Dordt University celebrates National Library Week

This week is National Library Week, which celebrates the important role that libraries play in their communities. The Hulst Library at Dordt University is celebrating National Library Week with a trivia contest and daily drawings for Dordt students for gift certificates to local businesses.

"National Library Week comes once a year," says Jenni Breems, director of library services, "but the Hulst Library has been busy all year long."

Here are some of the ways that the Hulst Library has made an impact on campus and in the greater community in the past year:

• Dordt librarians have facilitated more than 350 research consultations, which are appointments where librarians help Dordt students and employees with specific research questions.
• Items from the library's course reserve collection were checked out more than 8,600 times, which is a 40% increase from the prior year. Course reserves ensure that students have access to their assigned readings for their courses.
• The Hulst Library helps co-lead One Book, One Sioux County, a community reading program administered through the public and academic libraries in Sioux County. The 2022 book, Midnight Assassin by Patricia Bryan and Tom Wolf, gave Dordt criminal justice students a chance to attend the authors' lecture, and the Theatre Club staged a reading of the classic one-act play, "Trifles."
• One Book, One Sioux County's 2023 selection is Sugar Birds by Cheryl Grey Bostrom, which won a Christianity Today award of merit for fiction. Sugar Birds includes a map drawn by a current Dordt student.
• The Hulst Library also maintains Dordt Digital Collections, an online repository of scholarship produced at Dordt. The repository includes copies of work created by Dordt faculty and students, the Voice, the Diamond, Pro Rege, the Grotenhuis Music Collection, and audio recordings of Dordt's first president.

Happy National Library Week!

About Dordt University

As an institution of higher education committed to the Reformed Christian perspective, Dordt University equips students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community to work toward Christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary life. Located in Sioux Center, Iowa, Dordt is a comprehensive university named to the best college lists by U.S. News and World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Times Higher Education, Forbes.com, Washington Monthly, and Princeton Review.