Category Archives: Ames Highlights - Page 2

Black History Month Resources

Posted by on February 22, 2021 No comments

To celebrate Black History Month, we’ll be sharing resources from our collection as well as sites from around the internet:

screenshot of The Star of ZionOur subscription to the African American Historical Serials Collection provides access to “an archive of periodicals that document the history of African American religious life and culture between 1829 and 1922. It includes newspapers and magazines, plus reports and annuals from African American religious organizations, including churches and social service agencies. Now compiled and accessible to researchers in one digital collection, this unique resource documents the history of African American life and religious organizations from 1829 and 1922. Content features multiple religious denominations, including the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Zion Church and many Baptist churches.”

University Council on Diversity Alumni interviewsIn 2010, the University Council on Diversity invited alumni to participate in interviews addressing diversity. This collection, stewarded by Meg Miner, our University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, will be added to as more interviews are done with alumni in the future.

 

 

 

 

UGA NewsThe University of Georgia’s Brown Media Archives recently discovered footage from the area’s African American community in a home movie. Read the press release, or visit the Brown Media Archives page for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

JSTOR Companion to Schomburg's reading list JSTOR, one of our favorite organizations, recently created a companion to the renowned Schomburg Center’s for Research in Black Culture‘s Black Liberation Reading List. For more information about the reading list, see the JSTOR Daily, which also links to Black Liberation Lists for teens and children.

 

 

 

 

 

Historymakers From the Library of Congress, The HistoryMakers collects oral histories from notables in the African American community, across the United States. Artists, sports figures, lawmakers, and scientists are just a few of the groups represented.

 

Call for Scholarly and Artistic Research Award Proposals!

Posted by on February 15, 2021 No comments

The Ames Library Scholarly and Artistic Research Proposal Award provides one $500 award for an IWU student, under the supervision of a faculty sponsor, to propose a significant research or creative project in their specific fields of study. More details and application instructions are available online, and the deadline is March 8.

We can’t wait to read about your ideas for your research!

Japanese Woodblock Print Exhibition

Posted by on January 21, 2021 No comments
Bamboo Quay
Bamboo Quay

Bamboo Quay by Kyobashi Bridge (Kyobashi Takegashi)

A selection of Utagawa Hiroshige’s woodblock prints are on exhibit in The School of Art’s Wakeley Gallery now through February 11, 2021. Each print is a small world to lose yourself in during these trying times.

These and other woodblock prints are part of IWU’s Campus Art Collection.

From the exhibition guide:
In Hiroshige’s groundbreaking series of woodblock prints, The 53 Stations of the Tokaido (1832-1833), he captured the journey along the Tokaido road, the highway connecting Edo to Kyoto, the imperial capital.

Hiroshige’s prints continue to convey the beauty of Japan and provide insight into the everyday life of its citizens during the Edo period. The appeal of his tender, lyrical landscapes was not restricted to the Japanese audience. Hiroshige’s work had a profound influence on the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists of Europe: Toulouse-Lautrec was fascinated with Hiroshige’s daring diagonal compositions and inventive use of perspective, while Van Gogh literally copied two of Hiroshige’s prints from the famous series, 100 Famous Views of Edo in oil paint.
resource: https://www.roningallery.com/artists/Hiroshige

IWU Campus Art Collection Now Online

Posted by on January 11, 2021 No comments
Buscando Mi Color
Buscando Mi Color

“Buscando Mi Color” (2017) by Lucero Sanchez

The Ames Library is happy to announce the publication of the IWU Campus Art Collection, an initiative to locate, catalog, and photograph the variety of art on campus. The collection contains more than 1,000 pieces of artwork which have been created or donated by Friends of the University, alumni, faculty, and students.

The collection contains paintings, prints, sculptures, pottery, and more by famed artists including Salvadore Dali, Arrah Lee Gaul, Frederick Hart, Utagawa Hiroshige, Leroy Neiman, and Rembrandt van Rijn. Notable faculty artists are Miles Bair, Fred Brian, and Rupert Kilgore. Items in the collection date from the 12th century to the present day.

