising positions at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and oversaw the volunteer and visitor experience at the Knoxville Museum of Art.
During her time at UNC-Chapel Hill, Dean served as a member of the University Libraries Leadership Team and successfully raised over $20 million for the Libraries. At the start of the pandemic, she co-chaired a steering committee that determined how to reopen the libraries and provide services for students, faculty, and the community while prioritizing the safety of library staff. She also served on the University Development Office’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and on the taskforce that launched the OneCarolina Pilot Mentorship Program.
“I look forward to welcoming Blue to the Duke University Libraries, and I am excited about the energy and experience she will bring to this position,” said Deborah Jakubs, the Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs. “This is a time of transition for the Libraries,” said Jakubs, who will retire from Duke in May 2022, “and Blue’s track record as a successful fundraiser with strong connections at Duke and a passion for libraries will go far to ensure that a world-class university like Duke will continue to have a world-class library at its center.”
“I am excited to return to Duke and am especially excited and honored to work with the Duke University Libraries,” said Dean. “You cannot have a top research university without a top research library, and I look forward to partnering with alumni, families, and friends to continue the strong tradition of supporting Duke’s libraries. A philanthropic investment in the Duke University Libraries is an investment in every student, faculty member, and researcher in all of Duke’s schools, departments, and programs.”
In her new role, Dean succeeds Tom Hadzor, who will retire on May 17, 2022. Hadzor began his career at Duke in 1996 as Associate Director and Executive Director of Development and Communications for the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2003, he became Associate Dean for Alumni and Development at the Duke Law School, where he led its building campaign. In 2006, he joined the Duke University Libraries and has served as the Associate University Librarian for Development ever since. During that time, he has raised over $120 million for the Duke University Libraries. Until his official retirement from Duke in May, Hadzor will continue to work for the Libraries in a special capacity, raising major gifts for the Lilly Library renovation and expansion project.
Lilly Library celebrates Women’s History Month by shining our spotlight on Notable Women in Science and Beyond. Films and books that highlight the vital role of women in the sciences as well as other areas of society and culture are featured. Below are just a few of the many titles – check them out in person or online!
Books about Women in the Sciences
Code Breaker: Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna
Life in code : a personal history of technology Pioneering computer programmer Ellen Ullman worked inside the rising culture of technology and the internet. In Life in Code she tells the continuing story of the changes it wrought with a unique, expert perspective.
The code breaker: Jennifer Doudna, gene editing, and the future of the human race
Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues including Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions, a life science revolution.
The doctors Blackwell: how two pioneering sisters brought medicine to women–and women to medicine
In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive an M.D. She was joined by her younger sister, Emily, who was actually the more brilliant physician. Exploring the sisters’ allies, and challenges, we see a story of trial and triumph. Together, the Blackwells founded the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, the first hospital staffed entirely by women.
Films about Women in the Sciences … and Beyond
Hidden Figures available via streaming or DVD
Hidden Figures via Streaming , DVD, Book, or Audio book
NASA found untapped talent in a group of African-American female mathematicians that served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in U.S. history. Dorothy Vaughan, Mary Jackson, and Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human race, firmly cemented them in U.S. history as true American heroes.
Geek Girls DVD 31054
Filmmaker Gina Hara, struggling with her own geek identity, explores the issue with a cast of women who live geek life up to the hilt: A feminist geek blogger, a convention-trotting cosplayer, a professional gamer, a video-game designer, and a NASA engineer.
Picture a Scientist
Picture a Scientist DVD 33770 or Streaming This documentary film chronicles the groundswell of researchers who are writing a new chapter for women scientists. A biologist, a chemist and a geologist lead viewers reveal their experiences as they confront brutal harassment, institutional discrimination, and years of subtle slights to revolutionize the culture of science.
We are the Radical MonarchsStreaming
This film documents the Radical Monarchs–an alternative to the Scout movement for girls of color, aged 8-13. Its members earn badges for completing units on social justice including being an LGBTQ ally, the environment, and disability justice.
Daughters of the ForestStreaming
This documentary tells the story of a small group of girls in one of the most remote forests left on earth who attend a radical high school where they learn to protect the threatened forest.
The Gender Chip Project
The Gender Chip Project DVD 5320
Filmmaker Helen de Michiel documented several young women majoring in the sciences, engineering and math at Ohio State University. They met regularly over their next three years of college, and created a community to share experiences and struggles. This documentary reveals women finding new ways to honor their own growth, motivations and experience as they imagine how to make the science and technology workplace a comfortable environment for women.
Symbiotic Earth : how Lynn Margulis rocked the boat and started a scientific revolution via DVD 31267 or Streaming
Symbiotic Earth explores the life and ideas of Lynn Margulis, a brilliant and radical scientist, whose unconventional theories challenged the male-dominated scientific community and are today fundamentally changing how we look at evolution, the environment, and ourselves.
“Badly drawn, badly written and badly printed – a strain on young eyes and young nervous systems.” – Sterling North, Literary Editor, Chicago Daily News, 1940
Challenged from the Start
From the beginning, comics and graphic novels have had fans and detractors. To critics, comics were at a minimum second-rate and low-brow while at the extreme end, a corrupting force leading to juvenile delinquency. In 1954, Frederic Wertham published the now infamous Seduction of the Innocent, linking juvenile delinquency to comics which led to a de facto censorship system which lasted for decades.
Fast forward to today, graphic novels, fiction and non-fiction works in comic-strip format, are frequent targets for challenges and bans. Though the majority of challenges come from parents and other concerned citizens, state officials have often lodged complaints. North Carolina’s own Lt. Governor, Mark Robinson, vehemently protested the inclusion of the graphic novel, Gender Queer, in school library collections, calling for its immediate removal.
Why graphic novels?
Expanding beyond superheroes, authors and illustrators are connecting with their audiences on a variety of topics and issues through text and images. The combination of subject matter and static images makes graphic novels uniquely vulnerable to challenges.
Since 2013, graphic novels have made frequent appearances on the American Library Association’s yearly “Top 10 Most Challenged Books.” In addition, the numerous challenges faced by publishers, libraries, retailers, and even readers over comics and graphics gave rise in 1986 to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a non-profit whose mission is the protection of the “First Amendment rights of the comics art form.”
Below are some titles in our collection that have been frequent targets of these challenges (click on the images for library location information).
Post by Danette Pachtner, Duke Libraries’ Librarian for Film, Video & Digital Media and Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies
Black History Month is dedicated to the histories and stories of Black Americans and the African diaspora who have systemically been sidelined for centuries. Duke Libraries’ film collection has a treasure trove of titles to view and explore.
The Docuseek African-American Studies Collection is an interdisciplinary streaming video collection of over 80 award-winning films, featuring popular and classic films plus dynamic new releases, focused on social, political and cultural history and contemporary issues that are ideal resources for Black History Month.
Duke Libraries provides access to these streaming videos in TheDocuseek Complete Collection, with Duke NetId/password authentication.
John Lewis: Get in the Way | dir. Kathleen Dowdey | 2020
John Lewis: Get in the Way tells the gripping tale of Lewis’s role in the vanguard of the Civil Rights Movement through never-before-seen interviews shot over 20 years.
Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution details the history of how Medicare was leveraged to desegregate hospitals. Before Medicare, fewer than half the nation’s hospitals served black and white patients equally, and in the South, 1/3 of hospitals would not admit African-Americans even for emergencies. Power to Heal illustrates how Movement leaders and grass-roots volunteers pressed and worked with the federal government to achieve a greater measure of justice and fairness for African-Americans.
Horror Noire: a History of Black Horror | dir. Xavier Burgin | 2019
Horror Noire traces the extensive history of Black horror films. Delving into a century of genre films that by turns utilized, caricatured, exploited, sidelined, and finally embraced them, Horror Noire traces a secret history of Black Americans in Hollywood through their connection to the horror genre.
Al Helm follows an African American Christian choir’s journey to the Palestinian National Theater to put on a play about Martin Luther King, Jr. A rousing portrait of the changes unfolding in the Middle East as a nonviolent movement grows in Palestine, this dynamic and complex work is born of a brilliantly simple and potent idea: what would happen if African American Christians—the same group who served as exemplars of the Civil Rights Movement—could witness firsthand the plight of Palestinians today?
The Loving Story | dir. Nancy Buirski | 2011A Crime on the Bayou | dir. Nancy Buirski | 2020
The classic documentary film, The Loving Story, from Nancy Buirski’s trilogy profiling brave individuals who fought for justice in and around the Civil Rights era, is a heart-rending story of the Lovings and the ground-breaking court case that legalized marriage between interracial couples.A Crime on the Bayou, is the final film in Buirski’s trilogy, which outlines the extraordinary story of Gary Duncan, arrested for touching a white boy’s arm, whose civil rights case in Louisiana went all the way to the Supreme Court in the late 1960s.
River City Drumbeatchronicles Edward “Nardie” White’s instruction of ancestral Pan-African culture and drumming in Louisville, Kentucky. For three decades, Edward “Nardie” White has been leading the River City Drum Corps in order to instill a foundation of purposeful resilience within his neighborhood youth. Against the backdrop of the American South, Mr. White’s drumline and its multi-generational network of support has been a lifeline for many young African Americans. In his final year as director he trains his successor Albert Shumake, a young artist whose troubled life was transformed by the drumline and Mr. White’s mentorship when he was a teen. During this transitional year, Mr. White and Albert reflect on the tragedies and triumphs in their lives and the legacy of the drum corps.
Father’s Kingdom depicts the untold story of the remarkable civil rights pioneer Father Divine. Once a celebrity who was decades ahead of his time fighting for civil rights, he has largely been written out of history because of the audacity of his religious claims, Father’s revolutionary ideas on race and identity still resonate today.
Black Girl in Suburbia | dir. Melissa Lowery | 2016
Black Girl in Suburbia takes a look at the suburbs of America from the perspective of women of color. Through conversations with her own daughters, with teachers and scholars who are experts in the personal impacts of growing up a person of color in a predominately white place, this film explores the conflicts that many Black girls in homogeneous hometowns have in relating to both white and Black communities.
New Docuseek releases include Stateless, a film that reveals the dark and deadly history of institutionalized oppression of Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic, and Oliver Tambo, about the man responsible for the release of Nelson Mandela and who helped to end the apartheid in South Africa.
In 1949, after living and working in the US for 30 years and making his home in Durham for over 10 years, Der Wo, the owner and operator of Durham’s first, very popular, Chinese restaurant was joyfully reunited with his family for the first time in 18 years.
Durham Morning Herald, 25 February 1949
Der Wo was originally from the Chinese province of Guangdong (called Canton by Westerners of the time) near Hong Kong. He immigrated to the US to work in Chinese restaurants in Washington DC. Before he came to Durham, he had 16 years of experience in the Chinese/American restaurant business. Der Wo brought his skills and joined a venture in Durham backed by the very successful sister restaurant, also the Oriental, based in Charlotte NC. Although the term “Oriental” is no longer used to identify people of Asian ancestry, in the period of the founding of this cafe, the term was widely used. The term “Chinese /American” more accurately reflects the people born in China who lived and worked in the United States.
Chinese /American cuisine had been a national fad in urban areas across the United States since the early 1900s. By the mid-1930s, Chop Suey, the common name for a Chinese/American adaptation of stir fry, was only available in Durham as a canned good from La Choy, founded in the US midwest in 1922, or from the Pines Tea Room near Chapel Hill, run by a Mrs. Vickers.
Collection of John DeFerrari, http://www.streetsofwashington.com/2021/11/chinese-restaurants-in-dc-at-mid-century.html
The Immigration Act of 1790 and the Chinese Exclusion Acts, in force from the 1880s until 1942, meant that Der Wo could not become a US citizen. In 1915 a court action opened the door for more Chinese restaurant workers to enter the US, but this immigration was tightly controlled. In the 1930 US Census, Durham had only 3 people identified as Chinese-born.
Nonetheless, by 1938 downtown Durham had the Oriental Restaurant, a thriving Chinese/American eatery. The Oriental, like other Chinese-owned businesses, followed Exclusion era practices by employing Chinese “bachelor” cooks and staff, several of whom lived on the premises. In the 1940 Census, Der Wo and five of his employees were listed as living above the restaurant on Parrish St.
A system of mutual support developed among Chinese/Americans and among business owners and restauranteurs called Huiguan. This relatively informal association system was similar to clans or a guild system for the management of both the supply of Chinese food and specialty products, and the flow of restaurant workers into the United States. The small staff of Chinese men gathered in Durham in the mid-1930s to open the new Chinese restaurant.
Durham Sun, 18 August 1938
The Oriental was essentially a 90-seat `white tablecloth restaurant well-sited in downtown Durham about equidistant from the two largest hotels in the downtown area and two blocks from the busy passenger train station. The Oriental was whites only. The operators chose Parrish St, also known as the “Black Wall Street,” because of proximity to patrons via the railroad and hotels, but the business did not make any accommodation for black patrons. The presence of Black Wall Street in a white downtown was an anomaly as was a segregated Chinese Restaurant just steps from the two largest black-owned enterprises in the city.
By the early 1940s, a Chinese restaurant for black patrons, the Asia Cafe, was established about a mile from the Oriental. Located in Hayti, Durham’s black business district, the restaurant was near the important intersection of Fayetteville St and Pettigrew St. The Asia Cafe was operated by Hugh Wong. The site was taken under urban renewal as part of Durham Freeway.
The Oriental used many of the marketing tools available in the 1930s. Der Wo advertised his restaurant in the Duke Chronicle, UNC’s Daily Tar Heel, and the Durham newspapers as well as the City Directories and the telephone books. Der Wo arranged for civic groups to hold meetings and banquets in his facility. In addition to supporting the American war effort during World War Two via war bond drives and other donations, Der Wo’s earlier activism included support for the nationalist Chinese cause including holding a banquet at the Oriental in honor of a barnstorming Chinese aviatrix raising funds for the support of the nationalists against the Japanese.
Open Durham
A grand opening for the Oriental was held on Saturday June18th 1938 and the restaurant was a hit from the start. Der Wo with the backing of the owner of the Oriental in Charlotte had rented a white brick two-story restaurant building with granite details likely built in the late teens or early twenties. Since he came from restaurants in more architecturally sophisticated urban Washington DC, the Oriental exterior was modernized in the Moderne style with full plate glass doors and windows surrounded by opaque panels of pigmented structural glass, probably Vitrolite, in ivory and black . The name “The Oriental Restaurant” was in a green bamboo style script in the glass panel above the front facade and there was a neon sign. The colors of the renovated interior were cream and brown and the main dining room seated 60 and included both high booths and tables. There was an adjoining dining room seating 30 for meetings. The restaurant was fully air-conditioned at a time that many offices and hotel rooms were not.
Open Durham
The preferred Chinese/ American dish in the 1930s remained Chop Suey, but in a recent survey on social media of long-term Durham residents now in their 60’s and older, the Oriental’s Chicken Chow Mein is the most frequently remembered dish. The owner of a local plumbing company was so fond of the Oriental that his family ate there once a week throughout the 1950s and 1960s and many survey respondents remembered special Sunday lunches at the Oriental. The judgment concerning the popularity of the Oriental’s Chow Mein is verified in a 1950s newspaper article about the long-time cook at the Oriental, Frank Dea Toy.
