BDC Themes and Highlights for January - June 2026

The BDC tries to comply with the Beaufort County Library's Annual Marketing Calendar but as a special collections and archives unit we cannot always do so. Sometimes we have programs based on the themes selected by the Library's Marketing unit; sometimes not. Sometimes we can feature specific materials or services offered in the BDC Research Room based on the themes selected by the Library's Marketing unit; sometimes we cannot. Here's what the BDC proposes to feature during the first six months in accordance with the 2026 Library System Annual Marketing Calendar: 

January 2026

• We will post local history suggestions for the Winter Reading Program on the BDC's Facebook page.
• We will post a Connections article about Martin Luther King's ties with Penn Center on January 18
• The weekly Facebook Black History Notes posts on Wednesdays will relate to the Civil Rights Movement in honor of Dr. King's enduring legacy.
• BDC staff submitted our personal "Best Book We Read in 2025" selections for the Library's website.
• Sydney will describe how a one-on-one Ancestry session usually goes in the Research Room for Connections. 

February 2026 - Black History Month: "A Century of Black History Commemorations"

• We will post local history suggestions for the Winter Reading Program on Facebook.
• Sydney's BDC display case will honor the 2026 Black History Month theme. 
• Our Field Trip to the Beaufort National Cemetery on February 7 will include a stop by the burial site of United States Colored Troops who fought and died in our area.
• The Black History Notes on Facebook will feature festivals highlighting Gullah history and heritage.
• We'll try to incorporate "National Library Lovers Month" into our social media.

March 2026 - Women's History Month : "Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future"

• Sydney will design a BDC display on the Women's History Month theme.
• We will highlight the Sea Island Quilters archival collection.
• Dr. Mollie Barnes will discuss "Reminiscenes as Reclamations: Reading Susie King Taylor and Elizabeth Hyde Botume in Conversation" on March 6. 
• We will feature "Books set in South Carolina"- specifically those based in Beaufort, Hampton or Jasper Counties -- on Facebook.

April 2026 -National Poetry Month/ National Library Week / National Preservation Week

• Cassandra will highlight Emergency Preparedness in the Research Room display using some aspects of her Disaster Preparedness training at the NEDCC workshop in January. 
• Sydney will present a "Poems and Postcards" local history program on April 10.
• Cassandra will present an Archives related program at Hilton Head Branch Library on April 23.
• We will feature some of the "Travel/travelogues" in the BDC's holdings here in Connections and on the BDC's Facebook page.

May 2026 - 

• The three of us will contribute items to the "BDC Staff Picks" display in the Research Room.
• We will feature Local History "Books to Read in One Sitting" for the Library's website, here in Connections and on the BDC's Facebook page.

June 2026 - 

• We go all in with a Revolutionary War display for June and July - including lots of memoirs to check the System's "Book Highlight: Memoirs" box.
• Sydney will write about the BDC's archaeological reports and resources in honor of the 2026 Summer Reading Theme: "Unearth a Story" for Connections.