Ames Library News

Wishing you all a safe and relaxing winter break!

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 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!

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 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!