The Library has answers for you, in books, in videos, in images, in articles—in the very words of Tacomans via oral histories collected by student scholars. Mine the rich history of our community and come to understand UW Tacoma's role in it by exploring our local historical resources at the Library. Here's a sampling of what you'll find:

• Images
• UW Digital Collections
  Search for the Perkins Building and see the original UW Tacoma campus building way back in 1908.
• Oral Histories
• Read one of the entries in the "Community History Project," a UW Tacoma student project developed under the guidance of Professor Mike Honey.
• Videos
• Finding Thea – Learn about the woman behind the Thea Foss Waterway
• Watch Galloping Gertie in action in the film The story of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, 1938-1940
• Books
• Peruse Tacoma's Waterfront or Tacoma's Salmon Beach, both 2006 books from the series "Images of America"
• Discover the History of the Japanese of Tacoma in the book by Shun'ichi Otsuka
• Databases
• "America History & Life" will help you to access such fascinating journal articles as Antoinette Broussard's 2005 exploration of Tacoma's African American community in the magazine Columbia, entitled "Nettie Craig Asberry: A Pillar Of Tacoma's African American Community".
• Delve into a discussion of the anti-Chinese sentiments in Tacoma in 1885 by searching in JSTOR using the keyword 'Tacoma'.         

Tip of the Month:
Interested in reading about Tacoma history in the making? Use ABI/INFORM Dateline to search for articles about local and regional business news coverage. Find out which company is planning to renovate a historic building downtown, what neighborhoods are growing and who is building upon our city's history. Our future Tacoma history is happening right here and now!

Carole Svensson is the assistant director of the UW Tacoma Library. Got an idea for a book to feature in Book Dirt? E-mail Carole at svensson@u.washington.edu.