Open House Library Tours
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
Columbia College Chicago Library
624 S. Michigan Ave., First Floor
12:00 and 2:00pm
Paula Epstein, Reference Librarian, will be your tour guide to the Columbia College Chicago Library during Open House on Saturday November 7th. Find out what you should know about the Library’s collections and services. Meet Paula at the Library Circulation Desk on the first floor at either Noon or 2:00pm. Open to all.
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).
Day of the Dead, or el Día de los Muertos, is a traditional Mexican holiday celebrated annually on Oct. 31-Nov. 2 to honor friends and family members who have died. The actual Day of the Dead falls on Nov. 2.
Part commemoration and part celebration, Day of the Dead is a blend of indigenous beliefs and Catholic rituals from the coinciding All Souls' Day. This year, Columbia’s Latino Alliance is putting its own spin on this celebration – and you can expect it to be a little less traditional and a little more Columbia.
For more information on what is going on with Columbia's Day of the Dead on Wednesday, October 28th, take a look at the Student Loop website.
Interested in learning more about the traditions of the Day of the Dead?
Take a look at the Library Resources...
Skulls to the living, bread to the dead : [the day of the dead in Mexico and beyond] / Stanley Brandes.
Day of the Dead : Dia de los Muertos
The days of the dead : Mexico's Festival of Communion with the Departed
Digging the Days of the Dead : a reading of Mexico's dias de muertos
El corazón de la muerte : altars and offerings for days of the dead
The skeleton at the feast : the Day of the Dead in Mexico
Calavera abecedario : a Day of the Dead alphabet book
Days of death, days of life : ritual in the popular culture of Oaxaca
Artes de México: serenidad ritual
Bordering fires : the vintage book of contemporary Mexican and Chicano/a literature
Death and the idea of Mexico
Masks of Mexico [film]
La Ofrenda - the Days of the Dead : a film
El dia la noche y los muertos
2009-2010 Series
October 15 - 4:00 pm
Please note the new location for this event.
This event will be held in the The Quincy Wong Center for Artistic Expression (formerly the Hokin Annex) 623 S Wabash, 1st floor
Dr. Lawrence Grossberg
Morris Davis Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies and Cultural Studies (Adjunct Distinguished Professor of America Studies, Anthropology and Geography), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A film series presenting a selection of works from nearly 1,000 16mm films and DVDs dontated to the collection from the Consulate General of The People's Republic of China in Chicago.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009, 6-9:30 PM, 623 S. Wabash, 1st Floor, HOKIN Lecture/Hall Auditorium Room 109.
Tuya de hun shi (Tuya's Marriage), 2005, 96 min., Chinese with English subtitles.
After suffering a back injury working on the family farm, Tuya decides to get a divorce and find a new husband who will take care of her children, land, and disabled first husband—a search that proves to be much harder than she had anticipated.
Ni qiu ye shi yu (Loach is fish too), 2005, 100 min., Chinese with English subtitles.
Two migrant workers from the countryside (one the mother of two children) who share the same name "Ni Qiu" - meaning loach in Chinese - try to subsist as laborers in Beijing.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2009, 6-9:30 PM, 623 S. Wabash, 1st Floor, HOKIN Lecture Hall/Auditorium Room 109.
The library will be screening selections of works from nearly 1,000 16mm films and DVDs dontated to the collection from the Consulate General of The People's Republic of China in Chicago.
Wo men liang (You and Me), 2005, 85 min., Chinese with English subtitles.
A young woman rents a room from an elderly woman who is mean to her. She decides to say in the room after deciding the elderly woman needs her.
Shi Jie (The World), 2004, 96 min., Chinese with English subtitles.
On the outskirts of Beijing lies an amusement park featuring scaled-down models of world famous landmarks. Shi Jie follows the daily lives of staff members Taxo and Taisheng as they navigate their romance through The World.
As a part of the Focus: China gallery walk, a reception for photographer Hugo Tillman will be held on the 3rd floor of the library on Thursday, October 1, 2009 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. This reception is open to the public.
The exhibition, Hugo Tillman: Film Stills of the Mind, runs through October 30th, and is featured on the first three floors of the library. Additional Information about this exhibit can be found in earlier posts. 
In addition to the reception, Hugo Tillman will be holding two lectures on Friday, October 2nd, 2009 - at 10:30 a.m. and at 1:00 p.m. on the 3rd floor of the library. These lectures are open to the public as well.
More information about the Focus: China events can be found on the Columbia College Website.
