7th Annual Library Halloween Costume Cavalcade

View more Halloween costume pix HERE

The tradition of inviting library staffers to commune with their inner child around the Halloween celebration was introduced to the Library in 2001 by then director, Jo Cates. Jo took the high road and came dressed as the Queen. Following her lead were revelers dressed as a clown, a small child and even a Valkyrie (you know, she’s the original "Fat Lady who sings”). Each year since then, a few brave, fun souls have continued to make it a day full of laughs and cries for everyone.

The Costumed Ones carry out their regular duties, so depending on what you were in need of this Halloween, you may have gotten your service from a zombie, a pirate, a biker chick, a slide show, Doris Day, a cave woman or someone’s dad.

Even out of costume, we’re a pretty cool bunch. Almost anytime is a good time to connect up with us via chat, e-mail, or phone…and you never know what fun you will encounter if you just come by!

Thanks to Librarian Shirley Bennett for contributing this news story!

American Archives Month

October is American Archives Month! Celebrate by checking out the College Archives webpage at: www.lib.colum.edu/archives. Learn about Columbia’s history and presidents, view historic images from its history, and sing the Alumni song! Comments and corrections are welcome. Just drop a line to collegearchives@colum.edu

Celebrate Friends of the Library week!

Join the staff of the Columbia College Chicago Library as we celebrate Friends of Libraries Week, October 21 – October 27, 2007

Friends of Libraries Week (sponsored by Friends of Libraries, USA) is a celebration of Friends of Libraries programs around the country and an opportunity to recognize friends members for their support of libraries. Please join us at one or more of the following events:

Friends of Libraries Week Events:

Monday October 22-Thursday, October 25, 2007 - Columbia College Chicago Friends of the Library Membership Drive, 10:00am -2:00pm, First floor, Library, 624 S. Michigan Ave.

Help the Library grow. Stop by the Library and learn about our new Friends of the Library program at Columbia College Chicago. The Friends of the Library is open to everyone, and student memberships begin at only $10.00. Other membership levels begin at $50.00. Funds received through the Friends of the Library will be used to help build the Library’s collections.

For more about the Friends of the Library at Columbia College Chicago, go to: http://www.colum.edu/Friends_of_the_Library/Friends_of_the_Library.php


Tuesday October 23, 2007 - Movie Screening: The Joy Luck Club, 5:00-7:30pm Room 602, Collins Hall 624 S. Michigan Ave.

In partnership with the Center for Asian Arts and Media’s Women Warrior Festival, and in conjunction with The Big Read, we present a screening of The Joy Luck Club. This program is free and open to the public.


Wednesday October 24, 2007 - Special Collections Day, 10:00am – 4:00pm, Library, 624 S. Michigan, 1st floor entrance and Third Floor

Curious about the Library’s Special Collections? Today, we bring out select pieces from our Special Collections for your viewing pleasure! Come to the 1st and 3rd floors and see some of our unique holdings in an up close and personal way. Library staff will be on hand on the 3rd floor to answer questions about the collection.

For more information about these events or our Friends of the Library program, contact Kim Hale at 312-344-7355 or khale@colum.edu

You can now print (and buy coffee!) using Columbia Cash at the Library!

Add Columbia Cash to your Columbia College ID card and use it to print in the Library and to buy coffee from the Library Coffee Cart!

Check out the Campus Card site for more information on adding Columbia Cash as well as additional locations across campus where you can spend it.

Note: purple printing cards are still being accepted until further notice

Parents Weekend @ the Library

The Library welcomes Columbia College Chicago parents and other visitors! The Library is hosting a number of events over the course of Parents Weekend, including a chat by the College Archivist, Heidi Marshall, on the College's history (due to the number of registrants, this event is being held down the street at the 1104 S. Wabash building) and a chat on the Library itself called Way Beyond Books.

On Sunday, join the Library from 11-1 as we host a Bagel Brunch for parents and their students.

Most events require pre-registration. Here is a link to the Office of College-Wide Events for more information: www.colum.edu/Student_Life/Parent_Weekend/Frequently_Asked_Questions.php

Library staff member "one to watch" in Chicago fashion

Congratulations to Dieter Kirkwood, the Library's Circulation Assistant extraordinaire, who was selected as “one to watch” at the Gen Art Fresh Faces in Fashion show.

Check out Dieter's fashion line dIETERbENNET

Congratulations, Dieter!

