Category Archives: Ames Highlights

Navigating the tremendous number of images in the Artstor Digital Library can be daunting, particularly to those in fields outside of art history. Where to start looking for images for, say, an Introduction to Philosophy class? To address that hurdle, the Artstor Digital Library is introducing curriculum guides – collections of images from based on syllabi for college courses.

Every curriculum guide will be broken down into topics or themes, each composed of approximately ten images that illustrate or support the subject. We’re working directly with faculty members and experts around the country to ensure the image collections are an accurate, reliable source of information for other instructors to use in the classroom.

When completed, the curriculum guides, course descriptions, and links to the image collections will be posted on Artstor’s website. In the next few weeks we’ll be featuring some previews on the blog. To see which guides are already available, go to the Artstor Digital Library search page and click on the “Folders & Image Groups” button in the center of the page, then go to Global Folders > Featured Groups > Curriculum Guides.

Check out this Curriculum Guide for Colonial Latin Ameria.

Or this Curriculum Guide for an introductory session to an Introduction to Philosophy class.

Tuesday, November 4, is the General Election for the State of Illinois. Once again the Hansen Student Center will be a polling place. The polls are open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. About 50 parking spaces will be set aside in the Hansen Student Center lot for voters. As an alternative place to park, spaces should be available in the lots at the Welcome Center, Evelyn Chapel and behind Theta Chi, which is off of Horenberger Drive.

IWU makes Hansen Student Center available as a polling place not only for the community, but also for our students, faculty and staff who are registered to vote in Bloomington. If you live in precincts 1, 4 or 41, the Hansen Student Center will be your polling place.

Ames Library Events & News

Tuesday, 4pm, Beckman Auditorium – “Art, Xenophobia, and Social Change: Examining the Intersection of Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture and South African Art Activism” will be presented by Adjunct Assistant Professor Lance Larkin. Sponsored by the International Studies Department, African Studies.

Thursday, 4pm, Beckman Auditorium – “Die Mauer ist weg!” “The Wall is Gone!” A Roundtable Marking the 25th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall: This is a unique opportunity to hear first-person accounts from colleagues about their experiences in divided and reunified Germany. You will also gain some knowledge of German and Cold War history in the process. What a bonus! Sponsored by German, Russian, and Asian Languages and International Studies. Speakers:

Adam Woodis, visiting assistant professor of German – “The Significance of November 9th in German History”

Sonja Fritzsche, professor of German and East European Studies and chair of German, Russian, and Asian Languages – “What Was the Berlin Wall?

Edgar Lehr, assistant professor of biology

Joerg Tiede, professor of computer science – “Remembering the Berlin Wall and the Separation/Reunification of Germany”

Thursday, 5pm, Beckman Auditorium – Op-Ed for Social Justice Training, Please join Amnesty International in Beckman Auditorium at 5:30 pm to learn how to write opinion editorials for Social Justice. Valarie Kaur will be Skyping in to host a workshop on how to write opinion editorials for social justice causes. Valarie came at the beginning of the year to teach us on how to tell our story for a cause, and we are inviting her back to continue to share her insights.

Thursday, 7pm, Beckman Auditorium – “Love in the Time of Cholera” (2007, USA) presented by adjunct faculty member Rocio Morales.

Friday, 4pm, CNS C101 – Chair and Associate Professor of Psychology Jason Themanson – “Examining Social Exclusion: It’s the Little Things That Matter”

Instruction Lab, Room 129

• Monday, 10am – Prof. Bushman’s Gateway
• Monday, 2pm – Prof. Nielsen’s Gateway
• Tuesday, 9:25am – Prof. Coles’s Hist 214
• Tuesday, 10:50am – Prof. Brennan’s Gateway
• Tuesday, 2:35pm – Prof. Schwartz
• Wednesday, 9am – Prof. Green’s Gateway
• Wednesday, 2pm – Prof. Simeone’s Gateway
• Thursday, 10:50am – Prof. Koehler’s Gateway

Meeting Room, Room 214

• Monday, 3pm – CUPP
• Tuesday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 11am – Google Analytics Meeting
• Wednesday, 3pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 11am – Assessment Committee
• Thursday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy

