June books of the Month Celebrating Pride month "Redwood and Ponytail" by K.A Holt

June's book of the month is Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt. Published in 2019 in the queer middle-grade fiction genre.  K.A Holt has written 13 books, a picture book, and helped with a few Adult anthologies. She has dedicated her career to making sure children and adults know that anyone can be a main character in a book.  She has written many award-winning middle-grade novels that show readers that they are not alone in their struggles. 

This book is a little hard to read at first as it is in text or column format. So the first couple of pages are a bit difficult. Redwood and Ponytails is about two girls who are opposite in every way but they find themselves drawn to each other.  We get to meet Kate and Tam. Tam is a tall athletic tom-boy type of girl. While Kate is the peppy cheerleader. They meet at the start of their 7th-grade year. While their friendship is a Surprise to both of them they find they want to spend more and more time with each other. The book goes Over relatable topics like when Tam starts to ignore her other friends to spend more time with Kate all the while Kate is struggling to keep up with her busy schedule. 

Filled with drama and balance Redwood and Ponytail is a good read filled with confidence and unconditionally queer-positive love. I loved that Tam was comfortable with queerness before realizing her feelings for girls and that even if she is often mistaken for a boy she is confident in who she is and is still learning. 

To read this book and learn more about other Books Written by K.A Holt and K. A her self visit https://kaholt.com

CVTC Joins MORE Public Library Consortium

 From WISPALS to MORE

Over the past few years the library has looked very closely at how to best serve our community of staff, faculty, students, and alumni. We have looked at a variety of different new resources, shifting many legacy print collections to digital collections while repurposing our space to better align with our mission and serve our students. We have also recently implemented a new login system for CVTC users which will work with single-sign on, to provide easier access off campus. Last year, we decided the next step in better serving our community was to leave the WISPALS academic library consortium and join the MORE public library consortium - and we are very excited to share this with you!

MORE Library Consortium

As of July 1, the CVTC library began sharing materials with the 53 public libraries in the MORE system. Students and employees can request library materials from any of the libraries to be delivered to CVTC, or they can request CVTC library materials to be delivered to any of the MORE libraries. The MORE library consortium is the largest in Wisconsin and spreads across much of the CVTC district. Students can now use their student IDs as their library cards at any of the MORE libraries. In addition, CVTC will also have access to one of the largest shared collections in the world, with resources such as the Wisconsin Digital Library, Freading, and Flipster. For a complete list of MORE libraries visit the website.

Additional Details

• As a current CVTC student or employee, you can begin making requests for materials to be delivered to CVTC or any MORE public library by visiting the MORE library online catalog.  

• If you currently use CVTC’s OverDrive, you will lose access as we make the transition to MORE. Information on access to MORE digital resources will be forthcoming by the start of the fall semester.

• This change will not affect any other library resources such as LinkedIn Learning, Films on Demand, or Ebsco.

• We hope to offer a delivery service to River Falls in the near future. This service will be communicated in the coming months.

Contact Us

If you have questions please contact the library at library@cvtc.edu or stop by the library desk at the BEC Campus. Be sure to check out our blog for new resources, book reviews, and updates!

JSTOR Trail Access

Just a reminder that CVTC has secured a trial to the database JSTOR until the end of September.  If you haven't had the chance to check it out please do so now and see if you would find it useful for your classes.  

Access is limited off campus during the trial, but wide open on campus.  

Please let Jen, jcook34@cvtc.edu know if you have any feedback about the trial and the database.  

Student Review, The Life We Bury

This weeks student review was written by Carissa  

The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens. 

 

"The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens is a riveting mystery book that has many surprises in store. It follows the life of a college student, Joe Talbert, as he does his best to navigate an English assignment. The assignment brings him right to the room of Carl Iverson, a dying man that spent most of his life in prison for murder. At first, Joe is focused on completing the assignment and receiving his grade, however, he finds himself emerged in the story of Carl Iverson and the young girl he was incarcerated for murdering, all while Iverson claims innocence. Joe starts to believe there is more to the story and attempts to get to the bottom of it. This is an awesome book and definitely a must read if you like mysteries that will keep you on the edge of your seat."

Movies, TV Series, & Documentaries

 Since the onset of the pandemic, more people have found themselves at home, watching movies and series, even though Hollywood has struggled to bring new pictures to the big screen. Here at the library, we have a varied collection of DVDs, both old and new, that range from documentaries to family-friendly flicks, TV shows to foreign films. Our main collection even has genre stickers, such as drama, romance, comedy, horror, children’s, and so on to easily help you find something that may pique your interest. 

New DVDs can be found right by the Circulation Desk and are purchased on a weekly to monthly basis. If there’s something you want that the library doesn’t own, you can fill out a Suggestion for Purchase form. The library will review the form and consider purchasing the item. Another alternative is to request the item via Interlibrary Loan. This is especially helpful for older movies that the library does not own, since we can simply ask to borrow them from another lending library.

With Oscar season running late this year, you may find yourself wondering where and how to view these new films. Some are available in theatre, while others can only be viewed On Demand or through other exclusive streaming services. If there’s something you’re dying to watch, keep any eye out on our New Films section, which offers trailers for all the new DVDs we purchase. Or simply ask us at the Circulation Desk if we can request it for you. We love to see new movies just as much as you do.

Post Written by Melissa                            

Tumble Books

 New Resource for Students & Employees: TumbleBooks!

The CVTC Library is excited to offer a new children’s literature resource - the TumbleBook Library. This is an exciting database to explore. Here are 10 fast and fun facts:

1. There are over 1100 eBooks including story books, read-along chapter books, independent chapter books, graphic novels, and nonfiction books!

2. Story books are animated! (see an example: Bloom by Doreen Cronin & David Small)

3. There are also videos from National Geographic, games, and even book reports and quizzes!

4. Some of the books are available in English, Spanish, and French!

5. You can access TumbleBooks on any device that has an internet connection!

6. CVTC Students & Employees can share any of these digital materials with the children in their lives!

7. Students in Early Childhood Education, Foundations of Teacher Education, and Library & Information Services programs can use this resource in their classes!

8. The digital materials in TumbleBooks are always available, so you’ll never have to wait to read!

9. You can browse by category which makes it easy to find something to read! And… 

10. Kids LOVE TumbleBooks!

If you’d like more information about this resource, please contact nbreed@cvtc.edu. 

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Collection

Last summer there were several events that brought social justice issues to the forefront of people’s minds.  America spent the summer protesting and speaking out against these issues. Many people have long thought about what they could do to help end systemic racism, and some thought for the first time they wanted to learn more about what they could do.  Several books on the topic leaped to the top of the best seller lists, and many other books have been published about the topic.    

CVTC has long made it  part of their mission to embrace the ideas of diversity, equity and inclusion.  To help support CVTC’s efforts library staff have put together a collection of resources that are available to students, faculty and staff. These items range from educational non-fiction items to popular books and movies, including the book How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram Kendi.  This book was featured in the Diversity Department’s fall book club available to students and staff.    There are also some great materials in our audiobook, children’s and young adult sections.  In addition to these traditional library materials there are also many digital resources ranging from e-books to items that can be accessed through the Wisconsin Academic Digital Library and Overdrive.  You can learn more about all of these resources by visiting the Social Justice Library Research Guide.