Springtime at Cuyamaca College

For the month of April, Cuyamaca College’s LTRC display will focus on Springtime @ Cuyamaca College!

We will feature beautiful fresh and silk floral arrangements generously donated by Diane Citrowske and Susan Butler from our very own Ornamental Horticulture program. And did you know that our amazing Water Conservation Garden is home to a family of fine-looking Barn Owls? Hoot and Holla (father and mother barn owls) set up residence in the garden’s owl box on February 16 and Holla immediately laid her eggs. Some of those eggs have already hatched! Wanna see? Check out the owl cam ! To get an even closer look at barn owls, stop by the LTRC and check out the display specimen barn owls on loan from the San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park. And speaking of owls, we’ve recently discovered that great horned owls nest on our campus as well. A very lost and confused fledgling great horned owl appeared behind the library one morning and Project Wildlife came to the rescue. Stay tuned; we may have a guest speaker from Project Wildlife visit our library in the very near future.

Let the magnificence of spring further inspire you to be GREEN. Our display will include environmentally friendly tips from our Water Conservation Garden in the form of free handouts kindly supplied by Elizabeth Ramos. Water conservation tips from the City of San Diego’s Public Utilities are also available free in the LTRC.

Enjoy our campus’ springtime splendor any time of the year! Watch the video.

P.S. Don’t forget to visit our Spring Garden Festival on campus Saturday, April 9, 2011 from 9 am to 4 pm. Free admission!

Our History is Our Strength!

March is Women’s History Month! This month’s display in the LTRC features the women leadership of Cuyamaca’s campus and the District Office. Our campus’ deans and vice presidents, Connie Elder, Robin Steinbeck, Danene Brown, Arlene Satele, Serene Pritchett, Madelaine Wolfe, Susan Topham and Julianna Barnes as well as the district Vice Chancellor, Sue Rearic and our Chancellor, Cindy Miles are introduced through photographs and short bios in our 1st floor display case. The 2nd floor cases focus on our powerful and courageous she-roes, those who’ve paved the way for women to overcome oppression and discrimination and set out on their own personal paths of empowerment. Our collection here in the Cuyamaca College LTRC contains excellent literature that highlights the extraordinary accomplishments and amazing strength of many influential women such as Wilma Mankiller, Emily Dickinson, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth, Charlotte E. Ray and many others. Stop by the LTRC this month and join in our celebration of our SHE-ROES!

Display Creatively Designed by Maria Gearhart

Civil War to Civil Rights and Beyond . . .

This year’s Black History Month theme addresses “the efforts of people of African descent to destroy slavery and inaugurate universal freedom in the United States.” African Americans served as recruiters, soldiers, nurses and spies during the Civil War which Frederick Douglass believed would bring an end to America’s “peculiar institution,” slavery. He was proven correct! In honor of this year’s theme, the LTRC display for the month of February celebrates African Americans and the Civil War. The display cases contain books and photographs addressing slavery and emancipation, African American Civil War issues, and autobiographies and narratives of slaves.

For more information, please see:
http://www.africanamericanhistorymonth.gov/about.html

http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/overview-african-americans-civil-war

http://www.asalh.org/Annual_National_Black_History_Theme.html

National Disabilities Awareness Month

October is National Disabilities Awareness Month. Come visit the LTRC this month and learn more about human disabilities and how our college assists and supports disabled students. Our display contains books, information sheets on famous disabled individuals as well as five Paraquad Disability Awareness Posters. In addition, the display includes items on loan such as assistive computer technology (both hardware and software) and alternate media that are used to assist our disabled students from Cuyamaca College’s Disabled Students Programs Services (DSPS). These items have been provided by the High Tech Center located in the LTRC in room C-102.

For more information about National Disabilities Awareness Month, please visit Office of Disability Employment Policy

Be sure to join us for Cuyamaca's 13th Annual Wheelchair Basketball Game

LTRC Display Creatively Designed by Maria Gearhart

September is for National Hispanic Heritage Month and the U.S. Constitution Week

During the month of September, 2010, the library will have two concurrent displays!

In honor of National Constitution Week, September 17-23, 2010, the first floor library display will contain items and books related to the September 17, 1787 signing of the Constitution of the United States of America.

On September 17, 2010, the ASGCC will sponsor an event from 9:15-9:45 am to celebrate Constitution Day. In front of the LTRC, there will be a “live” Statue of Liberty, cookies and a brief, fun quiz where you can test your knowledge of the Constitution. Voter registration will even be available on the Grand Lawn. Please, stop by, register to vote if you haven’t already done so, grab a cookie, take the quiz, then visit the library to view the Constitution display.

More information about Constitution Week can be found here:Constitution Week USA

Mexican Independence

September 15- October 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month and this year, September 16 marks Mexico’s 200th anniversary of its Independence from Spain and the 100 year anniversary of its Revolution. The Mexican Heritage display will include books, information and materials related to Mexican history.

More information about National Hispanic Heritage Month can be found here:Hispanic Heritage Month
Information about Mexican Independence and the Mexican Revolution as well as local celebrations can be found here:
Mengei International Museum
Explorando Mexico
Harry Ransom Center

Displays creatively designed by Maria Gearhart

Come Read with Me

This summer, the Cuyamaca College LTRC would like to extend an invitation to all students, staff and faculty to share the enriching experience of reading with children. Read to your children or grandchildren. Read to a neighbor, friend, niece or nephew. Or how about your own inner-child? Studies show that “the most important thing adults can do in preparing young children for success in school and reading is to read aloud with them” (Family Literacy Foundation and International Reading Association). Stop by and visit us Monday – Thursday, 8 am- 6 pm and check out our display of classics and Caldecott Award winners in addition to plenty of thematic literature perfect for sharing with children of all ages. Happy Reading!

For more information and ideas, here are some websites worth exploring to enhance a child's summer reading adventures:
San Diego County Library 2010 Summer Reading Club
Nature & Me - Preschool Storytime Series and Other FREE Natural History Museum Children's Events
San Diego Public Library 2010 Summer Reading Program
San Diego Family Summer Reading Programs

Equal Education for All

In 1944, when Gonzalo Mendez attempted to enroll his children in Westminster’s Main Street School, he was turned away and sent to Hoover Elementary, the “Mexican” elementary school. Mendez and four other fathers challenged this discrimination in the class-action lawsuit, Mendez v. Westminster School District and won. On June 14, 1947, Governor Earl Warren signed the bill that ended school segregation in California. This historical event also helped pave the way to the landmark court case Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka which resulted in the Supreme Court ruling, again by Earl Warren, then the Chief Justice of the United States, that ended the school segregation of African-Americans.

In conjunction with Cuyamaca College’s Mexican Cultural Heritage Celebration on Thursday, May 6, 2010, the library display will include items relating to the Mendez v. Westminster case. Come visit the LTRC throughout the month of May and see news articles, academic journal articles, documentary films, and court documents that give attention to both Mendez v. Westminster and Brown v. the Board of Education. Additionally, the book entitled Mendez v. Westminster; School Desegregation and Mexican-American Rights which chronicles the entire history of this case, the commemorative 2007 stamp as well as other books from our collection that address equality in education will be on display.

For more information, please visit the following links:

Learn California.org

UprisingRadio.org

Mendez v. Westminster, A Look At Our Latino Heritage

Mendez v. Westminster Case Blog (Closer to Home)

Brown vs. Board of Education

Smithsonian's Seperate is Not Equal, Brown v. Board of Education