Congratulations on your pending graduation!

As you prepare for the big, wide world, here’s some things you should remember about what will change when you graduate.

Library Access

We are pleased to provide our IWU alumni with a variety of library services.  Alumni of IWU may request an IWU library courtesy card that allows for borrowing privileges, may request guest connection to the internet while visiting our campus, and receive professional assistance from our liaison librarians.

Due to licensing restrictions, alumni may not access our licensed electronic databases from off campus.  There are a growing number of openly accessible scholarly resources that are available to researchers, and library staff will be glad to assist our alumni in their discovery and use.

Interlibrary loan privileges are only available to current IWU students, faculty, and staff. This service can be provided by your local public library.

Information Technology

Upon graduation, you get to keep your NetID and password. This means you can still use your @iwu.edu email account, and you can still log into computers on campus. That same NetID and password will not, however, work for the IllinoisWesleyan wireless network. You’ll need to request the guest wifi code from Help@Ames.

Nursing students, Jenna Kyhl and Giovani Rodriguez, both seniors, put in some serious study for finals in Ames Library, 2000.

Only two more days of finals! By the looks of things, studying for finals hasn’t changed too much since 2000. There are, maybe, a few more laptops and  mobile devices involved, but textbooks, notes, naps, and soda never seem to go out of sytle. Do you have a favorite picture of your group studying in Ames Library? Share it with us!

Other than studying, what’s going on in Ames this week? Our hours will be a little different.

Monday, 7:45am – 1:30am

Tuesday, 7:45am – 4:30pm

Wednesday – Friday, 8:00am – 4:30pm

Saturday, Closed

Sunday, entry level open 11:30am – 1:30pm

Annual library hours can be found on the Ames website.

Instruction Lab, 129

• Monday, 9:30am – Network Meeting
• Monday, 10:30am – Disaster Recovery Planning
• Monday, 10am – Italian Language Testing
• Monday, 2:30pm – Gmail Apps Training
• Thursday, 10am – Gmail Apps Training
• Thursday, 1pm – Gmail Apps Training

Beckman Auditorium

• Monday, 7pm – Course Performance

Meeting Room, 214

• Tuesday, 1pm – Assessment Committee
• Tuesday, 2pm – CUPP
• Wednesday, 9:30am – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 11:30am – Theatre Recruitment Meeting
• Wednesday, 2pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 1pm – CUPP
• Friday, 2pm – Portal Meeting

Ames Library’s very own Karen Schmidt has been named the 2015 Multicultural Leadership Program Service Award Recipient! From the announcement: “You can often find this year’s MCLP Community Service Award recipient pedaling a bicycle around low-income neighborhoods, laden with an overflowing book box.

That determined and personal effort exemplifies Karen Schmidt, who has helped initiate and maintain numerous community projects—including the Book Bike Program that brings free books into the homes of local residents. Karen gives her voice, time, leadership, and financial support to a myriad of causes—locally and on a state and national level.

Karen serves as alderman and Mayor Pro Tem for the City of Bloomington. Professionally, as Illinois Wesleyan University Librarian, Karen is active in state and national library associations, strengthening campus ties between technology and library services. She also connects IWU students to service learning opportunities that benefit the local community, especially the older Bloomington west side and downtown.”

Instruction Lab, Room 129

• Monday, 10am – Environmental Studies 120
• Tuesday, 2:30pm – Gmail Apps Training
• Wednesday, 1pm – Stamp, French Proficiency Exam
• Wednesday, 4pm – May Term Psychology Students Meeting
• Thursday, 10am – Gmail Apps Training

Meeting Room, Room 214

• Tuesday, 1pm – Assessment Committee
• Tuesday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 9:30am – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 12pm – Library Advisory Committee
• Wednesday, 2pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 1pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy
• Thursday, 7pm – International Film Series

Beckman Auditorium, Lower Level

• Monday, 2pm – Prof. Reissenweber’s Skype Session
• Monday, 7:30pm – Nursing 218
• Tuesday, 1:10pm – LC 116 Film Screenings
• Tuesday, 2:30pm – Theatre History II
• Wednesday, 4:30pm – May Term Travel Course Pre-Departure Meeting

Are you working on a multimedia project as part of your coursework? Are you filming and editing a video? Are you editing photographs for an excellent presentation? Ames has you covered!

The Thorpe Center is a collaborative endeavor between Information Technology Services, the Mellon Center for Teaching & Learning, and The Ames Library that is located on the 3rd level of The Ames Library. The Thorpe Center welcomes faculty, staff, and students and provides support and technology in the following areas:

• Opportunities to become acquainted with new technologies
• Support for integrating standard & emerging technologies for use within & outside the classroom
• Digital video editing for integrating audio and video into presentations and projects
• Classroom and event support for technology & media

The Thorpe Center is also a sandbox for testing out new technologies and furniture. Please send any comments our suggestions that you may have for this space to our Suggestion Box.

