EIU Booth Library

Public Presentations Announced for EIU Children’s Literature Symposium

Posted on February 11th, 2026

CHARLESTON – Booth Library invites the campus and community to join us Wednesday and Thursday, February 25 and 26, for two featured public talks as part of the EIU Children’s Literature Symposium.

The EIU Children’s Literature Symposium is a two-day celebration honoring the importance, craftsmanship, and rich history of literature created for children. Through partnerships between Booth Library’s Ballenger Teachers Center, the EIU College of Education and Department of English, Charleston CUSD #1 elementary schools, and St. John’s Lutheran School, the symposium exemplifies the strong and collaborative bonds between Eastern Illinois University and the surrounding community.

The talks will allow the campus and greater community to engage with two accomplished professionals in the field of children’s literature. Both presentations are free and open to the public.

Wednesday, February 25:
5:00 p.m. Reception
5:30 p.m. Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Ph.D.
Making Books for ALL Children: A Celebration of My Life’s Work
Dr. Gilchrist will join us for an Alumni edition of our speaker series, Authors@EIU. She has illustrated 109 children’s books, authored 5 children’s books and a host of academic and textbook illustrations. Dr. Gilchrist holds a B.S. degree in Art Education from EIU; an M.A. in Painting from the University of Northern Iowa; an M.F.A. from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a Ph.D. in English from Madison University.

*The Black Student Union RSO is co-hosting a documentary screening of Colors of Love: The Jan Spivey Gilchrist Story, on Monday, February 23 at 5 p.m. in the Library’s Center for Student Innovation. The documentary illustrates Gilchrist’s triumph from the dark shadows of the civil rights era to ascend as a heralded children’s book illustrator and author.

Thursday, February 26:
5:00 p.m. Reception
5:30 p.m. Suzan Alteri, Ph.D.
Racism and Representation in Children’s Literature
Dr. Alteri is Assistant Director of the Center for Children’s Books at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. She previously served as Curator of the Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature at the University of Florida, one of the world’s most significant collections documenting the history of children’s books.

Each presentation will be followed by question-and-answer sessions. Parking is free and open to the public after 5:00 p.m.

Also publicly available Thursday, February 26, at 4:00 p.m. will be Children’s Literature Research Lightning Rounds in which Faculty scholars who conduct research in the field of children’s literature will share their findings.

Community members, students, faculty, and staff are invited to attend our public events to celebrate the importance of literature for children and early learning, and to engage with leading voices in children’s literature scholarship, including a distinguished EIU alumna.

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Diane Highland
Events & Exhibits Coordinator, Booth Library
dehighland@eiu.edu / 217-581-6061

Call for Student Submissions: Booth Library Awards for Excellence in Student Research & Creative Works 2026

Posted on February 9th, 2026

Booth Library at Eastern Illinois University invites students to submit their work for the 17th Annual Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Works. This program celebrates outstanding student scholarship and creativity that makes meaningful use of Booth Library’s resources, services, spaces, or expertise.

Eligibility

The competition is open to all Eastern Illinois University students (undergraduate and graduate) who are or were enrolled during the current academic year. Submissions must represent original work completed within the past 12 months.

Individual and group projects are welcome. Only one submission per person is allowed. For group projects, please clearly describe each participant’s role and contribution.

Scope of Submissions

Student research and creative works may take many forms, including but not limited to:

• Written research papers
• Artistic works or exhibits
• Musical compositions or performances
• Videos, podcasts, documentaries, or oral histories
• Data analysis or visualizations
• Performances or other creative projects

Written submissions are limited to 25 pages. Students may submit portions of a thesis, provided a summary or outline of the remaining work is included. All submissions should be presented in a way that can be understood by an interdisciplinary review panel.

Use of Booth Library Resources

A central component of this award is demonstrating how Booth Library contributed to your project’s success. Each submission must include a detailed explanation of how you used library materials, spaces, technologies, services, or staff support during your research or creative process.

Citations and Academic Integrity

All submissions that rely on the work of others must include a complete list of references following a standard citation style. Use of AI tools is permitted but must be fully disclosed and described. Plagiarism or other breaches of academic integrity will result in disqualification.

Awards

Prizes will be awarded in separate undergraduate and graduate categories:

Graduate Students

• First Place: $500
• Second Place: $400
• Third Place: $300

Undergraduate Students

• First Place: $300
• Second Place: $200
• Third Place: $100

Award recipients will also receive certificates of recognition. Winning entries will be honored during National Library Week 2026 (April 19–25), and a digital copy of each winning work will be added to EIU’s institutional repository, The Keep.

The 2025–2026 student awards are funded by gifts from the friends of Carl Lorber, Jr., Professor Emeritus, former longtime head of Reference Services at Booth Library, and through the philanthropic support of the Coles County Zythological Society.

Important Dates

• Submission Deadline: March 6, 2026, by 11:59 p.m. CST
• Notification of Winners: By April 1, 2026
• Awards Celebration: National Library Week, April 19–25, 2026

Incomplete submissions will not receive full consideration.

Questions?

