LCC Library News

April 8, 2025 is National Library Workers Day. It is a day for where libraries and communities across the United State celebrate the important work of library employees. The observance began in 2003 by the American Library Association to “recognize the hard work, dedication, and expertise of library support staff and librarians.” 

Library employees are well-known and respected for providing access to books, promoting literacy and preserving written materials. These tasks alone take specialized skills and years to master. Library employees, however, do so much more. In an age where the world has more information than ever, library employees teach community members to navigate, understand and evaluate information. Furthermore, Library employees provide a welcoming place for all members of the community. 

Our team at LCC library does all of these things, and as the director I am proud of all of their work, their innovative ideas and projects, and their professionalism. I encourage you to visit the LCC Library and your local public library to meet all the great people and try their great services!

John Szilagyi

Lansing Community College Library Director

What’s that sound coming from the Library and Learning Commons? 

Music in TLC will return on this Thursday, March 27th at 12 noon in the 2nd floor TLC Atrium, featuring LCC students from the Jazz program. We would like to personally invite you and your friends to take a break and check out the music in the Library atrium. Bring your lunch, bring a friend, or just swing by and check it out. 

Also, did you know that the Library has a streaming music database? Take a listen to Bach, Beethoven, and other composers on the Naxos Music Library. If you like it, you can enter the Naxos Music Library Essay Contest with a chance to win some cool prizes, including cash! 

Would you like to share your talents at a future Music in TLC? Contact Chuck Page at pageiic@lcc.edu for more information.

Tell us what you think about the Library website by filling out this Library Website Survey. 

Here are some resources LCC Library staff use in designing and updating our website:

• Usability Testing - Every semester we ask students and employees to use our website to complete tasks and make changes based on what we learn.
• Writing for the Web - We follow these principles in writing content for the website.

Interested in learning more about web design? 

• Create an account in O'Reilly Online Learning to explore the 250+ Web Design Books & Courses available.

Want to see what a website looked liked years ago?

• You know you can look up any website on the Internet Archive Wayback Machine!

March 16-22 is Sunshine week and Freedom of Information Day is March 16. Together these events support the need for open government and freedom of Information. Below is information about the efforts of organizations to ensure government transparency and accountability.

Sunshine Sunday began in Florida 2002, led by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. National Sunshine Week launched in 2005 by the American Society of Newspaper Editors with the support of the James L. Knight Foundation. In 2019, the American Society of News Editors merged with the Associated Press Media Editors to become the News Leaders Association. Sunshine Week is in mid-March to coincide with James Madison’s birthday, March 16th (1751). Madison was a driving force for the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and presented the 1st draft of the Bill of Rights to Congress. (from About Sunshine Week)

The American Library Association (ALA) is a Sponsor of Freedom of Information Day. The celebration of banned books is part of a broader effort to ensure that all types of information remain accessible, which is also goal of Freedom of Information Day and Sunshine Week.

• Check out one of our eBooks from our Freedom of Information virtual display. 
• Learn more about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Sunshine Week. 
• Take a look at our Banned Books Guide.

The Neurodiversity guide is now available on the Research Guides page on the Lansing Community College Library website. The guide was developed by the LCC Library with input from the Center for Student Access and feedback from students and faculty who reviewed the content before publication. 

The guide provides an overview of neurodiversity, lists resources available to neurodivergent students at LCC, and points to information for students and faculty who wish to learn more about neurodiversity. 

Currently, the Neurodiversity guide is divided into four pages. 

1. Neurodiversity: provides an overview of neurodiversity
2. Using the Library: a detailed guide written in plain language that sets expectations for students who may wish to learn about the library before visiting
3. Books & Databases: collects resources from the LCC Library about neurodiversity and offers guidance and using them for research
4. Teaching Resources: a collection of resources for teaching with consideration for neurodiverse classrooms. Includes resources about Universal Design for Learning and a list of books available to checkout to faculty from the Centre for Teaching Excellence 

As neurodiversity is a growing topic of research and conversation, the content of the guide may change over time to reflect new understandings. 