Services

▷ Import, edit and digitize video and audio

▷ Scan photographs or documents and integrate them into presentations

▷ Record a DVD-R of your video, audio, or an entire presentations

▷ Borrow a camcorder or digital camera from the Circulation Desk and shoot your video

Did you know that April 12-18 is National Library Week?! From the American Library Association: “First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It is a time to celebrate the contributions of our nation’s libraries and librarians and to promote library use and support. All types of libraries – school, public, academic and special – participate.”

This week is also the last full week of classes at IWU, with the annual John Wesley Powell Student Research Conference starting Friday night, culminating in a full day of presentations on Saturday. Participating students can learn all about poster printing from the Ames website, and submit their finished products to be printed using this form. The deadline to submit posters for printing is TODAY (4/13) if you want it printed in time for Saturday. Remember that the foam board will be provided to you at CNS or SFH on Saturday morning.

Stephanie Davis-Kahl is one of the Ames librarians, and is the coordinator for Digital Commons@IWU, our online archive of exceptional student and faculty work. Our goal is to showcase the intellectual and creative work in our campus community. If you are presenting this weekend as part of the JWP Student Research Conference, you are invited to share your work via Digital Commons. You have a number of choices of what to share and how to share your research. If you’re interested in learning more, contact Stephanie by email or phone (309-556-3010).

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Tuesday,4 p.m., Beckman Auditorium, The Ames Library – “Building Bulwarks: an ArcGIS Model of Roads, Campaigns, and Colonies in Republican Italy – Assistant Professor of History Amy Coles will present her preliminary, time-lapsed set of maps – created using ArcGIS (Global Information Systems) software – of Roman Republican military campaigns, road-building, and colonial foundations in ancient Italy. While military success enabled the building of roads and foundation of colonies, the map demonstrates that the relationship between these three was neither simply causal nor static over time. (This project was made possible by a Re-Centering the Humanities grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.)

Thursday, 7 p.m., Beckman Auditorium, The Ames Library –International Film Series – “Wadjda” (2012, Saudi Arabia), presented by Associate Professor of English Alison Sainsbury.

Instruction Lab, Room 129

• Monday, 10am – Environmental Studies 120
• Wednesday, 10am – Environmental Studies 120
• Friday, 10am – Environmental Studies 120

Meeting Room, Room 214

• Monday, 9:30am – Network Meeting
• Monday, 10:30am – Disaster Recovery Meeting
• Tuesday, 1pm – Assessment Committee Meeting
• Tuesday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 9am – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 11:30am – Theatre Recruitment
• Wednesday, 2pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 1pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy
• Friday, 10am – Campus Climate Assessment Meeting
• Friday, 2pm – Portal Meeting

Beckman Auditorium, Lower Level

• Tuesday, 9:30am – History 150
• Tuesday, 2:30pm – Theatre History II
• Tuesday, 4pm – “Building Bulwarks: an ArcGIS Model of Roads, Campaigns, and Colonies in Republican Italy”
• Wednesday, 2pm – English Skype Session
• Thursday, 1:10pm – LC 116 Film Showings
• Thursday, 7pm – International Film Series

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English as a Second Language Service

The new English as a Second Language Service at IWU seeks to support the University’s international students and their academic and professional needs by providing ESL instruction and help with academic writing, reading and speaking. Our primary goal is to enhance the learning experience of international students and support the University’s community.

If you have any questions about our services or would like to schedule an appointment, please contact Dr. Teodora Nikolova at tnikolov@iwu.edu or call (309) 556-3810.

We are now located in the Writing Center, Ames 105B.
Office hours are
Monday and Wednesday, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
Tuesday and Thursday, 11 a.m.–2 p.m.

The Writing Center+ESL online scheduler is at iwu.mywconline.com.

The votes are in!

From the Pantagraph: “Voters on Tuesday went to the polls to decide a variety of races, including contested contests for the Bloomington and Normal city councils and the Unit 5 and District 87 school boards.” IWU’s very own Karen Schmidt was re-elected to Bloomington city council for Ward 6.
Speaking of elections, Ames Library has hundreds of resources to help you learn all about election processes, trends, and history. Check out this newly published book, Gender in campaigns for the US House of Representatives.
From the publisher: “Barbara Burrell presents a comprehensive comparative examination of men’s and women’s candidacies for the U.S. House of Representatives in elections from 1994 through 2012. Analyzing extensive data sets on all major party candidates for 10 elections—covering candidate status, party affiliation, fund-raising, candidate background variables, votes obtained, and success rates for both primary and general elections—Burrell finds little evidence of categorical discrimination against women candidates. Women compete equally with men and often outpace them in raising money, gaining interest group and political party support, and winning elections.
Yet the number of women elected to the U.S. House has expanded only incrementally. The electoral structure limits opportunities for newcomers to win congressional seats and there remains a lower presence of women in winnable contests despite growing recruitment efforts. Burrell suggests that congressional dysfunction discourages potential candidates from pursuing legislative careers and that ambitious women are finding alternative paths to influence and affect public policy.”

Want to earn some points in your next Sociology class? Check out this book, Race, gender, and class in the tea party: What the movement reflects about mainstream ideologies, written by IWU’s own Prof. Meghan Burke!