George Lougee, a local newspaper reporter for the Durham Herald Sun, wrote affectionately not only about Der Wo, but also about the kitchen workers like Frank Dea Toy over several decades. Lougee’s primary beat was the Courts, and the Oriental was just around the corner from the Courthouse and jail.
From the Durham Herald Co. Newspaper Photograph Collection #P0105, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Among the most interesting aspects of the Oriental story is Der Wo and his family’s path from China to Durham which was detailed in Lougee’s 1949 feature newspaper story about the reunion of Der Wo and his family after the long separation because of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the disruption of World War II.
In 1919, Der Wo immigrated from China via San Francisco to Washington DC to make his way in the restaurant business. No doubt he improved his English and he learned about the operations of restaurants.
In 1931 Der Wo was successful enough to make the two-month journey to return to China to marry. Der Wo’s parents had arranged his marriage to Wu Mei On, an eligible young woman. Before Der Wo returned to the US about a year later, Wu Mei On had had a daughter and was pregnant. Wu Mei On and her children lived with Der Wo’s parents. Der Wo returned to the restaurant business in Washington DC in 1932 before coming to Durham in late 1937.
In 1941, the Japanese bombed and invaded the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The danger and brutality of the attack prompted the extended Der Wo family to flee into the interior of China. After a few months, they returned to Hong Kong to find their home intact and they resumed their lives there.
Der Wo, Immigration records, ancestry.com
In some of the records of the census and other Federal agencies from the 1930s and 1940s, Der Wo is listed as white. In 1949 Der Wo began Naturalization proceedings and was finally reunited with his wife and met, for the first time, his 18-year old son. Part of the delay in the reunion was because of immigration restrictions. Both his wife and son had to come to the United States on temporary visas. The family lived together for a number of years and two other sons were born.
In 1953 Der Wo, suffering from heart disease, died of a sudden heart attack, and his wife and older son were forced to take over the operation of the restaurant.
In 1954 Federal Immigration and Naturalization authorities contacted the family about possible deportation because of the lapsed visa status of both Der Wo’s wife and older son. Lougee wrote about the family’s immigration situation and gathered local support. With the assistance of Congressman Carl Durham, a private bill was introduced and approved by Congress and signed by President Eisenhower to allow the family to stay together in Durham.
With the help of her son and the restaurant staff, Mrs Der Wo operated the restaurant successfully throughout the 1950s despite her limited English language skills.
In a mid-1950s feature story, Frank Dea Toy, cook at the Oriental, was featured. Dea Toy claimed, to newspaperman Lougee’s astonishment, that after living in Durham for over twenty years he had never been to any sort of ball game nor had he attend more than one movie a year. Radio and television were, he said, too “noisy.” The isolation of the Chinese workers was further illustrated by Lougee’s reporting on a 1944 fatal hit and run accident that killed an Oriental employee who was walking in Durham with two Chinese colleagues. The death was never solved.
Frank Dea Toy, From the Durham Herald Co. Newspaper Photograph Collection #P0105, North Carolina Collection Photographic Archives, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
By the early1960’s a shift in the primary shopping areas from downtown Durham to the suburbs north and south of Durham’s city center was well underway and the lunch and dinner trade at the Oriental were likely a fraction of what they had been. Urban renewal was in the planning stages and the face of Durham was changing.
Civil rights protest was also rising, and in May 1963 the Oriental was a site at which Black students, primarily from North Carolina Central University (then College), staged a late afternoon peaceful sit-in. Sit-in leaders asked to be served on behalf of their 60 followers and were refused by management. Some students left, but 48 waited for the police to charge them with unlawful trespass. All were charged and released without bond.
By 1964 the formal process of downtown Durham redevelopment using Federal funds was underway. The passenger train station in downtown Durham was closed and one of the two major downtown hotels closed as well. No doubt redevelopment was a part of the decline of the Oriental. Mrs. Der closed the Oriental in 1966. The building itself was not demolished until the early 1970s. The ultimate causes of the closure of the restaurant may have been the aging of the staff and owner, but other factors may have included the aging infrastructure and the changes in the surrounding business climate. In the face of public accommodation laws, urban renewal programs, the Durham Freeway, and the end of official segregation, the Oriental did not survive.
Many thanks to my colleagues, Yunyi Wang and Luo Zhou, and to Prof. Calvin Cheung-Miaw for their editorial assistance.
Holaday, J. Chris, and Patrick Cullom. Classic Restaurants of Durham. Charleston, SC: Charleston, SC : American Palate, a Division of The History Press, 2020.
Lilly Library’s exhibit Native Americans in North Carolina: the Path from the Past to the Present focuses on Library resources about Native American history in our state. If our resources pique your interest, a deeper look into Lilly’s collections unearths the creative breadth of indigenous peoples throughout North America. Books on Native American art, novels by Native Americans, memoirs of native experiences, as well as films and documentaries are available on display in the Lilly lobby. A few of the more than fifty Native Voices Active Voices titles in the spotlight are featured below:
Books
Moonshot: the Indigenous Comics Collection
Moonshot: the Indigenous comics collection
This collection of comic book stories showcase the rich heritage and identity of indigenous storytelling. From traditional stories to exciting new visions of the future, this series presents some of the finest comic book and graphic novel work on the continent.
Adjusting the Lens Powerful case studies address the ways that the historical photographic record of Indigenous peoples was shaped by colonial practices, and explore how this legacy is being confronted by Indigenous art activism and contemporary renegotiations of the past. Contributors to this collection analyze the photographic practices and heritage of communities from North America, Europe, and Australia
The Longest Trail
The Longest Trail: Writings on American Indian History, Culture, and Politics
Author Alvin Josephy Jr.’s groundbreaking, popular books and essays advocated for a fair historical assessment of Native Americans, and set the course for modern Native American studies.
This collection, which includes magazine articles, speeches, a white paper, and introductions and chapters of books, gives a generous and reasoned view of five hundred years of Indian history in North America from first settlements in the East to the long trek of the Nez Perce Indians in the Northwest.
Film
Winter in the Blood
Winter in the Blood
“Virgil First Raise wakes in a ditch on the hardscrabble plains of Montana. He stumbles home to his ranch on the reservation only to learn that his wife, Agnes, has left him. Worse, she’s stolen his beloved rifle. Virgil sets out to find her, beginning an odyssey of inebriated intrigues with a mysterious “Airplane Man,” a beautiful barmaid, and two dangerous men in suits. This quixotic, modern-day vision quest moves Virgil ever closer to oblivion–until he discovers a long-hidden truth about his identity. But is it too late?”
Dance Me Outside
When the Kidabanessee Reservation in northern Ontario is shocked by a brutal murder of one of the residents, four teenagers find their friendships put to the ultimate test. The struggle to become men and women becomes entangled with a fight for justice as they find their friendships and romances maturing into something unexpected.
Mankiller
Mankiller : Activist, Feminist, Cherokee Chief
Wilma Mankiller is someone who humbly defied the odds to fight injustice and give a voice to the voiceless. She overcame rampant sexism and personal challenges to emerge as the Cherokee Nation’s first female Principal Chief in 1985. This documentary examines the legacy of the formidable Wilma Mankiller.
The Lilly Library Collection Spotlight Native Voices shines through February. Interested in the full list of titles? Check them out in Lilly’s Book and Films in Spotlight
Native Americans in North Carolina:
the Path from the Past to the Present
The research and suggested resources presented in the article Imagining Duke’s Campus in 1000 AD inspire the Lilly Library exhibit: Native Americans in North Carolina: the Path from the Past to the Present. Tangible artifacts and reference material highlighting the history of Native Americans in North Carolina carry us together on a journey over time to the campus experience of today. The exhibit presents historical evidence predating European contact, records and accounts of the university’s Native American student experience, and a look at the extent of Native American tribal reach in present day North Carolina.
North Carolina: The Arrival of Europeans
A New Voyage to Carolina, John Lawson (1709)
When the first Europeans arrived in what they called Carolina, the 16th century surveyor John White depicted in detail the established villages and individuals living on the land near Roanoke. A century later John Lawson catalogued the peoples and bounty of the land he traveled. His account A New Voyage to Carolina (produced in 1709) revealed the diversity of nature especially flora and of the nations of Native Americans. An original edition of Lawson’s book is found in the Rubenstein Library collection but does not circulate.
For Duke community members with NetIDs who wish to examine Lawson’s work, reprints and online versions are readily available.
Duke: The Arrival of Joseph S. Maytubby
Joseph S. Maytubby (Image from Duke University Archives)
The relationship between Duke and its Native American constituents goes back further in history than one might expect. In 1892, Trinity College (the predecessor to Duke University) saw the arrival of Joseph S. Maytubby on its campus in Durham. Maytubby, a member of the Chickasaw tribe became the first Native American to receive a degree from Trinity College. An excellent student, he served as president of the Hesperian Literary Society, was involved with the Trinity Archive literary magazine, played football, and, as a capstone to his stellar academic career, his oratory skills won the Wiley Gray Medal competition for the 1896 commencement.
In present day, the Duke Native American Student Alliance serves as a resource and advocates on behalf of Native American Students on campus. Read its mission statement to learn more. One element of NASA’s stated mission is to advance the awareness of Native American culture throughout campus and the state.
Map of NC Tribal Communities – source: North Carolina Dept. of Administration
It is not generally known that North Carolina has the largest Native American population east of the Mississippi River. North Carolina is home to eight tribes recognized tribes by the state, including the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation – the only federally recognized Native American community in North Carolina. This exhibit offers a glimpse into the complicated and often uncomfortable history of the Native American tale.
The Lilly Library exhibit Native Americans in North Carolina: the Path from the Past to the Present is on display until March 1, 2022.
Curated by Librarians Greta Boers and Carson Holloway. Artifacts on display are from the collections of Carson Holloway and Greta Boers.
John “Blackfeather” Jeffries blesses 25-acres of new land acquired by the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation. Photograph used with permission by Ted Richardson, TEDRICHARDSONMEDIA.COM
This post is part of a series intended to introduce first-year students to the diverse history of Duke and Durham. These posts are brief introductions, but include more detailed resources for further reading and exploration.
Many formal gatherings in the Americas begin with acknowledgement and prayer for the indigenous people of the past, and to honor those among us now. Other examples of respect are the Duke Forest Land Acknowledgement Statement and the Eno River Association’s Land Acknowledgement which bow to the Yésah, “the people”, the collection of tribes who have lived on the North Carolina and Virginia Piedmonts. As you find your way to class, you may wonder who was walking over Duke’s campus 1200 years ago. Where are their descendants?
North Carolina has the highest number of Native Americans east of the Mississippi. A map reconstructing ancient languages of the Southeast identifies three clusters: Iroquois, Siouan, and Muskhogean. Two range across the state. To the west are the Iroquois linguistic family, the present-day Eastern Band of Cherokee. In the Piedmont, southern, and the eastern parts of the State are the remaining tribes of the Siouan (Tutelo) linguistic family: Coharie, Haliwa-Saponi, Sappony, Waccamaw, Meherrin, Lumbee, and Occaneechi.
How far back can we go in order to imagine the people who lived here? Much of what we know draws on archaeological evidence from the Haw River Drainage area, Yadkin River, and Roanoke Rapids. The Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina includes a list of contextual excavations going back to 10,000 BC in the Piedmont—where you are now– with descriptions of culture and life for every age, starting with the Clovis culture of the Pleistocene. The Ancient North Carolinians website includes a pre-Colonial section for the Central Piedmont.
More recent accounts, summarized in NCPedia, describe the Occaneechi and Sappony nations as documented by Europeans starting in the 17th century. There are also accounts of the more ancient Shakori and Eno tribes of the Piedmont, and the Tuscarora towards the east. Two centuries later, Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830 began the forced removal of the Cherokee from Georgia in the Trail of Tears. A band of 300-400 escaped to the mountains in western North Carolina, and eventually bought what is now the Qualla reservation. It is from there that Duke’s first Native American students arrived in 1881 to attend Trinity College and the Cherokee Industrial School.
This isn’t enough to understand what’s beneath your feet, or to recognize who might be walking beside you. In the mixture of oral traditions, documentation, and historical interpretations, what are the real stories? You can visit the excavations closest to Duke in Hillsborough, with evidence from the late Woodland Period from 1000 to 1600 AD. They include a reconstruction of an Occaneechi Village from 300 years ago. Watch the calendar for Pow Wows in North Carolina, find out what to expect and become familiar with the appropriate etiquette if it’s your first one. There are many ways to honor and celebrate Native Americans at Duke.
You’ve almost made it! Here are some resources to help you power through the end of the semester and beyond.
End-of-Semester Library Events
The Paper Station – Thursday, Dec. 2nd from 7-9 PM near the Perkins service desk. Get drop-in help from writing studio consultants and librarians. De-stress by creating your own zine or bookmark!
Study Break at Lilly – Monday, Dec. 6th from 3-4:30 PM on the Lilly front steps. Take a break from studying and drop by Lilly for snacks, popcorn, and cider!
The library is always here for you! Maybe you already know that you can access many of our online resources from home or that you can check out books to take home with you. We also have movies and music that you can stream and some e-books that you can download to your devices. Here are some of the resources we have to do this!
Streaming Video includes:
Kanopy: Watch thousands of award-winning documentaries and feature films including titles from the Criterion Collection.
Go to duke.overdrive.com to access downloadable eBooks and audiobooks that can be enjoyed on all major computers and devices, including iPhones®, iPads®, Nooks®, Android™ phones and tablets, and Kindles®.
Streaming Music includes:
Contemporary World Music: Listen to music from around the world, including reggae, Bollywood, fado, American folk music, and more.
Jazz Music Library: Access a wide range of recordings from jazz classics to contemporary jazz.
Medici.tv: Browse an online collection of classical music, operas and ballets.
Metropolitan Opera on Demand: For opera fans, a large selection of opera videos from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera.
Naxos Music Library: Huge selection of classical music recordings—over 1,925,000 tracks!
We’re interested in feedback about your experience using Perkins & Bostock, Rubenstein Library study spaces, von der Heyden study spaces, and Lilly Library this fall. Please complete this SHORT (2-min!) survey, and be entered in a drawing for a $50 Amazon gift card.
Your responses are confidential and will help us improve library services and spaces. Thanks in advance for your valuable input!
Twemoji12_1f914 by Twitter is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Post contributed by field experience student Sydney Adams.
Sometimes it may seem like librarians are speaking another language. That’s normal, especially for undergraduate students new to academic research. Librarians use a lot of jargon! Here are some quick definitions for the next time you wonder “What is my librarian talking about?”
Call number – The unique combination of letters and numbers that you can use to find a book in Duke’s collection (ex: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is PR6068.O93 H375 2007). Duke uses the Library of Congress Classification Scheme which works well for large research libraries. This blog from the Divinity Library explains how to read Library of Congress call numbers. Ask at the front desk if you have trouble locating a book!
Database—An online collection organized by topic of articles, data, or citations that you can search for information related to class projects and more.Search for databases by title or subject on the Duke Libraries website. We have more than 1000!
Interlibrary Loan—A service that allows you toborrow materials from another library if we do not have them at Duke. You should never pay for an article while you’re here!
Scholarly Source—A source that elevates the quality of your research paper or project. Scholarly sources are written and reviewed by experts in your field of study and are usually published in academic journals, but they can also include published books, conference proceedings, and reports.
Special Collections—Collections of items, digital or physical, that are especially rare or unique. At Duke, our special collections are housed inRubenstein Library. Learn more about Rubenstein’scollections andexhibits online.
