Month: June 2009

2009-06-30

Christopher J. Prom, assistant university archivist and associate professor of library administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has received a 2009-2010 U.S. Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award.

Prom will spend the next academic year on sabbatical as a research fellow at the Center for Archive and Information Studies at the University of Dundee in Scotland, where he will pursue a project titled “Practical Methods to Identify, Preserve, and Provide Access to Electronic Records.”

“I’m excited about the opportunity to learn from my international colleagues.  In my project, I’ll be working with many people and organizations to identify the best practices and software that archivists can use to preserve a vast amount of materials, including e-mail, Web sites, documents, media, and other electronic records.  The most significant and valuable records are especially vulnerable to loss or deletion,” said Chris Prom.  “It’s a complex area to navigate.  I hope that my project will play a useful role in helping to identify approaches and software that archivists can use easily and effectively on a day-to-day basis.”

For his project, Prom plans to use several sets of records, including the files of a Nobel Laureate and those of a prominent champion of intellectual freedom.  He is also interested in working with the records of community organizations in Scotland, where he will live with his family for 10 months.

Fulbright Scholar Program Award recipients are judged on several criteria, including professional qualifications, lecturing activity, research activity, language proficiency, previous experience abroad, and personal qualities.

The Fulbright Program, the U.S. Government’s flagship international exchange program, is designed to “increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries.” The Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), under a cooperative agreement with the United States Department of State, administers the Fulbright Scholar Program for faculty and professionals. Each year, the traditional Fulbright Scholar Program sends some 800 U.S. faculty and professionals to 140 countries to lecture, research, or participate in seminars. At the same time, approximately 800 faculty from foreign countries come to the U.S. each year.

Information about the Fulbright Scholar Program is located at www.cies.org .

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2009-06-29

The Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has received a $397,000 two-year grant from the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) for its Illinois Digital Newspaper Project.  The award will support the digitization of 100,000 pages of historically significant Illinois newspapers dating from 1860 to 1922.

NDNP is a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress to provide online access to U.S. newspapers.  It is part of the “We the People” program at NEH designed to promote the study and teaching of American history and culture.  The University Library received the grant for Illinois on behalf of a coalition of major cultural heritage institutions in the state, including the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Illinois State Library, Chicago History Museum, University of Chicago, Newberry Library, and Chicago Public Library.  There are now 22 states participating in the National Digital Newspaper Program.

The Illinois Digital Newspaper Project builds upon two highly successful newspaper preservation and access programs currently hosted at the University Library, the Illinois Newspaper Project, and the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection.  The NDNP funding will be used to digitize Illinois newspapers selected by an advisory board based on their regional influence, their role as the “paper of record” at the county level, or their significance for specific ethnic, racial, or other social groups.

“No other primary source conveys the sensibility of an era or the feel of a place like a local newspaper,” said Mary Stuart, history, philosophy and newspaper librarian and professor of library administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Stuart serves as director of the Illinois Digital Newspaper Project.  “It is a great honor to have the opportunity to make this vital part of our cultural heritage readily accessible to the citizens of Illinois and beyond.”

The digitized material will be deposited in Chronicling America, the browsable and searchable repository of historical newspapers digitized through NDNP.  Chronicling America was launched in 2007 and currently contains more than 1.1 million pages of U.S. newspapers published between 1880 and 1922.

U.S. Representative Timothy V. Johnson said, “As a U of I alum, not to mention a history major, I’m thrilled and proud that the University Library has won this award. Newspapers are the first draft of history and their preservation is vital to our collective understanding of our country and our culture. I salute the National Endowment for the Humanities for recognizing this good cause and for entrusting this endeavor to the University Library.”

For additional information about the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), visit www.neh.gov/projects/ndnp.html . To find information about newspapers from 1690 to the present and to view newspaper pages using Chronicling America, visit http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ .

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2009-06-25

Carissa Holler, Business and Finance Information Librarian, Assistant Professor of Library Administration, and Research Manager in the College of Business, has won the 2009 Achievement in Academic Business Librarianship Award given by the Special Libraries Association’s Business & Finance Division.

