The Great Outdoors

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Written by Kirsten Weir

Psychological research is advancing our understanding of how time in nature can improve our mental health and sharpen our cognition.

From a stroll through a city park to a day spent hiking in the wilderness, exposure to nature has been linked to a host of benefits, including improved attention, lower stress, better mood, reduced risk of psychiatric disorders and even upticks in empathy and cooperation. Most research so far has focused on green spaces such as parks and forests, and researchers are now also beginning to study the benefits of blue spaces, places with river and ocean views. But nature comes in all shapes and sizes, and psychological research is still fine-tuning our understanding of its potential benefits. In the process, scientists are charting a course for policymakers and the public to better tap into the healing powers of Mother Nature.

Find out more about the benefits of the nature with these books from the library collection.

Job Search and Career Resources

Are you graduating? (Congratulations!) Do you graduate in a year? Are you thinking about your future jobs and career? Here are some resources to help you.

The Moraine Valley Job Resource Center is in Building S, Room S202. They can assist you with resume and cover letter reviews, interview skills, and possible internships. You can email them at jrc@morainevalley.edu.

How about some Ted Talks? They have a list of talks regarding interviewing, body language, and staying calm when you are stressed.

And here are some books available in the library.

Job Interview Tips for Overcoming Red Flags

The Introvert’s Complete Career Guide

101 Job Interview Questions You’ll Never Fear Again

May the Fourth be With You!

As anyone using the internet today has likely noticed, the Fourth of May is Star Wars Day – a galaxy-wide day of Star Wars Celebrations. What started as a pun on “may the force be with you“, May 4th has become an unofficial nerd holiday that Disney also uses to announce new content.

Whether you have attained the rank of Jedi Master or are a lowly Padawan, the Moraine Valley Library has you covered with books, video, eBooks, comics, audiobooks and more! Check out our Digital Display to see tons more Star Wars from the MVCC Library!

May the Fourth be With You – Always

National Library Week

Happy National Library Week! 

With national library week finally upon us, some may wonder what National Library Week actually is. National Library Week is a yearly celebration that emphasizes the importance of libraries & their staff in their respective communities. Libraries have a plethora of resources that help build the community and they act as a central hub in the community connecting their members to the resources they may need, inspiring growth/change. While libraries have always been important, National Library Week wasn’t always a thing. Around the mid to late 1950’s, many people were spending less time reading and more time with radios, tvs, and other activities. To encourage more Americans to read, the ALA formed a nonprofit organization called the National Book Committee. One of their many plans involved National Library Week, which was a plan developed to encourage more people to read so libraries could have more support and see more use. The first National Library Week took place in 1958 and now we are celebrating the 65th anniversary of the event.

If you would like to read more about National Library Week, read here

To celebrate National Library Week, we at MVCC Library are having our very own 2nd “Hue-mongous” coloring event where students can color any number of pictures we have on display. Students can also donate a $1 that will go to the student scholarship fund and have their picture hung up in the library.

(Fun fact-  Coloring is known to relieve stress because of the way it calms the brain and relaxes the body. Because of that, coloring is know to improve sleep while helping with body aches, heart rate, and feelings of depression/anxiety)

Celebrate National Library Week

This week is National Library Week, a whole week of celebrating libraries. Drop in and see us. We’ll have a pop-up library at lunchtime on Monday showing off some of our favorite items. You can also join the fun all week long with our “Hue-Mongous” coloring event.

Libraries are great places to learn, relax, socialize, and work. They’re pretty interesting places too. Please enjoy a few fun facts about libraries.

*The largest library in the world is the Library of Congress. It has about 168 million items and 838 miles of bookshelves.

*Librarians used to have to learn a special writing system called Library Hand.

*A library in Derby Line, Vermont and Stanstead, Quebec sits atop the US/Canada border. A line runs right through the building where you can walk back and forth between the countries, no passport required.

*There are far more libraries in the US than there are McDonald’s.

*Attendance at library programs exceeds attendance at MLB, NFL, and NBA games combined.

