It may be February, but it’s not too late to plan your days in 2024. Enjoy historic images from the University Archives while managing your time with this calendar brought to you by Tate Archives and Special Collections. To learn more about these images, please reach out to us at archives@iwu.edu.
Finals Toolkit #3
Happy Reading Day, Titans! For the last installment of the Finals Toolkit, we’re sharing relaxing and stress-relieving activities. Taking breaks and moments to rest can help you return to your studying or writing feeling refreshed and revitalized. Don’t forget, you can also check out our earlier tools and tips from part 1 and part 2 of the Finals Toolkit!
- Browse: Take in some art! Browse the collections in Artstor, Saskia Digital Art Images, and IWU’s campus art collection.
- Listen: Enjoy some instrumental background music from The Classical Music Library, Smithsonian Global Sound, and Popular Music Library.
- Read: Use your IWU ID card to check out a book to read for fun from the library’s popular reading collection, located on the first floor of the library near the Library Services Desk.
- Visit the Self-Care Station: Find coloring sheets, LEGOs, origami, dorm-friendly recipes, and other wellness resources in the Self-Care Station on the first floor of The Ames Library.
- Watch: See performances like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Swan Lake from the comfort of your own room, thanks to Digital Theatre+, or watch a documentary on a topic that interests you from the PBS Video Collection.
Bonus finals week reminders: You can reserve a study or project room in the library and print your projects and papers using one of the library’s five printers.
We hope you’re able to finish well, take care of yourselves, and enjoy the upcoming break. Good luck during finals week–you’ve got this!
Finals Toolkit #2
Finals can be a stressful time, so this week, we’re filling your Finals Toolkit with ways to take care of yourself, resources for practicing mindfulness and relaxing during breaks, and a reminder of the importance of sleep. We’re also sharing a few extra tools as you put finishing touches on projects and papers.
- Counseling & Consultation Services (CCS): Check out CCS’s resources for students, take a confidential online screening, or make an appointment to talk to a counselor.
- Self-care apps: Check out our Self-Care LibGuide for a list of meditation apps like Shine. Or, try a coloring app like Paint by Number Coloring Games as a way to relax.
- Self-Care Station: Visit the Self-Care Station on the entry level of The Ames Library for relaxing activities, mindfulness resources, and to share an encouraging note with your fellow Titans.
- Sleep: It may feel like studying is more important than sleep, but research tells us that’s not the case. Several studies compare sleep deprivation to intoxication–a study of 19-26 year olds found that their performance on tasks after being awake for 20 hours was equivalent to having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10%. Try establishing a wind-down routine, avoiding screens right before bed, and remember to make sleep a priority.
- Sunbox light therapy lamps: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) affects millions of people, and one way of coping with SAD is to use light therapy. There are Sunbox light therapy lamps on the 3rd and 4th floors of The Ames Library–try spending 20-30 minutes with a Sunbox lamp to help lift your mood.
- Titan Pantry: Take what food you need from the Titan Pantry, located in the Hansen Student Center (in the lockers by the main floor restrooms). The Titan Pantry is free and anonymous.
- Take regular breaks: Set a timer for 10 minutes and stretch, go for a walk or other form of exercise, relax your jaw, get a drink of water, talk to a friend, or do something that brings you joy.
- Ask a Librarian Chat: Monday-Friday, from 1-4 pm, a librarian is online and ready to help answer your questions!
- Citation refresher: Working on your citations page? Let MegaSearch help you! (Click image below to enlarge.)
Next week, visit the Finals Toolkit for relaxing activities and stress-busters. You’re doing great!
Giving Tuesday: Support our Summer Digital Humanities Fellowship!
Today is Giving Tuesday – a global day of giving where philanthropic-minded individuals give back to the causes most near and dear to them. Today, we’re paying homage to IWU’s 17th president, Minor Myers jr., who encouraged all Titans to “Go into the world and Do Well. But more importantly, go into the world and Do Good.”