The Neurodiversity guide is available at https://libguides.lcc.edu/neurodiversity

March is Music Month Virtual Display

March is Music Month and the LCC Library is marking the occasion with a collection of books about music and musicians. Biographies, histories, and essays will be on display on the second floor of the Technology and Learning Center throughout the month of March. Anyone with an active StarCard may borrow books at the Library Help Zone.

Additionally, Music in the TLC will return on Thursday, March 27th. Visit the TLC from 12 to 1 pm and experience live musical performances by LCC students and employees. More information is available on the LCC Events Calendar. 

As a reminder to music enthusiasts around campus: the Technology Lab on the second floor is equipped with a recording room. The room features audio recording and editing software, a keyboard, an electronic drum set, and acoustic and electric guitars. The room is available to everybody with an active StarCard. The room may also be reserved for specific times on the Technology Lab webpage of the LCC Library website.

Women's History Month Virtual Display

Women’s History Month 2025 is all about women who empower others.  The LCC Library is celebrating with a display of books about leaders, mentors, educators, and their work. The collection includes memoirs, biographies, and various forms of popular non-fiction.

Books will be on display on the second floor of the Technology & Learning Center throughout the month of March. Any patron with an active StarCard may borrow a book at the Library Help Zone.

In other news, the annual Women’s Literature Read-In is returning to LCC for Women’s History Month. A lineup of readers will present their work and the work of their favorite women authors. The Read-In will be on Wednesday, March 26, from 11:30 am to 4:00 pm in the Grand River Room on the 1^st floor of the Gannon Building. Attendees are welcome to stay for the day or drop-in as their schedule allows. Check out the LCC Events Calendar for more information.

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash. Photograph shows suffrage and labor activist Flora Dodge "Fola" La Follette (1882-1970), social reformer and missionary Rose Livingston, and a young striker during a garment strike in New York City in 1913. 

March 3-7 is Open Education Week! Open education is teaching using educational resources, or OER, freely available, openly licensed (usually Creative Commons) learning materials that can be legally downloaded, edited, and shared, to better serve all students. 

See our Open Educational Resources (OER) Research Guide to learn more!

Participate in the featured online events below or check out all Open Education Week events:

• We Like Sharing photo competition
• OEWeek Live - series of live webcasts featuring discussions with open educators
• Faculty-Student Showcase: UN SDG Open Pedagogy - Montgomery College
• Remixer Machine Challenge - customize openly licensed materials to create a remix

In honor of Black History Month, I put together a list of quotes from books I have read or want to read. I was drawn to each author as I read the quotes. I hope you feel the same connections. Read one of these books online or check it out from the Library!

- Nadia, Librarian

What books are you reading for Black History Month?

Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

 “The caged bird sings with a fearful trill,
of things unknown, but longed for still,
and his tune is heard on the distant hill,
for the caged bird sings of freedom.” 

“Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and then do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you.”

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

 “You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable.” 

“I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.” 

Frederick Douglass,  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

“They love the heathen on the other side of the globe. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible put into his hand, and missionaries to instruct him; while they despise and totally neglect the heathen at their own doors. Such is, very briefly, my view of the religion of this land."

“I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject could do.” 

Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story

 “While history is what happened, it is also, just as important, how we think about what happened and what we unearth and choose to remember about what happened” 

“James Baldwin famously said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed unless it is faced.”  

Bell Hooks, All About Love

“To return to love, to get the love we always wanted but never had, to have the love we want but are not prepared to give, we seek romantic relationships. We believe these relationships, more than any other, will rescue and redeem us. True love does have the power to redeem but only if we are ready for redemption. Love saves us only if we want to be saved.”

“The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control.”

  Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B. Wells   

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and it does seem to me that notwithstanding all these social agencies and activities there is not that vigilance which should be exercised in the preservation of our rights.”