Featured Collections

  • International Education Week, 2024

    Explore this curated collection of books and eBooks focusing on international education and studying abroad. International Education Week (IEW) is celebrated globally on the third week of November each year. IEW highlights the importance of a globally oriented learning experience and showcases the impact that international education has on learning, research, and community.

    Brock International Education Week events, held November 18-22, are great opportunities to get involved, expand your knowledge, and connect with the world.

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  • Exhibits: Voices of Remembrance, and Some Were Neighbors

    “To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time” (Elie Wiesel, Night, 1960). Wiesel’s words remind us that memory is a moral act, essential in preserving the past and preventing future hatred.

    Chabad at Brock presents “Voices of Remembrance,” an exhibit featured in the Thistle Corridor and the Learning Commons at Brock University Library. Organized under the lead of Chabad at Brock’s Holocaust Education Chair, Brooke Braverman, this display brings together the stories of Brock students who are descendants of Holocaust survivors. Through their narratives, we reflect on the antisemitism that led to the Holocaust and honour the resilience needed to carry these memories forward.

    In the Learning Commons, Some Were Neighbors, a traveling exhibit from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, further examines the actions and moral choices of ordinary people during the Holocaust, inviting us to consider our own responsibilities in confronting hate.

    Additionally, the library has curated a collection of books to support Holocaust Education Week, offering historical insights, survivor testimonies, and scholarly perspectives on antisemitism and resilience.

    We invite you to explore these stories and reflect deeply on their message. In bearing witness to this living history, we commit to fighting against antisemitism, hatred, ignorance, and indifference wherever they appear.

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  • Political Landscapes

    Our November Featured Collection explores works on the intricate and evolving landscapes of current politics in the United States and Canada. With the US election a trending topic, this collection of books and eBooks highlights a variety of related subjects including democracy, campaigns, polling, and parties.

    Read the relevant Electable: Why American Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House…Yet with a focused chapter on Kamala Harris and the 2020 US election.

    Explore the growing discussion around Illiberal Democracies as it pertains to the history of political ideals in the United States. The newly published Illiberal America: A History looks to the past to understand this recent resurgence.

    If you are interested in a Canadian perspective you can read up on current movements in What’s Trending in Canadian Politics? which explores political communication and democratic governance in a digital age.

    You can browse the collection by visiting the book display next to the Ask Us desk in Matheson Learning Commons, or view the eBooks online.

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  • A beautiful new display with challenges (and prizes)

    “Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”     ― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad

    The Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures (MLLC) welcomes you to browse through its latest exhibit in the Library and at the Thistle entrance to the Learning Commons. The display exemplifies the languages and unique cultures explored by students in our courses. May your curiosity be piqued! Perhaps some of the questions rooted in the history of these cultures will be raised by the materials on display.

    Students are invited to view the intriguing assortment of items and win a prize. All responses will be collected for each of the two challenges and a $10 gift card will be awarded to two lucky winners.

    Challenge #1:

    a) Identify the theme of the current display. The hint is given on red crêpe paper in the four main languages taught in MLLC.
    b) Identify the person or the event depicted on the images posted on each vertical surface in both display cases (not the collage).  The images for one group are identical, so there are seven (7) scenes it total.
    The submission with the most correct answers will be the winning one.

    Challenge #2:

    Find an image from the collage or an object from the display and write about it.  It can be a memory, a meditation, or simply a comment.
    The responses will be evaluated by a selection committee, based on the creativity and relevance of the content.

    Submit your responses by Sunday, October 20 at midnight to: dbielicki@brocku.ca. Questions and comments are also welcome!

    Citation: https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/81446280-the-innocents-abroad

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  • Featured Collection: Honouring Indigenous Women and Girls

    This month’s featured Omni Collection is intended to honour and remember the lives of Indigenous Women and Girls in recognition of the Native Women’s Association of Canada‘s Sisters In Spirit Day. Browse and borrow from the print collection displayed next to the Ask Us desk and head online to view the Indigenous Women on Film sub-collection of documentaries.

    The collection also acts as a complement to The Canadian Library, a grassroots art installation project that acts as a memorial to all Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirit people. View the Brock University micro gallery at the Entiohahathe’te Knowledge Den.

    The Entiohahathe'te Knowledge Den

    The Entiohahathe’te Knowledge Den is located home to an Indigenous book collection and Brock’s Canadian Library Project micro gallery.

