LibraryRunner

In celebration of National Library Week, here are a few facts about the importance of libraries:

• Libraries are about access for everyone!  Access to accurate information, technology, education, and other resources, so that everyone, regardless of income or background, is able to connect to the world and find what they need.  Librarians are here to guide you through.
• Your First Amendment right to read and write freely is the core of the library mission.  American freedom depends on a populace that can access all information.  Libraries offer a wide range of ideas and viewpoints so that everyone can find knowledge without restriction.  Libraries don’t tell you what you should read; they create collections to serve the needs of all members of the community.  
• Libraries work to preserve privacy in an increasingly data-tracked world.  What you learn is your business and should not be subject to scrutiny.
• Citizens need to be able to keep an eye on what their government is doing.  Libraries gather and archive accurate information about local and national government activity.
• 54% of American adults cannot read and write at a 6th-grade level, which limits them from getting good jobs and from understanding their own finances and health care.  Libraries not only help children to learn to read well, they also offer adult literacy tutoring so that people can improve their lives.
• Public libraries function as community centers, offering free activities to all age groups and interests.  In our increasingly atomized and isolated society, libraries are one of the last cost-free places to go and connect with others.
• Libraries connect people with local resources that can help with:
  • Job searching
  • Starting a business
  • Finding legal help
  • Caring for family
  • All sorts of things!
• Libraries are considered second responders, acting as support in times of crisis. For example, in summer, libraries are a free place to cool off.  After the Camp Fire, libraries helped people find the resources they needed.

TL;DR: libraries are for everyone, and they should be as free as possible. You shouldn’t have to pay money to find out the information you need to know.

We've got a new book display up, featuring healing fiction.  What on earth is healing fiction?  It's a new story genre!  The New York Times calls healing fiction “cozy, feel-good novels that have long been popular in Japan and Korea and are now catching on in translation around the world.  Fans of the genre say the heartwarming, whimsical stories offer comfort at a time when the world seems off-kilter and chaotic, and feel like an escape from distressing news about wars, political animosity and environmental disasters.”

These stories tend to feature neighborhood locations, like cafes, libraries, or laundromats, where heartbroken characters learn to heal – often with a comforting (possibly magical!) cat along for the ride.  They're usually on the short side and easy to read on a phone.  So if you're feeling like the world is too much to deal with, drop in to the library and see if healing fiction is your kind of book!

March is Women's History Month and as always, the library has a number of great resources to help you learn more about how women have shaped history as well as the fight for equality. Drop by to see what we have on display. Remember all books on display are available for you to check out. We also have a curated collection and research guide in case you want to explore more online. 

Every year, the copyrights on works expire and those works come into the public domain, which means that anyone can use them for performances or as material to produce new works -- of art, music, literature, or whatever.  Modern copyright law gives quite a long time of protection: for most works, it's 95 years, so at the end of 2024, works from 1929 became available to the public domain.  Disney has been a major force in pushing to make copyright protection that long, and protecting Mickey Mouse from being used by other artists is one of the main reasons.   2025 gives us 12 more Mickey Mouse movies to use, but you still can't use the Mickey from the 1980s or from The Sorcerer's Apprentice.  And now, Popeye and Tintin have been added to the list of characters entering the public domain; you may now use early Popeye in your art.

Quite a few famous books have come into the public domain this year, including: 

• William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
• Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
• Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
• Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon (as serialized in Black Mask magazine)
• John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold (Steinbeck's first novel)
• Agatha Christie, Seven Dials Mystery
• Robert Graves, Good-bye to All That
• E. B. White and James Thurber, Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do

Movies were huge in 1929 and had started to include sound, and there is some great stuff, including everyone's favorite, the Skeleton Dance!

The copyright on sound recordings is a little longer, so we are now getting songs from 1924, including some well-known numbers like:

If you're interested in questions around public domain, copyright, and what's coming into play right now, here are some excellent and straightforward articles to read:

Public Domain Day at Yale Law

Internet Archive on Public Domain Day

We have two new mobile displays up in the library. The first has a very simple concept, purple books! Drop by the new books section to see all the purple books available in the library along with some famous quotes about the color purple. 

Our other new display, Short and Sweet, features books you can read in one sitting or over the course of a few hours. If you want to start reading more, or are short on time but want to finish a whole book, then these titles are for you. We have lots of different genres to choose from so there is surely something to suit your mood.

Celebrate Black History Month in the library!   We have online resources and collections as well as a great display. 

