EIU Booth Library

Author to speak about disability and inclusivity

Posted on October 31st, 2019

Shane Burcaw, author, blogger, and entrepreneur, and his fiancée, Hannah Aylward, will visit EIU to talk about disability and inclusivity from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Nov. 4 at   the Buzzard Auditorium.

Burcaw, author of “Laughing at My Nightmare,” “Not So Different: What You Really Want to Ask About Having a Disability,” and “Strangers Assume My Girlfriend is My Nurse,” lives with Spinal Muscular Atrophy and is coming to share his message and experiences.

Burcaw grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Moravian College with an English degree. In 2011, he started his blog, Laughing at My Nightmare, and uses humor to address his struggles.

He also started a nonprofit organization with his cousin to help those living with muscular atrophy. His fiancée and he have a YouTube channel called Squirmy and Grubs, showing their lives as an interabled couple.

Burcaw’s talk is free and open to the public. The event has been organized by Michele McDaniel, coordinator of the Ballenger Teachers Center at Booth Library, and Dr. Christina Edmonds-Behrend, professor of special education.

 

Moon exhibit on display at Lake Land

Posted on October 29th, 2019

“On the Shoulders of Giants: The Moon and Beyond,” an exhibit commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the moon landing, as well as examining current and future space exploration, will be on display at the Lake Land College Library from Nov. 7 through Dec. 2. The exhibit was curated at Booth Library on the campus of Eastern Illinois University.

“On the Shoulders of Giants” will include a look at Apollo 11 and other Apollo missions; Astronauts who Walked on the Moon; Women in Space; Space and Literature, Movies, and TV; and more. These exhibits will contain details of the Apollo 11 mission and how other Apollo missions were different in their objectives; how women contributed to space exploration, including the first woman launched into space in 1963; and the stories and details of the 12 astronauts who had the opportunity to walk on the moon.

For more information on “On the Shoulders of Giants,” visit https://library.eiu.edu/exhibits/space/.

Naxos Music Library: Classical

Posted on October 23rd, 2019

Booth Library now subscribes to Naxos Music Library, a music streaming service that has both classical and jazz genres. Naxos has collected over 2.2 million classical tracks from almost 150,000 albums that students can stream. Naxos Jazz Music Library has over 200,000 tracks from over 9500 CDs. We will focus on the classical genres today, but another Naxos post will explore the Jazz collection.

Getting to the Naxos Music Library from Booth’s homepage is easy. Click on the database option in the “Articles” tab.

Then click on the “N” to get to databases starting with “N”. After that, it is as simple as scrolling down and clicking on the link to go to Naxos Music Library. (Below)

Naxos Music Library has many different resources and ways to sort through their extensive collection. The Naxos Music Library homepage has featured albums on it, which may include newly added or recently released albums.

Many of these new albums can be found on the left side of the page under “New & News.” This tab has both recent additions, but also new classical releases sortable by record label or by category. This can be very helpful to find a recent recording of classical works from all over the world. Finally, the smaller tab that says “News” has small updates and additions of record labels that have recently joined Naxos.

The music can also be sorted by artists and composers under the “people” tab. In addition to this, there is an option to search through these artists and composers to find a specific name. There is a “categories” tab as well. This helps you find certain subgenres of music within the classical realm like Orchestral, Vocal, Instrumental, Ballet, etc. Finally, in the next tab, there is an option to sort by record label that the music was released on, alphabetically.

If you are searching for a specific piece of music, there are a variety of different methods to accomplish this. One effective method is to use the search box. If you wanted to listen to Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, you might type into the search box in the upper right corner of the webpage “Mahler No. 5.” One of the results is that recording by the London Symphony Orchestra. (Above)

After clicking on it, there are many different options to consider. On the left hand column, there are options to view the front and back cover of the CD as well as the booklet inside. It also goes into specific details about the albums information, such as the category of music, composer, artists performing, etc. To listen to the album, just click the play button on the right side of the screen. If there are specific tracks you wish to view, then simply click on the checkbox and again click the play button.

Naxos Music Library has many different resources beyond what is talked about here. Even the diverse classical music selection and functionality of the website is easy to use for the everyday college student, a music major, or someone who simply enjoys classical music. In addition to this, Booth Library has access to many different musical recordings and scores. With Booth Library and Naxos, classical music is easy to access and listen to.

Game Nights planned Oct. 21 and 23

Posted on October 18th, 2019

Booth Library and the EIU Gamers’ Guild will host a Game Night event at 7 p.m. on both Oct. 21 and Oct. 23 in the library’s Atrium.

A large selection of board games and card games, such as Monopoly, Catan, Betrayal at House on the Hill, Connect Four and Life, will be available to play. The Gamers Guild is also offering the classic game of Dungeons and Dragons for beginning players or those who are curious to try it out. This event is a great opportunity to talk to EIU’s best gamers and connect with them over gaming.

This event is free and open to the public. Game Night is planned in conjunction with EIU’s Homecoming Week, Oct. 21-26, with the theme of “Game On.”

Jazz: An American Art Form

Posted on October 16th, 2019

At Booth Library this month, we’re celebrating Jazz. The style of jazz most focused on in the list below is of the bebop, post-bop, and modal jazz genres emblematic of the mid-twentieth century decades of the 1940s-1960s. Timeless artists like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Charlie Parker, “Cannonball” Adderley, and more populate the discs and literature in this display. Bebop, post-bop and modal subgenres consist of wailing fast, exciting, flowing bebop tunes like “Night in Tunisia” as well as slow, unique, personal modal charts like “So What.” The books tell the stories of these musicians and their personal struggles, but also the highs from innovating and playing jazz.

You can find playlists of the essential jazz playlist here as well as the top jazz artists here.

The selected titles discs and LPs are on display on the third floor corridor and all are available for checkout:

You may also peruse our large collection of films about Jazz both on DVD and streaming.

Try a variety of library databases

Posted on October 2nd, 2019

Try-It! Illinois 2019, the annual statewide database trial sponsored by Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White and the Illinois State Library, is now available.

Try-It! Illinois offers the opportunity to survey and evaluate a wide variety of electronic resources. Thanks to the partnerships between Illinois State Library and the participating electronic resource vendors, there is no charge for accessing these databases during Try-It! Illinois. The trial period lasts through Nov. 30, 2019.

Vendors include ABC-CLIO, Scholastic Inc., Bloomsbury, EBSCO, Oxford University Press, ProQuest, SAGE, InfoBASE, FactCite, and more. To access Try-It! Illinois, please visit the login page at the Booth Library website and enter your EIU netID and password.

 

October is Energy Awareness Month

Posted on October 1st, 2019

Several titles are on display and are available for checkout on the third floor corridor through the month of October. The titles were selected by graduate students from the Master of Science in Sustainable Energy program eiu.edu/sustainable/  from the School of Technology and are intended to help raise awareness for sustainable energy and good energy conservation practices. Associated with the Energy Awareness Month display will be a workshop on energy conservation. The workshop will be held on October 15, 2019 from 3-5 pm in the Edgar room of Booth Library.