Featured Collections

• Cosmic Reads

  Friday, August 01, 2025 | By Connor Wilkes

  

  “Space is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” – Douglas Adams (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy)

  Astronomy, astrophysics, astronauts, rockets, and space. This month’s Featured Collection is all about outer space! Grab a book and read, but don’t forget to look up and wonder what is beyond. 

  Browse our physical collection at the Ask Us Desk in the Matheson Learning Commons, or explore our eBooks and Space Films collections.

  Tags: Book Display
  Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons

• Display: Keep calm and succeed at Brock

  Thursday, July 31, 2025 | By Evelyn Smith

  

  Brock Library thanks Kristina Saltarelli, Mohawk College Library Technician intern for this display and blog post. Visit the display in the Matheson Learning Commons through September. 

  University life is more than lectures…it’s about finding balance. Keep Calm and Succeed at Brock is a collection of books that offer tips and inspiration for managing stress, eating well on a budget, building strong friendships, improving study habits, and taking care of your mental and physical health. Whether you’re entering your first year or your last, these reads are here to help you feel your best!

   

  Tags: display, Students
  Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons

• The Write Tools

  Wednesday, July 02, 2025 | By Connor Wilkes

  

  Whether you’re new to Brock or back for another term, this month’s Featured Collection is here to sharpen your writing and research game.

  Need help tackling essays, research papers, or thematic analyses? Find books on academic writing, research methods, and discipline-specific strategies on display near the Ask Us desk – plus a curated selection of eBooks.

  Looking for more tools? Check out LIB101: Library & Research Foundations on Brightspace, or the Omni Search Tips guide.

  And if you’re after program-specific help, explore Brock’s full set of Research Guides – including ones tailored to your courses.

  Tags: display, Our Collections, Virtual Display
  Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons

• Gettin’ outdoors

  Friday, May 30, 2025 | By Connor Wilkes

  

  In honor of the start of summer and the spirit of going outdoors during the warm days ahead, this month’s featured collection is all about nature and “The Great Outdoors”. Reconnect and rediscover nature by grabbing one of the books off of the Featured Collection shelf at the Matheson Learning Commons. From bird watching, foraging, plant identification and hiking, there is a little bit of something for everyone! The collection also features a series of eBooks and several film and video resources as well.

  We would also like to take this opportunity to highlight the NaturePlus Pass. The NaturePlus pass gives you access to a dozen conservation areas and parks across Niagara courtesy of the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority. NaturePlus passes are available at the Ask Us Desk!

  Tags: display, Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
  Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons

• In the Garden

  Thursday, May 01, 2025 | By Evelyn Smith

  

  This month the Library presents you with a seasonal selection of titles designed to give some garden inspiration.

  In the Garden includes books on growing and pruning plants and vegetables, soil science, and attracting birds, butterflies and bees to your garden. Titles on the history and economics of gardens, medicinal plants, insects, and fungi round out the collection.

  Browse and borrow the print items located next to the Ask Us desk and view online titles.

   

  Tags: display, Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
  Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons

• Comic(s) Relief

  Friday, March 28, 2025 | By Evelyn Smith

  

  As students scramble to complete assignments & prepare for exams, and instructors retreat into marking mode, we get it. There’s not a lot of free time to read. With this in mind, our April featured collection offers some ‘comic relief’.

  This selection of 31 graphic novels includes non-fiction titles like Direct Action Gets the Goods, a history of the Canadian labour movement, Won’t Get Fooled Again: a Graphic Guide to Fake News, and This Place: 150 Years Retold. For straight up relaxation, check out The Prince and the Dressmaker or a special 30th anniversary edition of the classic V for Vendetta.

  The Comic(s) Relief display features print-only titles. Find them on the display shelves next to the Ask Us desk until April 30.

  Tags: display, Our Collections
  Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons

• Sustainable Development Goals

  Friday, February 28, 2025 | By Evelyn Smith

  

  The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.

  This month, the Library presents a range of titles – print and electronic, which provide context, food for thought, and a path forward for all 17 goals. Browse them online, and in-person on the Library main floor.

  Learn more about the Brock University commitment to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

  Tags: display, Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
  Categories: Featured Collections, Learning Commons

• Black History Month, 2025

  Wednesday, February 05, 2025 | By Evelyn Smith

  

  To celebrate Black History and African Heritage Month at Brock, we present a newly updated collection of e-books and print titles. Seventy-four titles are available in four thematic sub-collections including:

  • Black Canadian Voices
  • Black History and African Heritage Topics
  • Black Feminist Voices
  • Blackness and Intersectionality

  Learn more about #BHM25 at Brock via the Brock News, and see the 2025 event listing.

  Tags: Black History Month, Our Collections
  Categories: Featured Collections

• Freedom to Read Week 2025

  Thursday, January 30, 2025 | By Amanda Emery

  

  In celebration of the 41st Freedom to Read Week (February 23 – March 1), we’ve put together a list of challenged and banned titles for you to read in print and online.

  Many of these controversial titles were challenged and have become classics. This includes titles such as:

  • Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
  • John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath
  • Animal Farm by George Orwell
  • A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
  • Dubliners by James Joyce

  It is widely regarded that book bans and challenges are a thing of the past, however the number of challenges continues to rise. The Canadian Federation of Library Associations’ (CFLA) Intellectual Freedom Committee, along with the Book and Periodical Council’s Freedom of Expression Committee, developed an annual survey to track challenges within Canadian public libraries. This survey began in 2007 and provides access to challenges libraries have faced to items in their collections, and to displays, programs, room usage, and computer access.

  Freedom to Read Week is an annual event which highlights intellectual freedom and encourages Canadians to defend their right to read, write, and publish freely. Browse all of the featured titles and more on the display next to the Ask Us desk in Matheson Learning Commons, or view eBooks online.

  Tags: display, Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
  Categories: Featured Collections

• Fresh Start

  Thursday, January 02, 2025 | By Amanda Emery

  

  Welcome to a new year, new term, new chapter!

  Embrace a fresh start and explore books in this featured collection that focus on overcoming burnout, getting organized, mindfulness, health eating, wellness, and more.

  • Read the newly published Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, which helps people pursue meaningful accomplishment and avoid being overloaded.
  • Explore Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga’s The Courage to be Disliked and ask yourself if happiness is something you choose for yourself.
  • Do you use to-do lists? Check out Eat That Frog! and learn how to structure your task lists and defeat procrastination.

  Browse all of these titles and more on the display next to the Ask Us desk in Matheson Learning Commons, or view eBooks online.

  Tags: display, Our Collections, Virtual Book Display
  Categories: Featured Collections