Columbia College is front page news in this week's Chicago Journal

Check out this article on Columbia College's South Loop presence: "Columbia as hot as its neighborhood: Largest South Loop landowner still growing"

From local news publication, the Chicago Journal.

Celebrate Banned Books week!

Banned Books Week starts tomorrow (Sept. 29) and runs through Oct. 6. To celebrate, the Library has a new display in the library entrance and several posters around the stacks. Come and take a look--you may be surprised by some of the titles that are consistently objected to year after year.

If you’d like to celebrate Banned Books Week more actively, the ALA is hosting a read-out tomorrow afternoon on Michigan Avenue. Here are the details:

You are invited to come and celebrate your freedom to read during the 26th annual celebration of Banned Books Week. Join the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum, and the Newberry Library in Chicago, IL at the Pioneer Plaza (on Michigan Ave between the Tribune Tower and the Chicago River) on Saturday, September 29, 2007, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., for the Banned Books Week Read-Out! Local Chicago Celebrities join several acclaimed authors to read passages from their favorite banned and challenged books. Admission is FREE.

Library staff member receives All-Staff Arts & Media Award!

The Library is pleased to announce that John Moss, our AV Assistant, has been named one of 10 recipients of this year's All-Staff Arts & Media Award.

The award recognizes the artistic achievements of Columbia College Chicago staff and is funded through Columbia College Chicago's Office of Human Resources.

Congratulations to all of the recipients. Way to go, John!

New: Black Metropolis Research Consortium

Columbia College Chicago is proud to be a part of the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. The BMRC is an unincorporated Chicago-based association of libraries, universities, and other archival institutions with major holdings of materials that document African American and African diasporic culture, history, and politics, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago. The University of Chicago serves as Host Institution of the BMRC.

The BMRC is dedicated to making broadly accessible its members' holdings of materials that document African American and African diasporic culture, history, and politics, with a specific focus on materials relating to Chicago.

Check out the new BMRC web site HERE

Can *you* identify the photos?

Amongst the many archival materials held in the Columbia College Archives, there is no shortage of old photos. Many of these photos have no identification. Maybe you or someone you know can help out? Take a look at the current "line up" on the Archives page HERE and try your luck! You'll be helping to preserve the history of Columbia College Chicago.

The Library welcomes a new Director!

Please join the Library in welcoming our new Director, Jan Chindlund!

A welcome message from Jo Cates, Associate Vice President for Academic Research & Dean of the Library:

I am so pleased to announce that after a two-year search, we have a Library Director. Jan Chindlund will join our staff on Monday, September 24.

Before coming to Columbia, Jan was Group Project Manager/Head Librarian of the Global Business Research Information Center at McDonald’s Corporation, where she was promoted to increasingly responsible leadership positions since her arrival in 1995 as Head Librarian of the Marketing Services McLibrary. Prior to her work at McDonald’s, Jan was Assistant Vice President and Head Librarian at Duff & Phelps, an investment advisory firm. She received her MBA (Concentration in Innovation and Technology) from Benedictine University and MLS from Dominican University.

In addition to her skills as a manager and information specialist, Jan also brings space planning experience, facilitating three moves for the Information Center. We expect this experience will serve us well as the Library expands over the next few years.

Please take a moment and welcome Jan to the Columbia College Chicago community. I think you’ll appreciate her sense of humor and open and friendly demeanor.

New Library resource

Come and take a look at one of our newest reference titles, Short Stories for Students. You'll find numerous short stories covered with concise synopses of the story's plot, characters and themes, a brief author biography, a discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance and excerpted criticism. You'll also be pointed to media adaptations of the story, discussion questions and suggestions on what to read next. You can search Short Stories for Students by author, title, nationality and theme.

Want help with Short Stories for Students or more information on literature or authors? Just click here or on any of the Library's web pages.

Art of the Library

Please join the Library as we host an opening reception for our Fall Art of the Library exhibit.

The reception will be held tomorrow, Thursday September 13th, from 5:00 - 7:00pm on the 3rd floor of the Library. Refreshments will be served.

The exhibit will run from September 13th through November 2nd, 2007 and will showcase the work of students, faculty, staff, and alumni.

The Art of 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.

It's 10:00am. Do you know where your Facebook profile is?

Click the image above to join the Columbia College Chicago Library Facebook group!

