Collection development is a craft, a skill that requires expertise, hard work, and insight about your collections and community. We seek out data about our community through information collected through the census, local government, schools, and community organizations. We build connections with our patrons to find out what they are curious about and try to find materials that match their interests. We scour social media for recommendations, pour through review journals, talk to colleagues and friends, join publisher previews, check out on-sale lists, preview books on Edelweiss and...
2 June 2022
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23 May 2022
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Voices of Belonging is an interactive exhibit, created as a collaboration between several entities at Northern Illinois University: Northern Public Radio, the Divisions of Outreach, Engagement and Regional Development and Academic Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, as well as various campus and community partners. The exhibit is part of a continuing community and campus program focusing on belonging. The exhibit aims to deepen the communiversity understanding of belonging and othering by exploring personal lived experiences of campus and community members, and the insights of national...
13 May 2022
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The My Library Is… campaign is all about helping libraries do marketing and advocacy in new ways. And libraries aren't shy about discovering these new ways! Libraries are curious, creative places. Even though they might not have huge budgets to hire expensive graphic designers, videographers, etc., they constantly find a way to promote themselves and the programs and services they offer.
Many of them are using Canva. If you don’t know about it, Canva is a great free/low-cost tool that allows libraries to do their own graphic design and marketing....
9 May 2022
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Northern Illinois University is a Carnegie 2 research institution tucked away in DeKalb. It has the distinction of being home to Illinois' only Center for Southeast Asia Studies. The Founders Memorial Library holds a distinctive collection of materials to support the work of the Center. In addition to his responsibilities as the collection's curator, Hao Phan, has made significant contributions to preserving and providing access to primary research materials in Southeast Asia. I talked with Hao about his work with the Southeast Asia Collection at NIU.
Thank you for sharing...
2 May 2022
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Study Week and Finals Week can be a hectic time for everyone on college and university campuses. At Illinois Institute of Technology’s Paul V. Galvin Library we remain open 24 hours a day for 12 days straight during this period. It’s become a rite of passage for some of our students, individually or in groups, to study all night in the library at least once during their time with the university. In addition to providing our regular library services the last two weeks of the semester, we also offer de-stress activities for students using the space. During the pandemic we eliminated the...
25 April 2022
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Booth Library on the campus of Eastern Illinois University sponsored its 12th annual Edible Book Festival on April 4. It’s been a tradition to kick off National Library Week with this activity.
The edible creations were put on display throughout the day in the library’s foyer, and the public was invited to vote for their favorites. Viewer’s Choice awards were given to the top three vote-getters. Each winning team also received a gift card.
We were happy to present this year’s festival in person after hosting it virtually for the past few years. It’s very difficult to see all...
21 April 2022
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RAILS Member Engagement Manager Dan Bostrom talks with Andrea Perrin, Janine Asmus, Gail Meyer, & Robyn Whitlock about their letter published in the Chicago Tribune. These four Association of Illinois School Library Educators (AISLE) members discuss why school libraries are so important and what librarians can do to advocate for the profession.
ILA has published the full letter to their website, which you can view here: https://www.ila.org/news/2455/why-school-librarians-matter-to-...
18 April 2022
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The Lisle Library District has a long history of offering a variety of book groups, including the Science Fiction & Fantasy book group which has been meeting monthly for over 30 years and still has a few founding members, while the Food for Thought culinary book group is new as of this January. Our groups also cover Fiction, Nonfiction, and Mystery titles.
I surveyed the LLD book group facilitators for insights on their particular groups and on book groups in general, and the results are below:
Fixed on Fiction facilitated by Elizabeth Hopkins, Director...
14 April 2022
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“Learning is a treasure that follows its owner everywhere.” — Chinese Proverb
A library card opens the door to so many amazing items and opportunities that it can be easy to let a few go unnoticed. Back in “normal times,” our library staff members were always eager to share news and offerings with patrons in person, but the past two years of pandemic life has kept many visitors out of our buildings and away from valuable material, resources, and services. In an effort to reintroduce the community to what we have to offer and welcome them to come back in, the focus of our spring 2022...
4 April 2022
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Debbie Baaske, acting Member Engagement Manager speaks with Laura Turner, Librarian at the Technical Information Center at Caterpillar Inc. located outside of Peoria, IL. Laura talks about this highly specialized engineering library that serves all worldwide employees of Caterpillar. They also act as the company’s repository of internal reports and technical documentation for the entire history of Caterpillar.
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The My Library Is ... campaign
is a project of the Reaching Across Illinois Library System.