The news landscape in America is drastically shifting. Between buyouts, mergers, and shutdowns, it’s going to become more and more difficult for the average American to access reliable news produced by journalists.
We are lucky in Delaware County that we have a local resource in the Delaware Gazette. However, earlier this year we said goodbye to the hyperlocal weekly publications produced by ThisWeek Community News. Many other local and national news resources are masked behind paywalls or subscription-only plans.
The Delaware County District Library supports learning, community discussion, and lifelong discovery. We are proud to support our local newspapers in this fulfillment of our vision. Any patrons who walk into a Delaware County District Library will find a place where they can pick up a dozen different physical newspapers, weekly digests, and magazines.
If a news enthusiast were to venture to www.delawarelibrary.org/research, access to news publications would expand to over a hundred local, national, and international news sources.
The library is happy to now add to our digital access collection the Wall Street Journal. Much like our current library access subscription with the New York Times, DCDL patrons can use the link from the library’s website to create an account and login to begin using wsj.com immediately. Access is available for three days after the first login. After that, simply return to the library’s website, click the link again, and login as an existing user with the same username and password that was originally created.
Easily toggle between digital news stories or an online view of today’s print edition. Explore dozens of business reports from aerospace and defense to retail. Check on the state of your stocks. Review the newest songs on the stage. Add a bestselling novel to your “to read” pile.
Newspapers have long told the story of our growth as a nation. We hope you enjoy this new digital access. Of course, if there’s ever a resource you’d like to see at the library, let one of our librarians know or submit a purchase request on our website.
This week we focus on Black History Month and these titles that recognize their stories through American history.
• “Traveling Black: A Story of Race and Resistance” by Mia Bay. Historian Mia Bay’s thought-provoking and comprehensive chronicle won the 2022 Bancroft Prize. Read it to discover how travel segregation in America spurred the civil rights movement. For additional titles on this topic, check out “Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights” by Gretchen Sorin.
• “Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Winners of World War II” by Robert Child. Read the lesser-known accomplishments of the seven Black Medal of Honor recipients of World War II, whose heroism went unacknowledged for nearly 50 years due to discrimination. Child presents well-researched and richly detailed profiles of the seven servicemen, six of whom were awarded their medals posthumously.
• “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. This compelling history of the Black church in America looks at its central role in Black cultural life, including the ways it has helped (and sometimes hindered) social progress and political resistance. You may already be familiar with “The Black Church” as it has been adapted into a PBS docuseries of the same name. Author, scholar, journalist, and Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. hosts the PBS family history series Finding Your Roots.
• “First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America’s First Black Public High School” by Alison Stewart; foreword by Melissa Harris-Perry. A sweeping, 150-year history of Washington, D.C.’s elite Dunbar High School, “First Class” profiles the first public high school for Black students in the United States. Read it for an illuminating chronicle of the rise and fall of a storied institution that fell into disrepute following school desegregation. Award-winning journalist Alison Stewart is the daughter of two Dunbar graduates.