Stacks—The area where the library’s books and other materials are stored. At Lilly and Perkins & Bostock, we have “open stacks” where you can search for materials yourself. The stacks are labeled in yellow on ourfloor maps.
Subject Specialists—Librarians who serve specific schools, departments, and programs. Have a research question? Reach out to thesubject specialist for your area of study!
For Native American History Month, one of Duke Libraries’ streaming video platforms, Docuseek, is highlighting a number of films about and made by Indigenous Peoples. Docuseek presents an excellent collection of documentary films about Native Americans, including National Film Board of Canada’s First Nations films, Women Make Movies, and distributors Bullfrog Films and Icarus Films.
These selections trace Indigenous activism, movement-building, politics, art, culture, language, astronomy, restorative-justice systems, and the fight to protect water and sacred lands.
As Nutayuneaan (dir. Anne Makepeace, 2011)
As Nutayuneaan (We Still Live Here)
Tells the amazing story of the return of the Wampanoag language, a language that was silenced for more than a century.
(Bullfrog Films; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Conscience Point (dir. Treva Wurmfeld, 2021)
Conscience Point Unearths a deep clash of values between the Shinnecock Indian Nation and their elite Hamptons neighbors, who have made sacred land their playground. (Women Make Movies; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (dir. Alanis Obomsawin, 2015)
Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance
Examines the historic confrontation between the Mohawks, Québec police, and the Canadian army that propelled Native issues into the international spotlight and into the Canadian conscience.
(National Film Board of Canada; streaming with Duke netid/password)
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon, dir. Anna Sofaer, 2015)
The Mystery of Chaco Canyon
Unveils the ancient astronomy of southwestern Pueblo Indians.
(Bullfrog Films; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Skydancer (dir. Katja Esson, 2021)
Skydancer
Academy Award-nominated director Katja Esson explores the colorful and at times tragic history of the Mohawk skywalkers, men who leave their families on the reservation to travel to NYC to work construction jobs.
(Women Make Movies; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Standing on Sacred Ground (dir. Christopher McLeod, 2015)
Standing on Sacred Ground
In this four-part documentary series from the producer of In the Light of Reverence, native people share ecological wisdom and spiritual reverence while battling a utilitarian view of land in the form of government megaprojects, consumer culture, and resource extraction as well as competing religions and climate change.
(Bullfrog Films; streaming with Duke netid/password)
Native Cinema Showcase 2021
If these titles whet your appetite for more great movies, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian’s Native Cinema Showcase is coming up later this month. An annual celebration of the best in Native film, this year’s showcase is online and runs from November 12-18, 2021. And Women Make Movies is screening online a selection of films by and about Native American women from November 19-30th; sign up here to receive more info.
“Who are we gonna call” when we order films for Duke Libraries’ film collections? For Lilly Library, it’s not Ghostbusters but our guest curator, Stephen Conrad, that’s who! Stephen is Duke Libraries’ Team Lead for Western Languages in Monographic Acquisitions. One of the hats he wears is “orders person” for new DVDs. Because of Stephen’s knowledge and interest in film, we invited him to curate (and order) new titles to give our horror collection a jolt! Enjoy Stephen’s horror-ful Halloween picks … if you dare!
Good Manners aka As Boas Maneiras
As Boas Maneiras Lilly DVD 34167
Translated into English as Good Manners, this is a Brazilian werewolf tale set in São Paulo, from directors Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra. A mysterious and wealthy woman hires a housekeeper/nanny for her unborn child. The two grow close but there are complications, to put it mildly. Part fairy tale, part musical, this beyond-genre experience is truly a wild one. (2017)
The Mutilator aka Fall Break
MutilatorLilly DVD 34199
Also known as Fall Break, this North Carolina produced teen slasher was the first and only effort from director Buddy Cooper. Low in budget and high in gore, the picture is of particular interest for visitors to the NC coast, as large portions were filmed around the Crystal Coast locales of Morehead City and Atlantic Beach.
Season of the Witch Lilly DVD 34156
Season of the WitchLilly DVD 34156
One of George A. Romero’s earlier films, the retitled Hungry Wives is the tale of a suburban Pittsburgh housewife turning to witchcraft as an escape from her doldrums. Perhaps more social commentary than true horror, Romero is still a master and conjures dread and seediness from both roomfuls of shag carpet and boorish husbands.
House of the Devil Lilly DVD 34155
House of the DevilLilly DVD 34155
A truly creepy and terrifying evil-house movie, from 2009 but set in the horror/slasher epoch of 1983. Director Ti West continually ratchets up the fright as a cash-strapped college student takes a babysitting gig at a big old house outside of town. But, there are no kids. And it’s a full lunar eclipse. Oh yeah, and Satan’s in the house.
Messiah of Evil Lilly DVD 34200
Messiah of Evil Lilly DVD 34200
1973. Quasi-zombies. Art. A bright Ralph’s supermarket at night. ‘Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye.’ JOY BANG! Suspended bed. Proto Blue-Man-Group. The director of ‘Howard the Duck’. More art. Fires on the beach. Undead Cult. Point Dune. Second Coming. Electronic score. Blood moon. ELISHA COOK, JR.!
Without Name Lilly DVD 34171
Without Name Lilly DVD 34171
Modern Irish eco-horror by director Lorcan Finnegan. A land surveyor and his assistant are sent on a job into a forest outside of Dublin, only for things to go eerily and dreadfully awry. The sound design is most notable, and to paraphrase the lead character: “I could say it is a doorway or frequency or dream….it is like those things, but not.”
A Halloween Bonus Treat! Seeking additional thrills and chills?
If you’re feeling brave, take a peek at our online Screaming videos! Access these frightful films with
your Duke netid/password.
In 1954, Frederic Wertham published the now infamous Seduction of the Innocent, linking juvenile delinquency to comics. Testifying before Congress in 1954, Wertham stated emphatically that “it is my opinion, without any reasonable doubt, and without any reservation, that comic books are an important contributing factor in many cases of juvenile delinquency.” The ensuing uproar on comics’ deleterious effects on the nation’s youth led to the creation of the Comics Magazine Association of American which in turn issued the Comics Code Authority (CCA).
While the adoption of the code by publishers was voluntary, comics without the CCA logo faced an uphill battle in terms of distribution. This de facto censorship system was wide-ranging, touching on such things as how persons in authority could be portrayed, how crimes could be presented, directives on illustrations, and the portrayals of marriage and sex.
The CCA had a long-term chilling effect on the portrayal of LGBTQIA+ characters in mainstream comics; However, its creation led to the vibrant underground comix movement where artists and authors ignored the strict code. Though the CCA was revised several times in the 1970s, loosening some restrictions, it wasn’t until 1992 in Alpha Flight #106 that Marvel’s Northstar stated, “I am gay.” The CCA was totally abandoned in the early 2000s.
Today, though there is still progress to be made, LGBTQIA+ persons and characters are found in graphic novels from superhero-themed to memoirs. The Lilly Graphic Novel Collection is a great place to begin your exploration. Below are a few highlights from our vast collection. Enjoy!
Fun Home
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. In this award winning graphic memoir, Bechdel chronicles her relationship with her distant father, an English teacher and director of the town’s funeral home, “Fun Home” to the Bechdel family. From childhood through her coming out to her parents, Fun Home explores Bechdel’s fraught relationship with her father, the exploration of her sexuality, and a tragedy that leaves her much to reckon with. Fun Home was adapted for Broadway and has the distinction of being the first Broadway musical featuring a lesbian protagonist. It won the Tony award for Best Musical in 2015. Bechdel is also the author of the critically acclaimed Dykes to Watch Out For series.
Bingo Love
Bingo Love by Tee Franklin (author) and Jenn St.-Onge and Joy San (artists). In 1963, Hazel and Mari meet at church bingo, and their friendship grows into love. This new found love, however, is unacceptable to their families and their community, and Mari’s family moves away. Many years later, after Hazel and Mari each married and raised children, they reconnect at a bingo hall and realize that their feelings are unchanged. Fifty years later, through strength and determination, they claim the life that they always wanted. Bingo Love started as a Kickstarter project until it was picked up by Image Comics.
Our Work Is Everywhere
Our Work is Everywhere by Syan Rose. This graphic non-fiction work highlights the diverse voices in the queer and trans communities. Rose has a broad definition of work, not just what we do in our professional careers but also the ways that we improve ourselves, our communities, and our world. Interviews with queer and trans organizers, health justice activists, martial artists, and more are included, accompanied by Rose’s beautiful and expressive illustrations.
Gender Queer
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe (author) and Phoebe Kobabe (colorist). Both a memoir and an introduction to eir family and readers on what it means to be non-binary, Kobabe (e/em/eir pronouns) chronicles eir journey of self-identity. Kobabe’s touching and honest story is a useful guide on gender identity for everyone.
Heartstopper
HeartstopperbyAlice Oseman. Begun as a serial webcomic in 2016, Heartstopper, available now in two printed volumes, introduces readers to Charlie and Nick who meet and develop a friendship at a British all-boys grammar school. The friendship grows into love. Optioned by Netflix, Heartstopper is slated for live-action adaptation in the near future.
These influential and impactful works are among the hundreds of titles in the Lilly Graphic Novel Collection, located in the first floor Carpenter Room.
The Docuseekstreaming video platform provides a window into subjects and content from around the world and across disciplines. Here is a selection of titles that examine indigenous peoples of North America. Available through Duke Libraries with netid/password authentication, explore new cultures and topics through the lens of award-winning filmmakers.
AmaStream Online
A powerful look at the untold story of the involuntary sterilization of Native American women conducted by the Indian Health Service and lasting well into the 1970s.
(Bullfrog Films, 2019, dir. Lorna Tucker)
Awake : a dream from Standing RockStream Online or Lilly DVD 31281
Moving from summer 2016, when demonstrations over the Dakota Access Pipeline’s demolishing of sacred Native burial grounds began, the film documents the story of Native-led fight for clean water and the environment. The film is a collaboration between indigenous filmmakers: Director Myron Dewey and Executive Producer Doug Good Feather; and environmental Oscar-nominated filmmakers Josh Fox and James Spione.
nipawistamasowin: We Will Stand Up Stream Online
The story of the killing of young Cree man Colten Boushie and his family’s pursuit of justice weaves a profound narrative encompassing the filmmaker’s own adoption. (National Film Board of Canada, 2020, dir. Tasha Hubbard)
PauletteStream Online
Follows the historic campaign of Paulette Jordan, the first Native American candidate — as well as the first woman — to win the Idaho Primary for Governor. (Women Make Movies, 2020, dir. Heather Rae)
Sisters Rising Stream Online Native American survivors of sexual assault fight to restore personal and tribal sovereignty against the backdrop of an ongoing legacy of violent colonization. (Woman Make Movies, 2021, dir. Willow O’Feral)
Tribal Justice Stream Online
Anne Makepeace documents an effective criminal justice reform movement in America: the efforts of tribal courts to return to traditional, community-healing concepts of justice. (Bullfrog Films, 2017, dir. Anne Makepeace)
Without a Whisper Stream online
The untold story of the profound influence of Indigenous women on the beginning of the women’s rights movement in the United States. (Women Make Movies, 2020, dir. Katsitsionni Fox)
Honoring Hispanic Heritage – Explore our film collections
What is a película? A film or movie
Lilly Library presents a sampling of films in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month, which recognizes the contributions and influence of Hispanic and Latinx Americans. Creative members of this community include actors, directors, and screenwriters, represented in the vast array of films in the Duke Libraries collections. Lilly shines its spotlight on just a few of our many documentaries, dramas, and animated films to illuminate the perspective of this vibrant and vital community.
Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her enormous contributions have gone largely unrecognized. Dolores tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice, becoming one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century–and she continues to fight to this day, at 87.
Symbols of Resistance Stream with Duke NetID This documentary illuminates the untold stories of the Chican@ Movement with a focus on events in Colorado and New Mexico. Through interviews with those who shaped the movement and rare historical footage, the film opens a window into a dynamic moment in history and movement building.
Maria, a poor Columbian teenager, is desperate to leave a soul-crushing job. She accepts an offer to transport packets of heroin – which she swallows – to the United States. The ruthless world of drug trafficking proves to be more than she bargained for.
A BoyCalledSailboatLilly DVD 33374 In a slanted dwelling beyond the outskirts of a drought-ridden town, a close Hispanic family accepts an impossible blessing and name their only son Sailboat. Sailboat stirs new love and hope in his family as they forge a simple but proud life in the American Southwest.
La Misma Luna / Under The Same Moon Lilly DVD 12186 or Stream with Duke NetID
This film follows the parallel stories of nine-year-old Carlitos and his mother, Rosario. In the hopes of providing a better life for her son, Rosario works illegally in the U.S. In Mexico, her mother cares for Carlitos.
This film is an exquisitely crafted coming of age tale following a pair of Latina teens who fall gradually in love against the backdrop of East L.A.
Real Women Have CurvesLilly DVD 2281 Should she leave home, go to college and experience life? Or stay home, get married, and keep working in her sister’s struggling garment factory? It may seem an easy decision, but for 18-year-old Mexican-American Ana, every choice she makes this summer will change her life.
Miguel dreams of becoming an accomplished musician like his idol, Ernesto de la Cruz. Desperate to prove his talent, Miguel finds himself in the stunning and colorful Land of the Dead following a mysterious chain of events. Along the way, he meets charming trickster Hector, and together, they set off on an extraordinary journey to unlock the real story behind Miguel’s family history.
The Book Of LifeLilly DVD 27605 and Ford 6902 or Stream with Duke NetID Embark on a journey with Manolo, a young man who is torn between fulfilling the expectations of his family and following his heart.
Many more films by, and about, the Hispanic and Latinx communities can be found in the Duke University Libraries collections. Honor and celebrate Hispanic and Latinx themes all year long and continue your exploration through our collections.
Members of these advisory boards will help improve the learning and research environment for Duke University students and advise the Libraries on topics such as study spaces, research resources, integrating library services into academic courses, and marketing library services to students.
The boards will typically meet three times a semester to discuss all aspects of Duke Libraries and provide feedback to library staff. This is an amazing opportunity for students to serve on the advisory board of a large, nationally recognized non-profit organization.
All three advisory boards are now taking applications or nominations. Application deadlines are:
Members of the Graduate and Professional Student Advisory Board and the Undergraduate Advisory Board will be selected and notified by mid-September, and groups will begin to meet in late September. More information is available on the advisory board website, where you will also find links to the online applications forms.
For more information or questions about these opportunities, please contact:
Okay, that headline was total clickbait. We admit it. We’ll stoop pretty low in order to seize a teachable moment. But now that we have your attention, we really do want to convey some important info about using the library this semester. Things are getting back to nearly normal, and the more you know ahead of time, the smarter you’ll look in front of all your friends. (Depending on your friends.) So here we go.
1. No more Library Takeout. Book stacks are open!
Despite the funkalicious earworm it inspired, Library Takeout is history. You no longer need to request books online and schedule a time to pick them up. That’s so 2020. Library stacks are open again, so help yourself and browse all you like. Duke faculty and grad students can still have books delivered to the library of their choice by clicking the green “Request” button in the catalog.