2009-2010 Series:
Thursday, October 1, 2009
4:00 pm
3rd Floor of the Library
624 S. Michigan Ave.
Dr. Paul Booth
Assistant Professor of New Media and Technology, College of Communication, DePaul University
Paul Booth is an Assistant Professor of New Media and Technology at DePaul University in Chicago. He writes about the implications of the intersection of traditional and interactive media. His research interests also include participatory audiences, fans, popular culture, science fiction, television, narrative, games, technology, and meditation. He can be reached.
The Office for Intellectual Freedom would like to cordially invite you and your families to attend the annual Banned Books Read-Out! this Saturday afternoon, September 26th, 2009. The event will be held at Bughouse Square, just up the street from ALA headquarters at the corner of Walton Street and Dearborn Street in Chicago. It begins at noon, and is scheduled to be over by 3PM.
We have a great group of authors scheduled to speak and read; best of all, they will have (limited) copies of their books to give away and sign.
The line-up is:
Banned Books Week is the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. More than a thousand books have been challenged since 1982. The challenges have occurred in every state and in hundreds of communities. Click here to see a map of book bans and challenges in the US from 2007 to 2009. People challenge books that they say are too sexual or too violent. They object to profanity and slang, and protest against offensive portrayals of racial or religious groups--or positive portrayals of homosexuals. Their targets range from books that explore the latest problems to classic and beloved works of American literature.
During the last week of September every year, hundreds of libraries and bookstores around the country draw attention to the problem of censorship by mounting displays of challenged books and hosting a variety of events. The 2009 celebration of Banned Books Week will be held from September 26 through October 3.
The 10 most challenged titles in 2008 were:
And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell 
Reasons: anti-ethnic, anti-family, homosexuality, religious viewpoint,
and unsuited to age group
His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman 
Reasons: political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, and violence
TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle 
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age
group
Scary Stories (series), by Alvin Schwartz
Reasons: occult/satanism, religious viewpoint, and violence
Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya
Reasons: occult/satanism, offensive language, religious viewpoint,
sexually explicit, and violence
The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: drugs, homosexuality, nudity, offensive language, sexually
explicit, suicide, and unsuited to age group
Gossip Girl (series), by Cecily von Ziegesar
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age
group
Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannen
Reasons: homosexuality and unsuited to age group 
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
Reasons: offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited to age group 
Flashcards of My Life, by Charise Mericle Harper
Reasons: sexually explicit and unsuited to age group 
Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Association of College Stores. Banned Books Week is also endorsed by the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.
Join us - Thursday, September 24th, 2009 from 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. - for the Art in the Library Opening and Reception for the Fall 2009 Exhibition in our new 3rd floor space.
Columbia College Chicago Library, Third Floor (in the new Library wing)
624 S. Michigan Avenue. Light refreshments will be served.
Vision. Sound. Movement.
The Art in the Library program at Columbia College Chicago provides an open, supportive and inviting setting to showcase the talent and creativity of our own community of artists. Since its inception in 2002, Art in the Library has offered library visitors the opportunity to experience the rich cultural diversity and progressive attitudes which thrive in the Columbia environment.
Presenting the work of Columbia College Chicago students, faculty, staff and alumni, the Art in the Library program exhibits works in all forms of visual arts, including sculpture, painting, drawings, and paper and book arts. Exhibitions by different artists are shown quarterly on a rotating basis.
The Art in the Library Committee welcomes all Columbia College Chicago artists to submit work for consideration.
Please visit the Art in the Library website for more information including submission guidelines, artwork forms, and examples of current and former exhibits.
The library added a great new music database this year.
Promoted as "the most comprehensive database in streaming audio, video, reference, and scores on the web," Music Online Database is the best resource for students interested in researching or listening to music.
Included in Music Online are the following resources - all searchable individually or as one (BIG) database.
Music Online Listening
2009-2010 Series - First Event
Thursday September 17th, 2009
4:00 pm
3rd Floor of the Library
624 S. Michigan Ave.
Dr. Abdelkder Sabil
Professor of English & Cultural Studies, Department of English, Faculty of Letters, Chouaib Doukkali, Eljadida, Morocco
Abdelkader Sabil is Professeur de l'enseignement supérieur in the department of English, Faculty of Letters, University Chouaib Doukkali, Elijadida, Morocco. He completed a PhD in Cultural Studies at the University Chouaib Doukkali, as well as degrees from the Universities of Essex (UK) and Casablanca. He participates in Cultural Studies programs in the Universities of BenMsik, Casablanca and Elijadida. He is a member of the African Studies Network, Ferguson Centre of African and Asian Studies, Open University, UK. and a member of Globalization, Identity Politics and Social Conflicts Research Group, UK. His main research interests are social movements, North African and Middle Eastern Studies.
