March 18, 2013

Human Library @ the Highland Lakes Student Center

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be deaf?  What it is like to live with a mental illness?  What it was like to grow up in the segregated South in the 1940s?  Or what it was like to grow up Jewish in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s?  At the OCC Highland Lakes Campus Diversity Fair on March 28, 2013, the HL Campus Diversity Committee and OCC Libraries will host our fifth Human Library event that allows “readers” to checkout volunteer “books” who represented multiple areas of diversity.  Human Books represent a cross section of society that have been stereotyped.  “Books” are not asked to be experts, but instead asked to be themselves and tell their story in response to questions asked by the “Reader”.  This exercise allows “Books” and “Readers” alike to meet people from other walks of life that they may not otherwise have had the opportunity to meet.

The Human Library was started several years ago in Denmark to help break down barriers and end prejudice.  The idea was simple: if you meet people from other walks of life, people different than yourself, they become real and no longer belong to a faceless group.  Once people start talking and getting to know one another, it becomes harder to discriminate against others as we realize we are more similar than we are different.  For more information, please go to www.humanlibrary.org .

On Thursday March 28th, at the OCC Highland Lakes Campus Student Center from 12-3pm, our Human Library will have 15 Human Book titles.  Please come and check them out.

March 5, 2013

Celebrating Women’s History Month

The OCC Womencenter and Libraries invite you to celebrate Women’s History Month through recognizing women who have made significant contributions to our world.

Please visit the OCC Women's History Month Blog and consider submitting a nomination recognizing an extraordinary woman who has made our world a better place through her contribution as an educator, scientist, head-of-state, politician, environmentalist, civil rights advocate and some other significant way.

All members of the OCC community – students, faculty, and staff – are encouraged to participate. Submitted nominations may cover the range of local-to-global and include individuals from any time period.

For more resources related to this initiative, take a look at the OCC Libraries Women in Literature, History, Current Events research guide.