This Giving Tuesday, we ask for your support to keep the Do Well, Do Good legacy alive by making a gift to Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund! (NOTE: Be sure to select “write in my designation” on the giving form and type in “Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund”)
Our goal is to raise $4,000 to fund two students’ participation in our
successful Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program.
What are the Digital Humanities, and why is the library leading this program? Digital Humanities (DH) combines digital tools and humanities approaches to ask new questions of traditional and new data. If you’d like to see examples, visit our website to view projects from past cohorts. The Ames Library is leading this program because we are perfectly positioned to provide strong connections between technology and soft skills, between students and faculty, and between asking great questions and exploring the abundance of information online and in print.
Students who participated in last year’s program noted the ways that the experience reinforced the liberal arts education they were receiving. “DH… made us really consider how the values we wanted to inform our work were actually reflected in it,” wrote one student: “because of this we learned to constantly be taking a step back and looking for the best possible approach and solution to our problems in order to maintain those values and achieve our goals.”
Another student noted “For me I think just an awareness of the existence of DH and the possibilities that come with it…are what’s going to benefit me the most. I think DH gives a great approach to different humanities topics that could bring new approaches to questions people have been struggling with for a long time.” The same student also noted the soft skills they developed through the program: “I think in class and in my future career I’m going to need to effectively collaborate and I think DH has given me the skills to do that.”
Your contribution to the Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund is supporting the best of IWU: thoughtful, engaged research that prepares students to do well in future jobs and do good in the world.
This Giving Tuesday, we ask for your support to keep the Do Well, Do Good legacy alive by making a gift to Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund! (NOTE: Be sure to select “write in my designation” on the giving form and type in “Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund”)
Give $50 or more and you’ll get a custom Minor Myers jr. sticker for your water bottle, laptop, etc.!
Visit iwu.edu/giving-tuesday to make your gift, check out volunteer opportunities, and follow along with the day’s live progress.
Every gift makes a difference in the lives of current and future Titans. Thank you so much for helping us Do Good today!
Stephanie Davis-Kahl
University Librarian & Professor, The Ames Library, Illinois Wesleyan University
Finals Toolkit #1
Finals week is right around the corner, and The Ames Library is here to help you finish the semester strong! We’ll be sharing resources for planning study sessions and finishing assignments, taking care of yourself (and getting plenty of sleep!), and finding ways to unwind.
The end of the semester goes by fast. Take some time now to prepare for the next few weeks with these tools, which can help you plan ahead for exams and final projects. Your future self will thank you!
- Schedule an appointment with a librarian: Librarians can meet with you for 15, 30, or 60 minutes, either in person or on Zoom, and can help with brainstorming keywords to finding sources for a research paper. Choose “Ames Librarians” from the dropdown menu to make an appointment.
- Schedule an appointment at the Writing Center: Writing Center tutors can help you organize your thoughts for your final papers. Choose “Writing Center | Tutoring Services” from the dropdown menu to make an appointment.
- Reserve a study room: You can book a study room or project room in the library up to one month in advance. Reserve your finals study space now!
- Review Research & Course Guides: Now is a great time to review the library’s Research & Course Guides, where you’ll find information to help you research, tips for using the library, citation tools, and more. Search by subject (like biology or English) or for a specific course.
- Renew your library materials: Think you might need that library book until after finals are over? Extend the due date by renewing it!
- Request books or articles with I-Share and ILLiad: If the book or article you need isn’t available from The Ames Library, don’t worry! It’s easy to request articles to be delivered to you electronically via ILLiad or to request books from other I-Share libraries (you’ll be notified when they arrive and can pick them up at the Library Services Desk). It’s fast, but it’s not immediate, so planning your ILLiad and I-Share requests sooner rather than later is recommended.
Next week, we’ll be sharing strategies for taking care of yourself!
ILLiad interlibrary loan updates complete
Update 10/25/23: The ILLiad updates are now complete. When signing into ILLiad, you will be asked to login with your full IWU email address and password (if you have already logged into a service like your IWU email, MyIWU, MegaSearch, etc., you should be automatically signed in). Please update any bookmarks to ILLiad you may have saved on your computer to: https://illiad.iwu.edu/illiad. If you have any questions or problems accessing ILLiad, please contact interlib@iwu.edu. Thank you!