From Amazon.com: “It has been all too tempting to characterize the Tea Party as an irrational, racist, astro-turf movement composed of members who are working to subvert their own economic interests. Race, Gender, and Class in the Tea Party reveals a much messier and much more fascinating analysis of this movement. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with organizers and fieldwork at conservative campaign trainings and conventions, its rich ethnographic data explores how the active folks in this movement, specifically organizers in one Midwestern state, understand their world, and how they act on that basis to change it. As this book will reveal, most Tea Party organizers do depend on deeply flawed understandings of race and class—either believing wholeheartedly in myths, or confining their analyses to the narrow limits of the conservative media system. Yet, Tea Party racism is simply American racism.
Race, Gender, and Class in the Tea Party reveals the complexities and contradictions inherent in this movement, where organizers attempt to reconcile their personal experiences with their conservative politics. In the end, these dynamics reveal as much about us as it does about the Tea Party. It is certain to challenge all of our politics, and especially our scholarly thinking, about the movement, and offers a path toward real conversations about our collective future in the United States.”

You’re Invited!
Discussion Prior to the Performance of “Lincoln in Limbo”

Monday, April 6
2-3 p.m.
Beckman Auditorium, The Ames Library

Please come and join in an informal conversation with actors from the Shakespeare Project of Chicago and director Peter Garino, along with leading Abraham Lincoln scholars Michael Burlingame and Guy Fraker. The discussion will center on literary/dramatic and historical representations of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination. Later Monday, at 7:30 p.m., the SPC will perform Emeritus Professor Robert Bray’s “Lincoln in Limbo” at the Hansen Student Center. Admission is without ticket and without charge.

Friday, 4pm – German Undergraduate Research Conference – The German Program at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL will host its 4^th-Annual German Undergraduate Research Conference during the spring semester of 2015. The purpose of this conference is to provide an outlet for students from any field of research engaging with any area of German Studies to present their research to their peers and to receive feedback in an academic setting. Since this conference is open to all advanced-level undergraduate students enrolled in any university in North America, it will afford those attending not only an excellent opportunity to network with others researching in the field, but also to discuss their own academic and study abroad experiences with students from different universities and academic backgrounds. Presenting at this conference will provide students with valuable communication experience that will be relevant to any field of post-graduation work or study being considered.

Instruction Lab, Room 129

• Monday, 8am – Hispanic Studies 280
• Monday, 10am – English 280
• Monday, 12pm – Moodle Gradebook Overview
• Monday, 2pm – Hispanic Studies 280
• Tuesday, 2:30pm – English 352
• Wednesday, 10am – Environmental Studies 120
• Wednesday, 1pm – Facebook for your Department
• Thursday, 9:30am – English 280
• Friday, 10am – Environmental Studies 120
• Friday, 1pm – Alumni Board Meeting

Beckman Auditorium

• Monday, 2pm – Lincoln Symposium
• Tuesday, 10:50am – Sociology 305
• Tuesday, 2:30pm – Anthropology 274
• Tuesday, 7pm – LC 116 Film Showings
• Thursday, 7pm – International Film Series – “Anna Karenina” (2012, UK), presented by Isaac Funk Professor of German and Russian and Co-director of International Studies Marina Balina.
• Friday, all day – AABD Spring Meeting
• Saturday, 1:30pm – Better Test Scores
• Sunday, 7pm – LC 116 Film Showings

Meeting Room 214

• Tuesday, 9am – Workflows
• Tuesday, 1pm – Assessment Committee Meeting
• Tuesday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 9am – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 2pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 12pm – Adam Guo Presentation
• Thursday, 1pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy
• Friday, 1pm – Alumni Board Meeting

Have you made an appointment for writing help at the Writing Center yet?

The Writing Center at Illinois Wesleyan University welcomes all IWU students who would like help with their writing. They are open afternoons and evenings during the school year. They’re conveniently located on the first floor of The Ames Library.

Tutors are students at Wesleyan, and come from a variety of majors. In many cases they’ve taken the same courses in which their clients are enrolled, and have tackled similar writing assignments. They’ve taken the time to complete a non-credit, semester-long course in tutoring.

Their philosophy is simple: help student writers help themselves by acting as sympathetic readers, by asking questions, by helping students evaluate their ideas, argument, content, and style, by teaching writers invention, argumentation, drafting, and copyediting strategies they can use on their own. They help students with all the stages of the writing process, from those first rough ideas through prewriting, collecting supporting material, drafting, and final editing and proofreading. They believe that good writing takes work and benefits from several revisions and re-inventions.

Need additional help as a ESL student? Check out the ESL webpage!

APPOINTMENTS:

All appointments are now made through an online appointment software. You must have a iwu.edu email account to use our services. Now you can make and change your appointments yourself, with just a click.

Bring hard copies of both your paper and the prompt!

Papers 5 pages or less:  30 minute tutorial
Papers 5-10 pages:  60 minute tutorial
Papers 10-15 pages: 90 minute tutorial
Papers over 15 pages: 2 hour tutorial
All papers are read during the tutorial
If you’re working on a long senior sem paper, establish a relationship with a tutor early in the process.

Priority is given to appointments, but walk-ins are welcome.