National Friends of Libraries Week 2012 is here!

Did you know that this is National Friends of Libraries Week?  This year, October 21-27 has been designated as Friends of Library Week, one that celebrates Friends groups and members for their support of libraries. If you know a librarian and/or library staff member that has made your library experience a special one, let her or him know!  

National Friends of Libraries Week is sponsored by the American Library Association and the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF). 

Signature Showcase: Howard Sandroff, 10/22 from 7-9pm

The Friends of the Library Signature Showcase is proud to present Howard Sandroff as presenter/performer for the fall 2012 season.  

Howard Sandroff is a composer, performer and sound artist.  His compositions have been performed, broadcast and recorded by leading soloists, ensembles, festivals and arts producers all over the world.  

In the early 2000’s, Sandroff began sculpting in welded steel and has expanded that medium to include his interest in computer-controlled interactive sound installations and robotics. These works bear an uncanny aesthetic consistency with his compositions in that they are characterized by extreme economy of material and complexity, which is not borne of evolutionary development and his interest in arresting time and space. Sandroff likens his musical compositions to mobiles, a collection of fixed elements that are continually changing their association with other fixed elements.

In this program, Mr. Sandroff will discuss his musical work, including a performance featuring a steel sculpture he created. He will be accompanied by Ben Sutherland.  An opening reception for the exhibit, Music and Audio: Howard Sandroff and Audio Arts & Acoustics which coincides with Signature Showcase will precede the program at 7:00pm.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Reception: 7:00-7:30pm

Program: 7:30-9:00pm

Columbia College Chicago Library

624 S. Michigan Ave., 3rd Floor East

Chicago, IL 60605

This program is free and open to the public.  Classes are invited to attend.

Sandroff is currently Professor of Sound Art with the Department of Audio Arts & Acoustics of Columbia College Chicago and Director of the Computer Music Studio and Senior Lecturer in Music at The University of Chicago Department of Music.  A Chicago native, he received the Master of Music degree with Honors in Composition from the Chicago Musical College. He has received composition fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Athena Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and research grants from Columbia College, Chicago Artists Abroad, The University of Chicago, the Yamaha Music Foundation and others.

Ben Sutherland is a composer/sound artist, multi- instrumentalist, and computer music specialist. His projects reflect diverse musical interests, centered around electro-acoustic and experimental systems, and including classical, film, popular, and "underground" genres. He holds a B.A. in Music from Oberlin College, and a Ph.D. and M.A. in Music Composition from the University of Chicago, with specialization in Computer Music Research. Ben is Assistant Professor in the Department of Audio Arts & Acoustics at Columbia College Chicago.

This event is co-sponsored by the Columbia College Chicago Friends of the Library, College Archives and Audio Arts & Acoustics department.

Come hear Jim DeRogatis 4/23 7-9pm

Join The Friends of the Library as we welcome Jim DeRogatis, journalist, author and English Department faculty member for our spring Signature Showcase.  The title of his talk, The Curated Experience: We Don't Need No Stinking Critics... Or Do We? will set the stage for a lively discussion about what he knows best - the music scene.  Copies of several of Mr. DeRogatis' books will be available for sale and signing after the program.

Monday, April 23rd, 2012                                                       

7:00-9:00pm

Columbia College Chicago Library, 3rd Floor North

624 S. Michigan Ave. 

Chicago, IL 60605

Born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the year the Beatles arrived in America, Jim DeRogatis began voicing his opinions about rock ’n’ roll shortly thereafter. He is a lecturer in the Professional Writing Program of the English Department at Columbia College Chicago, and together with Greg Kot, he co-hosts Sound Opinions, the world’s only rock ’n’ roll talk show, originating from WBEZ Chicago and syndicated to more than 100 stations nationally via PRX. He spent 15 years as the pop music critic at the Chicago Sun-Times before moving into academia full-time in the spring of 2010, though he still writes entirely too much music criticism and journalism for his Pop N Stuff column on the WBEZ Web Site.

DeRogatis is the author of nine books, including Staring at Sound: The True Story of Oklahoma’s Fabulous Flaming Lips (Broadway Books, 2006); Turn On Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (Hal Leonard, 2003, a greatly expanded edition of the book originally published as Kaleidoscope Eyes: Psychedelic Rock from the '60s to the '90s, Citadel Underground, 1996); Milk It! Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the ’90s ( Da Capo, 2003), and Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America’s Greatest Rock Critic (Broadway Books, 2000). 

For more information about Jim DeRogatis and his work, go to: http://jimdero.com and http://www.soundopinions.org/.

Friends of the Library Signature Showcase: Jay Wolke

From 2000 to 2007, Jay Wolke photographed in the south of Italy to  capture the complexity of a region that is colloquially known as   Il mezzogiorno. What he found in this historic and often troubled  landscape was an elaborate set of physical, social,and political forces  manifested in an extraordinary tapestry of visual information. Join us as he discusses the project and signs copies of his latest book,   Architecture of Resignation, Photographs from the Mezzogiorno published  by the Center for American Places (now Columbia College Chicago  Press).  This event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will  be served. Friday October 28, 2011 | 5:00-6:30pm Columbia College Chicago Library, 3rd Floor North 624 S. Michigan Ave. Chicago, IL 60605 Jay Wolke is Professor and Chair of the Art + Design Department at  Columbia College Chicago and has been an educator since 1980. He is   a celebrated photographer and the author of several books including    All Around the House: Photographs of American Jewish Communal Life,  published by the Art Institute of Chicago, and Along the Divide:  Photographs of the Dan Ryan Expressway, published by the Center for  American Places.