2. Our hours have changed.
In pre-COVID times, certain Duke libraries used to be open 24 hours during the week. This semester we’ve had to scale back, due to pandemic-related budget cuts. Our busiest libraries (Perkins, Bostock, and Lilly) will still be open until midnight most days. And if you really want to keep burning the midnight oil, we’ll have study spaces available in the von der Heyden Pavilion and Rubenstein Library. See our posted hours online for the most up-to-date info.
3. You can still reserve a seat (but you don’t have to).
Last year, if you wanted to study in the library, you had to book a seat in advance. Not any more. Study areas are available again on a first-come, first-served basis. However, one thing this past year taught us was that some students actually liked booking a seat, because they didn’t have to wander around to find a place to work. So we’ve kept a limited number of reservable study seats available. They’re in the Ahmadieh Family Commons on the second floor of Rubenstein Library, just outside of the Gothic Reading Room.
4. We have textbooks!
Every semester, we purchase the textbooks for the 100 largest classes at Duke, so that you can check them out for free. Left your textbook in your dorm room? Or want to try before you buy? Borrow our copy for up to three hours at a time, then return it for someone else to use. How great is that?
5. In a hurry? Dislike personal interactions? Check yourself out.
Several libraries across Duke’s campus have self-checkout stations, where you can quickly and easily check out your own books without having to wait in line or deal with an actual human being. (We get it―ew.)
6. There is no number 6.
Gotcha.
7. We’re actually very friendly people who just want you to be happy.
People who work in libraries are some of the most approachable and service-oriented individuals you’ll ever meet. We genuinely want to help you. We also have a bunch of different ways you can get the help you need, whether by chat, email, phone, in-person, or Zoom. So don’t be afraid to ask us any question. We’re smiling at you under these masks.
Chatter: The Voice in our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross. Tell a stranger that you talk to yourself, and you’re likely to get written off as eccentric. But the truth is that we all have a voice in our head. When we talk to ourselves, we often hope to tap into our inner coach but find our inner critic instead. When we’re facing a tough task, our inner coach can buoy us up: Focus–you can do this. But, just as often, our inner critic sinks us entirely: I’m going to fail. They’ll all laugh at me. What’s the use? Ethan Kross explores the silent conversations we have with ourselves. Interweaving groundbreaking behavioral and brain research from his own lab with real-world case studies–from a pitcher who forgets how to pitch, to a Harvard undergrad negotiating her double life as a spy–Kross explains how these conversations shape our lives, work, and relationships. You can read reviews here, here, and here.
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix, author of The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. Lynette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up. Read a review here, and an interview here.
How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones. In the tradition of Zadie Smith and Marlon James, a brilliant Caribbean writer delivers a powerful story about four people each desperate to escape their legacy of violence in a so-called “paradise.” In Baxter’s Beach, Barbados, Lala’s grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister. It’s a cautionary tale, about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers and go into the Baxter’s Tunnels. When she’s grown, Lala lives on the beach with her husband, Adan, a petty criminal with endless charisma whose thwarted burglary of one of the beach mansions sets off a chain of events with terrible consequences. The book is an intimate and visceral portrayal of interconnected lives, across race and class, in a rapidly changing resort town, told by an astonishing new author of literary fiction. You can read reviews here and here.
I Like to Watch: Arguing My Way through the TV Revolution by Emily Nussbaum. From The New Yorker ‘s fiercely original, Pulitzer Prize-winning culture critic, a provocative collection of new and previously published essays arguing that we are what we watch. In this collection, including two never-before-published essays, Nussbaum writes about her passion for television, beginning with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the show that set her on a fresh intellectual path. She explores the rise of the female screw-up, how fans warp the shows they love, the messy power of sexual violence on TV, and the year that jokes helped elect a reality-television president. More than a collection of reviews, the book makes a case for toppling the status anxiety that has long haunted the “idiot box,” even as it transformed. Through it all, Nussbaum recounts her fervent search, over fifteen years, for a new kind of criticism, one that resists the false hierarchy that elevates one kind of culture (violent, dramatic, gritty) over another (joyful, funny, stylized). It’s a book that celebrates television as television, even as each year warps the definition of just what that might mean.
The Agitators: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women’s Rights by Dorothy Wickenden. In the 1850s, Harriet Tubman, strategically brilliant and uncannily prescient, rescued some seventy enslaved people from Maryland’s Eastern Shore and shepherded them north along the underground railroad. One of her regular stops was Auburn, New York, where she entrusted passengers to Martha Coffin Wright, a Quaker mother of seven, and Frances A. Seward, the wife of William H. Seward, who served over the years as governor, senator, and secretary of state under Abraham Lincoln. Through richly detailed letters from the time and exhaustive research, Wickenden traces the second American revolution these women fought to bring about, the toll it took on their families, and its lasting effects on the country. Riveting and profoundly relevant to our own time, The Agitators brings a vibrant, original voice to this transformative period in our history. You can read review here, and the US National Archives has a video (starts at about the 10 minute mark) of a virtual book discussion with the author.
Lilly’s “double degree” holder, Sarah at Graduate School Commencement May 2021
The sequel: Lilly Undergraduate Class of 2020*
Do you remember the Library before the covid era? If you have been in Lilly Library in the past 5 years, at any time of the day as well as late in the evenings, you may have seen our graduate student assistant, Sarah.
Already a four-year undergraduate Lilly alumna featured in last year’s spotlight on the Lilly Class of 2020*, covid provided Sarah the opportunity to work at Lilly for one more year. For us, it was a bonus year to work with one of our all-star Lilly student veterans!
Adjusting to a very different and compressed library schedule, shelving thousands of returned books, meticulously searching for the hundreds of books requested for Take-Out, actually sending the notifications, collecting and packaging the books requested to be picked up at Lilly, Sarah was an integral member of our Lilly team.
Now it is your chance to get to know Sarah in this profile, and you will appreciate her as much we do.
Graduate Student Sarah
Sarah – ready to leave campus for the start of her career
Hometown: Flower Mound, Texas
Academic field of study: Master of Engineering in Biomedical Engineering
Activities on campus: Club Swimming, Graduate Resident for Housing and Residential Life, working at Lilly Lilly
Favorite on-campus activity: Swimming at Taishoff!
Favorite off-campus activity: Swimming at another pool / lake / body of water!
Favorite off-campus eatery: Lately, Thai on Main (and Pincho Loco for dessert)
Describe your work in Lilly and the changes you saw this pandemic year:
Saying farewell to one of her favorite spots… in addition to Lilly, of course!
Q: What’s the strangest or most interesting book or movie you’ve come across in Lilly?
A: I didn’t have a compelling answer for this when I graduated from undergrad last year, and unfortunately, I still don’t have one now… But I always enjoy when I get to process or shelve graphic novels, because it is fun to flip through them and try and get an idea of what the story is from a few of the images. Lilly has a great collection of graphic novels in the PN section that I could spend quite some time sifting through!
Q: What is your favorite part about working at Lilly?
A: My favorite part about working at Lilly was getting to know the amazing staff there! Almost every shift that I worked, I would have an opportunity to speak to a staff member and learn about everything going on at the different libraries across campus. One of the bright spots of COVID-19 was switching to working daytime shifts (instead of my typical closing shifts) so I had more of an opportunity to interact with the staff.
Q: Least favorite?
A: My least favorite part of working at Lilly this year was bagging the hold requests for Library Takeout after processing them, because it always reminded me of how much paper we were having to use (even though it was necessary to make the takeout process more sanitary).
Q: What is one memory from Lilly that you will never forget?
A: To this day, I still remember my interview for working at Lilly! It was my first interview for a job on campus, so I wore a dress and tried my best to impress Yunyi (who retired this past winter, and who I miss dearly). She asked me about the time I spent volunteering at a library in high school and fortunately decided that I would be a good match for Lilly, and the rest is history! I will also remember my last day at Lilly, which was incredibly bittersweet – I received an incredibly sweet gift from Lilly’s staff, but had to say goodbye to a place I have called home for nearly 5 years now.
Q: What is working in a now almost empty Lilly like compared to your past work at the Lilly desk?
A: The main difference is how much interaction with other people I got – while processing requests for Library Takeout, I spent most of my time sitting alone in a room in front of a computer. When I worked at the desk, I was interacting with patrons and staff consistently. Of course, when I worked the 4am closing shifts, there were some nights where I saw almost no one at all. Surprisingly, I do miss those closing shifts (even when I just wanted to go to sleep) because they were some of my most productive nights of studying.
Q: What will you miss most about Lilly?
A: The staff who supported me through 4 years of undergrad and then allowed me to come back and work during my master’s program (and through the pandemic) are certainly who I will miss the most. I already missed Yunyi during the spring semester but am now having to miss everyone else too. On a less serious note, I also am already missing being able to see new books and DVDs every week that I add to my list of to-read/watch (once I get through finals).
Q: What are your plans after finishing your degree and leaving Duke?
A: I am moving only a short distance away to Raleigh, NC to work as a Software Engineer at Garmin International.
After five years together, it will be strange not to see Sarah in Lilly. However, we wish Sarah the best and much success ahead. Thank you, Sarah, and congratulations!
Explore films from the Duke Libraries to educate yourself about the significant contributions Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have made to U.S. culture, and as a reminder of ongoing challenges they face, along with the anti-racist work that we have yet to do.
Directed by Celine Parreñas Shimizu, 2021
The Celine Archive Streaming video – Duke netid/password required The Celine Archive is simultaneously an act of journalism, a journey into family and community memory and archives, a love poem, a story of grief and trauma, and a séance for the buried history of Filipino-Americans. Filmmaker and scholar Celine Parreñas Shimizu artfully weaves together her own story of grief with the story of the tragic death of Celine Navarro, which has become lore. In 1932, Navarro was buried alive by her own community of Filipino-Americans in Northern California, but the circumstances surrounding her death were and are unclear and have oft been spun, sensationalized, and dramatized. The filmmaker, a grieving mother with ties to the same community, finds resonance with Navarro’s memory and long-lost story, and she sets out to first learn — and then tell — the truth about Navarro’s death, ultimately portraying her as a feminist heroine.
PBS, 2020
Asian Americans Lilly DVD 33607 | Streaming video – Duke netid/password required
Asian Americans is a five-hour film PBS series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. As America becomes more diverse, and more divided, while facing unimaginable challenges, how do we move forward together? Told through intimate and personal lives, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played in shaping the nation’s story.
PBS, 2018
The Chinese Exclusion Act DVD 31536 | Streaming video – Duke netid/password required
This American Experience documentary examines the origin, history and impact of the 1882 law that made it illegal for Chinese workers to come to America and for Chinese nationals already here ever to become U.S. citizens. The first in a long line of acts targeting the Chinese for exclusion, it remained in force for more than 60 years.
dir. by Puhipau and Joan Lander, 2005
Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege
Streaming video – Duke netid/password required
Inducted into the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress for 2020. Mauna Kea: Temple Under Siege paints a portrait of a mountain that has become a symbol of the Hawaiian struggle for physical, cultural and political survival. The program explores conflicting forces as they play themselves out in a contemporary island society where cultures collide daily. In an effort to find commonalities among indigenous people elsewhere regarding sacred mountains, the documentary visits Apache elders of Arizona who face the reality of telescope development on their revered mountain, Dzil Nchaa Si An, known as Mt. Graham.
directed by Renee Tajima-Peña, 1996
My America, or Honk if you Love Buddha Lilly DVD 33771
The director of Who Killed Vincent Chin? takes to the road to see what it means to be Asian American in our rapidly-changing society.
Directed by Christine Choy and Renee Tajima, 1990
Who Killed Vincent Chin? Lilly DVD 28025 | Streaming video – Duke netid/password required
This Academy-Award nominated film is a powerful statement about racism in working-class America. It relates the stark facts of Vincent Chin’s brutal murder. Outrage filled the Asian-American community, after his accused murderer received a suspended sentence and a small fine, to the point where they organized an unprecedented civil rights protest. His bereaved mother, brought up to be self-effacing, successfully led a nationwide crusade for a retrial. This tragic story is interwoven with the whole fabric of timely social concerns. It addresses issues such as the failure of our judicial system to value every citizen’s rights equally, the collapse of the automobile industry under pressure from Japanese imports, and the souring of the American dream for the blue collar worker.
Asian and Asian American Film
Looking for Feature Films and more?
Lilly Library’s collection of feature films about Asian American and Pacific Islanders is rich and deep! Classic films, romantic comedies, family dramas, etc., created by Asians and Asian Americans are available to entertain and inspire you.
Discover the Duke Libraries’ collection of DVDs and streaming video platforms to watch Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell, Joy Luck Club , The Namesake and Minari along with a host of other great movies.
Streaming Access available via Duke netid/password.
What are we saying, of course you do. That funkalicious earworm is probably still bopping around inside your head right now.
With its playful animation, catchy chorus, and infectious beat, the short music video takes a simple set of step-by-step instructions for using a library service during the pandemic and transforms them into something unexpectedly funky, danceable, and fun. It was composed, animated, and produced last summer by a staff member in our Music Library (and Duke alum!), Jamie Keesecker.
Soon after it was released, the video became a viral hit both on campus and off, racking up over 890,000 views on YouTube and more than a thousand appreciative comments. There have been articles written about it (such as this one,this one, and this one), drum jam fan tributes, and the music streaming service Spotify even tweeted about it, calling it “the greatest library-focused track ever made.” (Speaking of Spotify, you can also find the song there, where it has been played almost 300,000 times.)
Now the video has earned another distinction—the admiration of our library peers!
Every year, the Arlies festival highlights and shares multimedia projects developed by member institutions to increase knowledge and use of libraries, their spaces, services, collections, and expertise. The films are voted on by ARL member institutions, which include the 124 largest research libraries throughout the U.S. and Canada.
We are honored by the recognition, and absolutely delighted for our colleague Jamie, who deserves all the credit for bringing Duke’s unofficial pandemic anthem into the world.
Thanks to the video’s popularity, relatively few people at Duke can say they don’t know how to check out books from the library right now. As a matter of fact, many fans of the video who have no connection to Duke whatsoever could easily tell you the steps. As one YouTube commenter noted, “How am I going to explain that my favorite song is an instructional video for a library I’ve never been to, at a school I’ve never attended?!”
We may never be able to replicate the success of “Library Takeout.” In fact, we’re positive we won’t. (All those people who subscribed to our YouTube Channel are going to be pretty disappointed by our usual fare of instructional videos and event recordings.) But we feel lucky to have hit on something that clicked with our users and supporters, at a time when they (and we) really needed it.
So go ahead, give it another listen (or five). It’s precisely what you need.
Grace in one of her favorite spots in Lilly Library
Do you remember the Library before the covid era? If you had ever been in Lilly Library late in the evenings, you may have seen our graduate student assistant, Odunola (who goes by Grace) at our desk. We are fortunate that Grace continued to work with us this past year. And, what a year it has been!
Adjusting to a very different library schedule, re-shelving thousands of returned books that were warehoused during the summer of 2020, scrupulously searching for books requested for Library Take-Out, and even helping staff prepare over 1500 “Welcome” library goodie bags for the Class of 2024 – Grace has been a vital member of our Lilly team this past year.
Now is your chance to get to know Grace in this profile, and you will appreciate her as much we do!
Graduate Student Grace
Grace celebrating graduation
Hometown: Oyan, Osun State, Nigeria
Family: Father, Mother, a brother, two sisters, three nieces, and a nephew.
Academic field of study: Medical Physics M.Sc.
