Month: April 2010

2010-04-28

Christopher Prom is one of four winners of the third annual Movers and Shakers in Archives awards.  Sponsored by the ArchivesNext blog , these awards are intended to recognize people or organizations in the United States who are innovative, creative, and making a difference in the archival world.

Prom is an assistant university archivist and associate professor of library administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar and Research Fellow.  He was nominated for the work he has been pursuing while on sabbatical at the Centre for Archive and Information Studies at the University of Dundee in the UK.  His project there is titled “Practical Methods to Identify, Preserve, and Provide Access to Electronic Records.”

This year’s award judges agreed that Prom’s contributions to the profession, as well as the dedication and diversity of his efforts, made him stand out as one of this year’s Movers and Shakers in Archives.

Read more about Prom’s Fulbright Scholar Program Award at http://www.library.illinois.edu/news/fulbright_scholar.html .

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

2010-04-20

Senior Library Specialist Jan Adamczyk at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library will be honored by the Illinois Library Association (ILA) with the 2010 Robert P. Doyle Award.  The award, established in 1999 and sponsored by the Reaching Forward Conference of Library Assistants, is in honor of ILA Executive Director Robert P. Doyle who has been a strong advocate for library assistants.  Adamczyk will receive full registration and expenses to attend the ILA Annual Conference to be held in September at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois.

Adamczyk has been with the University Library since 1997.  He currently divides his time between cataloging and working within the Slavic and East European Library.

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

2010-04-16

The University Library has launched a new pilot program providing more access to ebooks.  Over 5,000 records for ebooks published between 2007 and 2009, covering a broad set of disciplines, were loaded into the online catalog this month.

The Library is partnering with ebrary®, a leading provider of digital content products and technologies.  Library users may browse ebooks through the ebrary platform at http://www.library.illinois.edu/proxy/go.php?url=http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uiuc or may search the Library catalog to find an ebrary ebook.  If an ebook is used extensively, the Library will purchase it for perpetual access.  The full record set for these ebooks will be available during the rest of the 2010 spring semester or until funding for the pilot program is exhausted.

Ebooks on the ebrary platform offer users some unique options to use online text.  They can highlight text and take notes—useful when sharing and collaborating.  Users can also select text and paste it into any text application with an automatic citation including a URL hyperlink back to the source.

Ebooks are gaining popularity as use of wireless reading devices is expanding, including the recent release of the iPad, and as more applications are developed for mobile devices.  The launch of the ebrary ebook collection coincides with the University Library’s launch of their new mobile Web site at http://m.library.illinois.edu .

Users interested in learning more about using the ebrary platform to access ebooks can view a video tutorial at www.ebrary.com/corp/collateral/flash/QuickStart/ .  The Ebrary user guide is available at www.ebrary.com/corp/collateral/en/Quick_Guides/Quick_Guide.pdf .

Library staff will work with students to help evaluate the pilot program.  Feedback is encouraged and may be submitted to ebooks@library.uiuc.edu .

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

2010-04-15

The University Library is a proud supporter of “50 Years of Public Computing at the University of Illinois.”  The conference takes place April 15-16, 2010, at the Alice Campbell Alumni Center (601 South Lincoln Avenue, Urbana).

Participants will discuss the meaning and legacy of ten Illinois projects that shaped public computing, beginning with PLATO in 1960. The innovative founders of these projects, as well as prominent scholars in the field and early users, will discuss Illinois’ special place in the history of public computing, reflect on current and future projects such as the Urbana-Champaign Big Broadband (UC2B) proposal, and discuss how to extend this culture of innovation into the future.

Please visit http://50years.ischool.illinois.edu/ for more information about this free two-day program.

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

2010-04-14

Join the Undergraduate Library on Friday, April 16, 2010, to celebrate its 40-year anniversary.

Remarks by Dean Paula Kaufman will take place at 3:00 p.m. during a cake and punch reception.

At 3:15 p.m., celebration attendees are invited to fill the Undergraduate’s Library with bubbles!

A tour commemorating this milestone to follow at 3:30.

All are welcome!

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

2010-04-13

On Saturday, April 10, 2010, a leak in the Library’s chilled water system resulted in some minor flooding in the Main Library building.  Water was found in some portions of the Main Bookstacks and the northwest corner of the fourth floor.  The Main Bookstacks were closed for a short time on Saturday after discovery of the leak.

The Library’s preservation and conservation and facilities staff reacted quickly.  There is minimal collection damage.

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

2010-04-09

The Boneyard Arts Festival is an annual four-day event showcasing the broad range of creative activity flourishing in the local community.  It is a unique countywide celebration taking place in a wide variety of over 100 venues.  Visit the following University Library locations participating in this year’s festival:

MAP AND GEOGRAPHY LIBRARY
1408 W. Gregory Avenue, Room 418 of the Main Library
www.library.illinois.edu/max

Friday, April 16, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
The Map and Geography Library (418 Library) exhibit, “Meet the Atlas,” celebrates the Library’s acquisition of “Earth Atlas,” the world’s largest limited-edition atlas ever produced and explores various contemporary award-winning atlases, 19th- and early 20th-century atlases, and beautifully crafted facsimiles of renowned 16th-century atlases.

