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Wishing you all a safe and relaxing winter break!

Happy Reading Day, Titans! For the last installment of the Finals Toolkit, we’re sharing relaxing and stress-relieving activities. Taking breaks and moments to rest can help you return to your studying or writing feeling refreshed and revitalized. Don’t forget, you can also check out our earlier tools and tips from part 1 and part 2 of the Finals Toolkit!

• Browse: Take in some art! Browse the collections in Artstor, Saskia Digital Art Images, and IWU’s campus art collection.
• Listen: Enjoy some instrumental background music from The Classical Music Library, Smithsonian Global Sound, and Popular Music Library.
• Read: Use your IWU ID card to check out a book to read for fun from the library’s popular reading collection, located on the first floor of the library near the Library Services Desk.
• Visit the Self-Care Station: Find coloring sheets, LEGOs, origami, dorm-friendly recipes, and other wellness resources in the Self-Care Station on the first floor of The Ames Library.
• Watch: See performances like A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Swan Lake from the comfort of your own room, thanks to Digital Theatre+, or watch a documentary on a topic that interests you from the PBS Video Collection.

Bonus finals week reminders: You can reserve a study or project room in the library and print your projects and papers using one of the library’s five printers.

We hope you’re able to finish well, take care of yourselves, and enjoy the upcoming break. Good luck during finals week–you’ve got this!

Finals can be a stressful time, so this week, we’re filling your Finals Toolkit with ways to take care of yourself, resources for practicing mindfulness and relaxing during breaks, and a reminder of the importance of sleep. We’re also sharing a few extra tools as you put finishing touches on projects and papers.

• Counseling & Consultation Services (CCS): Check out CCS’s resources for students, take a confidential online screening, or make an appointment to talk to a counselor.
• Self-care apps: Check out our Self-Care LibGuide for a list of meditation apps like Shine. Or, try a coloring app like Paint by Number Coloring Games as a way to relax.
• Self-Care Station: Visit the Self-Care Station on the entry level of The Ames Library for relaxing activities, mindfulness resources, and to share an encouraging note with your fellow Titans.
• Sleep: It may feel like studying is more important than sleep, but research tells us that’s not the case. Several studies compare sleep deprivation to intoxication–a study of 19-26 year olds found that their performance on tasks after being awake for 20 hours was equivalent to having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10%. Try establishing a wind-down routine, avoiding screens right before bed, and remember to make sleep a priority.
• Sunbox light therapy lamps: Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) affects millions of people, and one way of coping with SAD is to use light therapy. There are Sunbox light therapy lamps on the 3rd and 4th floors of The Ames Library–try spending 20-30 minutes with a Sunbox lamp to help lift your mood.
• Titan Pantry: Take what food you need from the Titan Pantry, located in the Hansen Student Center (in the lockers by the main floor restrooms). The Titan Pantry is free and anonymous.
• Take regular breaks: Set a timer for 10 minutes and stretch, go for a walk or other form of exercise, relax your jaw, get a drink of water, talk to a friend, or do something that brings you joy.
• Ask a Librarian Chat: Monday-Friday, from 1-4 pm, a librarian is online and ready to help answer your questions!
• Citation refresher: Working on your citations page? Let MegaSearch help you! (Click image below to enlarge.)

Next week, visit the Finals Toolkit for relaxing activities and stress-busters. You’re doing great!

Today is Giving Tuesday – a global day of giving where philanthropic-minded individuals give back to the causes most near and dear to them. Today, we’re paying homage to IWU’s 17th president, Minor Myers jr., who encouraged all Titans to “Go into the world and Do Well. But more importantly, go into the world and Do Good.” 

This Giving Tuesday, we ask for your support to keep the Do Well, Do Good legacy alive by making a gift to Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund!  (NOTE: Be sure to select “write in my designation” on the giving form and type in “Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund”)

Our goal is to raise $4,000 to fund two students’ participation in our
successful Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program. 

What are the Digital Humanities, and why is the library leading this program? Digital Humanities (DH) combines digital tools and humanities approaches to ask new questions of traditional and new data. If you’d like to see examples, visit our website to view projects from past cohorts. The Ames Library is leading this program because we are perfectly positioned to provide strong connections between technology and soft skills, between students and faculty, and between asking great questions and exploring the abundance of information online and in print.

Students who participated in last year’s program noted the ways that the experience reinforced the liberal arts education they were receiving. “DH… made us really consider how the values we wanted to inform our work were actually reflected in it,” wrote one student:  “because of this we learned to constantly be taking a step back and looking for the best possible approach and solution to our problems in order to maintain those values and achieve our goals.” 