Beckman Auditorium

• Tuesday, 9:25am – International Politics, No Man’s Land
• Tuesday, 4pm – “Art, Xenophobia, and Social Change: Examining the Intersection of Zimbabwean Stone Sculpture and South African Art Activism”
• Thursday, 1:10pm – International Political Economy, Black Gold
• Thursday, 5pm – Op-Ed for Social Justice Training
• Friday, all day – Admissions UNI Group

Check out this item, featured in our “What’s New Wednesdays” column – Review originally published in Library Journal, 2003, by James Swanton:

“As Ofri related in this marvelous book, becoming a doctor is a complex process. The author, who trained at New York City’s famed inner-city, 250-year-old Bellevue Hospital and cofounded Bellevue Literary Review, relates cases that evolve around gravely ill patients who die in stark and painful circumstances. Her gifted storytelling discloses a variety of patients, their medical needs, and the doctor-hospital-patient interface. How does “the System” make a doctor? The answer is still a big mystery (as David Duncan’s Residents also makes clear). New, book-smart graduates must sometimes feel like impostors as they take up their residencies, but a few years later they discover that they have become doctors. It is this alchemy that Ofri’s well-crafted prose successfully exposes. Her sometimes stressful and sad stories reveal that the connections made by a resident-physician with patients is a demanding part of medical training, a part that finally makes becoming a physician uplifting. [A chapter was selected for The Best American Essays of 2002 and won the Missouri Review Editor’s Prize for Nonfiction.–Ed.].”

Check it out today!

Every Tuesday we like to feature some technology brought to you by The Ames Library and/or Information Technology Servcies. Library databases are a specific kind of technology application, that can make your life easier. Did you know that most of your access to scholarship on campus is made possible because the library subscribes to databases? So just what is a database?

Thanks to Enoch Pratt Free Library for the following:

• Library databases contain information from published works.
  • Examples: Magazine and newspaper articles,encyclopedias and other reference books.
• Library databases are searchable.
  • By Keywords, Subject, Author, Magazine Title, Date, etc.
• Library databases provide citation information.
  • Author, if available
  • Title of Article
  • Publication (Title of Magazine, Newspaper, or Reference Book)
  • Publisher
  • Date of Publication
• Library databases often contain full-text articles.
  • You can print or email an entire article.
• There are different kinds of library databases
  • For specific topics. Examples: Environmental Sciences Collection
  • For general topics Examples: Academic Search Complete

How is a library database different from a website?

 Ethnographic Video Online: Volume II is one databases you currently have access to as part of the IWU community. It is the second volume of the award-winning Ethnographic Video Online collection, expanding on Alexander Street’s anthropology offerings by adding 500 hours of classic and contemporary documentaries, field recordings, and previously unpublished footage from renowned anthropological archives. Have questions about using it? Ask a librarian!

We’ve got a great lineup of events  happening in The Ames Library this week.

Tonight (Monday, 10/27), Beckman Auditorium, 7pm – Undocumented, Unafraid, & Unapologetic w/ Antonio Gutiérrez: Fighting for Immigrant Rights with Dignity in Chicago and Beyond with Antonio Gutierrez of Centro Autónomo de Albany Park, Chicago and Mexico Solidarity Network.

Antonio came to the United States in 2000 when he migrated with his younger sister and mother from Guadalajara, Mexico to reunite with his father. Since 2011, Antonio has been part of the immigration rights movement as an organizer with IYJL, an undocumented-led organization formed in 2009 in Chicago, with both undocumented youth and allies. Antonio recently joined the Centro Autónomo/Mexico Solidarity Network as the lead organizer for the Casas del Pueblo Community Land Trust, a housing rights movement based in the Albany Park, Chicago. He has a professional bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology. Want to learn more? Check out the event page!

Thursday, 10/30, Beckman Auditorium, 3pm – Travel While Abroad: A Savvy Student’s Guide – Planning to study abroad? Interested in travel? Don’t know where to start? We’ll discuss all the elements of a trip, including choosing a destination, getting there, affordable lodging, how to find activities, and keeping it all on a student budget. This informational meeting is designed and presented by a returned study abroad-er for students who are looking to travel internationally or domestically and want to learn more.

