New in Staley Library! Millikin University

Library events
On Thursday evening, February 22, the library hosted a signing and reading of Ants in the Band Room, a children's book written and illustrated by Laura Podeschi (MU `06 and a former library student worker) and published by Bronze Man Books, the student owned and operated Millikin University press.

(Pictures by librarian Amanda Pippitt. Click on each for larger versions.)

After signing copies of the book and reading the book to the very engaged audience, Laura talked about the process of turning her JMS project into this full-fledged book. She displayed the original watercolors of the illustrations, and also several of her earlier paintings.

Library exhibits
Two new exhibits are on display in the library, "Dance Card Days" and "[Paul] Robeson at Millikin: 60th Anniversary." Todd Rudat, Archival Associate, in collaboration with Amanda Pippitt, University Archivist, created these exhibits using materials in the library's archival collections.

Dance Card Days showcases some of the Archives' smallest but most creative artifacts. In the exhibit you will discover the history of the dance card, the etiquette of the ballroom, and how dance card terminology continues to permeate the modern lexicon long after the cards themselves went out of vogue. For instance, Todd observes that NCAA basketball tourney-time (often called the Big Dance) is usually full of dance card clichés, such as "will Illinois punch their NCAA dance card this year?"

The main feature of the exhibit of course is the actual cards, spanning almost 30 years of Millikin’s early history. This is one exhibit you’ll want to be sure to “pencil in” on your “dance card”!

In the Robeson at Millikin: 60th Anniversary exhibit, the Archives takes a look back to the spring of 1947 and a Friday morning visit and performance by the famed actor & singer, Paul Robeson. The exhibit is an exploration into desegregation and social justice and the challenges of racism and McCarthyism as it affected Millikin University in that same spring that Jackie Robinson played in his first Major League Game for the Dodgers.

As with most of our exhibits, these will be eventually turned into online exhibits. Did you, for instance, see the one on Albert Taylor Theatre? Or the one about the Millidek, the Millikin yearbook that is no longer (since 1999) being published? There are 14 online exhibits in total, plus one that asks for help in identifying mystery pictures from our collection.

We are always interested in adding new stories of artifacts that expand on Millikin history. We are, for instance, making copies of all the fond stories shared recently via campus email about Bill Williams and adding those to our file of pictures of him over the years.

Library staff
Did you notice in President Zemke's reaccreditation summary that he referenced the "well organized resource room"? That was the work of Amanda Pippitt. Those materials will be added to the Archives collection for future reference.

"New books & other materials: New titles for January and February 2007 have been added.

Library services

The library now has a MySpace page! Described as a female (as are most of the library staff) 30 years old (the library's age from its design phase) and "Four Floors of Genius", she is already collecting friends and additions to her blog. The intent with the profile is to reach students through an additional channel, one that is familiar and habitual for many of them.

Says Debbie Myers, whose creative idea this was, "As a fun and informal way to keep in touch with friends and colleagues, social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook have become very popular, especially with teenagers and college students. Students often check their profiles several times each day, keeping up on what is going on with their friends and posting about their lives. It seems like a good (and free) thing for libraries to get involved with- another way for the library to be accessible. Please have a look to see what the library is up to right now, and also if you’re a MySpace fan, add us as a friend!"

Here is another technology idea: "Creating the academic library folksonomy: Put social tagging to work at your institution." This article in the current (February 2007) issue of College & Research Libraries News describes a way to manage your bookmarks including having them available from anywhere you access a computer. Two "social tagging" sites specifically created for academic environments are Connotea and CiteULike. Both capture bibliographic data to store with your links. What do you think?

Library resources
The library is providing short-time free access (through a trial) to Alexander Street Press databases of particular interest for women's history (Feb. 15 through March) and for Latino history (March 15 through April). The first set of databases encompasses Women and Social Movements, North American Women's Letters and Diaries, and British and Irish Women's Letters and Diaries; and the later set is comprised of Latino Literature and Latin American Women Writers. Look under "Featured Resources" on the library's home page for the link.
Perhaps there are still some of you who have not seen the library's Peeps website? The final item in the March 7, 2007 issue of American Libraries Direct says about it that "As Peep season rolls around once again, it’s time to revisit (in case you missed it back then) the excellent 2003 study by Susan Avery and Jennifer Masciadrelli [then] at Millikin University on the ability of Peeps to conduct library research." In the few days since that issue was posted online, the Peeps site has registered over 4,000 additional hits - over and above the over 670,000 hits logged before then!

International Programs, briefly: 14 Millikin students are currently studying abroad for the semester, and 18 are preparing to explore the world away from the Millikin campus during the Fall 2007 semester. Also, more than 20 travel immersion courses are being planned by Millikin faculty for over 200 students during spring break and throughout the summer, to destinations both inside and outside the US. Interest in study abroad continues to be strong for potential students as well, as evidenced by their questions on Preview Days.

Earlier newsletters

February at the library (picture by Borei)

Karin Borei
University Librarian
and Director of International Programs
kborei@millikin.edu

Staley Library Millikin University 1184 West Main, Decatur, IL 62522 phone 217-424-6214 fax 217-424-3992	(crocus March 10, 2007)	©2001+ by Millikin University Board of Trustees MU web disclaimer Comments? Send us a message
The library has been publishing electronic newsletters since September 1999.