RARE BOOK & MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
1408 W. Gregory Avenue, Room 346 of the Main Library
www.library.illinois.edu/rbx

Friday, April 16, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., with a gala reception at 3:00 p.m.
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (346 Library) exhibit, “The Mysterious Stranger: The Marketing of Mark Twain,” marks the 175th anniversary of Mark Twain’s birth and the 100th anniversary of his death.

SOUSA ARCHIVES AND CENTER FOR AMERICAN MUSIC
1103 S. Sixth Street
www.library.illinois.edu/sousa

Thursday, April 15 – Friday, April 16, 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.; Saturday, April 17, 12:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
An exhibit of original oil paintings of flowers by Audra Ziegel, part of the Center’s series “Beyond the Home: Women Redefining American Musical Life.” Ms. Ziegel received her Master’s in flute performance from the U of I and currently performs with Yang Ying, a Chinese/Jazz/Rock fusion group. All purchases of the artist’s work will be handled exclusively through her Web site .

The Center is open Saturday for special tours of the historical instrument and sound recording collection, with musical demonstrations on some of the Center’s instruments. Visitors can play the SalMar Construction, the first musical instrument to generate dynamic improvisatory electronic music using circuits from the U of I’s early Illiac supercomputer.

The University’s British Brass Band will provide a special concert of traditional 20th-century brass band music at 1:00 p.m. in the Harding Band Building rehearsal hall.

For a complete list of events on the U of I campus, please visit www.40north.org/events/2010_Boneyard_U_of_I_Campus.html .

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

2010-04-01

The University of Illinois Library houses one of the world’s premier collections of agricultural newspapers and now provides digital access to this historically significant material.  Farm, Field and Fireside, a repository of digitized farm newspapers, offers digital facsimiles of farm newspapers published in the U.S., mainly within the Midwest.

There is no charge to use the repository located at www.library.illinois.edu/dnc/fff/ .  Anyone with access to the Internet can browse the newspapers by date or search by keyword across articles, advertisements, and photo captions.  In addition, individual articles can be printed, downloaded, or e-mailed.

Farm, Field and Fireside is a project of the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library at Illinois.  It began with a Library Services and Technology Act grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services via the Illinois State Library.  Additional support came from the Clifford Family Endowment, Lancaster Farming, Inc., the Minnesota Historical Society, Pennsylvania State University, the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Norman Jean Johnston Estate, and the University of Illinois Library.  To date, the repository contains more than 230,000 pages of farm newspapers, with another 70,000 pages in the works.  More titles will be added to the repository as funding becomes available.

Together with the introduction of rural mail delivery, the telephone, and the automobile, farm newspapers have played a key role in the modernization of rural America.  Distinct from the general small-town or rural press, farm weeklies were aimed at a local, regional, or national audience of farmers and their families, with the goal of disseminating information and dispensing advice.

Farm newspapers were instrumental in the formation of rural public opinion and in connecting farmers to broader social and economic currents in American life.  More than 75% of Midwestern farmers subscribed to one or more agricultural papers in 1913.  In a survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers overwhelmingly cited agricultural newspapers as the most helpful source of information in their farming–second only to experience.  Yet until now, this rich source material remained largely hidden from scholars.  Digitization offers keyword access to the contents of the newspapers, and this essential piece of our national heritage is now widely accessible for the first time.

“The collection is valuable not only for students and scholars researching the history of agriculture or agricultural economics, communications and technology, but also for historians of education, rural sociologists, environmental historians, and especially social and cultural historians.  There is a wealth of material on American popular culture in the farm weeklies, including a large body of early romance fiction written for farm wives,” said Mary Stuart, history, philosophy and newspaper librarian and professor of library administration.  “It’s very exciting to be able to bring this previously hidden material to light. We believe this project builds on the land-grant tradition of the University.”

To highlight some of the “unexpected” content in the farm weeklies, the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library created separate subject guides for specialized topics addressed by the farm newspapers, such as rural school reform, Indian lands, health and hygiene, “women’s” fiction, and immigrant labor.  These guides are available online at http://uiuc.libguides.com/fff/ .

Newspaper titles currently available:

-Berkshire World and Cornbelt Stockman (1910-1926)
-Better Farming (1913-1925)
-Farmers’ Review (1879-1918)
-Farmer’s Voice (1898-1913)
-Farmer’s Wife (1906-1939)
-Farm, Field and Fireside (1884-1906)
-Farm, Field and Stockman (1885-1887)
-Farm Home (1899-1920)
-Farm Press (1906-1913)
-Illinois Farmer (1856-1864)
-Lancaster Farming (1955-1981)
-Prairie Farmer (1841-1923)

In preparation:

-Banker Farmer (1913-1927)
-Chicago Packer (1907-1946)
-Chicago Livestock World (1902-1917)
-Western Rural / Western Rural and American Stockman / National Rural (1868-1900)

The Farm, Field and Fireside repository is accessible at www.library.illinois.edu/dnc/fff/ .  The History, Philosophy & Newspaper Library is located at www.library.illinois.edu/hpnl/ .

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