Another student noted “For me I think just an awareness of the existence of DH and the possibilities that come with it…are what’s going to benefit me the most. I think DH gives a great approach to different humanities topics that could bring new approaches to questions people have been struggling with for a long time.” The same student also noted the soft skills they developed through the program: “I think in class and in my future career I’m going to need to effectively collaborate and I think DH has given me the skills to do that.”  

Your contribution to the Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund is supporting the best of IWU: thoughtful, engaged research that prepares students to do well in future jobs and do good in the world.

This Giving Tuesday, we ask for your support to keep the Do Well, Do Good legacy alive by making a gift to Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund!  (NOTE: Be sure to select “write in my designation” on the giving form and type in “Digital Humanities Summer Fellowship Program Restricted Fund”)

Give $50 or more and you’ll get a custom Minor Myers jr. sticker for your water bottle, laptop, etc.!

Visit iwu.edu/giving-tuesday to make your gift, check out volunteer opportunities, and follow along with the day’s live progress. 

Every gift makes a difference in the lives of current and future Titans. Thank you so much for helping us Do Good today!

Stephanie Davis-Kahl
University Librarian & Professor, The Ames Library, Illinois Wesleyan University

Finals week is right around the corner, and The Ames Library is here to help you finish the semester strong! We’ll be sharing resources for planning study sessions and finishing assignments, taking care of yourself (and getting plenty of sleep!), and finding ways to unwind.

The end of the semester goes by fast. Take some time now to prepare for the next few weeks with these tools, which can help you plan ahead for exams and final projects. Your future self will thank you!

• Schedule an appointment with a librarian: Librarians can meet with you for 15, 30, or 60 minutes, either in person or on Zoom, and can help with brainstorming keywords to finding sources for a research paper. Choose “Ames Librarians” from the dropdown menu to make an appointment.
• Schedule an appointment at the Writing Center: Writing Center tutors can help you organize your thoughts for your final papers. Choose “Writing Center | Tutoring Services” from the dropdown menu to make an appointment.
• Reserve a study room: You can book a study room or project room in the library up to one month in advance. Reserve your finals study space now!
• Review Research & Course Guides: Now is a great time to review the library’s Research & Course Guides, where you’ll find information to help you research, tips for using the library, citation tools, and more. Search by subject (like biology or English) or for a specific course.
• Renew your library materials: Think you might need that library book until after finals are over? Extend the due date by renewing it!
• Request books or articles with I-Share and ILLiad: If the book or article you need isn’t available from The Ames Library, don’t worry! It’s easy to request articles to be delivered to you electronically via ILLiad or to request books from other I-Share libraries (you’ll be notified when they arrive and can pick them up at the Library Services Desk). It’s fast, but it’s not immediate, so planning your ILLiad and I-Share requests sooner rather than later is recommended.

Next week, we’ll be sharing strategies for taking care of yourself!

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is experiencing intermittent access issues when being used off campus. Oxford is aware of the issue and working to resolve the problem. If you cannot access OED and are being asked to pay for a subscription, please clear your browser’s cache, close the window, and try accessing OED again. If the problem persists after clearing the cache, please submit a Report a Problem form, and we will follow up with you via email. Thanks for your patience!

Due to necessary testing, library electronic resources will be down Saturday, July 29, from 10-11 p.m. Library electronic resources, including databases, journals, and ebooks, may not be available during this time. Thank you for understanding!

If you encounter an error with library electronic resources once testing is complete, please submit a Report a Problem form, and library staff will get back to you via email.

The Ames Library has resources to help IWU students, staff, and faculty stay informed and entertained this summer:

New York Times Audio:

As part of the library’s digital subscription to The New York Times, you also have access to New York Times Audio, a new app that NYT describes as the “audio front page.” Before using the app, be sure you have created an NYT account via The Ames Library by visiting this link and signing up with your @iwu.edu email address (find more registration details here). You can then download and log into the NYT Audio app as well as NYT News app.

The Economist app:

IWU students, staff, and faculty have access to The Economist via The Ames Library, and that includes The Economist app. To use the app, make sure you have signed up for an account on economist.com using your @iwu.edu email address, then download the app from your preferred app store. Login to the app with your @iwu.edu email address and the password you created for The Economist.

Popular Reading Collection:

There are over 300 print books in The Ames Library’s Popular Reading Collection–a great place to find a good summer read! The collection is located on the first floor of the library, and thanks to a new feature in MegaSearch, you can also browse the collection online. Visit the Collections Discovery page to see what is available, then stop by the library to check it out. Be sure to browse the fantastic titles found in the Diverse Book Awards collections and Minor Myers, jr. Honors Collection as well.

You’re almost there, Titans! We’re getting close to the finish line for the spring semester. Check out our Finals Toolkit blog posts to help you prepare for finals and take care of yourself in the process.