Activities on campus: Member of GPSG, walking, my research work involved 3D printing and working with the staff at the Duke Innovation Co-Lab
Favorite on-campus activity: Visiting the Duke clinics to shadow physicists, performing QA on medical equipment like the Linac and the brachytherapy afterloader.
Favorite off-campus activity: Participating in my local church’s monthly food drive to support the community.
Favorite off-campus eatery: Shanghai (on Hillsborough)
Describe your work in Lilly and the changes you saw this pandemic year:
Grace surveying the Lilly lobby
Q: What’s the strangest or most interesting book or movie you’ve come across in Lilly? A: There was a book (I can’t really remember the title) that showed portraits of African/Black women drawn during the slave trade era. According to the author, having one’s portrait done at that time was a thing of honor, however, the women were posed in such a dishonorable way because they were slaves even though they were beautiful to behold. It was an odd book.
Q: What is your favorite part about working at Lilly? A: Manning the front desk and being able to help people out, working with kind and flexible staff members, occasional free food
Q: Least favorite? A: Book search – I feel I have left the task incomplete when I do not find the book.
Q: What is one memory from Lilly that you will never forget? A: How excited I was to come back after the initial lockdown restriction was eased. I truly missed working at Lilly.
Q: What is working in a now almost empty Lilly like compared to your past work at the Lilly desk? A: It was quite strange at first. The pandemic was unexpected and its effects were far-reaching. The usually busy front desk and reading rooms became deserted and really quiet. It was quite strange. I miss the hustle and bustle of pre-covid.
Q: What will you miss most about Lilly? A: The building itself! I love the architecture from the outside and the different rooms, especially the Thomas room upstairs. Apparently, I love old buildings.
Q: What are your plans after finishing your degree and leaving Duke? A: I will be proceeding to obtain a Ph.D. degree in Medical Physics from the University of Alberta in Canada.
We wish Grace the best and much success as she continues her studies far from Duke. Congratulations!
April 2021 marks the 20th anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month (SAAM). To commemorate the anniversary, we’re highlighting powerful films in Lilly Library’s collection that illuminate and interrogate this urgent, essential issue.
On the Record (2020, dirs. Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering)
On the Record(2020, dirs. Kirby Dick & Amy Ziering)
streaming video | Duke netid/password required On the Record presents the haunting story of former A&R executive Drew Dixon, whose career and personal life were upended by the alleged abuse she faced from her high-profile male bosses. The documentary follows Dixon as she grapples with her decision to become one of the first women of color, in the wake of #MeToo, to come forward to publicly accuse hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons of sexual misconduct.
Primas (2018, dir. Laura Bari)
Primas (2018, dir. Laura Bari) Lilly DVD 32294
Primas is an evocative and poetic portrait of two Argentine teenage cousins who come of age together as they overcome the heinous acts of violence that interrupted their childhoods.
The Bystander Moment (2018, dir. Jackson Katz)
The Bystander Moment: Transforming Rape Culture at its Roots(2018, dir. Jeremy Earp)
streaming video | Duke netid/password required
The #MeToo movement has shined much-needed light on the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and abuse and created unprecedented demand for gender violence prevention models that actually work. The Bystander Momenttells the story of one of the most prominent and proven of these models – the innovative bystander approach developed by pioneering scholar and activist Jackson Katz and his colleagues at Northeastern University’s Center for the Study of Sport in Society in the 1990s. Check out this and other films on gender violence prevention in the Media Education Foundation collection.
Breaking Silence: a Film (2017, dir. Nadya Ali)
Breaking Silence: a Film (2017, dir. Nadya Ali) Lilly DVD 31056
In Breaking Silence: a Film, Three Muslim women share their stories of sexual assault–and, in a deeply personal way, they challenge the stigma that has long suppressed the voice of survivors. Throughout America, many Muslim communities persist in stigmatizing all discussion of sex-related subjects. This documentary takes a radical and humanizing approach to the emotional scars of sexual assault, giving women the space to share their voices without shame.
And coming soon to Lilly’s film collection: SISTERS RISING, a powerful feature documentary about six Native American women reclaiming personal and tribal sovereignty. Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault than all other American women, federal studies have shown, with one in three Native women reporting having been raped during her lifetime. Their stories shine an unflinching light on righting injustice on both an individual and systemic level.
All submissions must be received by June 15, 2021.
Aptman Prizes
The Aptman Prizes recognize undergraduates’ excellence in research, including their analysis, evaluation and synthesis of sources.
Any undergraduate student who uses library resources to complete a paper and project as part of his or her undergraduate coursework at Duke may be considered for an Aptman Prize.
The Middlesworth Awards recognize excellence of analysis, research, and writing by Duke University students in the use of primary sources held by the Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
All papers or projects from Duke undergraduate or graduate students that are based largely or wholly on sources in the Rubenstein Library are eligible.
The Holsti Prize recognizes excellence in undergraduate research using primary sources for political science or public policy.
Undergraduate papers that use primary sources and were written for a course, independent study, or thesis in the Political Science or Public Policy departments are eligible.
To celebrate Women’s History Month, Lilly Library shines a spotlight on Women in Sport. Books and movies – including e-books and streaming film – which feature women athletes are “teeming” in our collections. The titles featured here give a sense of the breadth of the issues and themes present in the world of women’s athletics.
To discover more about women athletes, browse the Duke Libraries catalogue. A basic subject search of women athletes reveals hundreds of titles available. Your Duke netID is your ticket to read, learn, witness, and celebrate the wide range of women and their athletic challenges and achievements!
Based on the Instagram account @TheUnsungHeroines, this book focuses on the pioneering, forgotten female athletes of the twentieth century as featured in Instagram. Rarely seen photos and in-depth interviews feature past and present game changers such as Abby Wambach and Cari Champion.
This online book offers a sweeping look at the experience of Black women athletes. Through the stories of six groundbreaking women– Alice Coachman, Ora Washington, Althea Gibson, Wilma Rudolph, Wyomia Tyus, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee– author Jennifer H. Lansbury outlines the careers of these women and their experiences with attitudes of race, class, and gender.
What do we know about the communities of women in sport in Latin America? Futbolera weaves the stories of these women as athletes and fans in the tapestry of social class, national and racial identities, sexuality, and gender roles in countries better known for male athletes of global fame.
GV709 .S495 2016
Kicking Off: How Women in Sport are Changing the Game
There’s a battle being fought. It’s raging on the sports fields, in the newsrooms and behind the scenes at every major broadcaster. Women in sport fight for equality, but are they breaking down the barriers? Writer Sarah Shephard looks behind headlines to see whether progress is really being made.
Film – Documentary and Feature
Films exploring and illuminating the challenges faced by women athletes the world over are highlighted here:
Streaming or DVD 14381
Offside Streaming or DVD14381
During the 2006 Iran-Bahrain match, the Tehran soccer stadium roars with 100,000 cheering men and, officially, no women. According to Islamic custom, women are not permitted to watch or participate in men’s sports. Many ambitious young female fans manage to sneak into the arena but are caught and sent to a holding pen, guarded by male soldiers their own age. Duty makes these young men and women adversaries, but duty can’t overcome shared dreams and an overriding sense of national pride and humanity.
Examines the post Title IX media environment in terms of the representation of female athletes. It demonstrates that while men’s identities in sports are equated with deeply held values of courage, strength and endurance, the accomplishments of female athletes are framed very differently and in much more stereotypical ways.
Dr. Donnis Thompson, coach, Patsy Mink ,U.S. congresswoman, and Beth McLachlin, team captain of the University of Hawaii volleyball team, battle discrimination from the halls of Washington D.C. to the dusty volleyball courts of the University of Hawaii, fighting for the rights of young women to play sports. The film reveals how change-makers overcome injustice with wisdom, an innovative spirit, and without becoming victims to their circumstances.
Best Films about Women in Sport?
In a less serious vein – do you have a favorite film about women in sports?
Film Picks: Women in Sport
Nine of the titles most frequently named in “Best” or “Top” lists are in our collections:
Sam Hammond in the room where he played the Duke Chapel carillon, 2018. Photo by Les Todd.
On February 25, 2021, the Duke University Libraries lost a longtime friend and cherished colleague. For many years J. Samuel Hammond was perhaps best known (or best heard) as Duke’s official carillonneur. He began playing the carillon in 1965 while an undergraduate at Duke and was eventually promoted to perform in an official capacity when he graduated three years later. For fifty straight years—one for every bell that hangs in the Chapel tower—Sam was Duke’s ringer-in-chief. In honor of a long and literally resounding record of service, Duke’s Board of Trustees passed a resolution in 2018 naming the carillon in his honor.
Illustration from “De campanis commentarius” (1612), purchased in Hammond’s honor when he retired from the Libraries in 2012.
For those of us in the Libraries, Sam was also our co-worker—someone we saw, spoke to, and joked with almost every day. He worked here for close to four decades, starting out as Duke’s first music librarian in 1974, then becoming a rare book cataloger in 1986, a position he held until his retirement in 2012. To send him off with style, the Rubenstein Library purchased in his honor an extremely rare 1612 first edition of Angelo Rocca’s De campanis commentarius (A Commentary on Bells), one of the earliest studies of bells and bell ringing.
After he retired from the Libraries, Sam was given a carrel on the fourth floor of Bostock Library so that he could continue his personal research and a project editing the correspondence of Hugh James Rose, an Anglican clergyman of the early nineteenth century who was instrumental in initiating the Oxford Movement. Happily, that meant we had the pleasure of continuing to see Sam around the library on a regular basis. Until 2020, that is.
After he died last week, those of us in the Libraries began to share some of our fondest memories of Sam with each other. And since we are unable to gather and celebrate his life in person, we wanted to collect and share some of those reminiscences with you, the Duke community, virtually. Needless to say, he leaves behind many friends in Durham, at Duke, and around the country. If you’re reading this and you would like to contribute your own memory of Sam, please drop it in the comments section. We’ll be sure to include it.
Among his many endearing and old-fashioned characteristics, Sam was a great writer of short personal notes. He would always record the date in Roman numerals (even in emails!) and close with the Latin benediction “PAX.” The kiss of peace, which we now return to him. Rest now, Sam. The bells are ringing for you. PAX.
Tributes and Testimonials
I came to Duke in 1983 and Sam was my colleague from then on. He was so wise and well-read, but also possibly the most modest person I have known, also the most generous and thoughtful. Knowing how delighted they would be to see the world from the top of the Chapel, over the years he invited each of my then-young sons (who were practically raised at Duke) to take the thrilling ride up—and then gave them each (on their respective visits) the ultimate responsibility of marking 5 p.m. with the five “bongs” heard all over campus. Their memories of those special visits with Sam are still vivid.
I will also remember Sam’s kindness—knowing of my interest in tango, he regularly kept me updated on the appearances of the Lorena Guillén Tango Ensemble, including her memorable concerts on Jewish tango and her project “The Other Side of my Heart,” the stories of Latina immigrants. And I will always fondly recall the image of my encounters with Sam in the Libraries or on the quad, when he would bow and doff his hat, with a smile and a pseudo-formal greeting of “Dr. Jakubs!”—followed by a much more chatty personal conversation about so many things. Thank you, Sam. PAX.
—Deborah Jakubs, Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian and Vice Provost for Library Affairs
Soon after I began working at Duke in 2010, Sam offered to make me a scarf. I had no idea how broad his talents were, and I was touched by this personal gesture as I was trying to find my footing in the library. A beautiful blue scarf soon appeared in my inbox with a handwritten note. It was one of many notes I found in my box in the years before Sam retired, often calling something to my attention and occasionally letting me know I’d done something well. I valued his opinion and sought to uphold his high standards for the Duke Libraries. I will greatly miss greeting Sam in the library or on the quad. And I will wear my scarf with gratitude and seek to be worthy of it.
—Naomi L. Nelson, Associate University Librarian and Director, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library
My children knew Sam Hammond as “Mr. Sam.” Over the course of thirteen years, we passed Mr. Sam on 751 as he walked to campus wearing his black coat and his signature hat. On our daily commute to school, the kids and I looked expectantly for Mr. Sam just as Academy Road intersected with Wrightwood Ave. If we were on time, the kids would wave and Mr. Sam would tip his hat.
Sam Hammond shared his musical gifts with our children. When my son was nine, Sam accompanied Micah as he learned the role of Amahl for Long Leaf Opera’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. For many years, Sam and Marie attended the children’s concerts—piano recitals at Durham School of the Arts and the Yiddish Song Festival at Beth El Synagogue. Mira remembers Sam jotting down the date of her event in a small leather-bound black book. This book, the suspenders, and Sam’s hat were part of what made Mr. Sam so enchanting.
One memory that the children both recollect: we bumped into Mr. Sam on the quad a few Decembers ago when he was en route to play the carillon. We chatted, and as he turned to tip his hat, he wished us a Happy Chanukah. When he arrived at the carillon, he played his traditional 5 o’clock bells and then moved from a hymn to a melody which both children recognized—they smiled and sang along as Sam played “I have a little dreidel.” We will continue to treasure these memories of our beloved Mr. Sam.
— Trudi Abel, Research Services Archivist, Rubenstein Library
Something he gave us all, day after day, was the ringing of the carillon as we were released from work at the end of the day: the ringing out of bronze bells high in the chapel’s belfry, signifying completion and freedom to one and all, regardless of race, rank or creed. And yet, with such power at his fingertips, it seemed that he treasured library work equally, its quiet spaces and detailed endeavors, requiring the most sterling patience and devotion. Over the pressed black and white attire of a gentleman he often wore a dark green work smock, navigating the halls and vestibules where I might meet him and say hello. He brought a delightful and unique formality to the most mundane encounters, investing them with a subtle radiance. I will miss him. He was like an ambassador from a better world.
— Mary Yordy, Senior Library Assistant, Conservation Services
My story is about Sam’s care of new parents. When I became a parent in the early-mid 2000s, Sam would bestow gifts of crocheted or knitted items for our babies that he presented in his humble, loving way. My memory is that he waited to give the gifts until we’d come back to work to take the opportunity to offer a few carefully chosen sympathetic and supportive words about surviving the experience of new parenthood. I still have the blanket he made for us.
— Laura Micham, Merle Hoffman Director, Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture
Before my retirement in 2010 from what is now the Rubenstein Library, I had an office on the second floor that looked right onto the quad in front of Duke Chapel. This gave me a front row seat to Sam’s daily recitals. I often stayed longer than I needed, just to be able to sit back and enjoy the bells.
More than that though, my responsibilities in the library put all of the rare book and manuscript technical service operations under my supervision. This meant that Sam, as a rare book cataloger, was technically under my supervision. This was laughable, since Sam had more knowledge about rare book cataloging tucked into the hardened and muscular folds of one hand than almost anyone in the state of North Carolina! It did, however, afford me the pleasant excuse to meet with him periodically.
Some memories that stand out include hearing about his annual trek to the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where there was an annual gathering of carillon artists from around the country. Sam especially liked the atmosphere of Sewanee, which was a traditional old-style college, where upperclassmen were required to wear academic gowns to class. Given Sam’s singular (and easily recognizable from 100 yards away) style of dress, I often thought that he would have been more comfortable wearing his own academic gown.
After my own retirement, I was often on campus in the morning on my way to Wilson Gym and would run into Sam coming though the clock tower passage from Crowell Quad on his way to the library (where he kept a carrel after his retirement to volunteer his efforts to resolve lingering rare book cataloging issues). There was always a tip of the hat and a brief genial conversation on families, the weather and other pleasantries.