Pre-Reading Articles
James Clifford, "The Translation of Cultures" in Contemporary Literary Criticism: Literary and Cultural Studies. Eds. Robert Con Davis & Ronald Schleifer. New York: Longman, 1986.
Edward Said, "Representing the Colonized: Anthropology's Interlocutors" in Critical Inquiry. 15 (Winter 1989); 213-214. (excerpt)
See the WEBSITE for more information on this series.
Chicago showcases the best of international music at the 11th Annual World Music Festival: Chicago 2009, Friday, September 18 through Thursday, September 24, 2009. The multi-venue, one-week festival, which attracts an average of 45,000 visitors each year, showcases both traditional and contemporary music from diverse cultures across the world. The 2009 festival line-up will feature 55 events at 21 venues. Many events are family friendly. Events include live radio broadcasts and a mix of free and ticketed concerts presented in museums, parks, cultural centers, plazas, theaters, music stores, clubs and other venues throughout Chicago.
For a complete schedule of events visit the World Music Festival Website.
Marta Gomez Quartet
Tuesday, September 22 - 7pm
FREE
Columbia College 
Conaway Center
1104 S. Wabash Ave.
Chicago, IL 60602
Marta Gomez The 11th annual World Music Festival: Chicago 2009 presents Marta Gómez Quartet (Colombia/NYC/Boston) performing original compositions based on a vast amount of rhythms from Latin America at Columbia College Conaway Center.
Marta Gómez and her group perform a repertoire of original compositions based on a vast amount of rhythms from Latin America. Marta mixes the joy of the Caribbean with the nostalgia of the Andes adding jazz and pop elements, taking the authenticity of South American indigenous folk music into a hip new realm.
Wednesday, September 2 - 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
The library is your gateway to a universe of information!
From books and videos to electronic books, journals, databases, and more, we have what you need to help you succeed in all your work. If you already have your Campus Card, you can check out books right away. Come visit the library and discover our remarkable resources, learn about the services available to you, and meet our helpful staff whom are available to answer any of your questions.
(624 South Michigan Avenue, Floor 1)
We will have four tours throughout the day at 10am, NOON, 2pm and 4pm.
There will also be two information sessions in the 2nd floor Library Instruction Room at 11am and 1:00pm.
Free balloons and water bottles will be available on the first floor and at the reference desk for visitors to take with them.
Monday morning, August 24th, the Library home page will be sporting a new look. Here's a sneak peak...
I know, pretty.
You may be asking yourself,"What's changed?" We think there are some great improvements, including:
The Library hosts an exhibition of photographs by Hugo Tillman as a part of the FOCUS: CHINA, a campus wide programming initiative, with China and Chinese culture as its central theme.
The exhibition, Hugo Tillman: Film Stills of the Mind, will run September 1 through October 30 at the Library - floors 1, 2 and 3 - with a reception on Thursday, October 1 and an artist talk/lecture on Friday, October 2.
As described on the FOCUS: CHINA events site, "in this revealing series of color photographs, British artist Hugo Tillman turns his lens towards China, the fastest growing force in art and economics, and examines in the most intimate of portrayals, approximately eighty of the leading Chinese artists of today. This solo exhibition will present selected film stills of this powerful investigation."
"For this project, Tillman spent two years in China interviewing his subjects and immersing himself in the culture and art scene. He explains: “I interviewed each artist for a few hours, asking them about their past, their memories, their dreams and their fears. Then I photographed each artist in sets that recreate their memories and dreams.” The result is a mesmerizing look at the unique psychological landscape of the present-day Chinese art world, seen from Tillman’s Western point-of-view. The dream-like quality of the settings that Tillman creates and the vibrant hues of red, blue, pink and green give the images a psychedelic quality reinforcing the surreal element of his project."
"In this deeply personal examination by a Western artist of his Asian counterparts, Tillman creates, through artful stage settings, a dramatic composition to convey a generation of forward looking individuals whose struggle with the country’s recent past, its oppressive regime, is a constant battle. As in his other photographs, the intense tonal quality and the ambiguous settings contrast with the stark reality of the memories and dreams that they depict."