We invite you to peruse the collection, and emphasize that the collection is available for classroom use, individual students’ assignments, and research. To discuss specific needs, please contact the University Archivist, Meg Miner, at mminer@iwu.edu or phone at (309) 556-1538.

Native American Heritage Month

Posted by on November 9, 2020 1 comment

Banner for Native American Heritage Month To learn more about Native American Heritage Month…

Visit our book exhibit on the entry level of The Ames Library, curated by Meg Miner, University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, and learn more about the John Wesley Powell Collection of Pueblo Pottery.

Visit https://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov for exhibits, audio, and video.

Participate in the Native Cinema Showcase, Wednesday, November 18, 2020, 7 – 11 PM (available on demand until November 23)

Watch these and other PBS documentaries online:
Standing Bear’s Footsteps: The story of an Indian chief who redefined what it means to be an American
Urban Rez: How do Native Americans maintain their culture in a dominant society?
Kind Hearted Woman Part One: An unforgettable portrait of a single mother living on North Dakota’s Spirit Lake Reservation

Learn more about Indigenous Land Acknowledgements, and learn what native land you live on.

Finally, check out IWU Writing Center’s Twitter for reading suggestions!

Author & Activist exhibit

Posted by on October 27, 2020 1 comment

Visit this exhibit at https://rosenbach.org/virtual-exhibits/

“ALICE DUNBAR-NELSON (1875–1935), poet, novelist, journalist, teacher, diarist, women’s suffrage organizer, civil rights leader, lecturer, political leader, and survivor of intimate partner violence, is a hero for our time. She combined her skills as an author and political activist to fight for social change.

“Born into the first generation of Black Americans after the end of slavery, Dunbar-Nelson represents a bridge between the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War and the civil rights movement of the mid-1900s. Her writings and social causes, which centered on race, gender, and power, feel as urgent today as they did during Dunbar-Nelson’s lifetime.”

As you explore the exhibition, we invite you to consider how Alice Dunbar-Nelson’s life and work can inspire residents of the United States today. How much has changed for women (especially women of color), LGBTQ+ people, Black Americans, and other people of color since Dunbar-Nelson pursued her activism in the early 20th century? How can we carry on the work she started? How can artifacts found in museums, libraries, and archives help us discover previously overlooked historical figures?

Thematic sections structure “I Am an American!,” meaning that the exhibition offers interpretive views into the life, times, and work of Alice Dunbar-Nelson.Thus, the documents and objects on view are not organized chronologically.

Free images to use and reuse and Happy OA Week!

Posted by on October 22, 2020 No comments
Olveritas Village

Olvera Street in the oldest part of downtown Los Angeles, California

Here’s a seasonal and timely message from the Free to Use and Reuse collection at the Library of Congress.

The seasonal part of the message is they are profiling images of autumn, Día de Muertos and Halloween in this subset of their collection.

The timely part is that this is also Open Access Week, a global event for the academic and research community to continue to learn about the potential benefits of Open Access, to share what they’ve learned with colleagues, and to help inspire wider participation in helping to make Open Access a new norm in scholarship and research. This year’s emphasis is on examining who the knowledge-sharing and information spaces and systems are designed for, who is missing, who is excluded by the business models we use, and whose interests are prioritized.

OA 2020 banner logo

 

Congratulations to Chris Sweet!

Posted by on October 14, 2020 No comments

Chris Sweet, Information Literacy Librarian

Congratulations to Chris Sweet, Information Literacy Librarian, for completing the Open Education Network’s Certificate in Open Educational Resources (OER) Librarianship! Funded with a grant from the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries of Illinois, this highly competitive program aims to develop leaders within academic librarianship to aid in the creation and implementation of OERs at participants’ institutions. Chris has also been appointed to CARLI’s OER Committee, which will create a plan for supporting OERs across the consortium.

