2025 Edible Book Fest and Mrs. K's Birthday

The 2025 Edible Book Fest was not only a celebration of its 10th year displaying cakes and other yummy foods inspired by books but also a celebration of Mrs. Augusta R. Kolwyck birthday. Mrs. Kolwyck was the first librarian at Chattanooga State and October 27th would have been her 123rd birthday. The library at Chattanooga State is named after Mrs. Kolwyck. We celebrated her memory with a big cake and a display of newspaper articles!

 

Our judges this year were Susan Jennings, Karen Eastman, and Samantha Smith!

 

 

We had a large crowd to help eat the cake and other goodies after the judging and winners were announced. Thank you to our judges, attendees, participants, and of course, our fabulous library events team!

And the winners were ....

People's Choice
 

Most Recognizable

 

 

Cake Most Likely to Be Eaten

 

 

Most Fun, Best Pun

 

 

This year's Edible Book Fest featured fun buttons, programs, and flyers!

And let's recognize our other entries in this year's Edible Book Fest!

And some more pictures!

 

October 2025 Library Newsletter: Edible Book Festival, Family-Friendly Study Room, Therapy Dogs and Cats

 📚 Fall Library Newsletter

🍰Edible Book Festival 

👨‍👩‍👦‍👦Family-Friendly Study Room

🐶🙀Therapy dogs and cats

 

Edible Book Festival

 

Kolwyck Library & Information Commons invites you to celebrate the 60th anniversary of ChattState and the birthday of our first librarian, Augusta R. Kolwyck, with our 10th Annual Edible Book Festival on Monday, October 27 from 1pm - 3pm!

What is the Edible Book Festival? Simply put, an edible creation based on a book. To celebrate the 60th anniversary, we invite you to base your literary edible creation on your favorite book published in the last 60 years. We're excited to see what fantastic, literary-inspired baked creations our students, faculty, and staff can create! Here are some examples:

First image: The Very Hungry Caterpillar; second image: The Shire from The Lord of the Rings; third image: Alice in Wonderland

Don't have time to enter?  Join us at the event for you can vote for your favorite creation and we will have guest judges for special prizes. Coffee and a birthday cake for Mrs. Kolwyck will be served, and after winners are announced, the edible creations can be devoured! 

Sign up to participate in the festival (no later than 12pm on Tuesday, October 21, 2025) and compete for prizes and bragging rights! Or join us on October 27 from 1pm - 3pm to vote for your favorites and...eat cake! 

Need baking ideas? We have cookbooks on display - come check it out!

 

Family-Friendly Study Room

 

 

The Library has a new Family-Friendly Study Room! This study room is designated for student-caregivers only to use for studying when accompanied by their children. The Family-Friendly Study Room (FFSR) is available during library hours of operation and contains a computer workstation, a crib, child-sized table and chairs, and educational toys and books. 

 

Student-caregivers may read the full policy and book this special study room on our Student Resources page. 

 

Therapy Dogs and Sometimes, Cats!

 

 

By now, you may have heard about our library therapy dogs...but the Love on a Leash group sometimes brings cats as well! See the full schedule below for the fall semester and come by for some much-needed therapy!

 

Love on a Leash, 11-2 pm

October 14

October 28

November 11

December 9

 

Buttercup, 11am - 12pm

October 29

November 19

December 10

 

Come see us at the Library!

 

2025 Banned Books Week

The American Library Association's Banned Books Week is October 5 - 11, 2025. Because that week falls during our Fall Break week, the library will have Instagram posts, a libguide, and this blog post to recognize the week.

Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to read and spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. For more than 40 years, the annual event has brought together the entire book community — librarians, teachers, booksellers, publishers, writers, journalists, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. The books featured during Banned Books Week have all been targeted for removal or for restriction in libraries and schools. 

This year's theme is "Censorship is so 1984 -- Read for your Rights" referring to George Orwell's cautionary tale 1984. George Takei of Star Trek fame is the 2025 honorary chair for Banned Books Week. The youth honorary chair is Iris Mogul.

The annual library guide to Banned Books Week can be found at library.chattanoogastate.edu/bannedbooksweek  The guide has resource information, graphics, and more details about the week and the honorary chair.

Find the list of the top challenged books for 2024 on the Forbidden: List of Banned Books page of the guide at https://library.chattanoogastate.edu/bannedbooksweek/forbidden

• All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson
  Reasons: Banned and challenged for LGBTQIA+ content and because it was considered to be sexually explicit
• Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
  Reasons: Banned, challenged, and restricted for LGBTQIA+ content, and because it was considered to have sexually explicit images 
• The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
  Reasons: Banned and challenged because it depicts child sexual abuse and was considered sexually explicit
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky
  Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, rape, drugs, profanity 
• Flamer by Mike Curato
  Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit
• Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
  Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit, drugs, rape, LGBTQIA+ content
• Looking for Alaska by John Green
  Reasons: Claimed to be sexually explicit 
• Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
  Reasons: Banned and challenged because it was considered sexually explicit and degrading to women 
• Crank by Ellen Hopkins
  Reasons: Drugs, claimed to be sexually explicit 
• Sold by Patricia McCormick
  Reasons: claimed to be sexually explicit, rape
•  Flamer by Mike Curato
   Reasons: LGBTQIA+ content, claimed to be sexually explicit

Find more information at the guide at https://library.chattanoogastate.edu/bannedbooksweek

As depicted in the graph, the number of unique titles challenged in 2024 was lower than the highest number that happened in 2023. Various factors contributed to the decline.