Here are a few resources to check out:

• Black History Collection - A curated selection of books about Black history as well as art, culture, social issues, and other topics that inform Black history and culture in the United States and around the world.
• Black History Month Research Guide - Celebrate Black History Month by using the tabs to choose an ebook to read, attend an online event, and explore images and items from museums.  Everything here is free to use for Butte College students.
• Ethnic Studies: African-American Experiences Research Guide - A guide to library resources about African-Americans.
• Racial Justice and Anti-Racist E-Reading List - E-books on racial justice.

Make sure to stop by both main Campus and Chico Center to see our displays and take a book or two home with you.

And just for fun, check out the National Museum of African American History and Culture's exhibition of Afrofuturism. Though you may not be able to see the exhibit in person, the museum has lots of materials online including articles such as Five You Should Know: Black Women Icons of Afrofuturism, as well as videos, interactive online collection highlights, and more. 

The Butte College Library has put together resources for anyone concerned about immigration issues.  Look here to find links to advice, free legal aid, and helps for students, staff, and faculty. 

• Find out about your rights
• What to do on campus if someone asks about others' status
• Learn about warrants and subpoenas
• Print out pass-along cards with information in several languages
• What's the Laken-Riley Act?
• Keep up on the latest news and any rule changes

It's a new semester, so let's get a quick overview of what the library offers!

• Thousands of books and ebooks to support your research (and leisure!)
• Millions of articles contained in 50+ databases, covering every subject from anatomy to zoology
• Textbooks reserved by instructors so you can do homework on campus
• Librarians to help you find the information you need
• Computers and free printing (limit of 15 pages a day)
• Online guides to help you with research, citations, and classes
• Quiet study spaces and bookable study rooms 
• Quick video tutorials showing you how to search, use databases, and much more

Finals are here and the library is here to help! Below are a few ways the library can ease your stress. 

Are you doing research for a big paper or project?

• Drop by the library and get personalized help from a reference librarian.
• Set up an appointment to consult with a librarian in person or on Zoom.
• Consult our list of video tutorials.
• Check out our step-by-step guide to writing a research paper.
• Browse our list of specialized research guides. You may find one for your course, topic, or research question. We have citation guides, a guide on understanding historical sources, a guide on how to use newspapers for research, and many more.

Do you need a quiet place to study?

• The main campus library is open Monday through Thursday 8 am to 5 pm and Friday 8 am - 12 pm. Chico Center is open Monday through Thursday 7:30 am to 8 pm and Friday 8 am to 12 pm. You can always check library hours on our calendar. 
• Reserve a study room if you need to practice a presentation, work in a small group, or attend a Zoom class. 
• Use our computer labs. Printing is free (up to 15 pages per day).

Can't get to the library in person?

• Remember that much of what the library offers is available 24/7 online. 
• Use our 24/7 chat service.
• We have many online books you can access anywhere you have internet.
• All of our research databases are available online.

Welcome to the Butte College Library's Wrapped for 2024!  Students did a lot at the library this year, and here's the proof:

Design by Rachel Arteaga

• From January 1 - December 5, we had:
  • 70,987 patrons come through our doors at the Main Campus 
  • 11,137 patrons come through the door at the Chico Center
  • In total, that is 4.66 times the amount that can be held at the Golden One Center, and would almost fill up the Rose Bowl.
  • Of course, that isn't really unique patrons; we have many satisfied students who come back again and again.  Many of those students used our study rooms, worked on library computers, or did research for their academic topics.  Probably a few of them took restful naps, too!
• Most Used Database: Proquest, with 11,726 searches.
• Top 5 searches in the library catalog:
  • learning English
  • sleep
  • World War II
  • menopause
  • water knife
• Top 5 books checked out (evidently our Ghibli Reads display was a success!):
  • Freedom libraries : the untold story of libraries for African Americans in the South, by Mike Selby
  • How the word is passed : a reckoning with the history of slavery across America, by Clint Smith
  • Howl's Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones
  • Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, with story and art by Hayao Miyazaki
  • Maus I : a survivor's tale : my father bleeds history, by Art Spiegelman
  • Reserve books checked out: 638
• Top 5 films watched on Kanopy:
  • The Struggle in the Fields
  • Delano Manongs
  • Quest for Homeland
  • Freedom Archives: Cointelpro 101
  • The 400 Blows
• Technology: we provide laptops and wi-fi hotspots for checkout at Main, Chico, and Glenn campuses, and there's more demand than supply, but we're always working on getting more!  In 2024:
  • 92 checkouts of laptops
  • 94 checkouts of hotspots
• Plus, our study rooms were usually full; there's no telling how many people used them.

That's a wrap for 2024!  Best of luck with finals and we look forward to seeing you in Spring 2025!