CSUN University Library

09/04/2026

Plus: After the Fire of the First AME Zion Church in 1997

09/03/2026

A Peek in the Stacks: St. Nicholas: an Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks

The 19th and 20th centuries saw a great proliferation of printed material for child audiences. These included works of fiction, plays, poetry, and magazines that compiled written content for children in various formats. One such publication in the United States was called St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks. Child subscribers had the option of receiving receive six issues of St. Nicholas bound together as a single volume. These volumes featured red covers with an intricate botanical design highlighted with gold leaf.

St. Nicholas’s first editor was Mary Mapes Dodge, author of the popular children’s book Hans Brinker. Dodge came up with the publication's title, choosing St. Nicholas's name as he is typically portrayed as a kind and jovial figure. Dodge felt that he was a friend of children, and hoped the magazine would bring light and joy into their lives just as St. Nicholas did. Relying on her professional network, Dodge published works in the pages of St. Nicholas by some of the day’s leading authors including Rudyard Kipling, Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mark Twain, and Emily Dickinson, among others.

Learn more: https://library.csun.edu/sca/peek-stacks/st-nicholas

The 19th and 20th centuries saw a great proliferation of printed material for child audiences. These included works of fiction, plays, poetry, and magazines that compiled written content for children in various formats. One such publication in the United States was called St. Nicholas: An Illustrate...

09/01/2026

Are YOU ready for our Open House?! Because WE ARE!🙌
We’re so excited to open our doors and show you what we’re all about!

See you all at open house😎📍

Will you be attending?

08/26/2026

A Peek in the Stacks: Black Joy

In Special Collections and Archives, in Tom & Ethel Bradley Center, CSUN, there are many examples of Black joy that are seen through the lenses of photographers. These photographs show wonderful scenes of Black joy, through community events, weddings, hobbies, vacations, and family gatherings. In these photographs we get small glimpses of intimate moments of hugs, laughter, and smiles.

Some photographs shown here are staged, as they are portraits, but the joy is still seen in people’s faces as they are relishing moments captured by the photographer.

Learn more: https://library.csun.edu/sca/peek-stacks/black-joy

African Americans have experienced, and continue to experience, violence and discrimination from countless people and in countless environments. We are often shown Black bodies in sad, angering, and negative ways.

08/20/2026

Learn how to bring climate action into K-12 classroom conversations. Moderator Norma-Jean Knight and a panel of experts from TreePeople, Black Thumb Farm, and the California Climate Action Corps will share practical strategies, educational resources, and real-world examples that inspire environmental awareness and community engagement.

Following the discussion, enjoy a light reception, interactive activity tables, and a climate action resource fair. Connect with local organizations, discover valuable teaching resources, and leave inspired to turn climate conversations into meaningful action.

Event location: California State University, Northridge
Univeristy Library, Ferman Presentation Room, Garden Level

Sponsored by the Dr. Karin Duran and Richard Nupoll Education Endowment and the California Climate Action Corps

RSVP: https://library.csun.edu/events/climate-action

Learn how to bring climate action into K-12 classroom conversations. Join moderator Norma-Jean Knight and a panel of experts from TreePeople, Black Thumb Farm, and the California Climate Action Corps as they share practical strategies, educational resources, and real-world examples that inspire envi...

08/17/2026

n May 2026, California State University, Northridge partnered with the California Department of Education as a new Learning Resource Display Center (LRDC). As an adoption-only LRDC, anyone can visit to view displays of the newly adopted K-8 Math textbooks The LRDC is located in the University Library's Teacher Curriculum Center (TCC) on the 2nd floor, East Wing.

