Monthly Archives: January 2019

Happy 100th Birthday, Jackie Robinson!

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson, the first player to break the color barrier in baseball. His Major League debut occurred with the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947 and his career as a professional ballplayer lasted just over nine years.

Jackie’s tremendous accomplishments can only be fully understood if we are clear-eyed about the racism that white people, from fellow Dodgers to baseball spectators to the United States military, subjected him to throughout his life.

We invite you take to take a deeper look at Jackie’s life and career through our exhibit “Against the Most Tremendous Odds,” which will be up through February on The Ames Library main floor.

New University Librarian Named

The Ames Library is happy to announce that Dr. Scott Walter has been named University Librarian. Welcome to the Titan community, Scott!

Dr. Walter will join us on May 8th. You can read more about him here!

CANCELLED The Hate U Give Film Screening

Due to tonight’s extreme weather conditions, our screening of The Hate U Give is rescheduled for next Tuesday, February 5th. We apologize for the inconvenience!

Bundle up tonight, because we’re still holding a screening of the 2018 film The Hate U Give in Beckman Auditorium at the library starting at 6 p.m. The film will be preceded by a presentation of data about police shootings of black civilians and a discussion afterwards.

Based on the best-selling novel, The Hate U Give tells the story of Starr Carter, who lives in two worlds: the poor, black neighborhood where she resides and the mostly white prep school she attends. This uneasy balance is shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood friend by a policeman. Facing pressures from all sides, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what’s right. (Source)

Native Voices: Medicine Wheel Teaching Event

Tonight, The Ames Library, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and Sociology & Anthropology Department are co-sponsoring a medicine wheel teaching event conducted by Eliida Lakota Knoll and the Reverend Carol Lakota Eastin. Said Washington Post writer Evelyn Porreca Vuko in a 2001 article, “The medicine wheel symbolizes the circle of life in many different Native American cultures. Paths and circles outlined with stones mark passages and changes in people’s lives.”

The event, which consists of a station of activities in each of the four directions, will be held from 6:30–8:00 p.m. in the library’s entry level rotunda. Participants will be instructed to move sun-wise (a.k.a. clockwise) from station to station, and will be guided through a set of craft-making activities at each one creating a set of power-objects to put into a medicine bag.

 

Rare Independent Chinese Documentaries Streaming on Kanopy

Artist Ai Weiwei and filmmaker Wang Fen have paired with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) for public showings of rare independent Chinese documentaries. However, you don’t have to be in San Francisco to see these films because SFMOMA has helped bring them to Kanopy, as well!

As always, Kanopy films are free to all current Illinois Wesleyan faculty, staff, and students. Just make sure to log in using IWU proxy access first.

(All images courtesy Kanopy.)

Opening the Public Domain Treasure Chest

Charlie Chaplin, The Pilgrim

January 1, 2019 brought a special present, the gift of an expanded public domain.  At midnight on New Year’s Eve, all works first published in the United States in 1923 entered the public domain. It has been 21 years since the last mass expiration of copyright in the U.S.  Movies, songs, and books created in the United States in 1923 are now eligible for anyone to adapt, repurpose, or distribute as they please.

The public domain is our shared cultural heritage, a near limitless trove of creativity that’s been reused, remixed, and reimagined over centuries to create new works of art and science. Generally, works come into the public domain when their copyright term expires. But U.S. copyright law has greatly expanded over time, so that now many works don’t enter the public domain for a hundred years or more. Ever since the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act, no published works have entered the public domain—but for the first time in 20 years, tens of thousands of books, films, visual art, sheet music, and plays published in 1923 will be free of intellectual property restrictions, and anyone can use them for any purpose at all.

When Disney successfully lobbied Congress to extend copyright by 20 years in 1998, it stopped the clock on the public domain. 20 years ago, everything from 1922 became public. The next year, and the year after, and every year until 2019, nothing else entered the public domain.

Just think, any record label can now issue a dubstep version of the 1923 hit “Yes! We Have No Bananas!” Attribution to others’ works is still required of course…

For more information about copyright and using images and text in your research and creative works, contact Karen Schmidt, University Librarian and University Copyright Officer, kschmidt@iwu.edu, https://libguides.iwu.edu/copyright

MLK Films on Kanopy for a Limited Time

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Kanopy has put together a new collection of 16 films on the civil rights leader which are streaming from now until Wednesday, January 23rd. Says Kanopy:

With films created mere years after his death as well as recent examinations of his enduring influence, this collection provides a fully realized portrait of Dr. King, his message of peaceful protest, and the state of the country.

You can access Kanopy on our website under A-Z Resources as a current student, faculty, or staff member.

Native Voices: Native Hawaiian Healing Event

Ho’oponopono is the Hawaiian concept of forgiveness, characterized as “to make right, orderly, correct” in a 1985 Culture, Medicine & Psychiatry article by Karen Ito.

Francine Dudoit-Tagupa, Director of Native Hawaiian Healing at Waikiki Health, will speak on this topic tonight from 6:00–7:30 p.m. in Room C102 of the Center for Natural Sciences. The event is free and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

Native Voices: Exhibit Opening Event

Please join us tonight from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. in the entry-level rotunda for the opening ceremony of the library’s traveling exhibition Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness. Featured guests will include Butch McCamy and the Spirit of the Rainbow drum singers. If the weather cooperates, the singers will hold a pipe ceremony at the end of the event for anyone who wants to participate.

Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness

Starting today, The Ames Library is hosting Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness, a traveling exhibition created by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM).* This exhibition demonstrates how Native peoples of the United States today enhance their wellness through both traditional and Western healing practices.

Native Voices was displayed at the NLM headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland from 2011 to 2015. Through a partnership with the American Library Association (ALA), the exhibition is now traveling to libraries throughout the United States. We are thrilled to bring the exhibition to our community and to hopefully broaden people’s perspectives about this fascinating topic.

The exhibition is on display at The Ames Library during regular hours through February 14. The traveling exhibition comprises six free-standing banners and six iPads with stands which contain videos honoring the native tradition of oral history. The National Library of Medicine has gathered a multitude of healing voices from across the country so that you may hear their stories in their own words.

The library will also be co-sponsoring four associated events with guest speakers, including Native healers, during the month of January. You can find details about these events here.

*The U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) developed and produced Native Voices: Native Peoples’ Concepts of Health and Illness. The American Library Association (ALA) Public Programs Office, in partnership with NLM, tours the exhibition to America’s libraries.