A couple of years ago I was at a retirement party at the Schwartz-Butters building for a Wilson/Card gym staff member. Somehow I ended up in conversation with David Cutcliffe, Duke’s football coach, and he asked me if I knew anything about a gentleman wearing a hat and usually carrying a bag that he would see walking along Academy Road as he would come into work in the morning. It didn’t take much elaboration to know he was talking about Sam Hammond. I spoke with him briefly about Sam and his work in the Chapel and the library. The very next time I encountered Sam, he told me that Coach Cutcliffe had pulled his car over to introduce himself and chat with Sam. I think this was the start of an interesting friendship. After Sam’s heart attack last summer, I managed indirectly to get word to the coach and I know that he immediately got in touch with Sam.
— Steve Hensen (Retired), Rubenstein Library
Sam was always gracious. He shared the carillon with alumni and friends. Whenever I invited someone for a special experience, Sam always enthralled. I will miss him and his gentleness. And the elevator rides to the top of Duke and his world.
— Tom Hadzor, Associate University Librarian for Development
When I started the University Archives in 1972, I wondered who this person I kept seeing around the building wearing a three-quarter-length coat as sort of a working uniform was. Then I noticed the variety of work stations he occupied. I got to know him as the carillonneur through my association with the Friends of the Chapel. I quickly discovered that whatever he was doing it was with thoroughness, integrity, passion, and with wit and a twinkle in his eye. Over the years, decades really, Sam became a trusted friend and confident who shared a love for the university and its history. He was unique. His role and contribution to Duke was unique. Such people have made the university what it is. His presence will be missed and all who knew Sam will miss him greatly.
—William E. King (Retired), University Archivist 1972-2002
Sam was always very kind to me. When I went to his office to review an item, we would have long chats, and he would show me all the wonderful things he was working on. Sam always took the time to say that he appreciated that I was here. That made me feel good. I appreciated his kindness, his sharp wit, and his willingness to help you with any question you had for him. Even after retirement he would make time to stop and chat if we ran into each other in the hallway. I will miss his presence greatly.
— Beth Doyle, Leona B. Carpenter Senior Conservator and Head, Conservation Services Department
I knew Sam primarily as a Rare Books Librarian when I worked in the library as staff member from 1993-2000. There was no one I’d rather give a curious old book to than Sam, just to see what he thought and how it connected to the thousands of others he had taken his glasses off to pore over; you can’t “Google” information like that. We had a special connection, as native Georgians and as musicians, and I learned a great deal about rare books and collegiality from him. PAX, SH, from GB 26 II.
— Gary R. Boye, Erneston Music Library, Appalachian State University
I worked and socialized with Sam Hammond throughout our long careers in the Duke University Libraries. He played the organ at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church for my marriage with Catherine Blue, a Duke graduate. He was a quintessential gentleman, highly cultured, and someone with whom one could discuss anything with ease, understanding, and mirth. When I had the privilege of hearing the first concert on the great Fisk organ at the new Catholic Cathedral in Raleigh, it was Sam who played the carillon afterwards. Sam was a monarchist, and we had reasons to explore that culture joyfully. He inserted a special piece of music for me on the Duke Carillon after my retirement. He was always the same.
— William Rector Erwin, Jr. (Retired), Manuscript Cataloger and Reference Librarian, Manuscript Department, 1960-1999
I’d just started at Duke in July 2018. I can’t remember when it was exactly but in my first few days but Sam came in and came to my station. He said, “You’re new here!” and I said “Yes sir, I just got here from Davidson College.” He said that he was sure I’d do a good job and that he was glad to have me as part of the Duke community. He didn’t know this but I was a total ball of anxiety. Davidson was a small liberal arts college and I’d come here to work for a behemoth of an institution. That simple act of kindness meant more to me than he knew, but that was just Sam, doing good deeds wherever he went.
— Jeremy Martin, Reserves Coordinator
Sam always had a smile on his face; his laughter was a happy chuckle.
— Catherine Leonardi (Retired), Music Cataloger
When I became a rare book cataloger, Sam Hammond became one of my mentors, always treating me with courtly kindness and giving sound advice. I especially enjoyed opportunities to share our mutual admiration of Queen Elizabeth II. I respected Sam’s firm dignity and appreciated his gentle courtesy toward all our Special Collections colleagues, as well as the library’s patrons and visitors.
—Nixie Miller (Retired), Rubenstein Library
Sam was a steady presence in the library. Walking through Perkins, I’d run into him several times a week. He’d tip his hat, smile and share a hello. Every. Single. Time. For a while, I didn’t know who he was or how he knew me. Was he an alum who loved the library? A professor that I had somehow forgotten I met or knew? Nope – just a gentle man who exuded the warmth of human kindness.
— Shawn J. Miller, Director, Duke Learning Innovation
Before he retired as carillonneur, I often encountered Sam on my after-work walk to my car as he was leaving the Chapel after playing the carillon that day. He would always smile and tip his hat to me. Occasionally, we would stop and chat for a few minutes if either of us had recently heard from a mutual friend who used to be a faculty member in the Divinity School. He will be sorely missed!
—Jim Coble (Retired), Information Technology Services, Duke Libraries
I succeeded Sam as Music Librarian, and I remember walking into his former office in the Biddle Building in early January of 1987, ready to start my new job. The office was left in immaculate order for the next person. I was so grateful for that, and it helped me to feel that I had come to the right place. Over the years until I retired in 2005, I conferred with Sam about a number of things, not the least of which was his invitation to my family and myself to visit him in the upper room of the carillon tower while he held forth at the special console. I’ll always associate Sam with the grand Chapel bells, spreading their wonderful tones and overtones over the university landscape and issuing an invitation to all to pause and listen.
— John Druesedow (Retired), Music Librarian, 1987–2005
I worked with Sam for many years and he was always the most pleasant person that you ever wanted to meet. Always willing to assist you with your needs and I loved to hear him laugh. My deepest condolences to his family.
— Beverly Mills (Retired), Perkins Library Serials Department
I had the pleasure of meeting Sam in the early days of my employment in the library (mid-1970s) and I have nothing but fond memories of him. Sam ALWAYS exhibited a pleasant disposition, cheerful attitude, and respectful demeanor to me, from day one until the last time I saw him just before I retired almost 3 years ago. I’ll always remember seeing him walking to campus from his home each morning, and upon arriving to campus, stopping to salute the James B. Duke statue in the middle of the quad in front of the Chapel before continuing his journey into the library. At precisely 5:00 p.m. each day, Sam would play the bells from the top of the Chapel, and I looked forward to listening to the tunes he played each day when I left work to return to my car to head home, sometimes humming along to the tunes I was familiar with. Years ago, Sam even gave myself and some other library employees a personal tour of the top of the Chapel where the bells are located and demonstrated to us how he played them. Finally, I will always remember Sam’s hearty and joyous laughter and his gentlemanly demeanor. I’m very honored to have known him and will always treasure these memories of him.
—Iris Turrentine (Retired), Library Human Resources
In 2000, when I moved from the Bingham Center to a generalist position in what is now the Rubenstein Library, Sam allowed me to sit in on his many library instruction classes so that I could become more familiar with our early manuscript and rare print collections. His deep knowledge of the history of religion and printing, along with his ability to communicate clearly made him extremely effective with undergraduate and graduate classes. Even more marvelous was his rapport with the many elementary, middle school and high school students who came to see our treasures on display in the Biddle Rare Book Room. Always dignified, but with an impish twinkle in his eye, Sam kept every one of those young people absolutely rapt as he explained how papyrus was made or how one might correct an error written on vellum. He addressed them with calm respect and they responded by listening intently, asking excellent questions, and behaving with impeccable manners. It strikes me now that Sam was the Mr. Rogers of the Rubenstein Library. He brought kindness and empathy to every encounter.
— Elizabeth Dunn, Research Services Librarian, Rubenstein Library
When I was in grad school in 1987, studying histories of Judaism and Christianity and art, I had a brief job working chiefly with Samuel Hammond. We selected, described, and presented Jewish art publications, including but not limited to Passover Haggadah books from “The Abram & Frances Pascher Kanof Collection of Jewish Art, Archaeology, and Symbolism” donations. It was a pleasure working with Sam, and if I may say so, the display was rather fine. In later years, it was always good to see him on campus and to hear his music.
— Stephen Goranson, Stacks Maintenance Assistant
Before my retirement, I worked with Sam for several years in what is now the Rubenstein Library.
One day I was walking with Sam on the sidewalk toward the West Campus Union Building. About every third person we encountered knew Sam and they spoke warmly to each other. I did not recognize any of them. I realized then that he knew a broad swath of people outside the library.
Sam did not like what became the norm when we began to hold retirement receptions and other events in the Rare Book Room where food and drink were served. He absolutely would not attend any of these events, for he was concerned that damage would be done to the rare books. One of the reasons Linda McCurdy (whom Sam called Dr. Linda) and I had our joint retirement reception in Perkins Library rather than in the Rare Book Room was so Sam could attend. And he did. I have photographs!
One day Sam and I spoke about how much we admired former President Jimmy Carter. I learned that Sam grew up in Americus, Georgia, not far from Plains. Further, he said his mother used to cut Jimmy Carter’s hair! She knew the Carter family well and had eaten dinner in their home. Imagine my surprise at that.
Sam was a true original and unique individual. And modest to a fault.
When my mother died in 2002, Sam sent me a handwritten sympathy note. In it, he included the following anonymous poem that he said was read at the Queen Mother’s funeral. After Sam’s passing, I reread it and thought about Sam.
You can shed tears that she is gone or you can smile because she has lived
You can close your eyes and pray that she’ll come back or you can open your eyes and see all she’s left
Your heart can be empty because you can’t see her or you can be full of the love you shared
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday
You can remember her and only that she’s gone or you can cherish her memory and let it live on
You can cry and close your mind be empty and turn your back or you can do what she’d want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on
— Janie Morris (Retired), Rubenstein Library
I’m at a loss for words! Sam and I kept in touch even in his/my retirement! He brought peanuts from Georgia to me and Peach Pie. In return, she prepared chicken salad and deviled eggs for him (and Marie). We picked fresh strawberries for him, too! He will be missed. Of course Sam enjoyed Peach Pie’s infamous banana pudding! I enjoyed my many talks/walks with Sam. He gave me a personal tour of the “bells” as he did my granddaughter, Makenzie. She sat beside him while he played. Afterwards he took her to the roof of the chapel. Sheer excitement!
— Nelda Webb (Retired), Administrative Assistant to the Director, Rubenstein Library
I retired from the library 11 years ago but have fond memories of Sam. I can still hear his voice from his always friendly greetings. There was a time when my children were young and came to work with me. Sam didn’t usually take requests for “songs” but was pleasantly surprised when we left the office that afternoon and my daughter’s request was being played on the bells. Can’t recall what the song was, but felt very fortunate to have our request granted.
— Rose Bornes (Retired), Accounting Office, Duke Libraries
I remember Sam as a kindly, gracious gentleman — emphasis on gentleman — with a fine ability to appreciate and laugh at the absurdities of life. He was an extremely talented musician whose daily playing of the carillon brought a certain stability and peace to the campus. It was a blessing to have had him as a colleague in Perkins Library.
— Joline R. Perkins (Retired), Reference Department, Perkins Library
I so much enjoyed seeing Sam during the day. Always the wave and that nod, usually a chuckle—even if we just said “Hello” to each other. Gentle and generous. The evening after Dean Smith died, I choked up when I heard him play UNC’s fight song on the carillon. That wasn’t the only time his choice of music made me tear up.
I treasure my memory of going up into the tower of Duke Chapel to watch him play. Feet and fists striking keys, and Sam transported, it was a treat. Thank you, Sam.
When I first started at Duke in Special Collections, I worked down the hall from Sam. Princess Diana had recently died, and Sam wore a black arm band for a month in honor of her. He did the same thing when the Queen Mother died. His portrait of a young Queen Elizabeth in his office brought a regal air to a regal man.
Sam was always saying dry comments as quiet asides in staff meetings, and making anyone laugh who could hear them. His eyes really twinkled, and his gentle laughter always brought us to a feeling of good humor no matter the topic.
I served many Saturday reference shifts with Sam. No matter the question, Sam was able to help the researcher in their work by highlighting new resources or redirecting their attention to a newly cataloged book (often still in his office, that he would bring down for them to review). In the seven dark and winding floors of the stacks at that time, I was always relieved to see Sam as my partner, for I knew that whatever was requested Sam would be able to find it, walking slowly and with purpose.
When Sam did instruction for visiting school students about the rare book collection, he would provide a follow up instruction session for interested staff members. He would go over some of the most interesting treasures, small and large, valuable and invaluable because of his interest. You always learned something new from Sam, no matter how long you’d been at the library.
Sam was so kind, and asked about your family, and how you were doing. He lived his faith, and led with love in his interactions with us in the library and the university community, writ large. One year I told him it was my Dad’s birthday and that he had been in the Navy, and that evening in the selection for the chimes he included the Navy Hymn – a subdued nod to our conversation and my dad. These unexpected and frequent kindnesses of Sam’s that stay with me, and underlie the deep feeling of grief and loss for his quiet compassion, tender wit, and patience.
—Lynn Eaton, Director, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University
I met Sam when he was the head of the Music Library. I worked in Collection Development with Florence Blakely and was included in her meetings with Sam to discuss issues relating to acquisitions made possible via a Duke Endowment grant money and other issues relating to the Music Library. Florence had a high respect for Sam’s decisions. It was delightful to converse with Sam. The meetings continued when he became Rare Book Librarian. The topic most discussed related to acquisitions of often expensive titles or collections.
It was always delightful to converse with Sam. I always enjoyed his playing the carillon every afternoon. Sam will be missed by many people.
— Ginny Gilbert (Retired), Perkins Library
I retired in 2013 from interlibrary loan. Before that I had been in photo services for some number of years as head of that department. I had worked with Sam the entire time I was at the library. For me that was 33 years. Sam was a great friend to me. He was always coming in and telling me how things were going and telling me how good I looked, when I knew he was lying. We had an agreement. Each year near graduation he would take my senior students up into the tower to chime the hour. This was a special thing for my students because when hired, they stayed with me all four years and it was something that Sam and I could give them no one else could. I really appreciated Sam doing that as a special gift for my student workers. Not only to my students, but one time he also took me up in the tower to chime the hour. I will never forget how nervous I was and how calm he was. On many occasions Sam would come through the office and ask what I wished to hear played that day. A great friend, a devoted employee, a wonderful man—not enough words to describe Sam Hammond.
Sam Hammond was a beloved colleague and a Duke University institution. Although he retired from librarianship some years ago, he continued to come to campus each day to study in his carrel and play the carillon. I can’t count the number of times I passed Sam in the library or on the quad, with him offering a tip of his hat and a pithy bon mot. The five o’clock carillon is such a part of the fabric at Duke that many people don’t realize that there is a person high in the tower. Over the years, Sam gave the University Archives the logs of what songs were played each day, as well as other information he gathered about the Carillon. My colleagues and I in University Archives treasure these materials, which document each day at Duke going back decades. They have already been used by students in research.
