April is National Poetry Month.  Launched in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, it pays tribute to the ways poetry enriches American culture, both past and present.  Their website has a number of poetry-related readings and activities, including a Poem-A-Day program you can receive through email.  You can also follow Natasha Trethewey, our current [...]

World Health Day, celebrated every April, is the World Health Organization’s holiday designed to raise global health awareness.  Each year, the WHO chooses an aspect of healthy living that they want to use the holiday to promote, and have used the opportunity to showcase topics ranging from road safety to safe motherhood to mental health.  [...]

March is Women’s History Month, and a good time to reflect, not just on pioneering women who have changed the world, from Boudica or Hatshepsut to Hillary Clinton or Condoleezza Rice, but those who have changed our own lives, in big and small ways.  Of course, the library stands ready to help you with your [...]

March is national Social Work Month, and a great time to recognize the work of all those who are and who are studying to become social workers.  From its origins in combating poverty to the modern effort towards equality and justice, social work has been a source of hope to millions.  First celebrated in 1964, [...]

Happy African American History Month!  For most of us, this is a time to hear brief biographies of black pioneers and innovators, and experience a slice of American history that can often be overlooked.  It reminds us of the universality of human achievement.  And the library can help with this – sources like Biography in [...]

Christmas 1776 found the Continental army at its lowest point.  After losing New York, the American Revolutionary army had fled across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania.  They were underfed and ill-equipped, and had proven vastly inferior to British troops in almost every way.  Washington himself wrote “I think the game is pretty near up.”
 That evening, [...]

The driedel game, a popular Hanukah activity for children, grew into an adult passion for my mother (Eva Weinstein; Hebrew name Chava חוה, which means “life”), as she collected another and another and another and…until there was a glass-enclosed cabinet full of dreidels, each with a unique story about how and why it was acquired. [...]

November is Native American Heritage Month, founded in 1990 by Public Law 101-343.  It’s a great time to learn about the rich and incredibly diverse history of our continent’s first citizens.�
 The first and foremost of our resources are databases.  These include American Indian History Online, which lets you search by region, tribe, person, event, or [...]

On this Veterans Day, IU East joins the nation in pausing to thank our brave soldiers, from generations past and present, for their service and courage under fire.  But of course, we are especially proud of those students and employees of our own university who have defended us.  And we want to give back to [...]

As you may know, November is right around the corner. Yep, you know what that means, National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. For those of you who didn’t know November was National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo is a month dedicated to encouraging novel writing, and creative writing in general, that was started by the non-profit [...]