Library News & Events

Hey there, Oilers! Happy (almost) Valentine's Day! In lieu of candy and flowers, we here at Shafer bring to you 10 book recommendations featuring some complicated romances. Be it the stresses of college to the danger of what lurks beneath the sea, these stories are not your average romances! Stop on by the library to pick one of these up from our physical display, but hurry, they're flying off the shelves! 

Click on each item to be taken to our catalog for more information on its availability. Missed out on a book you NEED to read? Track down another copy here on SearchOhio or stop by the Library to see if we can track one down for you or find something else you might enjoy!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our "Magic of Writing" event last month! We enjoyed watching everyone's adventures unfold and seeing them on Instagram. We would like to feature the winner of our event, Emily Minh Huynh! Emily is currently a senior at UF, and we asked her to share a bit about her experience with the event. She was glad to have found out about the event because it aligns with her personal interests.

"I'm a commuter, so I'm not on campus all the time," Minh Huynh said. "I do a lot of fantasy writing, so actually having a reference for a setting kind of really helped guide my writing, almost like a template."

We were curious as to how she began the story writing process, so she shared her experience with us despite a few roadblocks encountered along the way!

"I walked around with a group, but the story I wrote by myself. I started at the Ritz Auditorium, then I came to the Writer's Den, the Witches' Den, the gazebo next, and then the basement of the asylum. The Writer's Den was very open-ended, and I had no idea where the Japanese Garden was!"

Despite the difficulty of some of the locations, Emily was "very impressed with all the props in the Writer's Den." She hopes to see this event happen in the future, with the possibility for more students, faculty, and staff to participate.

To read Emily's story, click here.

Brigitte Galauner (College Librarian for Business, Education, & Social Sciences) presents a commemorative copy of Neil Gaiman's novel The Graveyard Book to Emily (right), as the winner of "The Magic of Writing" event.

This is a reminder to finalize and SHARE your stories from "The Magic of Writing" event on Instagram this week! All you have to do is upload any text and photos as a regular post (do not post it on your Instagram story), tag the UF Writing Center and use the hashtag #UFwritingday22. We need you to tag us and use the hashtag so we can find your story! We will be selecting a winner later this week.

The event also made it to The Pulse! Check it out here.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the event last week. We hope you enjoyed it, and we hope to bring back the event next year!

Happy Banned Books Week Oiler Nation!

Through September 18-24th Shafer library will be participating in the annual Banned Books Week. 

Launched in 1982 in response to a sudden increase in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries, Banned Books Week emphasizes the value of free and open access to information. It "celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. For 40 years, the annual event has brought together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or restriction in libraries and schools. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship (ALA website)."

Every year, the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) compiles a list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books in order to inform the public about censorship in libraries and schools. The lists are based on information from media stories and voluntary reports sent to OIF from communities across the U.S.. You can find the lists going back to 2009 on the ALA website. However, the OIF has data going back to 1990 when the began recording the data.

The Top 10 lists are only glimpse at book challenges. Surveys indicate that 82-97% of book challenges – documented requests to remove materials from schools or libraries – remain unreported and receive no media.

To learn more, head on over the Banned Books Week website or the American Library Association (ALA) website.

Throughout the week, check out the #BannedBooksWeeks on twitter for participating events and libraries and to head on over the the official Banned Books Week Twitter for more facts, digital events (lectures, workshops, readings), and news.

Also be sure to stop by Shafer library to check out our displays and participate in our 'Guess the Banned Book" drawing. We will also be posting Banned Book trivia to our Twitter and Instagram throughout the week so be sure to follow!

@ShaferLibrary and shaferlibrary