Sunday, 11/2, Beckman Auditorium – German Film Series: Theresienstadt: Der Fuhrer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt/Terezin – The Fuhrer Gives Jews a City (1944) – Hitler commissioned this film with the idea of demonstrating to the Red Cross and the world that his concentration camps were humane. Sponsored by German, Russian and Asian Languages.

Instruction Lab, Room 129

• Monday, 9am, Span. 468, Prof. Flores-Rodriguez
• Tuesday, 9am, Psych. 300
• Tuesday, 11am, Gateway, Prof. Plath
• Thursday, 8am, Gateway, Prof. Green
• Thursday, 10:50am, Hisp. Studies 240

Meeting Room, Room 214

• Monday, 9:30am, Network Group
• Monday, 1pm, IT Meeting
• Monday, 3pm, CUPP
• Tuesday, 4:30pm, Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 3pm, CUPP
• Thursday, 11am, Assessment Committee
• Thursday, 1pm, Web Redesign Workgroup
• Thursday, 4:30pm, Star Literacy
• Friday, 9am, PRC Meeting

Beckman Auditorium

• Monday, 9am, Nursing 217
• Monday, 7pm, Undocumented, Unafraid, & Unapologetic w/ Antonio Gutiérrez: Fighting for Immigrant Rights with Dignity in Chicago and Beyond
• Tuesday, IWU Board of Trustees
• Wednesday, 7pm, Psych. 369
• Thursday, 1:10pm, Inside Job, International Political Economy
• Thursday, 3pm, Travel While Abroad
• Thursday, 4pm, Pembroke Program Information Session – Spend your junior year at Oxford! If you are a sophomore with at least a 3.75 GPA, you are eligible to apply for the prestigious Pembroke Program.
• Thursday, 7pm, International Film Series

The legacy of William Morris, a leading member of the Artsand Crafts Movement, has been the subject of four public events, with the last events today, Oct. 24.

The program brings together the disciplines of art, economics, history and politics as represented through the life of one transformative individual, according to Meg Miner, University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian and associate professor. Morris was a 19th-century English designer, writer, philosopher and founder of the Kelmscott Press, a publisher influencing the revival of the private press.

Morris was also an influential figure for Elbert Hubbard, a native of McLean County. Hubbard founded the Roycrofters (in East Aurora, N.Y.) inspired by Morris’ Kelmscott Press.

“Both Walsdorf and Boos have written books on Morris from different perspectives,” said University Librarian Karen Schmidt. “Jack’s focus has been on Morris from the point of a collector, while Florence has written about Morris as a poet, utopian writer, and social reformer.”

Walsdorf has loanded several Morris-related items from his personal collection for exhibit at The Ames Library through Nov. 14. Walsdorf will discuss Hubbard’s connection to Morris Oct. 24 at 5 p.m. at the McLean County Museum of History. Miner said attendees are invited to bring one or two books from their collections for an “Antiques Road Show” type of assessment with Walsdorf narrating.

The program is made possible by a Re-Centering the Humanities grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

E-books are pretty awesome. You get the same content as a physical volume, but you can read it anywhere you can access the Internet. Which means, 9 times out of 10, all you need is your phone or laptop (which you’re carrying around anyway). You can find hundreds of e-books in The Ames Library catalog – just search like you normally would for a specific title.

Normally, e-books are just as expensive as physical volumes, because you’re purchasing the rights to view them. These costs can add up quickly. But wait, you’re in luck! Our academic library consortium, CARLI, has negotiated a multi-publisher program that allows e-books to be shared among all CARLI library users in Illinois. The program provides over 29,000 titles in all disciplines; the publisher list is included at the end of this message.

Catalog records for these titles are available in our local catalog and the I-Share catalog. You may also visit the CARLI eBook website to access the titles directly. You will be prompted to authenticate, whether or not you are on campus, to enable tracking of circulations. These e-books have a 7 day loan period and users can view content online, download and print. Once a title has been used 9 times, it is purchased by CARLI for permanent use by all libraries.