Sam was unfailingly generous, and graciously welcomed guests to the Chapel tower to see the carillon itself. A couple of years ago, a group of students researched the laborers who built West Campus. Sam escorted the students and some University Archives staff up to the tower, so the students could see the details of the building close up. We looked out over Duke, and Durham beyond, seeing the stunning beauty–and terrifying height–that the workers who built the tower must have seen. He showed us his Carillon room, with its keyboard and its practice keyboard. A framed photograph of a young Queen Elizabeth was among the decor. At 5 o’clock, Sam began playing the carillon, and we stood beneath the 49 bells listening to him play. It gave us a rare opportunity to appreciate the beauty that surrounded us, and the majesty of the music that rang out from the tower.
I will miss Sam, his humor, his knowledge, his music, his friendship. Long may the carillon ring, reminding us each day of the many ways Sam enriched our lives.
The Duke University Libraries are proud to present the 2021 Andrew T. Nadell Prize for Book Collecting. The contest is open to all students enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate/professional degree program at Duke, and the winners will receive cash prizes.
Winners of the contest will receive any in-print Grolier Club book of their choice, as well as a three-year membership in the Bibliographical Society of America.
You don’t have to be a “book collector” to enter the contest. Past collections have varied in interest areas and included a number of different types of materials. Collections are judged on adherence to a clearly defined unifying theme, not rarity or monetary value.
Visit our websitefor more information and read winning entries from past years. Contact Kurt Cumiskey at kurt.cumiskey@duke.edu with any questions.
Valentine Card. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Surrounded by stories surreal and sublime, I fell in love in the library once upon a time. — Jimmy Buffett, “Love in the Library”
Maybe it’s the intimacy of hushed voices, the privacy of so many nooks and crannies, or the feeling of mysterious possibility that comes from being surrounded by so many books and stories. Let’s face it—there’s something romantic about libraries.
That’s why this Valentine’s Day has hit us right in the feels. Normally, in pre-pandemic times, we would be encouraging you right now to go on a “Mystery Date with a Book,” wrapping up dozens of our favorite titles in pink and red paper with come-hither teasers designed to lure you in.
Alas, our innocent fun is another casualty of COVID. But we’re still hoping we can spice up your reading life. We revisited our mystery picks from years gone by and pulled together some of our all-time favorite literary crushes, personally recommended by our staff. All titles are available to check out through our Library Takeout Service.
So go ahead, treat your pretty little self to something different. Who knows? You might just fall in love with a new favorite writer!
Selected by Arianne Hartsell-Gundy, Head, Humanities Section and Librarian for Literature and Theater Studies:
Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things: “Seven year old twins are forever changed by one day in 1969.”
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.”
Selected by Brittany Wofford, 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.”
Selected by Megan Crain, Annual Giving Coordinator:
Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine: “We all know what it means to survive. But do we know what it means to live in the 21st century?”
Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time: “A childhood classic about family, bravery, and finding light through the darkness.”
Selected by Aaron Welborn, Director of Communications:
Richard Hughes, The Innocent Voyage (A High Wind in Jamaica): “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.”
J. L. Carr, A Month in the Country: “A gem of a book: a quaint English village, a WWI vet, and a shimmering summer of youth.”
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:
Selected by Ciara Healy, Librarian for Psychology & Neuroscience, Mathematics, and Physics
Carmen Maria Machado, In the Dream House: A Memoir: “If you lived through some stuff, and survived… this book is for you. Exquisitely written, heart wrenching.”
Edgar Cantero, Meddling Kids: “A Scooby Doo re-do; former kids detective club grows up, messes up and tries to solve a spooky mystery + actual dog as part of the Doo crew.”
Selected by Kelli Stephenson, Coordinator, Access and Library Services
Omar El Akkad, American War: “A second American Civil War, a devastating plague, and one family caught deep in the middle.”
Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth: “Necromancers unraveling a mystery in a haunted space mansion, complete with epic sword fighting, deep world-building, and laugh-out-loud profane humor.”
When Valentine’s Day approaches many of us conjure images of chocolate and flowers. However 2021 has been anything but a conventional year. As Duke Libraries’ Librarian for Film, Video & Digital Media I would like to highlight three movies that reveal an unconventional side of love.
My Name is Khan 2010, ((dir. Karan Johar)
Rizvan Khan is an Indian Muslim man with Asperger’s Syndrome who falls in love with a Hindu woman in the United States, post-9/11. This feature film depicts the resentment that ordinary, law-abiding Muslims felt about their treatment by fellow Americans and delivers a strong message that Hindus and Muslims should work together against the common enemies of extremism and intolerance. With a running time of 245 minutes, settle in for a long night of viewing pleasure. (Lilly DVD 17475 and streaming online for Duke users)
Invitation to Dance (2014, dirs. Simi Linton and Christian von Tippelskirch)
At age 23, Simi Linton was injured while hitchhiking to Washington, D.C. to protest the war in Vietnam. As a young college student, newly disabled, she confronted unimaginable discrimination. Years before the Americans with Disabilities Act was conceived, Linton emerges in Invitation to Dance as a resourceful activist, and in time realizes that love, sexuality, and dance can once again become a part of her life. (Lilly DVD 27418 and streaming online for Duke users)
CinemAbility: the Art of Inclusion (2018, dir. Jenni Gold)
Directed by Jenni Gold, the first female wheelchair-using member of the Directors Guild of America, CinemAbility explores how disability has been portrayed on screen in Hollywood over the past 120 years. Nearly all characters in film and television have been played by abled actors, leaving our collective perception of disability skewed. Gold interviews abled and disabled people from in front of and behind the camera to dissect and examine the history of representation. (Lilly DVD 32937 and streaming online for Duke users) Code of the Freaks (2020, dir. Salome Chasnoff) is another compelling documentary that focuses on these issues.
(Streaming online for Duke users)
Guest post by Ciara Healy, Librarian for Psychology & Neuroscience, Mathematics, and Physics
Every month, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DivE-In) of the Duke University Libraries recommends five free activities, programs, and educational opportunities that address diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. For more about diversity initiatives at the Duke University Libraries, visit our website.
“John Komlos will explain that mainstream economic theory is replete with implications that feed into structural racism inasmuch as it has the unintended consequence of severely disadvantaging people at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, which in the U.S. includes a disproportionate number of Hispanics, Indigenous people, and those whose ancestors were slaves.” Registration required.
The fashion show is live streamed on YouTube, beginning at 7:00 p.m., hosted by the Runway of Dreams clubs at Duke and NC State. Also a Facebook event. No registration required.
“Kim Kotlar will join five female career national security experts for a discussion on their experiences in the Department of Defense, State Department, and the Intelligence Community.” Registration required.
“A panel of experts—Dr. Tracie Keesee, Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Justice Initiatives at the Center for Policing Equity; Timothy Black, Director of Consulting for White Bird Clinic; and Christy E. Lopez, Professor from Practice at Georgetown Law—will discuss alternatives to police responses when it comes to behavioral health crises.” Registration required.
“Join us for a conversation with ASL interpreters Brian Tipton and Kevin Pérez, who will offer a primer on what sign-language interpretation is, what it means for community members who are deaf or hard of hearing, and the challenges and rewards they experience as interpreters. Mr. Tipton and Mr. Pérez are committed to advocating for access and to educating the larger public on the vital role that interpreters play in so many environments, such as legal, educational, medical, and mental health contexts.” Registration required.
Lilly Library has hundreds of horror filmsfor your seasonal dis-pleasure. Don’t be timid. Check one out…if you DARE!!!
A sampling of our Halloween movies is available as a virtual handout. Request DVDs of vintage vampire flicks, modern monster tales and Asian psychological scarers alongside musicals, comedies and silent era classics. Check them out the old-fashioned way, using Library Takeout for an extra- spooky experience.
Here’s a chilling challenge: watch all the titles listed on the handout by 11/30 and receive a FREE devilDVD!
As an added bonus, Duke faculty, Neal Bell’s recently published book, How to Write a Horror Movie,is coming online soon … stay in a state of suspended animation or, better yet, R.I.P.!
Seat yourself! This semester, Duke University Libraries has made over 200 individual study spots available for reservation in Lilly, Perkins, Bostock and Rubenstein Libraries so you can still have the library experience you’ve come to know and love.
Want to (virtually) explore? Check out some of the different spaces below. We know you’ll find something you love!
Get your brightest ideas in the brightest spot in the library! Enjoy single tables and plenty of power in The Perk. With all of the library’s office plants keeping you company, it will be like your very own greenhouse. (PERK 001-014)
Are you a wild child at heart? Live it up in the evening and nights with a seat in first floor of Bostock with bright lights and colors and plenty of seating options.
The Edge Booths and Meet-ups
The booths and meet-ups give you a little privacy–not to mention comfy padded seats–as you power through your work. (Booths 101-107, Meet-ups 22 & 123)
Map to booths and meet-ups
Booths in The Edge
Meet-up in The Edge
The Edge Open Seating
To see and be seen, pick some of the some of the open seating options throughout the floor (Seats 108-121, 131-32, 145-54)
Map to open seating in The Edge
Jones Open Lab (Seats 108-121)
Hallway seating (Seats 131-132)
Lounge seating (Seats 145-154)
The Edge Rooms
Want the classroom or study room experience with (bonus!) windows as you work? Find your study spot in the Murthy Digital Studio (Murthy/Bostock 121 Seats 125-130), Project Room 7 or 8 (Seats 133-137) or Bostock 127 (Seats 155-172)
Map to rooms in The Edge
Murthy Digital Studio
Project Room
Bostock 127
The Edge Counter Stools
For the coffee shop experience, check out the counter stools. We provide everything but the latte! (Counter Stool 140-144)
The third floor of Rubenstein Library is great for anyone looking for a sort of garret/co-working vibe – glass-walled rooms tucked along hallways with soft colors and minimal traffic.
Project Rooms
Three project rooms line a windowed wall, giving the perfect balance of privacy and openness. (Rooms 353-357, Seats 301-306)
Map to project rooms, Rubenstein Floor 3
Project room, Rubenstein Floor 3
Conference Rooms
For a distraction-free zone, check out a seat in one of the conference rooms along the hallway. (Rooms 350-351, Seats 307-317)
Map to conference rooms, Rubenstein Floor 3
Conference room, Rubenstein Floor 3
Rubenstein 349
With tall windows and individual tables, the Breedlove Meeting Room (Rubenstein 349) has an open feel with plenty of privacy. (Seats 318-326)
Live it up at Lilly! Get the East Campus experience at these lovely literary locales.
Few Reading Room (1st floor)
Natural light and plenty of power; what else do you need? How about private study carrels (F01-F07) and long tables for safely studying with your peers. (F08-F19)
Map of Few Reading Room
Few Reading Room
Few Reading Room
Carpenter Reference Room (1st floor)
Want that old-school library experience? Surround yourself with books in the reference study area with socially-distanced seating at long tables. (C20-C41)
Map of Carpenter Reference Room
Carpenter Reference Room
Carpenter Reference Room
North Mezzanine (2nd floor)
Talk about a room with a view! Grab a soft seat or table and enjoy one of the most beautiful overlooks on campus. (M42-45)
With plenty of natural light, these seats are music to our ears! Enjoy your choice of carrels (Carrels 1, 3, 5) or personal tables (Study Table Seat 6-7). Whatever you choose sounds great!
For many of us, the summer of 2020 will look and feel a little different. Vacations have been postponed or canceled, beaches and museums are closed. What would normally feel like a time to relax and take a break might feel more like an additional burden, trying to find ways to fill the days and weeks ahead. Luckily, we’re here to help!
We’ve put together a Summer Bucket List Quaran-zine, a pocket-sized zine to help you get organized and excited in preparation for a summer spent primarily at home. We’ve provided the categories of things you can do throughout the summer to help you get started, but the rest is up to you.
Been meaning to watch the Avengers movies in chronological order? Write it down! Having trouble keeping up with the books your friends keep recommending? Write them down! Always wanted to try your grandmother’s peach pie recipe but never found the time? You know what to do!
The best part of your tiny to-do list: checking off each thing as you go, and maybe making the summer of 2020 one of your best ever.
Instructions: How to Print, Fold, and Make This Zine
You will need a printer. Or, you can hand-copy what you see on the screen on your own sheet of paper and make your own!
In the words of Duke President, Vincent Price, “In recognition of Juneteenth’s message of liberation from oppression, and out of respect for the anger, sadness, exhaustion, and courage of our Black friends and neighbors, this Friday, June 19, will be a day of reflection for the entire Duke community.”
To facilitate this collective action, the Duke University Libraries offers access to streaming videos that reflect the African-American experience. The list here is not exhaustive, but rather provides a window into the many resources available to the Duke community for us to self-enrich and grow as lifelong learners.
bell hooks Cultural Criticism & Transformation (prod. Media Education Foundation, 1997)
bell hooks: Cultural Criticism & Transformation (MEF documentary in Kanopy) bell hooks is one of America’s most accessible public intellectuals. In this two-part video, extensively illustrated with many of the images under analysis, she makes a compelling argument for the transformative power of cultural criticism.
Ethnic Notions (dir. Marlon Riggs, 1986)
Ethnic Notions (California Newsreel documentary in AVON and FOD)
Directed by Marlon Riggs, this Emmy award-winning documentary analyzes the deep-rooted stereotypes which have shaped the evolution of racial consciousness in America.
Killer of Sheep (dir. Charles Burnett, 1977)
Killer of Sheep (feature film in AVON)
Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep was one of the first 50 films to be selected for the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry and was chosen by the National Society of Film Critics as one of the 100 Essential Films. The protagonist, employed at the slaughterhouse, is suffering from the emotional side effects of his bloody occupation to such a degree that his entire life unhinges.
Through a Lens Darkly (prod. First Run Features, 2015)
Through a Lens Darkly (First Run Features documentary in AVONand FOD)
The first documentary to explore the American family photo album through the eyes of black photographers, Through a Lens Darkly probes the recesses of American history to discover images that have been suppressed, forgotten and lost.
Traffic Stop (dir. Kate Davis, 2018)
Traffic Stop (HBO documentary in FOD)
This haunting and compelling Academy Award®-nominated, 30-minute, documentary short tells the story of Breaion King, a 26-year-old African-American school teacher from Austin, Texas, who was stopped in 2015 for a routine traffic violation-an encounter that escalated into a dramatic and violent arrest.
Unnatural Causes (prod. California Newsreel, 2008)
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?(PBS documentary in AVON and FOD) This series offers an overview of the ways that racial and economic inequality are not abstract concepts but hospitalize and kill even more people each year than cigarettes. The segment on the impact of racism on African American infant mortality is particularly compelling.
The Loving Story (dir. Nancy Buirsi, 2011)
The Loving Story (HBO documentary in Docuseek)
Oscar-shortlist selection THE LOVING STORY, the debut feature by Full Frame Documentary Film Festival founder Nancy Buirski, is the definitive account of Loving v. Virginia-the landmark 1967 Supreme Court decision that legalized interracial marriage.
Compiled by Danette Pachtner Librarian for Film, Video, & Digital Media and Women’s Studies
The staff of the Duke University Libraries are angered and heartbroken by the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, as well as numerous other abuses of power against Black Americans. This racial injustice is rooted in historical and systemic white supremacy, and we recognize that our institution has played a role in that injustice. The longstanding impact of institutional racism must be addressed, and we commit to reckoning with it within our Libraries. Doing so will require engaging with our history, looking at our systems with a critical eye, further diversifying our staff, and re-centering our work to lift up marginalized and underrepresented perspectives. In this decisive moment, we will be intentional in our support for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and will join with colleagues at other cultural heritage organizations to create, in the words of the Association of Research Libraries, “an equitable, enduring research information environment.”
