Columbia College Chicago
Library

September 12, 2008

Book banning is alive and well in the United States

Book banning is alive and well in the United States

Are books like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or the Harry Potter series available at your public or school library? According to the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, due to book challenges, more than one book a day faces removal from public access in school and public libraries. Challenges are defined as formal, written complaints filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness. Office for Intellectual Freedom Director Judith Krug and Nathan Ritchie from the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum (above) discuss Banned Books Week 2008 on Chicago Access Network TV (27:33) August 27....

2008 Banned Books Week


"Closing Books Shuts Out Ideas"
Banned Books
Week of September 27- October 4, 2008


Banned Books Week 2008 is the 27th annual celebration of the freedom to read. This freedom, not only to choose what we read, but also to select from a full array of possibilities.



Banned Books Week 2008 will kick off in Chicago, with a Read-Out! The event will feature popular banned or challenged authors and local Chicago celebrities on Saturday, September 27, from noon to 4 p.m., at 401 N. Michigan Ave., Pioneer Plaza.

For more information about Banned Books Week, the American Library Association's website pages devoted to this year's Banned Books Week.

August 4, 2008

Joseph Lappie Joins Library Staff









Continuing the tradition of hiring talented artists, the Library is pleased to announce that Joseph Lappie has joined the library staff as Cataloging Assistant. Joseph's passion is book art, and he recently won the Grand Prize at the 2008 Seoul International Book Arts Fair with his work The Articifer Arisen, The Articifer Fallen. Shown here is a piece entitled "There is Always More Than One When There Is Always Only One".
Welcome, Joseph!

June 13, 2008

Printers Row Book Fair Poetry Reading


The library is proud that Reference Department student worker Jess Rose read her poetry in last weekend's Printers Row Book Fair. Jess, a student in the Poetry Department and an intern at Switchback Books, was one of several Columbia College Chicago students and alumni that read works at the festival. Image credit: Poetry Department blog.

May 29, 2008

Possee Foundation to Visit Library Next Week


Next week the library will host three groups of students from the Posse Foundation.
These students are from public high schools and have undergone intensive Pre-Collegiate Training in order to be enrolled in top-tier universities nationwide. Their mission is to pursue their academic careers while promoting cross-cultural communication on campus.

"Posse Foundation got its name because of one student who said he never would have dropped out of college if he had his 'posse' with him. That simple idea, of sending a group (or posse) of students together to college so they could 'back each other up', became the impetus for a program that today has sent hundreds of students to top-tier colleges throughout the United States." (from the Posse Foundation website.)
The Posse Program has succeeded in placing 1,850 students into colleges and universities, with a graduation rate of 90%-- higher than the national rate. Three of our Reference and Instruction Librarians will work with the students to encourage them to make the academic librarians at their colleges their best friends. Research basics, how to use library research databases, and how to navigate the library's resources will be stressed, in addition to information specific to the students' assignments. We look forward to meeting the students and their mentors.

May 12, 2008

Manifest Events this Week at the Library

Fine Amnesty
In conjunction with the "Poverty and Privelege" Critical Encounters theme for 2007, we will forgive your library fines if you bring your overdue books in along with donations of food for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which is critically in need of donations. Bring one non-perishable food item (not past its expiration date) for each overdue book, and your fines will be forgiven!

Open House Friday, May 16, 11am-7pm to Include Student Film Screenings
Help us celebrate Manifest while viewing select exhibits from the College Archives and Special Collections; we'll also be showing film clips featuring Columbia student work in the Instruction Room (second floor) throughout the day.

Library Book Cart Drill Team to March in Spectacle Fortuna Parade
Making a spectacle on behalf of the library, our first ever Book Cart Drill Team will demonstrate the fine art of the book cart drill, on the Spectacle Fortuna Parade Route, Friday, May 16, from 7-8pm.




April 29, 2008

Ask a Librarian Goes Live

In order to provide extra help during the last two weeks of the semester, the Ask a Librarian service has gone live on the third floor. Reference and Instruction Librarians Shirley Bennett and Paula Epstein are shown here making themselves accessible to students with laptop at the ready.

April 14, 2008

Celebrate National Library Week!