For more information, please contact:
Brian W. Keith
Dean of Booth Library
(217) 581-6061
bwkeith@eiu.edu

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MEDIA CONTACT:
Diane Highland, Booth Library
dehighland@eiu.edu
217-581-6061

Thousands of new resources were added to Booth’s collections in January

Posted on February 6th, 2026

Booth Library’s collections added a multitude of new items last month!  During January 2026, Booth Library acquired and cataloged 376 physical items (books, DVDs, government documents, archival resources, and more) and over 14,400 electronic resources (including ebooks, ejournals, digital audiobooks, EIU student theses, and streaming videos). Please find the lists of new items at the links below. Individual issues of current periodicals are excluded. All items are discoverable through the library’s online catalog.

New acquisitions include items selected for purchase by Booth’s subject librarians, donations, re-cataloged library items, freely available government publications, and consortium-wide purchases.

Please contact your subject librarian with any questions.

EIU to Celebrate Faculty Authors at Spring 2026 Authors@EIU Events at Booth Library 

Posted on February 5th, 2026

(Charleston, IL) – Eastern Illinois University’s Mary J. Booth Library invites the campus and community to participate in the Spring 2026 installment of Booth Library’s annual speaker series, Authors@EIU. Through this series, the library will recognize and celebrate EIU’s intellectually vibrant community and its contributions to discovery, knowledge, creation, and public learning. 

During the Spring 2026 semester, six authors will be featured across three Authors@EIU events, celebrating the research, scholarship, and creative achievements of Eastern Illinois University faculty and alumni. Booth Library staff looks forward to hosting these free events and facilitating engaging dialogue as EIU and its local communities celebrate the important scholarly and creative accomplishments of these authors. 

Each event will include a shared reception beginning at 5 p.m., followed by author presentations and Q&A sessions starting at 5:30 p.m. Campus parking and admission to these events are free. 

Additional details for the Spring 2026 Authors@EIU events include: 

• Wednesday, February 25: 
  • Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Ph.D. 
    Spivey Gilchrist (’73) is an award-winning author and illustrator of children’s books, an EIU Art Education alumna, a 1992 EIU Distinguished Alumna Award recipient, and former member of the EIU Board of Trustees (2013-2019). Her presentation will serve as a capstone event for the 2026 Children’s Literature Symposium, which will be held on EIU’s campus February 25 and 26 of this year. 
• Thursday, April 9: 
  • Alan Pocaro, Associate Professor, Art + Design, Printmaking and Foundations 
    Pocaro is associated with the New Aesthetics movement, an informal group of artists and writers who emphasize the physical and material nature of art. His writing focuses on art criticism, creative scholarship, exhibition reviews, and critical essays. His pieces have been featured in Chicago’s New City magazine, as well as The New Criterion, New American Paintings, artcritical, AbstractCritical, ART PAPERS, and CityBeat. Prior to joining EIU’s faculty, Porcaro taught at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and Miami University (Ohio). 
  • Gary Canivez, Ph.D., Professor, Psychology 
    Canivez served as editor of a recently published 2025 textbook he will discuss, titled Assessing Psychometric Fitness of Intelligence Tests: Toward Evidence-based Interpretation Practices by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. The textbook, intended for graduate students and professionals in psychology and related fields, covers the intersection of ethics, test standards, and psychometric properties while focusing on the ethical and scientific interpretation of intelligence tests and emphasizing the need for advanced psychometric knowledge for appropriate clinical and research use. 
• Wednesday, April 15:
  • Danelle Larson, Ph.D., Professor, Music Education and Director of the Music Education Division 
    Larson will engage in a discussion revolving around topics in her co-edited 2026 academic anthology Music Teaching and Learning in America’s Public Normal Schools by Bloomsbury Publishing. The book shares the histories of public normal schools and how American music-teacher education evolved from teacher education in those early institutions during a time when many eventually became state universities. 
  • Robin Murray, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of English and Joseph K. Heumann, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies 
    Murray and Heumann will discuss their 2024 co-authored book Eco-Teen Films (Routledge), emphasizing the juxtaposition of teen activism, international settings and filmmakers, and marginalized perspectives to focus on teens on film who are struggling with present and future, everyday eco-disasters amplified by climate change. 

The featured publications are available for loan to the public through Booth Library. For more information, visit go.eiu.edu/FacultyPubs. 

All members of the EIU and local communities are welcome, including students. 

Since opening as a dedicated library in 1950, Eastern Illinois University’s Booth Library has become a cornerstone of academic research and community engagement, serving not only EIU but also students, educators, and residents throughout Central Illinois. For more information about Booth Library or EIU’s Spring 2026 Authors@EIU series, contact Booth Library Exhibits & Events Coordinator Diane Highland at dehighland@eiu.edu or call (217) 581-6061.

EIU prepares students to accomplish their life goals through a combination of quality academics, personal relationships, and both on-campus and online learning opportunities. For more information about Eastern Illinois University, including its broad array of academic and career readiness programs, or any of EIU’s other community-based services and opportunities, visit eiu.edu or call EIU’s public information office at (217) 581-7400.