News & Blog

UCF Diversity Week is a celebration of our diverse community and an opportunity to explore topics across the broad range of   human identity, experience, and interaction. Diversity Week activities are intended to stimulate our campus and move us to a more inclusive culture. UCF Libraries is hosting a series of events focused on diverse voices from the Libraries’ collections and at UCF.

Diversity Week Events at UCF Libraries:

Start Your Week Stress Free with Coloring
Monday, October 17
10:00 am – 2:00 pm
John C. Hitt Library/Curriculum Materials Center
Downtown Campus Library/Rosen Campus Library

Learning about diversity and inclusion doesn’t need to be stressful. Kick off your 2022 Diversity Week experience with some stress free coloring. Relax near the Circulation Desks at the John C. Hitt Library, Curriculum Material Center (Ed Complex), Rosen Campus Library and Downtown Library (in Dr. Phillips Academic Commons) with crayons and our custom Diversity Week Coloring pages. Shout out to Gaby Gomez for designing the pages!

Graphic Novel Book Club – Pilu of the Woods
Tuesday, October 18
6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Zoom

Join UCF Libraries in a engaging discussion about the graphic novelization of Pilu of the Woods by Mai K. Nguyen. Don’t forget to read the book first! The link to an electronic version owned by UCF Libraries will be sent in your registration confirmation.

Register to attend at: Diversity Week Graphic Novel Book Club: Pilu of the Woods

A heartwarming story of friendship, loss, and finding your way home from debut author/illustrator Mai K. Nguyen!

Willow loves the woods near her house. They’re calm and quiet, so different from her own turbulent emotions, which she keeps locked away. When her emotions get the better of her one day, she decides to run away into the woods.

There, she meets Pilu, a lost tree spirit who can’t find her way back home—which turns out to be the magnolia grove Willow’s mom used to take her to. Willow offers to help Pilu, and the two quickly become friends.

But the journey is long, and Pilu isn’t sure she’s ready to return home yet—which infuriates Willow, who’s determined to make up for her own mistakes by getting Pilu back safely. As a storm rages and Willow’s emotions bubble to the surface, they suddenly take on a physical form, putting both girls in danger… and forcing Willow to confront her inner feelings once and for all..

Crochet Your Pride…Flag, with Gaby
Wednesday, October 19
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
John C. Hitt Library 170

Learn to crochet a Pride flag (color options for rainbow, trans pride and UCF pride) as Downtown Library staff member, Gaby, takes you step by step through it live in this workshop.

Note this session is limited to 15 participants. A crochet hook and yarn will be provided. Please sign up using this registration link.

Live film discussion: The Revolution Generation
Wednesday, October 19
7:00 – 8:30 pm
John C. Hitt Library 402

Join UCF Libraries for a Live, in – person film discussion of the 2021 film The Revolution Generation!

The number of Millennials in the United States — those born between approximately 1978 and 2000 — is near 80 million people. They’re the most diverse generation in America, with 56 percent of them registered as politically Independent, and every single one of them will be needed if the planet is to avoid climate catastrophe. In THE REVOLUTION GENERATION, filmmakers Josh Tickell and Rebecca Tickell  spotlight a generation that has been mischaracterized, mislabeled, and mistakenly mocked.

Through interviews and highlighting a theory by authors/generational demographists Neil Howe and William Strauss that history can be viewed as a series of 80-year cycles — and within that, into four “seasons” that bring with them profound societal changes — the film shows the impact of the WWII Generation, Baby Boomers, and Gen X. But Millennials occupy a special spot: They’re creators of social tech and native digital users, are anti-corporate crusaders, are more empathetic than any previous group, and they now have to secure voting rights, equality, and the safety of the planet itself. Can they do it?

A kinetic, perceptive documentary of a generation and why they are who they are, THE REVOLUTION GENERATION is also, as Josh Tickell says, “A how-to manual for saving the earth.”

Open Heart, Open Mic
Thursday, October 20
7:00 pm – 8:00 pm
John C. Hitt Library – 402

Experience the creative works of Knights and friends around the world sharing what the Knight community means to them. Walk in presentations are welcome! 

Any original work presented at an Open Heart Open Mic event will be eligible to be listed in STARS KnightVerse. STARS is UCF’s digital repository designed to disseminate, publicize, and share works by, for, and about UCF. KnightVerse is the area within STARS for library related student work. After presenting, see the Open Heart Open Mic host for information about submitting your original work.

Color Your Story bookend decorating
Friday, October 21
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
John C. Hitt Library and Downtown Library

How would you color your story?

Join UCF Libraries at 3 locations to decorate bookends using paint pens, permanent markers, and decoupage as a way to illustrate your truth and lived experiences. Plus you get a great decoration to take home!

Locations:
– On Main Campus, outside the new Student Union facing entrance of the John C. Hitt Library.
– On Downtown Campus, Dr. Philips Academic Commons Library.
– On Rosen Campus, Library room 120F.

Virtual film discussion: Dolores
Friday, October 21
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Zoom

Join UCF Libraries for a virtual discussion of the 2017 film Dolores!

Film description:
Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her enormous contributions have gone largely unrecognized. Dolores tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Chavez, becoming one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century – and she continues the fight to this day, at 87. With intimate and unprecedented access to this intensely private mother to eleven, the film reveals the raw, personal stakes involved in committing one’s life to social change.

Please watch Dolores before logging into the discussion session.

Register to attend the virtual discussion of Dolores at: Diversity Week Virtual Film Discussion: Dolores

You can also find film suggestions and puzzles on our guide at guides.ucf.edu/diversityweek

The UCF Libraries wish to welcome our international graduate students to a library orientation either in person or via online on August 16, 2022, Tuesday, 2:00pm – 4:00pm. Attendees will learn how the UCF Library System support our international graduate students and their research.

This two-hour event is designed for new and returning international graduate students. Participants will have the opportunity to connect with their subject specialist librarians, to learn about the Libraries’ collections and resources, and to leave the event knowing how to contact a subject librarian in their area of research. The program will cover a variety of important topics including library cultural adaption, scholarship/publishing academic integrity and resources, etc.
Registration link: https://ucf.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bDVP0d5PkiNp8Hk

Join Chris Saclolo from Special Collections University Archives to learn about the craft of artists’ books (works of art in book form) and the history of the UCF Student Book Arts Competition. Students will get the opportunity to see some of the artists’ books from the Book Arts & Typography Collection.

Date: Monday March 21st
Time: 4:00 pm
Where: John C. Hitt Library Room 402

Join UCF Libraries and Kimberly Wilmot Voss, Nicholson School of Communication, for a Women’s History Month Author Talk titled “Florida Fashions in the 1950s and 1960s” on Friday, March 25, 2022!

For decades, most metropolitan newspapers had fashion editors in their women’s pages and some of the best of these journalists were in Florida. Areas like fashion journalism were where women were making their mark for decades – attending fashion shows, writing about local stores and guiding their readers on fashion trends. They covered changes in swimsuit regulations, the wearing of pants in the workplace and the rising of skirt-lengths. These editors served as social critics and community connectors – while also having lots of fun.

Register for this free virtual event on Zoom

For further reading, check out a copy of Dr. Voss’s book on which this presentation is based,
Newspaper Fashion Editors in the 1950s and 60s: Women Writers of the Runway, from UCF Libraries.

Other UCF Libraries’ owned books by Dr. Voss:

The Rosen Library’s new display “Paris in the Spring” features photographs of iconic sights, books highlighting local flavors and history, as well as arrondissement maps meant to inspire an exploration of Parisian life.

The exhibit was curated by Gina Rippens of the Rosen Library and runs from January to May 2022.