Meet the Team: Jake

Meet Jake!

Name: Jake

Major: Finance

Status: Sophomore

What is your favorite thing about being a student at UIS?   My favorite thing about being a student at UIS is the class size. It is very nice to get to know your professors on a personal level. I find it very helpful being able to receive one-on-one help with projects if needed.

What are your goals for the semester? This semester my goals are to perform to the best of my ability on the track. Also, I am planning on receiving my highest GPA yet. My last goal is to actively become the person I want to be and not just think about it.

If there were a reality TV show of your life, what would it be called? Why? If there was a reality show of my life, it would be filled with lots of hours on the roads or at TRAC! The show would feature loads of silly conversations being had with my teammates. However, it would also showcase hanging out with my friends and a fair amount of making sure books are in the correct order at the library.

Are you involved in any clubs/activities/sports on campus? Or what are your hobbies? Yes! My biggest commitment on campus is cross country and track. Running helps me excel in class as well as make many new friends. Another hobby that I love to do is collect coins.

What have you learned since working at the library? Since starting at the library, I have learned how to work better with others. The library has taught me to appreciate the amount of knowledge that resides at UIS. Working at the library has also taught me how to read call numbers!

What are your post-graduation plans? As of now, I am thinking about staying a 5th year and starting grad school. This would also allow me to use my redshirt year for track. However, things can change in a short amount of time so nothing is set in stone.

What is your favorite item from the library of things collection? My favorite thing from the library of things are the cameras.

Still Time to Submit Undergrad Research Award

This past February, the Library opened submissions for our fifth annual Undergraduate Research Award.  Materials are due on April 1, but there’s still plenty of time to submit your materials to us.

Every semester, we see firsthand the outstanding work UIS students generate.  Whether it’s the work we directly help with through our research consultations or the amazing presentations we see at the Student Technology, Arts & Research Symposium, the Library knows firsthand what UIS students are capable of. 

That’s why every year since 2015, we’ve offered the Undergraduate Research Award. It’s an opportunity for UIS students to show off what we know they can do, an opportunity to recognize the work of UIS students for their excellence, and an opportunity to preserve that work in the long term.

As a reminder, the award includes a monetary prize of $250 for first place, $100 for second place, and $50 for third place.  The winners will be presented at the Student Technology, Arts & Research Symposium luncheon on April 19, 2019. 

How to Apply

Application for the Brookens Library Undergraduate Research Award is a two-step process:

Step 1) Fill out the online application form 

Step 2) One of the Brookens Librarians will contact you to arrange for you to electronically submit your materials using Box.

You can learn more about the award criteria and past winners here: https://libguides.uis.edu/research_award   

Spring Break Hours

The library will have shortened hours for the Spring Break week.

Saturday, March 9th and Sunday, March 10th: Closed

Monday, March 11th – Friday, March 12th: 9AM to 5PM

Saturday, March 16th: Closed

Sunday, March 17th: 2PM – Midnight

We hope you have a safe and relaxing break!

Open Education Week

Open Education Week is this week and is a celebration of the global Open Education Movement. Its goal is to raise awareness about the movement and its impact on teaching and learning worldwide.  A major component of Open Education is Open Educational Resources (OER) which are one of the few ways that faculty can help lower the cost of higher education through reducing or eliminating the cost of textbooks and other course materials.  

Here are some events this week for people interested in finding and using Open Educational Resources:  

• All Week – Millersville University’s Center for Academic Excellence is hosting a virtual event. During the week of March 4, 2019, faculty members from a variety of departments will hold virtual sessions on different topics related to Open Education. All sessions will be offered live through Zoom and will be recorded so faculty can watch at a later time. Each session is approximately 30 minutes in length. Recorded sessions will be posted to MU Video during the week.  The schedule of events for the week is at https://www.millersville.edu/cae/open-education-week/index.php. Last year’s recorded sessions might also be of interest.   

• Wednesday, March 6, 2019, 11-Noon – Webinar entitled “An Introduction to Open Educational Resources and Tips for Finding, Adopting, and Creating OER at IU.”  Indiana University Bloomington undergraduate students are estimated to pay $1,034 on course materials each academic year. Data suggests that students will forgo purchasing expensive course materials, even when they know it will impact their engagement in the classroom. This session will introduce one potential solution to this issue, Open Educational Resources (OER). In addition to discussing the benefits of OER, the session will provide an overview of how IU instructors can find high-quality OER, adapt them to fit students’ needs, and even create (or have their students create) customized course materials. Other affordable course material options, including affordable eTexts and library-licensed content, will also be discussed. Link to join Webinar. 

• Wednesday, March 6, 12-1 pm, in PAC F – There is a faculty development workshop on the “Open Educational Resources (OER) Fellows Program for Individual Faculty” here at UIS.  Faculty accepted into the one-year OER Fellows Program will receive the following to help them adopt OERs in their two designated courses: Support as needed to evaluate OER materials and increase adoption; Development training in e-text, iAuthor, and other OER creation tools; Mentoring support and assistance for presentation and publication on the topic of OER adoption; Support for conference attendance (up to $1,000) to present on their OER adoption experience; and A $2,500 stipend to be paid after OER materials have been adopted in their two designated courses.  In this presentation, current OER Fellows will describe the process of finding and adopting open educational resources into their online and face-to-face courses. They will also answer questions about the OER Fellows program. 

• Thursday, March 7^th, 12-1 pm in the Library Learning Center, 240A Brookens – There is a faculty development workshop entitled, “Tips for Finding OER (Open Educational Resources) and Library Resources for Courses.”  This workshop will provide background on Open Educational Resources (OER) with emphasis on locating alternatives to textbooks using library licensed resources, high quality Open Textbooks, and other OER resources.  