The intent of the award is to recognize the accomplishments of librarians who are new to the field of academic business librarianship. Candidates for this award are limited to librarians with a minimum of three full years, but not more than seven years, in an academic library position. Nominees submit evidence of exemplary librarianship, which can include published journal articles, books, conference presentations, excellence in teaching, online tutorials or innovative services at their institution. Recipients receive a framed certificate and a monetary award.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2009-06-16

The Africana Library has temporarily migrated its staff, reference collection, periodicals, and services to the Modern Languages and Linguistics Library (425 Library).

The Africana Library Web site address remains http://library.afrst.uiuc.edu/ and the phone number is 217-244-1903.

Permanent relocation details will be posted as soon as they are available.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2009-06-16

The Library catalog system was recently upgraded, and the online catalog now has a new look and feel. We hope you’ll like the new catalog screens and find them easier to use.

Through the Library’s membership in the CARLI consortium, we share the catalog system with 76 other academic libraries in the state of Illinois.   The collections of all 76 member libraries are searchable through the I-Share catalog.   CARLI staff manage the system for us.

The new online catalog will perform more slowly than usual for the next few weeks while CARLI staff monitor its use and make adjustments needed to restore normal response time.   We appreciate your patience during this time.

Some features you may have become accustomed to using in the old catalog will not appear in the new catalog right away, but they should be back in place before the summer is over.   They include:

• Repeat search in the I-Share catalog?
• Find other copies in I-Share libraries
• Text me this call number
• “Discover” links in online catalog records
• Save Search Strategy

Some new features will be present in the new online catalog right away:

• greatly enhanced accessibility for users with screen readers
• the back button works
• pages are bookmarkable
• MyAccount messages are improved
• screens are cleaner and easier to read
• new timeout popup display (length of timeout doesn’t change)

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2009-06-16

The Latin American and Caribbean Library has temporarily moved to the Modern Languages and Linguistics Library (425 Library).

The Latin American and Caribbean Library Web site address remains www.library.illinois.edu/lat/ .  The new phone number is 217-244-0483.

Permanent relocation details will be posted as soon as they are available.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2009-06-10

On June 30, 2009, the Government Documents Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will close.

Prior to this, on June 13, 2009, the Government Documents Library’s reference desk in 200D Main Library will close.  On June 14, 2009, Central Reference/Government Information services will be available at the Main Library’s Information Desk or online at
www.library.illinois.edu/doc/ .

The University Library has a collection of U.S. Federal documents of significant research value and a substantial collection of 19th century congressional materials, agency reports, and statistical series.  It has received all State of Illinois materials from the 1950s forward from the General Assembly and Illinois agencies.  It has been a depository of the United Nations since its inception in 1946, collecting major agency reports, country information, and statistical series.  The Canadian depository program began in 1927 and the Library began selectively collecting research materials in the areas of agriculture, trade, and statistics.  Its collection also includes a variety of indexes and other access tools for government information.  Increasingly, government information and documents are being produced in Internet accessible resources and files, CD-ROM, and DVD products.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).

2009-06-10

On June 12, 2009, the Physics/Astronomy Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will close its doors.  The major part of the collection is being merged into the Grainger Engineering Library Information Center .

The original Physics Library opened in 1909, 100 years ago, in Room 201 of the Laboratory of Physics (now the Materials Science and Engineering Building) with 120 linear feet of shelving space and seating for 29.  It moved to its current home in 204 Loomis Lab in 1959.

The Physics Library was one of the first libraries in the nation to have the unclassified Atomic Energy Commission files.  It housed files on the Betatron — a cyclotron invented at the University of Illinois in 1940 — and continues to support the high-ranking Department of Physics (ranked 8th nationally) and research areas such as Condensed Matter Physics (ranked #1), High Energy Physics and the newly NSF funded Center for the Physics of the Living Cell.  Astronomy was merged into the Physics Library when the Observatory Reading Room was closed in the 1980s.

Do you have a story you’d like added to the Library News & Events? If so, please contact Heather Murphy ( hmurphy@illinois.edu ).