combining events at mildred johnson library

we recently heard from karen chobot, director of mildred johnson library at north dakota state college of science. they are smartly combining three events into one big september project. from karen:

“Just wanted to let you know what we have been doing here in Wahpeton. We are a small staff at a small school, and we find it difficult to get started with a project right away when so few of us work over the summer. So we have decided over the years to combine 3 events into one, and start it out on September 11, so it stays up for a whole month.

The 3 events for September, making a full september project, are The September Project, Constitution Day, and Banned Books week. We have focused each year on displays in the library, liberally gaining inspiration from the web and other people’s sites. As a public institution, we are required to put on some educational activities on campus for Constitution Day, so we have focused every year on censorship and the freedom of expression. (Maybe next year I will move on to include the 2nd amendment, as gun ownership is big here.)

This year we are particularly highlighting Students Rights. I bought the sets of posters from the Long Island Coalition Against Censorship and will display the sets serially as the weeks go by. We have a window display on the music industry’s efforts to stop student file sharing, which has directly affected several of our students. I have a questionaire out by the exhibits asking student opinions on what they think of those efforts: are ‘free speech zones’ a good alternative, what they think of speech codes, and so on.”

it’s wonderful to be collaborating once again with the librarians of mildred johnson library.