Celebrate Open Education Week, March 4^th – 8^th, by learning about Open Education Resources. More recorded events and support materials can be found at https://www.openeducationweek.org/ or by asking your friendly librarian, Librarians by Department.   

Meet the Team: Diana

Meet Diana

Name: Diana

Major: Political Science and Legal Studies

Status: Freshman

What is your favorite thing about being a student at UIS?   My favorite thing about coming to UIS is the small community the school offers. It’s cool to get to know most people on the campus by name and have great relationships. Also getting to have one-on-one interaction is something this small environment offers.

What are your goals for the semester? One of my goals for this semester is to not to procrastinate as much as I do. I’m the type of person that pushes everything to the side and decides last minute to start the assignment. Another goal would be to do better this semester academically. My grades weren’t as good as I wanted them to be. So I want to give myself more time to study and actually get things done.

If there were a reality TV show of your life, what would it be called? Why? If I had a TV show I would probably call it Diana’s Diary. The TV show would be based on following me around and seeing what I do on a day-to-day basis since I’m a mess, but also get to see what goes through my head at all times. The audience will literally become my best friends.

Are you involved in any clubs/activities/sports on campus? Or what are your hobbies? I spend a lot of time in the library, but when I’m not there I like to do one of my favorite hobbies which is to take naps. Sometimes you just need some beauty sleep. I also like to hang out with friends and just do face masks or do our makeup. Let’s not forget that I like to watch Netflix. I would totally recommend Criminal Minds, Dexter, and the Haunting of Hill House.

What have you learned since working at the library? A major thing that I learned at the library is to enhance my communications skills. We get to do one-on-one interactions with the patrons which helps with feeling more comfortable talking to people. Also getting to work as a team has played a role in communicating since we have to work together to get the job done.

What are your post-graduation plans? My post-graduation plans are to go to law school. Hopefully, I can get myself into Loyola or Depaul and pass the Bar Exam in order to become a lawyer. However, I’m still young and things could change.

What is your favorite item from the library of things collection? I think one of my favorite things from the library of things is the variety of board games they have. Some of them I haven’t even heard of, but I’m excited to try them out.

How to Tuesday: Destress

It’s week 7 of the semester, and things have definitely been kicked into high gear. So this week for our How to Tuesday, we’re focusing on de-stressing.

Our displays have a new look for March! This month’s themes are de-stressing through laughter and preparing for Spring Break with our audiobook collection. The space looks a little something like this:

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And don’t forget our Lego table if you need to take a study break.

Stop by our display on the second floor, check-out some resources, stop by the lego table, and start relaxing today.

Celebrate Women’s History Month

This past year has been the advent of so many milestones for women in the U.S.  There are currently 131 women in both chambers of the 116^th Congress, up by 130 from the sole congresswoman elected to federal office in 1917 in Montana.  And for women of color, the outcome is unprecedented. In “the 116^th U.S. Congress 47 of the 127 women serving or 37.0%, are women of color; in addition, a Black woman, a Latina, an Asian Pacific Islander, and a Caribbean American woman serve as Delegates to the House from Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands, respectively. Women of color constitute 8.8% of the total 535 members of Congress,” (CAWP).  Surely this is the year of the woman.   

As we celebrate the current victories of women making political waves, let us remember some of the pioneers who paved the way for the successes of today.  The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University provides fact sheets and timelines highlighting historic firsts for women: who have run for the Presidency (the first was Victoria Woodhull who ran on the Equal Rights Party ticket in 1872), elected to Senate (the first woman elected to the Senate was Hattie Wyatt Caraway (AR) in 1931), elected to the House (Jeannette Rankin was the first elected in 1917 and the only lawmaker to vote against U.S. entry into both world wars!), and of color (Soledad Chacon was elected Secretary of State in New Mexico in 1923.  She was the first Latina and woman of color to hold a statewide elected executive office, Cora Belle Reynolds Anderson was the first Native American elected to a state legislature in 1924 (Michigan) and Minnie Buckingham Harper was the first Black woman in a state legislature).  Illinois can boast Carole Mosely Braun as the first female African-American Senator (1993-1999) and Michelle Obama as the first African-American first lady of the U.S.  But we still have a long way to go.  Visit the CAWP website to see a historic timeline highlighting other significant firsts and the progression of successes leading up to recent achievements and statistics at all levels of government. 

For access to more resources on women and the law visit Brookens’ LibGuide Women & Gender Studies – Law as well as the Legal Studies LibGuide.    

A couple of specialized databases for accessing historic primary source material on or by women are the following:   

Gerritsen Collection: The Gerritsen Collection was begun by Aletta Jacobs Gerritsen in the late 1800s. By the time their successors finished their work in 1945, the Gerritsen Collection was the greatest single source for the study of women’s history in the world, with materials spanning four centuries and 15 languages.  The primary source materials date from 1543 to 1945 focusing on Europe, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand.   

Women and Social Movements in the United States:  The focus of this resource is on women’s activism and spans four centuries from 1600-2000.  There are over 125 document projects and archives, approximately 4,700 publications, a chronology of women’s history, teaching tools, book and web site reviews, archival news regarding primary sources in U.S. Women’s History, a digital archive with a focus on federal, state, and local commissions on the Status of Women between 1961 and 2005.   It also includes a dictionary of social movements and organization along with an online edition of the five-volume biographical dictionary, Notable American Women (1971-2004).