To learn more about OERs, please check out our guide.

You can be a Citizen DJ!

Posted by on September 29, 2020 No comments
citizen_dj_logo

citizen_dj_logo

The Library of Congress sponsors many kinds of residency programs. One of them involves different kinds of digital humanities projects.

Citizen DJ is a project by Brian Foo developed during his time as an Innovator in Residence at the Library of Congress. The application invites the public to make hip hop music using the Library’s public audio and moving image collections. By embedding these materials in hip hop music, listeners can discover items in the Library’s vast collections that they likely would never have known existed. For technical documentation and code, please see the report.

Writing Center Fall Workshops!

Posted by on September 7, 2020 No comments

The Ames Library Writing Center’s Writers’ Workshops are back! Please see below for dates, times, and descriptions.

Workshops for the fall will be held online via Zoom. For Zoom links/passwords, or if you have questions, comments, or need assistance with registering for one of more of these workshops, please email Dr. Scanlon.

 

Friday September 4th 2 p.m. CDT MLA-Making Language Awesome [Passed]

Has your professor required you to write in MLA? Do you need a bit of help going over the basics of the citation style? Perhaps you have a few questions! Bring them and any citations you’ve worked on to this online writing workshop to gain insight and information on this awesome citation style! Email Dr. Scanlon for the recording.

Tuesday, September 8th 6 p.m. CDT APA No Way!: 6th versus 7th Edition [Upcoming]

Have you always written in 6th edition APA format and now your professor wants you to switch to the newer style? Perhaps you’re starting out and are unfamiliar with APA in general. This workshop is designed with you in mind! We’re here to take you through the general differences of each style as well as discuss pitfalls writers can avoid as they work through the process of writing. If you have questions or wish to attend, contact ascanlon@iwu.edu. Recording available after the event upon request if you email Dr. Scanlon.

Thursday, September 10th 7 p.m. CDT Writing for Protest [Upcoming]

Are you interested in social justice? Do you support a variety of causes but are feeling a bit hindered as a result of the COVID Pandemic? This writers’ group is for you. We’ll meet weekly (you don’t have to come every time!) and virtually to discuss inspirational protest writing and work on some of our own. If you have questions or wish to attend, contact Dr. Scanlon.

Tuesday, September 22nd 6 p.m. CDT Let’s Get Personal: Grad School Personal Statements [Upcoming]

Are you applying to graduate school? This workshop is for you! We’ll cover the ins and outs of writing personal statements, give you some tips from a pro, and answer any questions you have. We’ll also recommend tutors able to help you on your writing journey. If you have questions or wish to attend, contact ascanlon@iwu.edu. Recording available after the event upon request if you email Dr. Scanlon.

Tuesday, October 6th 6 p.m. CDT GREat Writing [Upcoming]

This workshop is designed to help writers tackle the analytical portion of the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). We take writers through what good essays include, how to get a high score, and what resources are available both online on-campus and online in general. If you have questions or wish to attend, contact ascanlon@iwu.edu. Recording available after the event upon request if you email Dr. Scanlon.

Tuesday, October 27th 7 p.m. CDT Maybe Medicine? Moving from Maybe to Definitely with a Strong Personal Statement [Upcoming]

Are you thinking about applying to graduate school with a focus in medicine? Perhaps you want to become an advanced practice nurse? Maybe dentistry is more your speed? Does an MD appeal to you? This workshop will take you through the work done to craft a personal statement that will set you up for an interview with the college(s) of your choice. We’ve planned this one well before most application deadlines, too, so you can return to meet with a tutor several times before your final statement is due. If you have questions or wish to attend, contact ascanlon@iwu.edu. Recording available after the event upon request if you email Dr. Scanlon.

For all questions, comments, or for assistance with registering for one of more of these workshops, please email Dr. Scanlon at ascanlon@iwu.edu.

Thank you!

Writing Center Staff 2020-2021

Image from PIXNIO, CC0