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  • National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

    On September 30, we recognize the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The day honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities.  

    Learn more about the impact of residential schools by exploring our virtual book display, a mixture of print titles, ebooks, and streaming video.

    Image credit: The Survivors’ flag was designed during six weeks of consultation, discussion and collaboration with Survivors from across Canada. Inuit, Mi’kmaq, Atikamekw, Cree, Ojibway, Dakota, Mohawk, Dene, Nuu-chah-nulth, Secwepemc, Métis Survivors brought the flag to life by sharing their thoughts, ideas and lived experience to identify the important symbolism you see. The NCTR (National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation) ensured the Survivors’ wishes and ideas were conveyed to Vincent Design to complete the flag.

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  • Trio of exhibits celebrate Isaac Brock and his namesake University’s 60th anniversary

    In celebration of Brock University’s 60th anniversary, Brock University Archives & Special Collections have installed three new exhibits focusing on Major General Sir Isaac Brock and graphical representations of the University.

    At the east entrance of the James A. Gibson Library, view the collection of archival treasures depicting Sir Isaac Brock over the centuries.  As no one really knows what the ‘Hero of Upper Canada’  looked like, seeing how artists have portrayed him over time is always interesting.  From paintings to Pokémon, you can find Isaac almost everywhere.

    Action figure of Isaac Brock

    The Major-General Isaac Brock action figure. Created by the Canadian Legends company, the collector’s item is one of several unique pieces on display.

    On display inside the Matheson Learning Commons and at the Thistle entrance, visitors can learn how Brock University has promoted itself graphically from 1964 to the present. From the most successful campaigns to the least, each exhibit represents a specific time in the University’s history as well as art styles and ideas.

    1968 Time Magazine ad for Brock University

    A young man in suit and tie strides into a bright future with the Schmon Tower in the background. This advertisement from Time Magazine appeared in the November 8, 1968 issue of Time Canada with the compliments of the publisher.

    Enjoy these exhibits throughout September (and Surgité)!

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  • Brock Library Now and Then

    As part of Brock University’s 60th anniversary celebrations, we present Brock Library Now and Then, a treasure trove of photos showing the development of the Brock University Library and the generations of students who studied here.

    Reminisce in-person by scanning the QR codes located on posters in the Matheson Learning Commons (main floor or the Library), Floor 5, and in the Map, Data, & GIS Library. For those unable to visit in person, navigate to Brock Library Now and Then exhibit online.

    Most of the images are from the University photo collection held in the Archives and Special Collections. We thank Archives staff for their contributions to this exhibit, and invite you to delve further into Brock University history and lore at the Pop-Up Archives event during this year’s very special Homecoming Skyline Celebration.

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  • Dark Tourism

    Our August Featured Collection delves into the darker side of tourism, exploring why people choose to visit places associated with tragedy, death, or disaster. “Dark Tourism” is a long-time practice and some scholars describe it as an opportunity to engage with history and gather a deeper understanding of events that occurred in specific locations.

    Read about the preservation of cultural and natural heritage in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, where Ukraine is transforming the site into a tourism attraction. Consider the term social memory and explore collective remembrance of the Holocaust through the visitation of Holocaust memorials and museums.

    These books cover a variety of sites such as: Fukushima, war memorials, concentration camps, catacombs, penitentiaries, and natural disaster sites like Pompeii.

    You can browse the collection by visiting the display next to the Ask Us desk or view the e-books online.

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  • Olympic & Paralympic Games 2024

    As thousands of athletes gather to compete in Paris this week, Brock Library presents an extra thematic collection this month: 2024 Olympics. Featuring print and e-book titles as well as Olympic and sport-related films, the collection takes an inter-disciplinary approach to the world-wide sporting extravaganza.

    Of note: The Olympic Sports Economy and Circus Maximus consider the economic impacts of mega sporting events on host countries.

    Individual athletes are profiled in titles such as Playing the Long Game by Canadian soccer star Christine Sinclair, and The Greatest Athlete (You’ve Never Heard of): Canada’s First Olympic Gold Medalist, George Washington Orton.

    The 2024 Olympics featured collection is accompanied by a display of Olympic trivia and posters at the Thistle entrance to the Learning Commons.

    Browse, borrow and enjoy in between catching your favourite events.

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