Global Currents

The University Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has been undergoing some major changes in the last two years. In the interest of providing more responsive and effective services to users, many departmental libraries have joined together to form larger units providing longer hours and better accessibility to scholars. Last year a major change occured for the Area Studies libraries and the Global Studies library when they combined to form the International and Area Studies Library. Situated on the third floor of the Main Library building, this new service point provides reference service, instruction, and the wonderful tools of formerly dispersed units, as well as an appealing place to do research and the high level of expertise that scholars everywhere depend upon. Look for more information about the IAS Library at http://www.library.illinois.edu/ias to learn about us.

Another major change that you might find to be of interest is the development of the Social Science, Health, and Education Library (SSHEL). This new facility is set to open, at least in part, by Fall 2012. Check out http://www.library.illinois.edu/news/SSHEL.html for more information on these changes.

RTÉ has launched its new free-to-view archives website as part of its ongoing celebrations of its 50th anniversary this year. Along with the video, 90,000 stills are also available for online viewing. The site also contains a video tour of the archives.The website – www.rte.ie/archives – contains a series of archive video, audio and photographic stills arranged in the form of exhibitions on Irish history as well as searchable under key figures in Irish public life. A number of the exhibitions that are currently available to view online include archive video footage on emigration in Ireland; the first Dáil and U2. The archive footage is also available for purchase to filmmakers.