*Some libraries lend some pretty surprising things like neckties, cake pans, fishing rods, tools, taxidermy, and seeds. You might be wondering how you can “borrow” seeds. You have to promise the replenish them when your crop comes in.

*There are some very specialized libraries such as a library of magic in New York City and a library of smells in Versailles, France.

*The facade of the Kansas City Public looks like giant books.

*Isaac Asimov published books in 9 of the 10 major categories of the Dewey Decimal System.

*Harvard Library has at least one book bound in human skin.

*And finally, the book that holds the record for the most stolen library book is …wait for it…The Guinness Book of World Records.

Check Out Our Newest Kids Books!

If you are an education student, parent, or just like to read kids books, we are continuing to build our children’s and young adult literature collections. Currently, these, and others, are on display in the New Arrivals section, in the lounge near the library entrance. In a couple weeks, they will be moved downstairs to the juvenile (JUV) and young adult (PZ7) sections of the library where we have a nice selection to choose from. If you need help finding them, please Ask a Librarian for help.

Photo of children's books
Photo of children's and young adult books

2023 Moraine Valley Authors

The MVCC Library is thrilled to present this year’s display of the published works of Moraine Valley faculty and staff. We received what may be a record number of submissions from all over campus. The creative works include books, articles, conference presentations, poetry, songs, stories, graphic design, photography, interview recordings, and illustrations published anytime in 2022. Please click on the image below to see the display. (It may take a few moments to load.) We hope you enjoy reading through these accomplishments as much as we enjoyed putting this display together for you. Congratulations to all the Moraine Valley Authors!

Spring 2023 Authors Display

Celebrating Libraries in April

April is a month for us to celebrate libraries, including both National Library Week and School Library Month.  Libraries have served as storehouses of information since ancient times, dating back to the 7th century BC with the library of Ashurbanipal located in present day Iraq. Libraries have existed throughout history to preserve information for future generations, but it was only within the past two centuries that libraries became public institutions open to all. Peterborough Town Library, the world’s first public library, funded by taxes, did not open until 1833 in New Hampshire.  Public libraries grew in number across the United States thanks largely to donations from wealthy philanthropists like Andrew Carnegie.  Carnegie alone funded nearly 1,700 libraries across the country, no doubt many of us in the Chicago area have visited one. Encyclopedia Britannica has a great article where you can learn more about the history of libraries.    College libraries, like the Moraine Valley Community College Library, are staffed with certified librarians who are trained in research and instruction and ready to help support your information needs. They also have great collections of books available for you to check out in a variety of formats.  Libraries hold such a fond spot in our hearts, they often end up the topic of bestselling novels. In honor of all that libraries do, let’s look at some great library themed books available for you to check out through Moraine Valley Community College Library’s subscription to eRead.  Here is a Digital Resource Help guide in case you need help getting logged on.

On the morning of April 28, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. The fire was disastrous: it reached two thousand degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed four hundred thousand books and damaged seven hundred thousand more. Investigators descended on the scene, but more than thirty years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library—and if so, who?
Paris, 1939: Young and ambitious Odile Souchet seems to have the perfect life with her handsome police officer beau and a dream job at the American Library in Paris. When the Nazis march into the city, Odile stands to lose everything she holds dear, including her beloved library. Together with her fellow librarians, Odile joins the Resistance with the best weapons she has: books. But when the war finally ends, instead of freedom, Odile tastes the bitter sting of unspeakable betrayal. Montana, 1983: Lily is a lonely teenager looking for adventure in small-town Montana. Her interest is piqued by her solitary, elderly neighbor. As Lily uncovers more about her neighbor’s mysterious past, she finds that they share a love of language, the same longings, and the same intense jealousy, never suspecting that a dark secret from the past connects them.
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve, hoping to escape her stifling life in England.  But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically. The leader, and soon Alice’s greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who’s never asked a man’s permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky. 
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?
Lonely librarian June Jones has never left the sleepy English village where she grew up. Shy and reclusive, the thirty-year-old would rather spend her time buried in books than venture out into the world. But when her library is threatened with closure, June is forced to emerge from behind the shelves to save the heart of her community and the place that holds the dearest memories of her mother.
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