• Finals Toolkit, Part 1: Finish Smart
• Finals Toolkit, Part 2: Finish Strong
• Finals Toolkit, Part 3: Finish Well

Be sure to stop by the Self-Care Station on the first floor of The Ames Library for a mindful study break!

Brought to you by the Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois (CARLI)

CARLI’s Open Educational Resource Committee invites you to celebrate Open Education Week, March 6-10, by attending a series of free webinars, sharing your successes, and contributing your OER Aspirations and Takeaways during Open Education Week on our community padlet. Find all events and activities on the CARLI Open Education Week 2023 website.

Upcoming Webinars:

Making Sense of “Affordable” Course Materials Models

March 8, 2:00-3:00 p.m. Central Time

Institutions are continuously hearing about new models and strategies for making course materials more affordable to students. The ever changing nature of technology and digital resources can make it hard to cut through the buzzwords and understand the real details of each “pitch” and the potential impact on students. Presenters Nicole Allen and Katie Steen-James, SPARC, will outline the facts and characteristics of common models to make course materials more affordable and untangle some of the arguments that come up in meetings with outside vendors. The goal is to help participants establish a deeper understanding of each model and develop effective strategies for engaging in discussions about these models on campus that center students and equity.

OER in Practice: A Faculty Discussion

March 8, 3:30-4:30 p.m. Central Time

Faculty members from College of DuPage, Columbia College Chicago, and Moraine Valley Community College share their experiences implementing Open Educational Resources in their courses. 

Panelists include Jeanne Petrolle, Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of English and Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago; Professor Joel Quam, chair of the Geography Department at College of DuPage; and Nicholas Hackett, associate professor of biology at Moraine Valley Community College.

Get to Know the New, Upcoming Illinois SCOERS Open Educational Resources

Please join CARLI and the Open Educational Resource Committee for a series of programs highlighting the upcoming publications of Illinois SCOERs Round One awardees. The Illinois SCOERs awards are made possible because of a generous grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) and the United States Department of Education’s Open Textbook Pilot Program. 

Program 1, March 6, 10:00-11:15 a.m. Central Time

Dr. Diana Zaleski from the University of Illinois Springfield discusses The Psychology of Exceptional Children, an OER textbook that will be used in undergraduate exceptional child courses. Ancillaries included with the textbook include a 3D printing assignment encouraging students to develop assistive devices and adaptive equipment.

Also, Dr. Karen Vuckovic from the University of Illinois Springfield with speak on Essentials of Pharmacology, an original open access textbook intended for nursing students using an innovative visual approach.

Program 2, March 7, 2:00-3:15 p.m. Central Time

Dr. Jacqueline Samuel from National Louis University will discuss her project Cultural Humility in Public Administration. The addition of Cultural Humility as lens for framing various approaches to Public Administration is what makes this text unique.

Health Sciences Librarian Amber Burtis, together with Professor Tim Davis from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, will outline Davis’ Anatomy and Physiology for Allied Health Professions.

Dr. Lonetta Oliver, Dean of Humanities at Illinois Central College will discuss Nurse Assistant Training. The OER focuses on nursing and elder care students, filling gaps that current texts do not address, such as life and soft skills.

Program 3, March 9, 12:00-1:15 p.m. Central Time

Barbara Anderson, the Head of the Instruction/Learning Library at Roosevelt University will elaborate on a collaborative project between Roosevelt University, DePaul University, and Harper College entitled Development and Implementation of Open-Access Problems and Activities for Health-Focused Chemistry Courses. The OER materials will be used for chemistry classes that are taught for nursing students as well as other health science majors.

Professor Juhelia Thompson from Morton College will elaborate on her work in the area of Diverse Approaches to Language Development, which educates students about the developmental stages of humans from a cognitive, physical, cultural, and biological perspective.

The Female Reproductive System and Women’s Health Through a Multidisciplinary Lens is a collaborative project between a Carle Illinois College of Medicine/ the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign team led by Dr. Samar Hegazy and Professor Judith Thorn, Associate Dean for Curriculum and Assessment at Knox College. This OER will serve as a hub for learning about the conditions affecting the female reproductive system and women’s health throughout the lifespan from different perspectives.

Illinois SCOERs programs are made possible through funding from the U.S. Department of Education.

OER Success Stories

The CARLI OER Committee is gathering OER Success Stories to celebrate how CARLI members have furthered OER initiatives on your campuses! To add your success stories to this list, please send your description to CARLI Support!

OER Aspirations and Takeaways

Share on the OER Aspirations and Takeaways padlet what has inspired you during OpenEd Week! What have you learned? What great things are you planning?