In this work, we seek to live up to one of the guiding principles in our strategic plan: “Diversity Strengthens Us.” More than ever, we must prioritize our commitment and live this value in our work. Racial injustice is in the very fabric of our communities and institutions. The critical role of the Duke Libraries in our university’s teaching, learning, and research makes it an essential space to seek understanding, have challenging conversations, and together determine what we can do to be a civic-minded and just society.
We have work to do to address the inequities so starkly revealed by recent tragedies. To expand our cultural competence and combat racism, we will carry on our efforts to:
Dismantle white privilege in our collections and services. We are reaching out to students, community members, faculty partners and colleagues to listen to and learn from their work and experiences. We seek to be transparent about our own history and to make our Libraries more welcoming, inclusive, and accountable. Through assessment we seek feedback from students and faculty.
Diversify our staff, recognizing that different opinions, backgrounds, and experiences will lead to better decisions and invigorate our organization.
Practice more inclusive metadata creation, with the goal of harm reduction from biased and alienating description and classification. In doing so, we have found inspiration in the film Change the Subject, which documents student-led metadata remediation efforts at Dartmouth.
Tell history from the inside out. We seek opportunities to work with communities to tell their own stories and preserve their own histories. We are learning from our work with the SNCC Digital Gateway, CRMvet, and Teaching for Change.
Renew our commitment in the University Archives to documenting, investigating, and sharing our complex institutional history.
The Duke University Libraries will continue to work actively to identify actions we can take to improve. DUL staff are caring and respectful, and we will not place the burden of this work on colleagues of color unless they indicate a willingness to engage. Together we reaffirm our commitment to seek strategies and opportunities to learn about and support diversity, equity, and inclusion and to contribute to a more just and equitable future for Duke, especially for our Black students, staff, and faculty.
Deborah Jakubs Rita DiGiallonardo Holloway University Librarian & Vice Provost for Library Affairs
When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir by Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele. From one of the co-founders of the Black Lives Matter movement comes a poetic audiobook memoir and reflection on humanity. Necessary and timely, Patrisse Cullors’ story asks us to remember that protest in the interest of the most vulnerable comes from love. Leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement have been called terrorists, a threat to America. But in truth, they are loving women whose life experiences have led them to seek justice for those victimized by the powerful. In this meaningful, empowering account of survival, strength, and resilience, Patrisse Cullors and asha bandele seek to change the culture that declares innocent black life expendable.
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, a two-time National Book Award winner and author of Sing, Unburied, Sing. She delivers a gritty but tender novel about family and poverty in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. As the twelve days that make up the novel’s framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family—motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce—pulls itself up to face another day. A big-hearted novel about familial love and community against all odds, and a wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry.
Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi. Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today—Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America. Contributors include Justina Ireland, Varian Johnson, Rita Williams-Garcia, Dhonielle Clayton, Kekla Magoon, Leah Henderson, Tochi Onyebuchi, Jason Reynolds, Nic Stone, Liara Tamani, Renée Watson, Tracey Baptiste, Coe Booth, Brandy Colbert, Jay Coles, and Lamar Giles.
Thick And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom. This “transgressive, provocative, and brilliant” (Roxane Gay) collection cements McMillan Cottom’s position as a public thinker capable of shedding new light on what the “personal essay” can do. She turns her chosen form into a showcase for her critical dexterity, investigating everything from Saturday Night Live, LinkedIn, and BBQ Becky to sexual violence, infant mortality, and Trump rallies. Collected in an indispensable volume that speaks to the everywoman and the erudite alike, these unforgettable essays never fail to be “painfully honest and gloriously affirming” and hold “a mirror to your soul and to that of America” (Dorothy Roberts).
Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning by Leslie Odom, Jr. Leslie Odom. Jr. burst on the scene in 2015, originating the role of Aaron Burr in the Broadway musical phenomenon Hamilton. Since then, he has performed for sold-out audiences, sung for the Obamas at the White House, and won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical. But before he landed the role of a lifetime in one of the biggest musicals of all time, Odom put in years of hard work as a singer and an actor. These stories will inspire you, motivate you, and empower you for the greatness that lies ahead, whether you’re graduating from college, starting a new job, or just looking to live each day to the fullest.
How We Fight for Our Lives: A Memoir by Saeed Jones. Haunted and haunting, How We Fight for Our Lives is a stunning coming-of-age memoir. Jones tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires, and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence—into tumultuous relationships with his family, into passing flings with lovers, friends, and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another—and to one another—as we fight to become ourselves.
When Spring Break 2020 (remember all the way back to March?) morphed into a covid19 quarantine, closing our Lilly Library building did not mean we left our library resources “remaining in place”. Digitizing course material, consulting with students and faculty, while expanding online collections and streaming databases are a few ways all of us in the Duke Libraries connect with our users.
Being off campus has us thinking of Lilly Library and missing all of our wonderful assets, headlined by our knowledgeable colleagues. One way to stay connected is with our new series of virtual pop-ups, Lilly Looks.
Lilly Looks is a collage of insider glimpses and highlights of our collections of resources, films, books, and beyond, presented in short video posts. Some may be scholarly while some may definitely go “beyond” with lighthearted and fresh perspectives!
A wistful Carol Terry, who works with Lilly’s Communications and Collections, finds a way to travel this summer via Alexander Street Films, one of the libraries’ streaming video databases.
While out hiking, Ira King, Evening Librarian and Disability Studies Librarian, reveals the breadth of Overdrive for Duke Library users.
Continue exploring the Duke Libraries, no matter where you may be – and, stay tuned as we post weekly on Lilly Library’sFacebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
Edited by Ernest Zitser, Ph.D., Librarian for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies, library liaison to the International Comparative Studies Program, and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at Duke University.
This is the second in a series of blog posts on global pandemics by the staff of and/or subject specialists directly affiliated with Duke Libraries’ International and Area Studies Department. As is the case with the first installment of the series, the librarians who contributed the following entries seek to offer suggestions for further reading, not a comprehensive bibliography on the topic. For additional resources (visual or textual, analog or digital) on plagues/infectious diseases/moral panics from around the world, please contact the appropriate IAS librarian. And if you have any recommendations of your own, please “reply” to this blog post below.
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Danette Pachtner Librarian for Film, Video, & Digital Media and Women’s Studies
Unless you are a die-hard fan of the genre, it may be too soon in our experience of COVID-19 to seek out movies featuring infectious diseases that inspire moral panic or plagues that end the world. And even hardcore fans might want to take a break from perennial favorites, such as The Andromeda Strain(dir. Robert Wise, 1971, U.S), 28 Days Later(dir. Danny Boyle, 2002, U.K.), Children of Men(dir. Alfonso Cuarón, 2006, U.S. & U.K.), Contagion (dir. Stephen Soderbergh, 2011, U.S.), or the cult classic (and my personal favorite) 12 Monkeys(dir. Terry Gilliam, 1995, U.S.).
However, as Duke’s Librarian for Film, Video, & Digital Media, it is my job to challenge patrons’ expectations of what/when/who is watchable by exposing them to visual resources that they might otherwise not know about or simply choose to ignore. That is why I have compiled a short list of lesser known, but no-less-provocative foreign films that are all available, with English subtitles, in the Duke Libraries’ film collection. Precisely because of their variety of approaches—from bucolic (Wondrous Boccaccio ) to philosophical (The Seventh Seal) to apocalyptic (The Flu)—these films demonstrate that there are as many cinematic responses to pandemics as there are international movie makers and audiences. And these responses are as unique and culturally-mediated as the cinematic experience itself.
Wondrous Boccaccio
Wondrous Boccaccio (dirs. Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, 2015, Italy) consumer streaming platforms | Lilly DVD 29001 | streaming in the Libraries [access requires Duke netid/password | licensed through 9-30-2020]
Based on Giovanni Boccaccio’s Renaissance classic, The Decameron, this film follows the lives of ten young people who flee plague-ridden Florence in the mid-14th century, at the height of a pandemic that would ultimately kill over 30 million people, alter the European social structure, and influence the ideologies of those who survived. The Taviani brothers use Renaissance painting as a source of inspiration in their film. The cinematography evokes the vibrant colors of artists such as Botticelli in his scenes from The Decameron, as well as those of Masaccio and Giotto, moving from dark blacks in the plague-ridden city to vibrant colors of the countryside. The characters find refuge in an abandoned villa in the Tuscan hills and pass the time by telling each other tales of love, which range from the erotic to the tragic.
Blindness
Blindness (dir. Fernando Meirelles, 2008, Brazil & Canada) consumer streaming platforms |Ford DVD #4943
Based on the bestselling novel by Nobel-Prize-winning Portuguese author, José Saramago, a city is ravaged by an epidemic of instant white blindness. Filmed on location in Brazil, Canada, and Uruguay—although “the city” is never specifically identified—the story focuses on the behavior of people who are losing their sight and are forced to survive in a sea of whiteness. The film depicts the ugliest side of human nature in a crisis; it offers a devastating portrait of institutional failure and government betrayal. The viewer can recognize chilling parallels with our current COVID-19 crisis, from the opportunism of corrupt governments to the neglect of the health-care system. Blindness is an end-of-civilization fable which is thought-provoking and topical in its indictment of declining social mores.
The Hole
The Hole (dir. Tsai Ming-liang, 1998, Taiwan)Lilly DVD 366
At the cusp of the 21st century, Taiwan experiences a torrential rain that brings with it a mysterious virus of epic proportions. Symptoms of “Taiwan Fever” include high fever and an acute sensitivity to light. Sections of the city are quarantined with essential services cut off by the government. The film is set in an apartment block in a quarantine zone where residents remain, against quarantine regulations. A plumber comes to fix a leak and instead leaves a gaping hole through which a tenant can see into his neighbor’s apartment below, and they develop a connection. The Hole presents a remarkable blend of aesthetic elements of science fiction, absurdism, and romantic fantasy, with musical sequences to boot. The film does not travel beyond the bounds of the apartment block. It explores the inward-looking aspects of an outbreak—the isolation it causes and how interactions with others become intensified.
Seventh Seal
The Seventh Seal (dir. Ingmar Bergman, 1957, Sweden)consumer streaming platforms |Lilly DVD 14846
Exhausted and embittered after a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight returns home to a land ravaged by bubonic plague. He encounters Death on a desolate beach and challenges him to a fateful game of chess. Focusing on issues of man’s relationships with death, life and God, Bergman’s story transcends simple metaphor in this now classic work rich in philosophical allegory that remains especially relevant today.
The Flu
The Flu (dir. Kim Sung-su, 2013, S. Korea) consumer streaming platforms | Lilly DVD 26447
This South Korean medical disaster film tells the story of panic, despair, and the desperate struggle for survival in a city that has been quarantined after the outbreak of a deadly virus. The virus in this scenario is H5N1 influenza (commonly known as the ‘bird flu’) introduced by illegal immigrants from Hong Kong, arriving in a shipping container. In order to prevent the spread of the virus worldwide, the government issues a national disaster and orders a city-wide lockdown. Citizens stock up on daily necessities, starting riots as mistrust of each other builds. In the meantime, politicians’ quarrels, powerless governments, and unwelcome U.S. involvement force the viewer to consider eventualities that might be even more frightening than a virus attack. Sound familiar?
Aside from scientific articles in medical journals about the most recent outbreaks of new strains of influenza and coronavirus, the issue of pandemics on the Korean peninsula has only recently attracted the attention from the English-speaking scholarly community. That is why most of the publications on the topic are currently in the form of scholarly journal articles, dissertations, and theses, rather than academic monographs.
Pageboy by Elliot Page. With Juno’s massive success, Elliot became one of the world’s most beloved actors. His dreams were coming true, but the pressure to perform suffocated him. He was forced to play the part of the glossy young starlet, a role that made his skin crawl, on and off set. The career that had been an escape out of his reality and into a world of imagination was suddenly a nightmare. As he navigated criticism and abuse from some of the most powerful people in Hollywood, a past that snapped at his heels, and a society dead set on forcing him into a binary, Elliot often stayed silent, unsure of what to do, until enough was enough. Full of behind the scenes details and intimate interrogations on sex, love, trauma, and Hollywood, Pageboy is the story of a life pushed to the brink. But at its core, this beautifully written, winding journey of what it means to untangle ourselves from the expectations of others is an ode to stepping into who we truly are with defiance, strength, and joy. Read The New York Times Book Review to learn more.
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters. Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn’t hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. When Ames’s boss and lover, Katrina, reveals that she’s pregnant with his baby–and that she’s not sure whether she wants to keep it–Ames wonders if this is the chance he’s been waiting for. Could the three of them form an unconventional family–and raise the baby together? This provocative debut concerns what happens at the emotional, messy, vulnerable corners of womanhood that platitudes and good intentions can’t reach. Torrey Peters brilliantly and fearlessly navigates the most dangerous taboos around gender, sex, and relationships, gifting us with a thrillingly original, witty, and deeply moving novel. Read this The New Yorker book review to learn more.
Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millner. A dazzling love story in poems about one woman’s coming-out, coming-of-age, and coming undone. A woman lives an ordinary life in Brooklyn. She has a boyfriend. They share a cat. She writes poems in the prevailing style. She also has dreams: of being seduced by a throng of older women, of kissing a friend in a dorm-room closet. But the dreams are private, not real. One night, she meets another woman at a bar, and an escape hatch swings open in the floor of her life. She falls into a consuming affair–into queerness, polyamory, kink, power and loss, humiliation and freedom, and an enormous surge of desire that lets her leave herself behind. Maggie Millner’s captivating, seductive debut is a love story in poems that explores obsession, gender, identity, and the art and act of literary transformation. In rhyming couplets and prose vignettes, Couplets chronicles the strictures, structures, and pitfalls of relationships–the mirroring, the pleasing, the small jealousies and disappointments–and how the people we love can show us who we truly are. Learn more in this book review by The Washington Post.
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai. In 1985, Yale Tishman, the development director for an art gallery in Chicago, is about to pull off an amazing coup, bringing in an extraordinary collection of 1920s paintings as a gift to the gallery. Yet as his career begins to flourish, the carnage of the AIDS epidemic grows around him. One by one, his friends are dying, and after his friend Nico’s funeral, the virus circles closer and closer to Yale himself. Soon the only person he has left is Fiona, Nico’s little sister. Thirty years later, Fiona is in Paris, tracking down her estranged daughter, who disappeared into a cult. While staying with an old friend, a famous photographer who documented the Chicago crisis, she finally grapples with how AIDS affected her life and her relationship with her daughter. The two intertwining stories take us through the heartbreak of the eighties and the chaos of the modern world as both Yale and Fiona struggle to find goodness amid disaster. “A page turner . . . An absorbing and emotionally riveting story about what it’s like to live during times of crisis.” –The New York Times Book Review. Read more about this historical novel in the Los Angeles Review of Books.
Real Life by Brandon Taylor. A novel of startling intimacy, violence, and mercy among friends in a Midwestern university town, from an electric new voice. Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he works uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his circle of friends–some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But throughout a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community. Real Life is a novel of profound and lacerating power, a story that asks if it’s ever really possible to overcome our private wounds and at what cost. Read The Guardian Book Review to learn more.
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Films and their descriptions curated by 
