One of the library's most important resources, its online catalog, has just become even more extensive. In December 2002, the Board of Directors of  ILCSO (Illinois Library Computer Systems Organization) admitted twelve new members to ILCSO, increasing the number of ILCSO members from 44 to 56. 

This adds over three million print volumes (books and periodicals) to ILLINET Online, the great majority of which will be available on interlibrary loan to Millikin students, faculty and staff. Once all these records have been added to the catalog, it will bring its holdings to nearly 30 million items, including also videos, musical recordings, and scores. 

The twelve new ILCSO members are:

Augustana College (Rock Island)
Danville Area Community College (Danville)
Illinois College (Jacksonville)
Kendall College (Evanston)
Lewis & Clark Community College (Godfrey)
Lincoln Land Community College (Springfield)
The Newberry Library (Chicago) (though they do not lend)
North Park University (Chicago)
Olivet University (Bourbonnais)
Robert Morris College (Chicago and other locations in Illinois) 
University of St. Francis (Joliet) Wheaton College (Wheaton)

Like other faculty at Millikin, the librarians are on the lookout these days for external support for their professional development. For this spring (2003), we have won an Endeavor 2003 Bon Voyage Grant of $1,000 to attend the Users Meeting of our new library system (Voyager, the software that drives ILLINET Online) in Chicago this April. 

We were chosen for one of these ten awards from among 99 applications, and we were the only ones from Illinois so honored. There were five  institutional awards such as ours (four from the US and one from Canada) as well as five individual awards  (from  Australia,  Finland and Canada as well as two US). Jen Masciadrelli and I will attend. 

Also, Susan Avery and Jen are being funded through the Millikin Title III grant to attend two other conferences, by Loex ("Reflective Teaching: A Bridge to Learning" in Madison, WI, May 8-10) and ACRL ("Learning to Make a Difference", Charlotte NC, April 10-13) respectively. (My own trip to Philadelphia at the end of January for the American Library Association's Midwinter Conference, that one I funded myself.)

As always, our student staff is a critical component of the services the library provides. We have welcomed some new faces for the spring semester, replacing others who are student teaching or have graduated.

Art exhibit: Beth Stofleth, Millikin Art Club Co-president, and Brandon Ellis, another art student, coordinated the current exhibit of student art in the library's second floor exhibit space. It is "still early in the semester" for students to have new art pieces available, according to Beth, and so the coordinators asked for works that the art students would particularly like to show. The resulting exhibit is an eclectic mix of subtle and bold paintings, along with a few choice ceramic pieces.

The paintings are by Darin Doty, Katie Hinton, Mike Knowles, Natalie PeGan, Brenna Secor, Sarah Smith, Amber Stivers, and Beth Stofleth. The two big ceramic pieces are by Rebecca Johnson and Mike Pasier, while Dana Gardner contributes the flock of owls.

The Art Club students are also planning future exhibits. One idea, says Brandon, is to hang images of the Kirkland painting studio amidst a re-creation of that studio, including the relocation of the studio's well-used couch to the exhibit space. (One of the paintings currently on display was inspired by that sofa's upholstery.) Such a show would "give the viewer a chance to feel the experience of the studio" as well as seeing interpretations of it.

New books and other resources added to the library in January 2003 are already listed here. We continue to find creative ways to fund library materials, including most recently buying Women's Studies books and videos with residual monies from last year's Feminist Rhetoric Conference at Millikin.

And on a related topic, have you heard of the Built-in Orderly Organized Knowledge Device, otherwise Known as the BOOK? We provide all the latest resources in the library!

Karin Borei University Librarian kborei@mail.millikin.edu

Earlier issues of this newsletter can be found here.