America’s National Parks Under Threat

What if you went to a national park and you couldn’t even tell? Or it was not remotely the size it used to be? Over the past year and a half, the Trump administration, in coordination with Congress, has moved at a breakneck pace to dismantle our nation’s conservation legacy within our national parks and on public lands just beyond park boundaries. Part of this is due to long-running battles over national park land, but part is also due to the administration’s desire to make money. Including national park lands!

Haggerty Library has added some new books on national parks and is also hoping this post can also raise awareness. Here are some essential overviews of the administration’s recent detrimental actions:

NPCA’s National Park Advocacy Crash Course Glossary

Selling Off and Selling Out

Public Land Swaps for Private Gain

National parks under strain from Trump’s construction projects and political pressure (video)

What can you do?

>Sign petitions like this one or this one

>Learn more about actions you can take here and here

>Find support organizations

>Explore national parks (gently, due to greatly reduced staff everywhere)!

image from the National Park Foundation

Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week is October 4-11!

Although academic libraries are fairly insulated from bans and challenges, book bans continue all around the country at school and public libraries, and challenges even more so! Data from the American Library Association show a slight decrease from 2024, but most believe that is due to librarians, parents, and teachers, the folks who report bans the most, being even more afraid to report this past year.

To explore, please check out our newly updated Banned Books Guide. This year it again includes ways to take action to speak out and fight against book banning. The guide will remain open for the foreseeable future, not just during Banned Books Week.

Read a thorough PEN America report on book bans here. Find data on banned books here. Their data show even more bans and challenges.

Here are 2025’s top 5 banned titles (hyperlinks indicate that your Haggerty Library has them; click for availability):

1. Sold, by Patricia McCormick (#9 last year!)
2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Steven Chbosky (tied for #3 last year; on the list 9 times since publication)
3. Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe (#2 last year)
4. Empire of Storms, by Sarah J. Maas (new this year)
5. Tricks, by Ellen Hopkins (tied for #5 last year)
6. (tie) Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo (new this year)

Click here for the full top 11 list (11 due to that tie). And find our display on the center counter in the Learning Commons.

Speak out! Learn more! Read a banned book! You likely already have.

image from ala.org

National Hispanic Heritage Month/Mes de la Herencia Hispana

This celebration, which began in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week, runs September 15 – October 15, and honors the histories, cultures and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Find the month’s official site (which explains, among other things, why the month starts midway through), plus a variety of cool books, e-books, audiobooks, films, and websites in Haggerty Library’s Hispanic Heritage Month Guide!

Find our library display just inside the Learning Commons or spend some time relaxing with our Frida Kahlo puzzle.

image from mgma.com

Read @ Your Library

For public libraries, September is National Library Card Month, but Haggerty Library has you covered – your Mount Mary ID is also your library card!

But we also wanted to promote reading this month! Books help you think more deeply about a topic or person. Scrolling quickly through countless feeds or apps on your phone does not. Sustained attention on a topic helps your brain.

While reading outside of your coursework may be a challenge, try taking up that challenge at some point! Maybe over breaks? Here’s what your library has to offer (in addition to tons of academic books):

Fiction – lots of stories that take you places!

Graphic novels – lots of stories, and some memoirs, that take you places visually! We even have a large and growing collection of graphic novels written and illustrated solely by women!

Poetry – discover poems, short or long, and be dazzled by words again!

Memoirs – read and connect with a wide variety of personal stories and experiences!

Audiobook and e-book formats – when you’re on the move, or just because, listen to lots of great stories on Libby! Or read them on your devices.

To discover all this head to our home page, stop by New Arrivals in the Learning Commons, or head upstairs to the 2nd floor of the library. For more details or help, see Using the Library.

Do your mind a favor and get into a book! (Here’s what could happen if everyone stops reading.)

Streaming Video @ Haggerty Library

Your Haggerty Library offers three streaming video services for coursework or enjoyment (see below). On campus, just click around from Databases A-Z (all titles are not in Primo, so this works better); remotely, just log in with your MMU email address.

Kanopy (academic and entertainment!)

ProQuest One Psychology (large mental health database that contains videos from Behavioral and Mental Health Online, which we discontinued)

Psychotherapy.net (expressive arts therapy films)

For details on how all these platforms work, see this guide.

To mark the passing of beloved singer, ally, and reading advocate, Dolly Parton, consider watching Dolly Parton: 50 Years at the Opry, streaming on Kanopy. And check out her music wherever you like. In Dolly’s memory we trust!

image from Vectorstock

Welcome Back!

