7 Self Care Tips from the Dabney Library

This post isn't necessarily library- or book-related, but in these uncertain and chaotic times of quarantine and social isolation, we thought we'd share some tips for remaining as stress-free as possible. We know how hard our students, faculty, and staff have been working during this pandemic (and always!), and we're so proud and so very appreciative of all that you do! We also know how hard it can be to balance your work life with your studies and family life, so here are some tips for keeping your cool:

1. Drink Plenty of Water

I know how hard this one can be... when all you want is coffee or soda to just keep you going. But drinking lots of water is so important! Water is energizing, actually. And it's good for your skin, digestive system, airways, and all the other systems and cells in your body. While this might not be the most fun or the easiest way to take care of yourself, it's one of the most vital. So, be sure to drink plenty of water!

2. Get Outside

Not that I would call any part of a global pandemic "lucky," but I suppose we're somewhat fortunate that this is all happening during the Springtime. The weather is getting warmer, the flowers are blooming, and it's so nice to just get outside. If you start feeling the stress creeping in, take a minute to go outside and feel the sunshine on your skin and breathe in some fresh air. Or if you'd prefer, open a window in your house! Feeling a warm Springtime breeze truly can be therapeutic.

3. Take Time for the Things You Enjoy

When your days are consumed with work and taking care of your families, it can be hard to take time for the things you enjoy. But let me tell you, even if it's just for a few minutes, set aside some time just for you. Watch Tiger King or The Office or a Ted Bundy documentary. Listen to your favorite playlist on Spotify. Read a good book. Play a video game. Knit a scarf. Whatever it is you like to do, do it. This is a big part of maintaining your sanity and your sense of self, which, in these crazy times, is so very important.

4. Exercise!

If you're working from home or taking your classes online, then you, like me, are probably sitting a lot... Get up and move! Take a walk around the block. Stretch. Get a whole cardio workout in. Take a dance break. Exercising is a great way to relieve stress and to feel better overall. It doesn't really matter how you do it, but your body -- and your mind -- will definitely thank you! 

5. Call a Friend or Family Member

It's easy to feel a little down when you're social distancing. Don't forget to reach out to your loved ones! Call or text a good friend or FaceTime a family member. It can feel amazing to connect. Even if you simply call to complain about your day or talk about the weather, remember to reach out. It can be a great mood booster!

6. Write in a Journal

When you start feeling anxious or overwhelmed, sometimes, it helps to write about how you're feeling. It can be really helpful to simply write what you're feeling and maybe list a few things you can do to overcome those feelings. I also find that writing organized lists in my planner or a notebook help me to feel less anxious and stressed. The point is that writing is a great way to deal with stress and anxiety. You can also search on Pinterest or Google for awesome journal prompt ideas to help with those overwhelming feelings.

7. Take a Break from Social Media

One last thing we can all do to help take care of ourselves is to take a break (or two or three) each day from social media. It can be so easy to get caught up in mindless scrolling. It's important to remember, though, that social media is where people post the best moments in their lives -- not necessarily their daily struggles that each of us have. It's easy to start comparing your life with others'. So, it could be a great idea to set aside some time away from social media each day.

We hope this list has been helpful! Do you have any other awesome self care ideas? Let us know in the comments!

Happy World Book Day from the Dabney Library!

It’s World Book Day, everyone! To celebrate, we’ve put together a list of nine awesome books from around the world that you can find at the DSLCC Library!

1. A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

Spain:

Located in our Popular Reading section, “In the late 1930s, civil war gripped Spain. General Franco and his Fascists overthrew the government; hundreds of thousands fled over the mountains to the French border. Roser, a pregnant young widow, finds her life intertwined with that of Victor Dalmau, an army doctor and the brother of her deceased love. To survive, the two must unite in a marriage neither of them wants; Sponsored by poet Pablo Neruda, they embark on the SS Winnipeg along with 2,200 other refugees in search of a new life. Emigrate to Chile as the rest of Europe erupts in World War, they discover their trials are just beginning.”

2. Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Nigeria:

Description from Penguin Randomhouse: “With effortless grace, celebrated author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie illuminates a seminal moment in modern African history: Biafra’s impassioned struggle to establish an independent republic in southeastern Nigeria during the late 1960s. We experience this tumultuous decade alongside five unforgettable characters: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old houseboy who works for Odenigbo, a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the professor’s beautiful young mistress who has abandoned her life in Lagos for a dusty town and her lover’s charm; and Richard, a shy young Englishman infatuated with Olanna’s willful twin sister Kainene. Half of a Yellow Sun is a tremendously evocative novel of the promise, hope, and disappointment of the Biafran war.”

3. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Afghanistan:

Description from Penguin Randomhouse: “The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friend ship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, caught in the tragic sweep of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and crucial moment of change and destruction. A powerful story of friendship, it is also about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacrifices, their lies. Since its publication in 2003 Kite Runner has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic of contemporary literature, touching millions of readers, and launching the career of one of America’s most treasured writers.”

4. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Colombia:

Description from Harper Collins Publishers: “One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendiá family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad and alive with unforgettable men and women—brimming with truth, compassion, and a lyrical magic that strikes the soul—this novel is a masterpiece in the art of fiction.”

5. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway

Cuba:

Description from Amazon: “The Old Man and the Sea is one of Hemingway's most enduring works. Told in language of great simplicity and power, it is the story of an old Cuban fisherman, down on his luck, and his supreme ordeal -- a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream.  Here Hemingway recasts, in strikingly contemporary style, the classic theme of courage in the face of defeat, of personal triumph won from loss. Written in 1952, this hugely successful novella confirmed his power and presence in the literary world and played a large part in his winning the 1954 Nobel Prize for Literature.”

6. Ulysses by James Joyce

Ireland:

Description from Wikipedia: “Ulysses chronicles the peripatetic appointments and encounters of Leopold Bloom in Dublin in the course of an ordinary day, 16 June 1904. Ulysses is Kiki the Latinised name of Odysseus, the hero of Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, and the novel establishes a series of parallels between the poem and the novel, with structural correspondences between the characters and experiences of Leopold Bloom and Odysseus, Molly Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus, in addition to events and themes of the early 20th-century context of modernism, Dublin, and Ireland's relationship to Britain. The novel is highly allusive and also imitates the styles of different periods of English literature.”

7. You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir by Sherman Alexie

Native American:

Find this book in our popular reading section. Description from our catalog record: “When his mother passed away at the age of 78, Sherman Alexie responded the only way he knew how: he wrote. The result is this memoir. Featuring 78 poems and 78 essays, Alexie shares raw, angry, funny, profane, tender memories of a childhood few can imagine -- growing up dirt-poor on an Indian reservation, one of four children raised by alcoholic parents. Throughout, a portrait emerges of his mother as a beautiful, mercurial, abusive, intelligent, complicated woman. You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is an account of a complicated relationship, an unflinching and unforgettable remembrance.”

8. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

United States:

Description from Barnes & Noble: “One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than forty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father—a crusading local lawyer—risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.”

9. Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood

Canada:

Description from Penguin Randomhouse: “Considered to be her most autobiographical work, Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood’s critically acclaimed seventh novel, is the story of Elaine Risley, the daughter of a forest entomologist and controversial artist in her fifties who returns to Toronto for a retrospective of her work. In her moment of professional glory, she becomes consumed by vivid images of her past, especially those of Cordelia, her best friend and emotional counterpart who waged lavish cruelties on her as a girl. Atwood employs her wry humor, rich irony, and keen eye for detail in a brilliant exploration of the treacherous terrain of girlhood and the historical geography of Toronto from the 1940s to the 1980s.”

Celebrating National Library Week!

It's National Library Week, everyone!

The theme for 2020's Library Week is "Find your place at the library." Of course, this year, we're under stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic. So, celebrating all the important things that libraries do is going to be a little different.

Instead of finding your place at the library, find the library at your place!

Ways You Can Celebrate Libraries This Week:

1. Check out some of the awesome resources the DSLCC Library offers: Ask a Librarian to answer any of your library- and research-related questions, databases to help you find resources for your research projects, OverDrive to browse and check out awesome audiobooks, and Films on Demand and Feature Films for Education to watch videos and movies for free. Remember, if you have any questions about any of these or need assistance, feel free to contact us at any time!
2. Post about us on social media and use the hashtag #ThankYouLibraries. Post a picture of a book you checked out (pre-social distancing, of course) or maybe a photo of you doing your schoolwork while using some of our great resources. Be sure to tag the college so we can see!
3. Visit the I Love Libraries Facebook page to post about why you love the DSLCC Library! Explore the page to see what others are saying about their awesome libraries and to check out some other ways to celebrate National Library Week.

Why do you love libraries? Drop us a comment to let us know. We'd love to hear from you!

3 DSLCC Library Resources to Help You Get Through Social Distancing

With the spread of the coronavirus, most of us have been stuck in our homes, practicing the new concept of social distancing in order to curb the spread. This has taken a lot of adjusting: classes switching from in-person to virtual, work going remote, and more. With all these changes, it's important that we all stop and take some time for ourselves to relax.

And the DSLCC Library is here to help!

We offer a variety of online resources to help you with your classwork and research assignments, but did you know we also have resources that just may help you with your stress relief goals too?

1. OverDrive

The first of these awesome resources is OverDrive. OverDrive is a service provided by the VCCS that allows you to browse and virtually check out thousands of amazing audiobooks. Using your myDabney username and password, you can search the catalog for fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, self-improvement, and more. If you love audiobooks, or if you're simply wanting to try something new during this time of social distancing, OverDrive is for you!

An example of the exciting titles you can check out on OverDrive!

2. Feature Films for Education

Another resource that you can access using your myDabney username and password is Feature Films for Education! Choose from thousands of popular films and movies, that you can watch for free. Yep. Free! Whether you're into action movies, horror films, documentaries, or comedies, there's something for you. For those with kids at home (or if you, like me, just love a good kids' movie), Films for Education features a wide selection of children's movies as well. Happy watching!

Just some of the many genres you can choose from on Films for Education.

3. Films on Demand

Once again, simply log in using your myDabney credentials, and you'll be able to access nearly 40,000 titles with Films on Demand. Here, you can watch videos about an incredible number of subjects, like allied health, psychology, engineering, sciences, literature, and so much more! These videos are made available by producers such as A&E, PBS, TED, and, again, so much more! Just like the previous two resources, Films on Demand is free.

Films on Demand home page: Check out some of these awesome titles!

Remember: If you have questions about any of these (and any other DSLCC Library resources), please let us know. We're always happy to help!