For more information about the LRDC or to set up a time for your school's or district's department to view the materials, see our LRDC LibGuide https://libguides.csun.edu/c.php?g=1495449&p=11169448

08/17/2026

Award Winning Page-Turners

On August 4th, 2026, The New York Times released their list of the 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century. A thriller is a genre of fiction designed to create suspense, tension, anticipation, and excitement. The central question of a thriller novel is typically what will happen next? A good thriller novel keeps you turning the pages as you try to find out how the author will resolve the suspenseful narrative. The protagonist in a thriller usually faces escalating danger, a powerful antagonist, or a high-stakes situation where failure could have life or death consequences. Many consider The Woman in White (1860) by Wilkie Collins to be the first popular thriller novel. Some other older and very famous thrillers include Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955), and Daphne du Maurier’s (1938) gothic thriller Rebecca. To come up with a list of the best fiction in the thriller genre since 2000, The New York Times sent ballots to authors of every type of crime fiction, “from legal thrillers to spy novels to cozy mysteries” asking them to name their picks for the 10 best thrillers. Ballots went out to librarians to editors, critics and Bookstagrammers. Famous authors like Stephen King, John Grisham, S.A. Cosby, Lee Child and Freida McFadden also sent in their recommendations.

Luckily, our very own Robert and Maureen Gohstand Leisure Reading Room has many of the 50 novels that were named the best thriller fiction of the 21st century so far. If you would like to pick up a thriller novel that may keep you up late at night turning the pages in suspense, consider selecting one of the following recommended titles below that was named to the recent New York Times thriller list or an older “classic” thriller from the shelves of the Gohstand Leisure Reading Room.

Blog post by Librarian Lynn Lampert, Coordinator of Instruction & Information Literacy at California State University, Northridge

Learn more: https://library.csun.edu/about/leisure-reading-room/book-drop/award-winning-page-turners

On August 4th, 2026, The New York Times released their list of the 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century. A thriller is a genre of fiction designed to create suspense, tension, anticipation, and excitement. The central question of a thriller novel is typically what will happen next? A good thriller....

08/13/2026

Our Gohstand Leisure Reading Room Lecture Series event is coming up on September 15th! We are excited to welcome back neuroscience scholar Maryanne Wolf for a second talk on the ways in which constant digital engagement can undermine deep reading, empathy, and critical thinking.

Learn more: https://library.csun.edu/events/reading-brain

The University Library is pleased to welcome back Maryanne Wolf for an insightful exploration of how digital technology is reshaping human cognition. Drawing on neuroscience, she examines the ways in which constant digital engagement can undermine deep reading, empathy, and critical thinking. Her wo...

08/13/2026

Check out the latest and greatest from the Tom & Ethel Bradley Center, CSUN:

In September, The Getty will open two important photo exhibitions. One is on Mexican photography, Instante/Revelación, which takes its title from a book by Mexican Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz. The second exhibition is on five artists’ photographic representation of Los Angeles’s Chicana/o communities, titled Every Minute Is History: Five Views of Los Angeles.

We use Paz’s work to write about Mexican photographer Julián Cardona, whose collection not only documents history, but also fits Paz’s definition of poetic photography.

Last but not least, we celebrate the publication of Sam Quinones’s first book of photography: Our Lady of the Angels: The Virgin of Guadalupe on the Walls of Los Angeles.

Plus Sam Quinones's new photo book of the murals of the Virgin of the Angels

08/12/2026

A Peek in the Stacks: Seeing Beauty Despite the Struggle: the Art of Fritz Faiss

San Fernando Valley State College (SFVSC), now California State University, Northridge, attracted many prominent faculty members in its early years. Among them was artist Fritz Faiss. Born in 1905 in a small town in Germany’s Black Forest, Faiss went on to study at the Bauhaus, a revolutionary art, design, and architecture school, where he was taught by renowned artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.

CSUN Special Collections & Archives is home to a book by Faiss with a brief story and beautiful illustrations, Hackney Jade & the War-Horse. It tells the tale of Hackney Jade, a humble draft horse who toils under the hot sun with arthritic legs and many aches and pains from her years of labor.

Learn more: https://library.csun.edu/sca/peek-stacks/fritz-faiss

Blog post by Gayle O'Hara, University Archivist
California State University, Northridge

San Fernando Valley State College (SFVSC), now California State University, Northridge, attracted many prominent faculty members in its early years. Among them was artist Fritz Faiss. Born in 1905 in a small town in Germany’s Black Forest, Faiss went on to study at the Bauhaus, a revolutionary art...