The American Library Association has designated April 13-19 as National Library Week. Stop by the Columbia College Chicago Library and celebrate with us!



Learn more about National Library Week !

April 8, 2008

Join Us at Spring "Art of the Library"



(Painting by Janet Talbot)
Thursday, 04/17/08, 5-7pm
Columbia College Chicago Library, Third Floor
624 S. Michigan Avenue

Art of the Library is an ongoing series (four times a year) of exhibitions featuring the art of Columbia College Chicago students, faculty and staff. More information here.

Cole Robertson Awarded CAAP Individual Artist Grant







We congratulate Visual Resources Coordinator Cole Robertson, who was just awarded a City of Chicago Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) Individual Artist Grant for 2008. Cole will also be showing his photography in the Evanston Art Center's juried Biennial exhibition. Shown here is one of Cole's works, entitled Wrestle. See more of Cole's work at his website.

April 4, 2008

Library Student Worker News



Jess Rose, student worker in our Reference Department, represented Columbia College last night at the Ninth Annual Citywide Undergraduate Poetry Festival. Jess read three poems, followed by the readings of students from 11 other Chicago universities. It is quite an honor to be chosen to read in the Citywide festival. Congratulations, Jess!

We also wish to congratulate Nate Gray, who has just been accepted to the University of Michigan's Graduate Library School, the School of Information, where he will attend school in the fall.







March 17, 2008

Cut the Midterms angst with Ask A Librarian!

is hitting the road!

Midterms got you stressed out? Need some help? This week you don't need to come to the Library...the Library will come to you!

Helpful and friendly Columbia College Chicago librarians will be available on Wednesday and Thursday in the Hokin Annex (623 S. Wabash) to assist you with your research as you head into midterms.
Where: Hokin Annex 623 S. Wabash
When: Wednesday, March 19th 1-3pm & Thursday, March 20th 12:30-2:30pm
Why bother to Ask A Librarian?
  • Impress your friends and instructors with your ability to find relevant and "on target" sources!
  • Get more sleep at night...research and finish papers early and with ease!
  • Make a new friend! Let a librarian help you find resources instructors will love!
  • Cut the angst of midterms!
Remember--there are also helpful and friendly librarians available in the Library during regular hours and the Library's web site (and through it, thousands of scholarly journals, lots of encyclopedias and other handy research stuff) is available 24x7.

And don't forget: you can use the link anytime from anywhere!

March 13, 2008

Introducing the Library's d.i.y. series: do indie yourself!


The Library is kicking off National Poetry Month early with our new d.i.y. series.

d.i.y. (do indie yourself) Real Art. Real People. Real World.: Independent Artists Share Ideas for Creating and Sustaining Success debuts with a panel discussion from three emerging Chicago poets.

Looking for an answer to "What do I do now?!?"
Longing to put all your knowledge, ambition, and talent to use?

This panel will give you some great ideas...Three practicing poets will discus their experiences fostering their work through a variety of time-tested DIY methods related to writing and building an audience, including publication, poetry groups and workshops, readings, literary journals, and independent presses.

WHEN: March 20, 2008 from 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Library, 3rd floor east (624 S. Michigan Ave.)

The panelists:

Jacob Saenz graduated from Columbia College Chicago in the winter of 2005 with a BA in Creative Writing - Poetry. His work has appeared in a handful of journals such as RHINO, Columbia Poetry Review, Inkstains and Poetry. In 2007 he was nominated for an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award.

Kristy Bowen graduated from Columbia College Chicago in 2007 with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing - Poetry. She is the author of the fever almanac (Ghost Road Press, 2006) and in the bird museum, (Dusie Press, 2008), as well as several small press and self-published chapbooks. Her work has appeared in Swink, Backwards City Review, DIAGRAM, Caffeine Destiny and others. She is the editor of the online litzine wicked alice, and publisher of dancing girl press, which has published over 30 chapbooks and book arts projects by emerging women writers. She recently moved the whole operation into a studio / reading / workshop in the Fine Arts Building down the street and off of her dining room table. Her third collection, girl show, is forthcoming from Ghost Road in late 2009.