An Evening with Audrey Niffenegger: Friends of the Library Showcase - April 21st

Friends of the Library Signature Showcase: An Evening with Audrey Niffenegger

Wednesday, April 21, 2010
6:00-8:00pm
5:00 pm - Private Reception for Friends of the Library Members
Columbia College Chicago Library
624 S. Michigan Ave., 3rd Floor North

We are pleased to welcome author, artist, and Columbia faculty, Audrey Niffenegger to the Library as part of the Friends of the Library Signature Showcase. Audrey will talk about her experiences as both a writer and visual artist. She will be joined by Ron Falzone, filmmaker and a faculty member in the Film and Video department at Columbia College Chicago.

Current, new and renewing Friends of the Library are invited to a private reception with Ms. Niffenegger beginning at 5 pm. Individuals who join or renew their memberships to the Friends of the Library at the $100 Sustaining Friend level and above will receive a complimentary signed copy of Ms. Niffenegger’s new book, Her Fearful Symmetry.

For more information, contact Kim Hale at 312-369-7355 or khale@colum.edu

Friends of the Library Signature Showcase: An Evening with Audrey Niffenegger

Friends of the Library Signature Showcase: An Evening with Audrey Niffenegger

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 | 5:00-8:00pm | Columbia College Chicago Library, 624 S. Michigan Ave., 3rd Floor North

We are pleased to welcome author, artist, and Columbia faculty, Audrey Niffenegger to the Library as part of the Friends of the Library Signature Showcase. Audrey will talk about her experiences as both a writer and visual artist. She will be joined by Ron Falzone, filmmaker and a faculty member in the Film and Video department at Columbia College Chicago.

For more information, contact Kim Hale at 312-369-7355 or khale@colum.edu

November 5th - Friends of the Library Signature Showcase

Mark your calendars for our upcoming Friends of the Library Signature Showcase on Thursday November 5th, 2009.

Each semester, the Columbia College Chicago Library highlights the work of one faculty member and this fall, we are delighted to have Dominic Pacyga as our featured speaker. Dr. Pacyga is a faculty member in the Humanities, History and Social Science Department, Columbia College Chicago and a Chicago historian.

This year, the city of Chicago celebrates the Burnham Centennial, the 100th anniversary of Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett’s classic, Plan of Chicago (1909). In his illustrated presentation entitled, “An Ongoing Legacy: The Burnham Plan from the City Beautiful Movement to Daley’s Post-Modernist Chicago”, Dr. Pacyga will explore the roots and impact of the Plan of Chicago from its conception to present day. The Burnham Plan remains a central document for those who would build and rebuild this great city. Most importantly it has shaped Chicago’s lakefront and guaranteed that the city will preserve it for generations to come. Yet the 1909 Plan is much more; it provides an ongoing inspiration for planners as Chicago continues to evolve as a world class city. Pacyga will explore the early roots of planning in the city especially in Baron (Georges-Eugène) Haussmann’s Paris and George Mortimer Pullman’s utopian manufacturing city and show how current Mayor Richard M. Daley is, in many ways, reclaiming Chicago’s “City Beautiful” past as first laid out by Burnham and Bennett one hundred years ago.

This presentation is free and open to the public. Faculty and their classes are encouraged to attend.

Thursday, November 5, 2009
6:00-8:00pm
Columbia College Chicago
Ferguson Theater
600 S. Michigan Ave, First Floor

A book signing featuring his latest book, Chicago: A Biography will be held immediately afterwards.



ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dominic A. Pacyga received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1981. He has authored, or co-authored, five books concerning Chicago’s history, including Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago (1991, 2001), Chicago: City of Neighborhoods with Ellen Skerrett (1986), Chicago: A Historical Guide to the Neighborhoods (1979) with Glen Holt, Chicago’s Southeast Side (1998) with Rod Sellers.

He has lectured widely on topics ranging from urban development, residential architecture, labor history, immigration, and racial and ethnic relations, and has appeared in both the local and national media. Pacyga has been a member of the Humanities, History and Social Sciences Department at Columbia College/Chicago since 1984. He has worked with various museums including the Chicago Historical Society, the Museum of Science and Industry, and the Field Museum in Chicago on a variety of public history projects. Pacyga has also worked with numerous neighborhood organizations as well as ethnic, labor, and fraternal groups to preserve and exhibit their histories. Pacyga acted as guest curator of a major exhibit, "The Chicago Bungalow" which ran from October 18, 2001 to January 15, 2002 at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. He and Charles Shanabruch are co-editors of The Chicago Bungalow (Arcadia Press 2001), a companion volume to the exhibit. Pacyga has won the Oscar Halecki Award from the Polish American Historical Association for his book, Polish Immigrants and Industrial Chicago and the Catholic Book Award for Chicago: City of Neighborhoods. In 1999 he received the Columbia College Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2005 he was a Visiting Fellow at Campion Hall, Oxford University. Pacyga’s latest book is Chicago: A Biography published by the University of Chicago Press (2009).