Facebook announced yesterday that it will be making the names and profiles of its members available to nonmembers and eventually accessible through search-engine listings. That means in the near future, *anyone* (potential employers, strangers, parents, professors, etc.) can Google you and see your Facebook profile (or at least parts of it). Think about how you present yourself online and consider changing your Search Privacy settings in Facebook if this concerns you. Be aware that the information you make available about yourself through online social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace is not always as hidden or private as you might think it is.

Read more about this from PC World HERE

Read the Facebook announcement (and see an example of how a public search listing will appear) HERE.

Looking for books or articles on online privacy, social networking or other information? Just click here or on any of the Library's web pages.

Happy first day of Fall 2007!

Happy first day of school, everyone! A big welcome to all incoming first year and transfer students as well as to new staff and faculty. And welcome back to everyone else!

We hope you enjoyed your summer and are ready for Fall 2007. Remember that the Columbia College Chicago Library is here to help! Whether you're doing research for an assignment, looking for a comfy place to study, trying to find coffee before class, or looking for books, videos, music, newspapers or magazines, the Library has it all and then some!

Questions? Comments? Use our service anytime!

New chat reference service from the Library!

Instant messaging chat reference is here!

The link on any Library web page will lead to four options: E-mail, Phone, Chat and Consultation Appointment. Select the option that works best for you--no question is too small or too large!

Have a new @loop.colum.edu email address? Add askccclibrary@gmail.com to your Gtalk (or MSN) buddy list! You can also add askccclibrary to other chat programs like Yahoo! and AIM.

Questions about how to use chat or any of our other services? anytime.

Company Dossier database in LexisNexis

Check out the new Company Dossier database in LexisNexis! Use Company Dossier to find company snapshots, news and legal information, corporate hierarchies and more!

Complement your Company Dossier research with one or two of our other proprietary business research databases, like Business & Company Resource Center or Business Source Elite.

Company and industry research is a complex process--ask for help anytime by using our service.

LexisNexis has a new look!

LexisNexis has officially launched their newly redesigned interface! What does this mean for you? While the search screen looks a little different, you can still access the same robust News, Legal and Business content and then some.

From the Library's home page, click on Databases A to Z to get to this list:

LexisNexis Academic:

• Accounting Research


• BBC Worldwide Monitoring Country Reports


• Business News Publications


• Business Digests


• Company Profiles


• Federal & State Cases


• Federal & State Codes


• Illinois Newspapers


• Industry News Publications


• Law Review Journals
  Legal News Publications


• Legal News Group File


• Markets & Industry News


• News Search


• Patent Search


• Roper Public Opinion Polls


• SEC Filings


• Shepard Citation Search


• TV & Radio Broadcast Transcripts

Interested in learning more about how the new LexisNexis works? Training webinars are offered by LexisNexis about twice a week. Go to this website for more info:
http://www.lexisnexis.com/academicwebseminars/

LexisNexis is a powerful database and there's a lot in there! Don't hesitate to ask for help with LexisNexis or with any of our other subscription databases. Just click

New database! Black Studies Center

The Library is pleased to announce that thanks to a generous contribution from Dr. Sam Floyd and the Center for Black Music Research we have recently added the Black Studies Center database to our growing collection of online scholarly resources.

The Black Studies Center is linked from our Databases A to Z page. You can also access the three main components of the Black Studies Center on our Find Articles--African American Studies, --Chicago, --Journalism, and --Literature pages.

The three main components of the Black Studies Center are:

Schomburg Studies on the Black Experience
A unique database detailing the rich tapestry of the African experience throughout the Americas, comprising interdisciplinary essays written by leading scholars on the Black Experience accompanied by a timeline, images, video clips, and other selected research materials.

Chicago Defender Historical Archive (1910-1975)
Robert Sengstacke Abbott founded the Defender in May 1905 and by the outbreak of the First World War it had become the most widely-read black newspaper in the country, with more than two thirds of its readership based outside Chicago.

Black Literature Index (1827-1940)
This searches over 70,000 bibliographic citations for fiction, poetry and literary reviews published in 110 black periodicals and newspapers.

Need help using the Black Studies Center? Just click

College Archives site launched

The web site of the Columbia College Chicago Archives is now live! Here's an introduction to the Archives from our College Archivist, Heidi Marshall:

Who were Columbia’s past presidents? Has the school always been known as Columbia College Chicago? How does one best preserve digital images? A strange string of questions but answers to them share a common home. Check out the Columbia College Chicago Archives pages for answers!

