News & Blog

It’s August already and the summer is almost over. Time really does fly by. June and July were tiny blips on the calendar. It feels like just last week that spring classes were ending and summer classes beginning.

School will be starting up again in a few short weeks. We’ll have a full cohort of students back on campus. The lines for coffee will be never ending and a free parking space will be nowhere to be found. Life will definitely get more exciting.

UCF Libraries faculty and staff suggested a stack of books to help you get back in the mindset for learning. They range from academic subjects to fun fiction to college success tips.

Welcome to the 2018-19 academic year!

Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured Back-so-School titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These 20 books plus many more are also on display on the 2^nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators.

Featured Bookshelf: Back-to-School

American history is a broad and varied topic. It ranges from the native inhabitants who formed communities here thousands of years ago to the creation of a new nation of states to the dreamers who immigrate to these shores today. It is a vast tract of information to cover, but it is important that we all learn about our past. As Edmund Burke said in Reflections on the Revolution in France, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.”

The founders of the United States, beyond their faults and foibles, began this nation with a grand and noble sentiment of “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity….”

“We the people” is us.  Join us this month as we explore our past to help ensure “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” applies to us all.

Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured titles on American History suggested by UCF Library employees. These 20 books plus many more are also on display on the 2^nd (main) floor of the John C. Hitt Library next to the bank of two elevators.

Featured Bookshelf: American History

Pride Month has arrived! While every day is a time to be proud of your identity and orientation, June is that extra special time for boldly celebrating with and for the LGBTQIA* community (yes, there are more than lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender in the queer community). June was chosen to honor the Stonewall Riots which happened in 1969. Like other celebratory months, LGBT Pride Month started as a weeklong series of events and expanded into a full month of festivities.

In honor of Pride Month, UCF Library faculty and staff suggested books, movies and music from the UCF collection that represent a wide array of queer authors and characters. Additional events at UCF in June include “UCF Remembers” which is a week-long series of events to commemorate the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in 2016.

Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the 20 titles by or about people in the LGBTQIA community suggested by UCF Library employees. These, and additional titles, are also on the Featured Bookshelf display on the second (main) floor next to the bank of two elevators.

Featured Bookshelf: LGBTQIA Pride Month

*LGBTQIA represents lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, intersex and asexual. The acronym is continually evolving, and the term queer is frequently used to be all inclusive and welcoming.

The Summer Knights Reading Challenge starts June 1 and ends August 1, 2018

• Open to all UCF students, faculty, and staff.
• It’s easy! Just track the number of pages for each unique book read using our form linked below (available beginning Friday, June 1).
• For e-books and audiobooks, simply verify the number of pages in the actual book using Amazon or another source.
• Reach the goal of reading 500 pages and win a prize pack!
• All participants will be entered into weekly drawings for gift cards to BurgerFi, Jeremiah’s Italian Ice, Metro Diner, and Smoothie King.
• The top three people who read the most pages overall will win grand prizes.

Enter your books on this form.

New books to the left of you. New books to the right of you. New books on the shelves. New books all around.

New books enter the UCF Libraries system on a regular basis. At the John C. Hitt Library, we select those with interesting titles, eye-catching dust jackets, or timely topics to feature on a display. The books range in subject from photography, science, and history to poetry, novels, and biographies. The display, which is next to the seating area at the Research & Information Desk, changes on an almost weekly basis.

Stop by. Maybe there will be one you want to take home with you.

Here is a small selection of the 50 books that are currently on the display:

To keep up with all the new additions to the New Book Display, follow our guide.