A Book Display in Celebration of Women’s History Month

In celebration of Women's History Month, this curated selection of titles highlights influential women's voices and stories. The library’s features rotate to match the heritage month, offering patrons an opportunity to discover diverse perspectives throughout the year. Photo by Karla Hernandez

Walking into the University library, you’ll find a new book display for Women’s History Month, showcasing a collection of books and poems written by and about women. The library’s POP Committee, which curates the Popular Reading Collection, and the co-chairs of Hermanas Unidas, a cultural club for Latina and Chicana students, collaborated to create the display so students can learn more about the diverse stories of women around the globe. 

Dominique Dozier, the Student Success librarian and a member of the POP Committee, shared how certain book displays are in partnership with the Inclusive Excellence Division. The POP committee creates the displays to highlight several heritage months while also providing students with resources the library offers.

“It’s a great cross-collaboration where we are informing the campus community not only of our book displays that we do but also some of the resources that are available digitally,” Dozier said.

The POP Committee creates book displays to highlight a diverse array of voices by providing students and faculty with books they can read for leisure. People can scan the QR codes to access the library’s Libguide to find more information and access videos to learn more about the women showcased. 

Eduardo Diaz, interlibrary loan and access services supervisor and chair of the committee, shared how their mission is to engage students with the content in a way that makes it possible for them to learn about different experiences and expand their learning.

“Part of our values in the POP Committee is to make sure we have a diverse collection so we make sure to highlight voices, particularly of marginalized groups,” Hugo Bettencourt, electronic resources assistant and member of the committee, said. “We do that by making sure that we select a diverse collection of books and the displays help us to do that.”

This month’s library book display, titled Celebrating Women Artists and Authors, was created to celebrate the different voices of women through literature and showcase profiles of women pioneers such as Margaret Chung and Charlotta Spears Bass. 

“Our collection highlights the different sort of experiences that women have across the globe who live in different contexts,” Emily Taina, stacks and space supervisor and member of the committee, said. “And I think that it’s really great that this is a really artistic and fun way to display that.”

To engage students, the POP committee focuses on creating eye-catching displays and choosing covers that will grab people’s attention. Everything has historical value while making it something students can enjoy, even down to the streamers utilized. Taking a look at the book display, you’ll find purple, white, and gold streamers, representing the suffragette ribbons worn by women during the marches.

“We’re trying to think of motifs and symbols and I came across the suffragette ribbon and thought that could be an interesting way to pull in different ideas,” said Bettencourt, who leads the design aspect of the book displays.

The committee ensures students are involved with their book displays, as is the case with this month’s display. Hermanas Unidas co-chairs, Samantha Campos and Yared Calderon, had the opportunity to help pick out some of the books put on display, including Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda and Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago.

In talking about the book Las Madres, Campos said, “This one specifically tackles cultural identity and that sense of belonging.” For them, it was important to include Latin American authors to highlight their work and ensure their identities are represented in the book display. 

Through these book displays and the work of the POP committee, they hope students will continue to find a sense of belonging and feel represented in the work of the library. 

As part of the committee’s work, Bettencourt added, “For our heritage months, we try to keep it light and not belittle the struggles, but we wanna make it fun and we want to pick books that are fun to read.”