PUBLICATIONS  Inside Illinois     Vol. 27, No. 3, Aug. 2, 2007

brief notes

University Library

Decade of Urbana Daily Courier to be available online

The UI Library has digitally opened yet another window to the past.

It has produced a digitized version of the Urbana Daily Courier for the years 1916 to 1925, “offering extensive documentation of the development of commerce and industry, the course of local and regional politics and the history of cultural and social life in our community, as well as the local experience of global events,” said Mary Stuart, the head of the history, philosophy and newspaper library, the departmental library that has undertaken the project.

The digital Courier was launched July 28 during a free public presentation in the auditorium of the Urbana Free Library. The digital newspaper is at www.uiuc.edu/goto/digitalnews.

Stuart and her colleagues demonstrated the use of the database, discussed their ongoing work and future digitization plans and shared information about other historic newspaper digitization projects.

“Perhaps more than any other original source document, historic newspapers provide a window onto our past,” Stuart said. “No other primary source conveys as readily and vividly the sensibility of an era and the feel of a place.” Stuart said that the potential uses of the digital Courier are numerous, and that she hopes that the new digital Courier “will serve as a catalyst for the study of local history.”

According to Stuart, the decade that was digitized spans many pivotal events in world history – the entry of the U.S. into World War I, the Russian Revolutions of 1917 and the flu pandemic – as well as key developments in local and regional history – the Black Sox scandal, the development of hybrid seed corn, the college career of Red Grange and the opening of Chanute Aviation Field in Rantoul.

The rich primary source material also reflects on the Scopes trial, the East St. Louis riots of 1917, the founding of the Ku Klux Klan, prohibition, female suffrage, postwar recovery, and the rapid rise of science and technology.

The project was funded by a grant from the Illinois State Library under the Library Services and Technology Act, with additional support from the Clifford Family Endowment.

Preserve memories

Home Movie Day is Aug. 11

Central Illinois residents have the opportunity to pull old home movies out of the closet, learn how to protect them, and have them screened in public as WILL AM-FM-TV and the UI Library sponsor Home Movie Day from 1 to 5 p.m. Aug. 11.

The free event at WILL’s Campbell Hall for Public Telecommunication will offer a film clinic for assessing the condition of older films, information on how to care for family films and videos, and continuous screenings of home movies brought in by participants. Preservation specialists will explain why transferring film to video or digital media does not mean that the images will last forever.

If you bring your films on Home Movie Day, archivists will examine them and offer guidance on preservation and reformatting.

If you don’t have old home movies, you are welcome to just come and watch.

Home Movie Day, with events in cities around the world, began in 2003 when a small group of film archivists decided to go beyond traditional preservation methods to try to save reels of home movies shot on film during the 20th century.

Crop Sciences Research and Education Center

Agronomy Day will be Aug. 16

Agronomy Day 2007 will be Aug. 16 at the Crop Sciences Research and Education Center on the UI’s Urbana campus. The theme for this year’s Agronomy Day is “Growing Our Future.”

This 51st consecutive Agronomy Day is a partnership among several academic units in the UI College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. The event features four tours highlighting the latest developments in agricultural research, as well as numerous tent displays.

A program at noon will feature Hans Blaschek, the director of the UI Center for Advanced BioEnergy Research. He will discuss the future of bioenergy and implications for Illinois agriculture.

“Agronomy Day provides faculty (members) with the chance to discuss their latest research findings with clientele from Illinois and neighboring states,” said Pat Tranel, a professor of molecular weed science in the department of crop sciences and chairperson for Agronomy Day. “The major focuses of this year’s program will be bioenergy in Illinois and the expanding career opportunities for students in the field of crop sciences.”

Tour topics will cover research on invasive insects and weeds, SCN management, soybean rust, biodiesel and alternative energy sources.

Agronomy Day will begin at 7 a.m. Hour-long wagon tours around the research plots will repeat every half-hour as groups are available. Lunch will be available at a nominal charge.

The Crop Sciences Research and Education Center is located south of the UI campus off of St. Mary’s Road on South Wright Street Extended.

Additional information about Agronomy Day 2007 is available at www.cropsci.uiuc.edu/agronomyday, or contact Sharon Conatser, 333-4256.

Local educators and administrators

Professional development available

Eighty local teachers, nearly double the number from last year – along with more than 40 school administrators – were expected to take part in the third annual Chancellor’s Academy, which started July 30.

