NEH and ALA award 25-book set
The Dakota County Technical College Library is one of 840 libraries and state humanities councils across the country selected to receive the Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. The program aims to familiarize public audiences in the United States with the people, places, history, faith and cultures of Muslims living in our nation and around the world.
Reference Librarian Barbara Tuttle
Reference Librarian Barbara Tuttle took the lead for the college in applying for the Bookshelf. She noted that she received support from a number of faculty who welcomed the chance to include Bookshelf materials in their course curricula, including Wes Jorde, Anna Verhoye and Denise Strenger. The college also received support from two organizations, CAIR-Minnesota, a state branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and the Islamic Resource Group, an educational outreach organization dedicated to building bridges between Muslims and people of other faiths.
“Our college and library wish to thank Lori Saroya, co-founder and executive director of CAIR-MN, and Zafar Siddiqui, Minnesota director of the Islamic Resource Group, for partnering with us on our Muslim Journeys application,” Tuttle said.
Tuttle added that the college will hold one public program as a condition of the award. “We are leaning toward a showing of Koran by Heart, an HBO documentary about Muslim children coming of age while competing during a global Qur’an recitation contest. We would like to have a scholar or expert introduce the film and lead a discussion after the showing. We also envision having a panel of Muslim students from DCTC who could speak about their experiences and provide additional background.”
Muslim Journeys Bookshelf titles (organized by theme):
American Stories:
- A Quiet Revolution by Leila Ahmed
- Prince Among Slaves by Terry Alford
- The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States, edited by Edward E. Curtis IV
- Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel
- The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman’s Journey to Love and Islam by G. Willow Wilson
Connected Histories:
- The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance by Jim Al-Khalili
- In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh
- When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the “Riches of the East” by Stewart Gordon
- Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf, translated by Peter Sluglett
- The Ornament of the World by Maria Rosa Menocal
Literary Reflections
- Minaret by Leila Aboulela
- The Arabian Nights (anonymous), edited by Muhsin Mahdi, translated by Husain Haddawy
- The Conference of the Birds by Farid al-Din Attar, translated by Dick Davis and Afkham Darbandi
- Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi
- Snow by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Maureen Freely
Pathways of Faith
- Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan A. C. Brown
- The Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life by Ingrid Mattson
- The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam by F. E. Peters
- The Art of Hajj by Venetia Porter
- Rumi: Poet and Mystic, edited and translated by Reynold A. Nicholson
Points of View
- In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
- Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi
- Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
- House of Stone by Anthony Shadid
- Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie
Art Architecture and Film
- The Art of Hajj by Venetia Porter
- Islamic Arts by Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair
- Islamic Art Spots (short films designed, written, and presented by D. Fairchild Ruggles, and produced by Twin Cities Public Television)
- Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World (2011)
- Prince Among Slaves (2007)
- Koran by Heart (2011)
The books and films comprising the Bookshelf were selected with the advice librarians and cultural programming experts, as well as distinguished scholars in the fields of anthropology, world history, religious studies, interfaith dialogue, the history of art and architecture, world literature, Middle East studies, Southeast Asian studies, African studies, and Islamic studies.
The Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, conducted in cooperation with the American Library Association. Major support for the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf was provided by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Additional support for the arts and media components was provided by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.
DCTC Library Mission Statement
Our Library will provide informational resources to the students, faculty, and staff at DCTC and assist the users in locating and using these resources. Our goal is not only to support classroom instruction but also provide information and resources for students to complete assignments, and foster the development of the lifelong skill of using Library tools to satisfy future information needs.
To check out the Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys, please visit the DCTC Library or contact:
- DCTC Library
651-423-8366 - Michael Kirby
Head Librarian
651-423-8406 - Barbara Tuttle
Reference & Instruction Librarian
651-423-8345 - Barbara Schuldt
Cataloging & ILL Technician
651-423-8598 - Danielle Hoveland
Circulation Technician
651-423-8654