The Archives, established in 2005, houses the historic records of the College on the second floor of the Library. Seeking a course catalog from the 1940s? Trying to find an article that appeared in the Columbia Chronicle in the 1980s? The College Archives has them!

Browse the pages, find out the history, read articles written by Columbia’s founders, and learn how to protect your own collection. And, as always, if there are questions, just drop us a line: collegearchives @ colum.edu. Enjoy!

Kerouac's 'On the Road' Turns 50

From today's New York Times: "Viking is releasing a 50th-anniversary edition on Thursday (the original came out Sept. 5, 1957), and is also publishing, for the first time in book form, the original version that Kerouac typed on a 120-foot-long scroll and a new analysis by John Leland, a reporter at The New York Times, titled "Why Kerouac Matters: The Lessons of 'On the Road' (They're Not What You Think)."" (Note: The Library will be receiving Why Kerouac Matters during the upcoming Fall semester).

Want to see the original 120-foot-long scroll? Columbia College Chicago will be hosting the historic document in the Fall of 2008. Read a description of the event HERE and stay tuned for more info.

Read the whole NYT article on the 50th anniversary of On The Road HERE

New Music (August 2007)

View a full list of this month's latest arrivals. Here are a few selected works (click the links to be taken to the full catalog record):

Rock Music: Led Zeppelin (also known as Zoso) / Led Zeppelin

Techno Music: From here we go sublime / the Field

String Quartets: op. 18, nos. 2 & 3 / Beethoven

Country Music: My name is Buddy / Ry Cooder

New movies (August 2007)

View a full list of this month's latest arrivals. Here are a few selected films (click the images to be taken to the full catalog record):



Batman



How art made the world



Expo : magic of the White City



Maude. The complete first season



My beautiful laundrette

New books (August 2007)

View a full list of this month's latest arrivals. Here are a few selected titles (click the images to be taken to the full catalog record):



Embroidering identities : a century of Palestinian clothing



Gothic fantasy : the films of Tim Burton



Bodies in code : interfaces with new media



Advertising sin and sickness : the politics of alcohol and tobacco marketing, 1950-1990



The golden age of advertising : the 60s



Death of Art



Swingin’ chicks of the ’60s : a tribute to 101 of the decade’s defining women

New Orleans update

Our intrepid colleague, Shirley Bennett, has sent us a dispatch from New Orleans (see this post for some background on the trip). Here are some excerpts:

"The Mosquitoes are a fact of life here...and they have deadly aim! They are able to target areas along the straps of your sandals or bras as well as the lower half of each finger on one hand.

My NOLA experience is drawing to a close...this morning there is a writing session focused on capturing what two days in the field has wrought. [Yesterday and the day before, we were dispatched to specific houses or field sites where residents had asked for help.] On my first day, I along with four others, worked in the home of Mr. Heyward Jackson, who is is living in a FEMA trailer alongside his badly damaged home. There was a second home handled by another team of 5. Our tasks were basic: remove nails (high and low, to leave the frame of the house ready for drywall, clear the floors of loose debris and nails there. The work, though simple, takes a lot of time when one has to cover every crack and crevice of a place--especially one that has been pummeled as these places have been by such extreme natural elements.

Yesterday, I was all over the place...pulling Chinese tallow(?) in the wetlands area...cutting foot-high grass in a football size field...and ending up at the home base for the organization through whom our efforts for the day had been coordinated--Common Ground. One of the co-founders was on hand to share how the organization had begun and what projects lay in the near future for them. In fact, Mr. Rahim was on his way to Chicago to speak at some function at McCormick Place this weekend.

Ok, there has been some fun. A poetry slam, a crab bake in the parking lot, beignets in Congo Square and a barbecue at the home of the local poet celeb, Shakespear."

All of us here at the Columbia College Chicago Library are looking forward to Shirley's return and to hearing more about her experiences in New Orleans.

Italian director, famous for "Blow-up," dies at 94

Another film great has passed away. Michelangelo Antonioni, one of Italy's most famed modernist film directors, died on Monday at his home in Rome. "Mr. Antonioni is probably best known for "Blowup," a 1966 drama set in swinging London about a fashion photographer who comes to believe that a picture he took of two lovers in a public park also shows, obscured in the background, evidence of a murder." Read the whole New York Times obituary HERE.