This post is the second in a set that examines the British band Cornershop and their obsession with information and information media. In part two, we unpack a song about two cases (only one of which, due to space limitations, we can examine here) that seem especially to have captured the band’s imagination: Continue reading “Merry Christmas, Jason Donovan”
No doubt if you are in academia right now–or even outside of academia you might’ve heard a bit about digital humanities. While researching end-of-semester papers, I thought I would test out a few DH tools for research that have been recommended to me and see how well they work for my subject matter. I’ll be testing JSTOR’s Text Analyzer and Connected Papers. Continue reading “Testing Digital Humanities Tools for Research”
For those interested in cultural and social history, one of the most invaluable resources made available through the University of Illinois Library are the historical newspaper databases. Containing the decade-spanning backfiles of such major newspapers as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Chicago Tribune, these databases provide readers the opportunity to envision what it might have been like to live during a certain era and experience world-changing events as they were initially recorded. Continue reading “Reading the Women’s Pages”
Are you a “taphophile” or “tombstone tourist” or just want a book about cemeteries to read as we get closer to Halloween? If so, check out this book review and book list about American cemeteries!
“taphophile. Noun. (plural taphophiles) A person who is interested in cemeteries, funerals and gravestones.” Continue reading “Are you a taphophile? Check out this book review and reading list about American cemeteries”
While “flipping the books” (converting library call numbers from Dewey to Library of Congress) in the circulating collection of the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library, the book entitled, “The Hatpin Menace: American Women Armed and Fashionable, 1887-1920,” crossed my desk. The cover art was catchy; a beautiful, behatted young lady with a Mona Lisa smile looked out at the prospective reader next to a silly black-and-white cartoon of a man being skewered by a woman’s hatpin that is as long as she is tall. Continue reading “Armed and Fashionable– When Fashion Meets Public vs. Personal Safety”
Microfilm and Digital Research
Intro:
The History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library holds over 100,000 reels of microfilmed newspapers in its collection as well as most of the University Library microfilm. The term “microform” encompasses microfilm and microfiche (as well as the now obsolete microcard.) What is microfilm and why do researchers and historians use it?
(University of Illinois Libguide to Microform)
Tjinder Singh and his post-punk band Cornershop really, really care about information—its technologies, its media, its creators, its consumers—which, for the 1990s at least, is a little unusual. Why care about anything at all when punk has bequeathed them a license to lunge pell-mell down the abyss of heedless anger, smashing up everything and replacing it with nothing? Continue reading “Where’d You Get Your Information? (Part I)”
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library and the Department of History are pleased to announce a Research Travel Grant to support scholars conducting research in any of the Library’s collections.
The University Library is one of the largest research libraries in the U.S., holding more than 14 million volumes and 24 million other items and materials in all formats, languages, and subjects. Special collections include the papers of literary figures such as Marcel Proust, H.G. Wells, Carl Sandburg and Gwendolyn Brooks, extensive collections of Slavic and East European materials and of materials documenting the history of science, technology, international agricultural programs, and librarianship, the premier collection on international amateur sports and the Olympics, and a unique collection of sub-Saharan African research materials. Travel grant recipients will also have access to the Library’s digital collections (including journal subscriptions and licensed databases) during their stay.
For more information about the Library’s collections, see: https://www.library.illinois.edu/collections/special-collections
Travel grants awards typically range from $1,000 to $2,500 per recipient. Funds may be applied toward round-trip travel, and accommodations and expenses in Urbana-Champaign, IL.
Continue reading “Call for Applications: 2023-2024 Research Travel Grant”
Cultural Heritage Institutions can nominate an Illinois Newspaper for digitization and free online distribution at https://t.co/6vY1RoJVbY.
Newspapers should be from Illinois, not under copyright, and microfilmed (no print newspapers at this time.)
For more information on nomination eligibility, FAQs, and paper applications see https://www.library.illinois.edu/illinoisnewspaperproject/get-involved/nominating/
Want more information? Join the mailing list at https://groups.webservices.illinois.edu/subscribe/171591.
Now available: over two hundred digitized Illinois newspapers: https://go.library.illinois.edu/npcom. Access currently restricted to computers with a campus IP address, but will soon be freely available through the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections (IDNC) to researchers everywhere. Continue reading “Over 200 Illinois Newspapers Digitized”
