Ames Library News

All the Honors Theses from the Tate Archives are now available full-text online.  To view, please visit Digital Commons @ IWU and click on the “Honors Projects” link for your department, school or program.

Student peer-reviewed journals are also online in Digital Commons.  All issues of Res Publica, Park Place Economist, Constructing the Past, The Delta and Undergraduate Economic Review are now available for browsing.  In addition, you can search across all issues of a journal.

If we’re missing any thesis from your department or if you have questions about Digital Commons, please contact Stephanie Davis-Kahl, Scholarly Communications Librarian (sdaviska@iwu.edu).

Attention All Student Tutors!

Are you tired of having to look for a place to work?  Look no more!  There is now a room available in The Ames Library just for you on the entry level floor from 5:00pm to 1:30am Monday through Thursday, and all weekend hours.

Take advantage of this room that is equipped with a computer, printer and whiteboard by reserving it for your tutoring hours.  Reservations can be requested through Resource25.  You will need to ask for the Information Common student to open the room when you are ready to use it.

For additional information please contact the Information Commons at x3350 or Sue Stroyan at x3358 or sstroyan@iwu.edu.

The fall semester has been a busy one here at the library.  Here are some new things we’ve been working on:

• The Ames Library, along with five other Illinois academic libraries, was awarded a grant to study how students study – check out the press release!
• The Thorpe Digital Center has a poster printer for students, faculty and staff to print quality color posters for classroom presentations, poster sessions and conferences.  See the website for our design guide and cost information.
• We’ve changed the location of the Information Desk on the entry level – let us know what you think!
• The Ames Library Catalog and I-Share will now text you with a book’s call number (provider charges may apply).
• Digital Commons is growing – we’ve added nearly every Honors Thesis back to the 1980s, plus Commencement speeches from 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Many of you are getting your final paper/project assignments – don’t forget librarians are available to help you either at the Information Desk, during their office hours, or on AskAmes.  We look forward to helping you!

The Ames Library is pleased to announce that author Tim O’Brien has been selected for the 7th Annual Ames/Milner Visiting Author Program

Mr. O’Brien will be on campus on Thursday, October 23rd from 2:00 – 3:00 in the Center Court, Hansen Student Center.  The evening’s presentation will be from 7:00 – 8:00 in Braden Auditorium, Bone Student Center, at Illinois State University.  A book signing will follow the evening talk in the Barnes & Noble College Book Store at ISU.

Tim O’Brien has been hailed as “the best American writer of his generation” (San Francisco Chronicle). The author of eight books, O’Brien received the National Book Award in Fiction in 1979 for his novel Going After Cacciato.  In 2005 The Things They Carried was named by the New York Times as one of the twenty best books of the last quarter century.  It received the Chicago Tribune Heartland Award in fiction and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. The French edition of The Things They Carried received the prestigious Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, and the title story was selected by John Updike for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories of the Century.  In the Lake of the Woods, published in 1994, was chosen by Time magazine as the best novel of that year. The book also received the James Fenimore Cooper Prize from the Society of American Historians and was selected as one of the ten best books of the year by the New York Times.  O’Brien’s other works include If I Die in a Combat Zone, Northern Lights, Tomcat in Love and July, July.  His short fiction, which received the National Magazine Award, has appeared in numerous journals, including The New Yorker, Atlantic, Esquire, Playboy, and Harper’s.  Tim O’Brien holds the Roy F. and Joann Cole Mitte Endowed Chair in Creative Writing at Texas State University.

Returning students and faculty will notice a big change in the Reference area on the entry level of Ames Library.  Over the summer, librarians selected print reference titles that are available on-line, and moved these volumes to our stacks.  With the reduced print collection, we were able to open up the north windows on to the plaza.  Comfy chairs and desks were moved in. The change is very welcome!  Still to come: the reference desk will pivot 180 degrees, opening up the space even more.

Spring 2008 - Before the Changes

Fall 2008 - After the Changes

Thanks to librarians, staff and Physical Plant for working over the summer to make our building more welcoming!

Karen Schmidt, Ph.D.

University Librarian, Ames Library