This pilot program comes as part of our CARLI governing library membership and follows months of negotiations by the CARLI staff. Shared consortial e-book programs are still quite unusual, as publishers are leery of this changing marketplace. The library faculty look forward to your feedback on this program.  If  you have comments to share, please contact Karen Schmidt, University Librarian.

Still not sure? Here’s one e-book brought to you through this program.

It’s Not Like I’m Poor: How Working Families Make Ends Meet in a Post-Welfare World

Connect to the e-book!

From the publisher’s website: “The world of welfare has changed radically. As the poor trade welfare checks for low-wage jobs, their low earnings qualify them for a hefty check come tax time—a combination of the earned income tax credit and other refunds. For many working parents this one check is like hitting the lottery, offering several months’ wages as well as the hope of investing in a better future. Drawing on interviews with 115 families, the authors look at how parents plan to use this annual cash windfall to build up savings, go back to school, and send their kids to college. However, these dreams of upward mobility are often dashed by the difficulty of trying to get by on meager wages. In accessible and engaging prose, It’s Not Like I’m Poor examines the costs and benefits of the new work-based safety net, suggesting ways to augment its strengths so that more of the working poor can realize the promise of a middle-class life.”

Article reposted from IWU News:

William Morris

The legacy of William Morris, a leading member of the Arts and Crafts Movement, will be the subject of four public events Oct. 22-24 on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University.

The program brings together the disciplines of art, economics, history and politics as represented through the life of one transformative individual, according to Meg Miner, University Archivist and Special Collections Librarian and associate professor. Morris was a 19th-century English designer, writer, philosopher and founder of the Kelmscott Press, a publisher influencing the revival of the private press.

“At a time when the Industrial Revolution in Britain and elsewhere had reduced workers to mechanized toil, Morris argued for the importance of creative labor,” said Miner. “As a founder of the Arts and Crafts movement and Britain’s first historical preservation society, he wrote and lectured on the vital connections between society and art, as embodied in his beautiful book and textile designs, stood for issues of equality and social justice, and became a crusading Socialist.”

Morris was also an influential figure for Elbert Hubbard, a native of McLean County. Hubbard founded the Roycrofters (in East Aurora, N.Y.) inspired by Morris’ Kelmscott Press.

Two Morris scholars will present an opening convocation Oct. 22. Jack Walsdorf, a book collector, author and president of the William Morris Society in the U.S., and Florence Boos, author and former president of the William Morris Society in the U.S., will speak at 11 a.m. at Evelyn Chapel.

“Both Walsdorf and Boos have written books on Morris from different perspectives,” said University Librarian Karen Schmidt. “Jack’s focus has been on Morris from the point of a collector, while Florence has written about Morris as a poet, utopian writer, and social reformer.”

A leaf from The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer, published by Kelmscott in 1896, will be one of the items on loan to The Ames Library through Nov. 14 .

A resident of Portland, Ore., Walsdorf estimates he has collected more than 9,000 books in his nearly 50-year odyssey as a collector. He is the author of On Collecting William Morris: A Memoir. Walsdorf is also lending several Morris-related items from his personal collection for exhibit at The Ames Library through Nov. 14. Walsdorf will narrate highlights of the exhibit Oct. 22 at 4 p.m.

A professor of English at the University of Iowa, Boos is the author of The Artist & The Capitalist: William Morris & Richard Marsden. She will present a lecture Oct. 22 at 5:30 p.m. on Morris’ relation to the Garden City Movement, a mixed-use urban planning design theory that developed in response to poor living conditions in cities during the Industrial Revolution.

Walsdorf will discuss Hubbard’s connection to Morris Oct. 24 at 5 p.m. at the McLean County Museum of History. Miner said attendees are invited to bring one or two books from their collections for an “Antiques Road Show” type of assessment with Walsdorf narrating.

Schmidt said she believes these events are particularly relevant for Illinois Wesleyan because the program brings together several disciplines. “Through the lens of Morris, we can reflect on how the many threads of the liberal arts connect with one another through an individual whose influence is present in contemporary society,” said Schmidt.

The program is made possible by a Re-Centering the Humanities grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.