USC Upstate Library News

The Library will observe break hours beginning 11/23 until 12/1. Please see below list for hours:

11/23:  10 AM - 5 PM
11/24:  CLOSED
11/25:  7:30 AM - 5 PM
11/26:  7:30 AM - 5 PM
11/27:  7:30 AM - 5 PM
11/28: CLOSED
11/29: CLOSED
11/30: CLOSED
12/1: 2 PM - midnight

Bookmark our hours page! https://uscupstate.libcal.com/

The USC Upstate Library is excited to host its fall Faculty Research Series talk featuring Dr. Walter A. Lee, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Middle-Level Education in the College of Education, Human Performance, and Health. Dr. Lee will present Little Thing, Big Difference: Getting to the Core of Life-Changing Classrooms. The event will take place on Tuesday, November 19, 2024 at 6 p.m. in Tukey Theatre (USC Upstate Library), 150 Gramling Drive, Spartanburg, SC 29303. 

Dr. Lee will discuss his research exploring the progressive classroom through the CARE framework and its implications on the journey of self-actualization. He asks you to imagine a classroom that invites students and teachers alike to show up in mind, body, and soul, seeing themselves beyond personal limitations.

No registration is required for this event, which is free and open to faculty, staff, students, and community members.

As the Fall semester is wrapping up, the USC Upstate Library Display committee’s latest theme will be titles and items representing the holiday season. Final exams are approaching, and we wanted to have something festive and appealing for students to see while they are studying in the library. The display will highlight multiple holidays from various cultures celebrated around this time of year. Every book or DVD that is on display is available for check out. In addition to our display, we have included holiday decorations and items at the reference desk as well. We hope our patrons will appreciate all these items on display and be educational to anyone not familiar with one of these holidays. The committee wants all items and decorations expressed here to be inviting and embody a section of our collection our patrons might not know we have.

Did you miss the due date to change Duo Mobile push notifications? You can either visit the IT Help Desk or use the following instructions to set up Duo Multi-Factor push notifications:

1. Navigate to https://myaccount.sc.edu/
2. Select Update Account Settings
3. Sign-in with university username and password
4. Answer security question
5. Click Multi-Factor (one of the options across the top menu bar of the page, closer to the right side)
6. Click Duo Device Management
   1. If it is your first time using Duo at USC, it will greet you with a welcome screen and guide you through the device registration process. Click here to preview the screens and see detailed instructions. Follow the prompts and register at least one device; however, we recommend registering two devices to have one as a backup.
   2. If you have devices registered with Duo at USC, it will present you with your existing MFA options. You can click here to preview the screens and see detailed instructions. Click the bottom-most option: Manage My Devices. Once you've clicked it, it will ask you to authenticate with one of your existing options. After a successful sign-in, it will take you to the Duo Device Management portal. In this portal, you can add, edit, and remove devices associated with your Duo at USC account.

More detailed instructions with screenshots have been provided by USC Columbia’s IT Service Desk here: Knowledge - Duo Multifactor Authentication Self-Service (service-now.com)

If you require further assistance or if you do not have a smartphone capable of installing the Duo Mobile app, please call or visit us at the Help Desk at your earliest convenience. The Help Desk is located on the first (basement) floor of the Administration Building, our telephone number is 864-503-5257.

     Halloween is upon us and the Display Committee has a brand-new display themed around the spooky season. To get in the Halloween spirit our display will be highlighting materials in our library collection that focus on horror, trick or treating, and the holiday in general. For the next couple of weeks, the display will be highlighting children’s book about Halloween, and we hope that students and patrons will enjoy seeing them and check them out for personal use. When we get closer to October 31, the display will transition to horror movies from our collection. We hope students and patrons will enjoy these DVDs and check them out as well. The committee also encourages everyone to scan the QR code at the display because it will take you to a LibGuide that contains all the material our library collection has on horror and Halloween. Gives everybody more options in case they do not see something of interest on the display itself. If you miss any of these items while they are available on display before October 31 do not fret. The Halloween display will continue for two more weeks in November before we transition to the winter holidays. Happy Halloween!