Welcome/back from Haggerty Library! We hope you had a nice summer. It’s the new school year, and it actually feels a bit like fall for once.

Library staff are always ready to help with your assignments, papers, and projects. Or just to check out cool and helpful stuff to you.

In your library you can, among other things:

• Check out books, DVDs, laptops, headphones, and phone chargers
• Use a Study Room (Learning Commons)
• Print in color (Learning Commons)
• Create your own group study spaces (Learning Commons)
• Study on the Quiet Floor (our 2^nd floor)

What’s new from the summer:

• We added ProQuest One Psychology and ProQuest Fashion Studies Collection to our Databases A-Z (and in Primo)
• Dozens of new books added (see New Arrivals and leisure reading, or Primo)
• New audiobooks added to Libby
• 600,000+ new e-book titles in Ebook Central and JSTOR (find both in Primo)
• New digital magazines in Flipster (Proceso, Wired)
• Lots of new movies on DVD!
  • One Battle After Another, Marty Supreme, Send Help, The Housemaid, and The Boy and the Heron, among others

So stop on by! And we’re always open online!

Work @ Your Library This School Year

Hello, Graduate Students!

Haggerty Library has one opening for a Graduate Library Assistant. To apply, see the posting here. Here are some highlights:

• A quiet working environment
• Ability to work on homework or research
• Learn helpful service and library skills
• Meet great people!

This role alternates two nights per week with another grad student and rotates Sundays. If you are looking for a some extra paid hours and solid experience, check this out! Interviews will take place in the coming weeks, and we hope to train someone new the week before calsses begin.

Undergraduate students, check open campus positions this fall, too, as we will have 3 available!

image created with Canva AI

Summer @ Haggerty Library

It’s summertime, and the reading is easy. Haggerty Library has plenty of fiction, graphic novels, poetry, and academic subjects galore! 48th on the waiting list at your local library for your book club book? We may have it, or you can request it in Primo! (No guarantees, you understand.) We will resume ordering books in July, but you can always stop by our leisure reading area in New Arrivals for the latest. We added plenty toward the end of the school year.

Feel more like listening to a good book? Try our Libby! It’s part of the Wisconsin Academic Library Collection (WISCAL). If you already enjoy Libby, just search Mount Mary University and add us! Libby also has thousands of e-books. Learn more about our Libby here.

There’s also Kanopy, which contains plenty of documentaries and narrative features, with strengths in social justice and independent films. You can watch them anywhere there’s a wireless connection! You just need to log in with your MMU email.

So, before you think there’s nothing to read or watch, check us out!

image from wayfair.com

Haiku Contest Winners!

Congratulations to our 2026 Haiku Contest winners! Read the winning entries below. You can read all past winners here.

Thank you to all those who remembered the “nature” theme, and for your thoughtful submissions. Out of the very strong group, it was truly difficult to decide. Two years running!

The winners below can claim their prizes at our main desk in the Learning Commons.

A huge thank you to all who submitted (we hope to see more students next year!), and we’ll see you for National Poetry Month in 2027!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1st place: Richard Hedderman

first day of spring I

wash my hands in snow and dry

them on a blue shirt

2nd place: Yazmine Gardner-Stewart

Regrets Missed

Sunlight never beams

Deep waves are forever gone

We never seemed to care

3rd place: Alix Shaw

Wisconsin Spring

Small green things begin

Daffodils spring from the earth

Wait, what’s this? More snow??

~~~~~~~~~~~~

statue image of haiku master, Matsuo Bashō, from japantravel.com

Power Problems

Wow, it has been a week! The storms of 4/15 and 4/16 ended up knocking out a transformer (a big box that supplies electricity), and it powered Haggerty Library. While waiting on lengthy repairs, a large, temporary generator has been powering us, but it may not be the best fit. (That’s why the power has gone out several times since.) University staff are trying hard to find a stable solution.

The good news is that Haggerty Library staff are here for you (and in Parkway Place three evenings!), and here are the ways you can reach us.

Click here to see our list of other sizable study spaces on campus.

Thank you for your patience during this unprecedented time at your library. We are here 8:00am-5:00pm M-F and on Sundays from 1:00pm-5:00pm. Sorry for this major inconvenience near the end of the school year.

Watch your MMU email, our home page, and our library hours on that page to stay updated!