Faculty Authors: Florida State College at Jacksonville

Academic libraries are confronting a myriad of challenges, including consequences stemming from the pandemic, the changing demographics of student bodies, and the financial obstacles that many students are struggling to overcome. What's needed is practical guidance on how to effectively serve students' needs amidst rapid change. The contributors in this collection share several approaches to bolstering their success, with guidance that can be tailored to your own institution. Inside, you'll learn about   methods for reimagining learning and interactive programming during times of disruption; using technology to provide personalized support for vulnerable students, from free wifi hotspots to inclusive programing; promoting data skills through a makerspace; facilitating information access and STEAM learning for first-generation students; ensuring accessibility for rural community college students; responding to challenges brought about by systemic racism and COVID-19; impactful mentoring; expanding an open textbook program; supplying laptops for students through an academic/public library partnership; and paid internships and work/study positions for low-income students.

Follow a dynamic, imaginative, dark world, a dark world wrought by grief. Sometimes people cope with grief by imbibing. Sometimes they get drunk and play with dead people. Sometimes people kill people and make those deaths humorous or obsessive. Sarah can’t be straight, but sometimes sex isn’t about sexuality. Still, things aren’t always what they seem, and when they aren’t, people have a tendency to overindulge in their thoughts and philosophies, only to find out that sometimes the impetus for great thinking is something inane or obscure. Obscurity or feeling differently can create loneliness and isolation And although there’s a penguin missing somewhere out there in the arctic, there’s a person in the world who thinks that something’s missing only to find that it’s not. What happens after we find what we’re looking for—and after all, aren’t we all ultimately striving to attain safety? Feelings of safety are intimately intertwined with trauma, and sometimes trauma initiates a physical crisis followed by a spiritual ascendency.

This is a collection from multiple authors: Andrea Talley, Nicholas Brown, Rebecca Crews, Bill Ectric King, Jenna Lee Escalante, Jennifer Singletary, Jared Hines, Rosella Parra, Haley Nesto, Charis Holmes, and Toree Dobson.

These authors completed this collection as a supplementary project for their Creative Writing graduate course.

Highly Successful Teens - we all admire them, but some tiny part of us hates them for making everything look effortless. Get the inside story and practical "how to" strategies for teens (and their parents). Based on research, Dr. Naita Guine presents information in a quick, easy-to-read book. Adults and teens will want to return to it regularly for instructions and inspiration.

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From Florida, whose "Don't Say Gay" law prohibits K-12 instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation, to Texas, which is shuttering libraries in schools, America is in the middle of a far-right war on public education.   Now, for the first time, K-12 educators from across the nation give readers a teacher's-eye view of the radical right crusade to take down public education, coordinated by well-funded, well-connected far-right political interests. Christian nationalists hell-bent on erasing the line between church and state, white supremacists opposed to a curriculum that teaches the enduring effects of anti-Black racism, political action committees, such as Moms for Liberty, calling for the banning of novels featuring LGBTQ+ people, and profiteers eager to divert taxpayer dollars into private schools are mounting a relentless attack on teachers, the students they serve, and the commitment to public education that is a cornerstone of democracy. "It's a phenomenal, unprecedented moment that we're in," says a librarian, recently retired from her Texas school. "It's surprising how many people don't know what's going on. I talk to reporters who have no idea. And they're reporters."   In Trouble in Censorville, public school teachers from states as far-flung as Florida, Texas, Kentucky, New Jersey, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Washington describe, in their own words, being threatened, stalked, doxxed, ostracized, smeared as "pedophiles" and "Marxists," placed on leave, and fired for teaching historical truth and racial justice, supporting LGBTQ+ students and, in one case, for wearing "insufficiently" feminine attire. Their stories bring readers face-to-face with the human cost of these attacks, which range from social isolation to pent-up anger over institutional betrayal to the terrible toll on teachers' mental and physical health.   And yet, teachers are fighting back. They're mobilizing colleagues, parents, and community members who share their faith in the freedom to read, the freedom to think critically, the freedom to challenge small-minded provincialism. Their stories of frontline resistance, collected here, provide a battle plan for confronting censorship, rallying support, and mobilizing a grassroots defense of public schools.   Their gripping testimonials are enhanced by a timeline that situates today's far-right war on public education in the context of American history, moving briskly from Reconstruction to the anti-left and anti-gay fearmongering of the McCarthy era to the Black Lives Matter movement to the Trump presidency.   Terrifying, infuriating, and inspiring, Trouble in Censorville sounds the alarm for a democracy on fire.

Academic libraries are confronting a myriad of challenges, including consequences stemming from the pandemic, the changing demographics of student bodies, and the financial obstacles that many students are struggling to overcome. What's needed is practical guidance on how to effectively serve students' needs amidst rapid change. The contributors in this collection share several approaches to bolstering their success, with guidance that can be tailored to your own institution. Inside, you'll learn about   methods for reimagining learning and interactive programming during times of disruption; using technology to provide personalized support for vulnerable students, from free wifi hotspots to inclusive programing; promoting data skills through a makerspace; facilitating information access and STEAM learning for first-generation students; ensuring accessibility for rural community college students; responding to challenges brought about by systemic racism and COVID-19; impactful mentoring; expanding an open textbook program; supplying laptops for students through an academic/public library partnership; and paid internships and work/study positions for low-income students.

How long can the past stay buried? How long can secrets remain undiscovered? What is "destiny?" Mary Blair Destiny is an unforgettable journey of serendipity, resilience, and healing.Based on the true story of Dorothy Bryan, her journey uncovers her birth parents by a series of 'accidents' -- and their affluent yet tragic lives in old Virginia. Fate and chance encounters lead Dorothy to discover details of her birth and then her surprising abandonment as an infant. Dorothy set forth on an unwavering quest to find answers and bring healing to her life, yet she carried shame with her to the grave. A prominent politician, a doctor's fastidious records, and a unique name, Mary Blair, solved the puzzle of Dorothy's life. Generations later, more details are unearthed, but we can never know what was forever buried with those that held the deepest family secrets. She is secret no longer.Following the lessons from the people impacting Dorothy's story, Richman reveals to readers virtues of looking at life as one moment, and that this present moment is irreplaceable. Richman and the lives portrayed in her story are proof that the richness of life is found in our connections with others--marriages and friendships, the moments in life that we share, and the ways that we become connected. The stories told in Mary Blair Destiny add up to a guide for living well, with inspiration for all of us.Join Erin Richman on this journey to resolve and heal a legacy that impacted generations of women and a branch of a family once abandoned.

Sarah and her husband Charlie has a very unique relationship. Sarah does everything to please Charlie, however, Charlie is such hard man to please. He's isolated her from her family, made her quit her job, abuses her physicaly and verbally and even moves his girlfriend Andrea in to live with them. If this isn't enough to make her leave him, maybe the murder is.