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Posted 10/23/23: ILLiad interlibrary loan will be down for updates on Wednesday, October 25, beginning at 9 a.m. and ending at approximately 11 a.m. Access to ILLiad accounts may not be available and new requests may not be made during this time. If you have any questions, please contact interlib@iwu.edu. Thank you for understanding!
University of Illinois Press Journals
Thanks to a partnership between the University of Illinois Press and the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI), IWU now has access to 39 journals covering a wide range of subjects such as music, philosophy, and cultural studies. Journals will be available in digital formats from July 2023 to June 2028 during the pilot project. You can now access these titles by searching MegaSearch – if you need assistance, please contact a librarian.
Celebrating Banned Books Week
Interested in learning more about banned books and how to advocate for the freedom to read? Here are some great starting points!
The First Amendment and Censorship (Office of Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association)
Supporting Library Workers: Specific Actions to take to support your local library
How to Write a Letter of Support (Unite Against Book Bans)
And here are just a few resources from The Ames Library collection:
PBS Newshour: The Top Library Books People Tried To Ban Or Censor Last Year (interview with Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom)
Free Speech Under Attack: Book Bans and Academic Censorship: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, House of Representatives, One Hundred Seventeenth Congress, Second Session (transcript of hearing)
Available online as an ebook as well as in print
(call number Z711.4 .K65 2015, 4th floor)
“Requests for the removal, relocation, and restriction of books–also known as challenges–occur with some frequency in the United States. Book Banning in 21st-Century American Libraries, based on thirteen contemporary book challenge cases in schools and public libraries across the United States argues that understanding contemporary reading practices, especially interpretive strategies, is vital to understanding why people attempt to censor books in schools and public libraries.”
Available online as an ebook.
“This resource from Pekoll, Assistant Director of the American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF), uses specific case studies to offer practical guidance on safeguarding intellectual freedom related to library displays, programming, and other librarian-created content. Beyond Banned Books spotlights case studies drawn from public libraries, schools, universities, and government agencies dealing with library displays, artwork, programs, bookmarks and reading lists, social media, and databases; summarizes possible complaints and controversies related to each area; draws connections between the intellectual freedom principles involved and associated legal issues, with relevant court opinions when possible; shares questions to consider when strengthening a library’s defenses against censorship; discusses the importance of reporting challenges to OIF, and the professional and institutional support that OIF can provide when challenges arise; and includes key ALA policies on intellectual freedom as appendices.”
New Resources to Explore!
We’re happy to announce new resources for reading and research at The Ames Library!
Comics Plus is an online collection of over 25,000 digital comics, manga, and graphic novels, including new and popular titles. First-time users must create an account using your @iwu.edu email address. After registering, users can access Comics Plus via web browser or by downloading the LibraryPass Android or iOS app. The LibraryPass app will provide access to Comics Plus.
Docuseek provides access to streaming films from renowned documentary film distributors, including Icarus Films, Bullfrog Films, and First Run Features. To request a film, contact eresources@iwu.edu with the title of the film and the relevant course number. We will follow up with you via email.
Two new resources Bloomsbury’s Drama Online:
Asian Theatre Video Collection, featuring interviews with leading performers and practitioners and as well as filmed performances, documentaries, rehearsal footage, and training videos from Butoh to Bollywood, Bunraku to Topeng.
Theatre Communications Group Collection, which provides online access to 200 plays from TCG Books, showcasing diverse voices in contemporary American theatre, including 18 winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, works in translation, adaptations and new versions of classic plays.
Exploring Race in Society, provided free to IWU by EBSCO, provides online access to essays, photographs, graphs and charts, government agency reports, and articles on topics associated with race, ethnicity, diversity, and inclusiveness. Topics include Black Lives Matter, environmental racism and environmental justice, food insecurity, school-to-prison pipeline, voting rights and voter suppression, and more.