Todd Heldt is a poet-librarian in Chicago, and his poems and short stories have appeared in dozens of print and electronic journals. He has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and helped judge the 2006 Poetry Superhighway poetry contest. His chapbook, The Science of Broken People, was published by Little Poem Press in 2003, and his first full-length collection, Card Tricks for the Starving, is to be published in 2009 by Ghost Road Press. In 2002 he toured coffee houses and bars in the South with a self-published book and CD of poetry, making enough money to replace the transmission when it dropped out of the car in Texas.

March 5, 2008

Save the date! Edible Books on April 1st!


It's that time of year again...time for Edible Books!

When? Tuesday, April 1st from 5-7pm
Where? Columbia College Library, 3rd Floor

Submit an edible book or just come to judge (and then eat!) the entries.

For more information on rules and deadlines, check out the Edible Books page.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Book & Paper Arts and the Columbia College Library.

March 4, 2008

Critical Encounters Panel: Tomorrow in the Library


Can Art and Culture be a force for social change?

Come to the Library for a Critical Encounters event where the role of arts & culture in confronting/confirming public policies around poverty & privilege will be discussed.

When?
Tomorrow! Wed. March 5 from 12:30-1:30pm
Where? the Library, 624 S. Michigan Avenue, 3rd floor
What? PUBLIC POLICY PANEL: CAN ART AND CULTURE BE FORCE FOR SOCIAL CHANGE?

Panel participants: Phillipe Ravanas (Arts management), Rob Watkins (Liberal Education), Nick Rabkin (Center for Arts Policy)
Panel moderator: Sandra Allen

February 27, 2008

JSTOR is getting a new look

One of the many databases the Library subscribes to is JSTOR, a repository of high-resolution, scanned images of journal issues and pages as they were originally designed, printed, and illustrated. The journals archived in JSTOR span many disciplines. JSTOR began as an effort to ease the increasing problems faced by libraries seeking to provide adequate shelf space for the long runs of backfiles of scholarly journals. JSTOR is not a current issues database. Because of JSTOR's archival mission, there is a gap, typically from 1 to 5 years, between the most recently published journal issue and the back issues available in JSTOR.

In mid-March, JSTOR will be launching a new interface.

You can preview the redesign here: http://sandbox.jstor.org


If you have questions about JSTOR, just

February 26, 2008

Deconstructing Tyrone: Tomorrow in the Library




Come to the Library for a Critical Encounters Salon: Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation by Natalie Hopkinson and Natalie Moore (Salon will be facilitated by author, Natalie Moore)

When: Tomorrow! Wednesday, February 27 from 1:30-3:00pm,
Where: Library, 624 S Michigan, 3rd floor

February 14, 2008

Cell phones (and you!) are welcome in the library


You may have noticed recently that the "No cell phones in the Library" signs have been removed (apologies to anyone who misses the mohawked-suit guy). This isn't an attempt to turn the Library into a giant phone booth, but rather an acknowledgment that we're all adults and know when to use our "inside voices." This applies to face-to-face conversations and sound that may spill over from your headphones, too.

All we ask is that you are courteous and respect those around you...take long or loud conversations out into the stairwell or outside, use a moderate volume for your headphones, keep those ringers on low or vibrate and try to be aware, especially if you're near some quiet study areas, of your surroundings and those around you. And tell a library staff member if things have gotten too loud--we'll do our best to promote an environment that is acceptable for everyone (we'll even shush ourselves if necessary!).

FYI, certain areas of the Library are designated (most of the time) as quiet study areas. They include the east side of the 3rd floor and the east side of the 5th floor.

For better or for worse, the Library of the 21st century is no longer defined by its pervading silence or shushing librarians. Instead, it's a vital, dynamic, sometimes-a-little-noisy place filled with the energy of learning and community. Come be a part of it!

February 7, 2008

Art of the Library--Tonight!

Don't miss the opening reception for Art of the Library!

It's tonight, Thursday, February 7th, from 5-7pm. Stop by the 3rd Floor of the Library for art, refreshments and fun!

February 2, 2008

Your Library privileges (and other money saving tips)

Time Out Chicago recently reported on the Interlibrary Loan system (called I-Share) that all Columbia College students, staff and faculty have access to (in other words: Free books!). Take a look at the Book Smarts section in this article.

Questions on how to take advantage of I-Share or other free Library services? Just click