The two-week academy, started in 2005, is a concentrated professional development program resulting from a partnership among the Champaign and Urbana public schools and the UI, with the College of Education acting as the host.

Forty elementary teachers will attend the first week of the program, and 40 middle- and high-school teachers will attend the second week. The administrators, mostly from elementary schools, will attend a workshop Aug. 2-3.

As in the first two years, the emphasis in this year’s academy will be on literacy, according to Julia Johnson Connor, the director of the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities, a new unit within the College of Education. The center is now responsible for coordinating the academy in conjunction with a planning committee that comprises university and school personnel. In particular, the academy will focus on how to improve literacy through content areas other than language arts or English, Connor said. Among the secondary teachers attending, for instance, will be those teaching business, physical education, music, science and math.

“This partnership is a really a model for how the university and our local communities can make each other stronger,” said Chancellor Richard Herman. “This program blurs the old lines between the world of practice and the world of academia.

“What we are seeing instead is a community of learning developing here,” Herman said. “Our children are getting new opportunities to learn through our teachers and faculty working together to build better teaching models. Our faculty, in turn, are fully engaged with the issues that teachers face every day. We all get better, together.”

The two weeks of the academy, along with other aspects of the program that run throughout the year, are “very partner-directed,” Connor said, referring to the schools. Many of the themes and daily topics, as well as some of the instructors, were suggested by local educators, she said. Activities planned for the coming school year are based on the needs of the schools and individual teachers. “It’s truly a joint project,” she said.

Speakers and facilitators for the academy will include UI regional and district faculty members, along with several nationally recognized experts by way of video conferencing, Connor said. Both weeks will include significant time for teachers to collaborate and plan in teams organized by school and grade level or content area.

Funding for the program comes from the Illinois campus, which pays for faculty time, books and supplies, and a $500 stipend for each participating teacher.

One addition to the program this year is the recent hiring of two local teachers, Phillip Wilder and Haeny Yoon, to work as teacher collaborators, Connor said. “Both will be very instrumental in carrying forward academic-year activities,” she said, which may include leading workshops, meeting with study groups and individual teachers, and lining up resources.

The plan for those in the position is that they work three years with the Chancellor’s Academy program and then return to the school districts, Connor said.

‘Compassionate Listening’ project

Writers wanted for reading Aug. 18

The Whirlwind Project 2007 invites poets, as well as fiction, and creative non-fiction writers to share poems, brief excerpts of stories, or essays related to the theme of “Compassionate Listening – Hearing and Heeding With the Heart.”  Expressing honest emotion, listening with empathy and tenderness, suspending judgments, and being still in a posture of respect and understanding are all components of compassionate listening. Through art, music, poetry and community dialogues, Whirlwind will explore the practice of listening and heeding with one’s heart as a process toward healing and trust.

The event will be Aug. 18 at Pages for All Ages bookstore, 1201 Savoy Plaza, Savoy.

Works should consist of something that can be read in a church, temple, mosque, or in front of your grandmother. However, they do not have to be specifically religious in nature.

Those who wish to read their work at the event should e-mail Marva Nelson at manelson@parkland.edu. This event is free and all ages are welcome.

Among the many sponsors of the event are Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana, Channing-Murray Foundation, Hillel Foundation of the UI, Spurlock Museum, UI department of theatre, UI Program for the Study of Religion, UI Program in Jewish Culture and Society, University YMCA, Wesley Church and Foundation and WILL AM-FM.

Library hours; interlibrary loans

Library announces changes

The UI Library is announcing two changes in its services – one temporary, the other permanent.

The temporary change is that all campus libraries will be closed from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 10 to allow library staff members to prepare for the new semester. Scott Walter, associate university librarian for services, can respond to questions about the closure at swalter@illinois.edu or 333-0318.

The permanent change is that the library has relocated its interlibrary loan pickups and returns site. Effective immediately, the central circulation desk on the second floor of the Library, 1408 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, will serve as the interlibrary loan pickups and returns site.

The site change will streamline the activities of interlibrary loan and document delivery by offering a central and convenient location for all services, including the management of the special handling of items such as film, fiche, multi-volume sets, building-use only and other exceptional formats.

The library will continue to mail faculty items to those who have arranged for that option. There may be exceptions for items that cannot be delivered through campus mail.

For more information about this move, contact Cherié Weible at cweible@illinois.edu or 244-9907. For information about interlibrary loan and document delivery services, go to www.library.uiuc.edu/irrc/.

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