Just sayin', even the USC Upstate Library's favorite friendly fowl, image-maker, bon vivant, international bird of mystery, and goose-about-campus, reads banned books ... #BannedBooksWeek

During the week of September 22 through 28, the USC Upstate Library invites you to commemorate Banned Books Week 2024. This year's theme is "Freed Between the Lines." 

According to the Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) of the American Library Association (ALA), in 2023, there were 1,247 efforts to censor books and other resources in libraries--an increase of 65% over 2022. Many of these efforts attempted to challenge, censor, and ban multiple books simultaneously. Thus, in total, some 4,240 unique book titles were targeted.

So far, in 2024, between January 1 and August 31, the OIF tracked 414 attempts to censor library materials and services, targeting 1,128 unique titles. While this number is lower than the data reported for 2023, it still represents an overall increase of challenges and bans since 2020.

Many challenged, censored, and banned books feature Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, and Other (LGBTQIA+) and/or Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) content. Nevertheless, challenges to the freedom to read affect all of us. It stands to reason that if censorship is successful against one book, topic, or population group, then efforts to censor have the potential to be successful against others.

There are simple and multiple ways to protect the freedom to read. The American Library Association suggests the following:

Stay Informed. This week, the American Library Association will offer a number of free programs about censorship, book bans and challenges, and the freedom to read. Register and attend.

Report challenges. If you hear of a challenge at your local library, support library employees and free and open access to library materials by reporting it to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom. The OIF estimates that it learns about less than 20% of book challenges. Don't assume that others know and will take action.

Write a letter to a favorite banned or challenged author.

Write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper in support of libraries and the freedom to read.

Spread the word by using the hashtag #BannedBooksWeek on social media.

Talk to your friends and family about why everyone should be allowed to choose what they read.

Check out a banned book. Use the USC Upstate Library search box to find books that you can check out and read.

The USC Upstate Library invites all faculty and staff to an open house on Thursday, September 19, 2024 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. near the Library Cafe (PerkUp). Enjoy refreshments and enter a drawing for PerkUp coupons, while discovering Upstate Library services:

• Access Services
• Research Services
• Archives and Special Collections
• Instructional Services
• Affordable Learning
• Library Resources and Collections

Walt's Waltz and the USC Upstate Library are excited to present a painting and mental health workshop for Upstate students. 

The workshop will be offered on both Wednesday, September 11, and Thursday, September 12, in the library's PerkUp cafe area, located on the 1st floor. The workshops will be held from 12:45 to 1:45 pm each day. 

No reservations are required. Attendance is “first-come, first-served.”

Join us in painting the Walt's Waltz mascot and discussing mental health issues. Walt's Waltz is a Greenville, S.C.-based organization dedicated to revolutionizing the way mental health is viewed and treated. This grassroots organization is dedicated to a 3-step action plan in discussing and addressing mental health: education, equity, and stigma-free.

Walt's Waltz is named in memory of Walt Crooks. The organization aims to broaden Walt's mission to reduce suffering in our world; share his teachings on compassion, humility, courage, empathy, and fair-mindedness; stand up for those without a voice; and help those in need.

Find more resources that support student mental health and well-being by visiting the library's Wellness Resource Guide. In addition to providing information on depression, anxiety, grief, trauma, self-care, and how they affect different populations, the guide highlights books in the library's Wellness Collection. These books are located in a special display area of the 1st floor stacks (near Room 118) and are available for checkout by the USC Upstate community. All check-outs are confidential.

     Throughout the month of September, the USC Upstate Display Committee will have a display that will focus on different campus majors. As students are back on campus, they are currently either choosing majors, changing majors, or learning more of their majors. Our library has a very impressive number of materials about the different majors available at USC Upstate. This committee wanted to highlight these valuable resources for any student with this display. We could not highlight every campus major on one single display but tried to represent all the majors we could on it. All the material currently on the display is available for checkout. We are hoping that all students will see these materials and decorations and feel intrigued to learn more about these different subjects. This display will be here throughout September and then we will be preparing for our Halloween display. We are looking forward to everyone seeing this one soon.