Library Blog

Congratulations to our prize winners!

Congratulations to our Raffle Winners!

Our Student Appreciation Week Raffle Winners are: 

Auditorium: Hendy Perez & Tong Liu

Schaumburg: Jessican Farris & Aeshaban Shah


Congratulations!  If you have not yet picked up your prize, stop by the Library!

Open Data = Open Government?

Can the Internet Make a More Open Government? Saul Hansell asks in his June 1st New York Times article. He writes,

 “The Obama presidential campaign made groundbreaking use of social networking sites and other tools to organize its supporters. President Obama has promised to use similar technology to bring citizens into government. As in so many other areas, turning promise to policy may well be more difficult than it sounded on the campaign trail.” 

Lately the web has been abuzz about how President Obama is seemingly fulfilling his promise of making the government more accountable by being more open and transparent. How can the government be more open? The Obama Administration is attempting to make government information (data) accessible and useful for the widest possible group of people. Open government data can mean increased accountability for politicians while at the same time fostering a push to innovate new services for the public. 

With this in mind, the Obama Administration has recently made live two very important websites that will be their first attempt at Open Data:

http://www.data.gov & http://www.regulations.gov/  

The purpose of Data.gov is to increase public access to high value, machine readable datasets generated by the Executive Branch of the Federal Government.

Regulations.gov is your source for all regulations (or rulemakings) issued by U.S. government agencies. On this site, you can find: 

•All Federal regulations that are open for public comment (i.e., proposed rules) and closed for comment (i.e., final rules) as published in the Federal Register. 
•Many Federal agency notices published in the Federal Register. 
•Additional supporting materials, public comments, and Federal agency guidance and adjudications.

 

You can find further progress on Open Government here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/

Keep your eyes open. Many politicians are beginning to use social sites and make frequent use of online services like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube to update the goings on of the political process and give their constituents a more transparent look into the government. If the question is, “Does Open Data mean and Open Government?” there is no real answer. The information has always been available and open to the public (with hoops and strings attached), but now it’s more of a question of how will we use this information that is no more than a few click away…literally at our fingertips.

John Updike 1932-2009

  John Updike, American novelist, poet, short story writer, art and literary critic, died on January 27, 2009 from lung cancer. Updike is best known for his Rabbit series: Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest. The Rabbit series focused on Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom, and his travails. Each book in the series detailed a decade (beginning with the 50s and ending with the 80s) and the effects that the prevailing social forces had on small-town America. Both Rabbit is Rich and Rabbit at Rest received the Pulitzer Prize. Updike was a most prolific writer, having penned more than 25 novels and a dozen short-story collections, as well as criticisms, and even children's books. He was a frequent contributor to the New Yorker and The New York Review of Books.

Here are some links to resources on John Updike:

RU Book Catalog

MLA International Bibliography  This is a database devoted to articles, books and dissertations on literature. 

LexisNexis Academic Universe: The New Yorker is indexed here, dating from 1999 to the present.

Paris Review Interview with John Updike, 1968: A noteworthy literary journal, The Paris Review is famous for its interviews. Read what Updike had to say.

Greetings from a new Library Reference Assistant

Hello, I'm Elizabeth, one of the new reference assistants here at the library. I started working here in September and I am excited to work at Roosevelt University where I get to be involved with a community full of individuals with such diverse backgrounds and interests. So far I have really enjoyed getting to know the students here and helping them learn to use all the resources the library offers and at the same time learning so much myself.

As for myself, I am currently working to get my Masters in Library and Information Science through the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I received my BA in Classical Studies before going on to get my JD and practice law for a while before deciding I wanted to work in libraries. I have lived in and around Chicago my whole life with the exception of one year I spent in Washington, DC. I hope to continue to work in academic libraries throughout my career as I very much enjoy working with students in this setting.

Federal Bailout of the Banking Crisis

       

      

Sub-prime mortgages, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac - the current economic crisis has given us a whole new jargon. And, all of a sudden Henry Paulson is a household name. (Who? See below for the answer.)

How can we make sense of all of this - how will it affect the country's economic health, as well as our own pocketbooks? The Internet contains several resources which can help you become informed. But - not all sources are created equally. A quick search of Google, using the term, "federal bailout" provides the usual thousands of hits. A closer examination, however, reveals that many of the sites are editorials and blogs. What's wrong with these sites? Nothing, if you are savvy about their purposes. An editorial is an opinion piece in a newspaper, magazine or journal. A blog is a personal editorial. While both can contain facts, the facts may not be substantiated. Reading blogs and editorials can be informative and entertaining, but they are primarily persuasive pieces, not informative in nature.

When you go to a web site, make sure that you understand who is sponsoring it. In researching information for this post, I came across an organization entitled, The Heritage Foundation. At a first glance, the site looked like a purely educational organization. However, in reading a description of the foundation, I discovered that it was a conservative think tank. Hold it a minute, all of you red-staters - I am not criticizing the foundation because it is conservative! The same holds true for blue-state web sites. The important thing is to be aware of the sponsors' agendas.

Okay - back to the original question. Where can you find information on the federal bailout?

• The United States Department of the Treasury This is the official website of the department, where you can find all sorts of information on the policies and activities of Treasury. You will also find a photo of Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury! (see question at top)
• CQ Weekly Congressional Quarterly Weekly presents a non-partisan analysis of news and events happening in the U.S. Congress. There is a wealth of information contained within this source, and issues have been archived dating back to 1983. *Note: This is a subscription database; it is not available on the free web.
• Value Line Another subscription database, and a highly-respected source. Value Line analyzes 8,000 stocks, 15,000 mutual funds, 80,000 options and other securities. The information is independent, objective and unbiased.                                                          

Get to know our new Library Assistants

The Roosevelt Library downtown has recently hired some new Library Reference Assistants. These great new additions to our team are all working on their Master's Degrees in Library Science and we'll be introducing them to you over the next few weeks. Feel free to stop by and introduce yourself.

Hi, I'm Katy.  As I am writing this post, it is the beginning of my second day on the job.  I am a new reference assistant at the library, and so far so good.  I am in my second semester of a Masters in Library and Information Sciences at Dominican University, and I have been living in Chicago for five years this October.

I graduated from The Ohio State University in December of 2001.  At OSU I had a double major of Theatre and English, and I participated in two study abroad programs to the UK while I was in school.  I also lived in England (in the lovely town of Bath) for six months after graduation.  It is a goal of mine to get back across the pond one day.

I moved to Chicago to pursue a theatre career, and accepted a six month apprenticeship in the audio department at Steppenwolf Theatre Company.  I still work at the theatre as an audio overhire, which means I run the sound effects, cues and microphones for the productions, but on a fill-in or temporary basis only.  I love being a part of live theatre productions; mostly my contributions are backstage.  I am a company member with 20% Theatre Company Chicago as well, we are an all women's theatre company and are beginning our sixth season with a world premiere play this November. 

I am really impressed by Roosevelt's commitment to social justice and acceptance.  So far, the staff here at the library has been very welcoming.  Roosevelt seems like a really great place to put into practice the things that I am learning in library school.  As I have just started learning about the ins and outs of working in a library, I am really looking forward to putting in to practice all those theories we've been talking about.  I am looking forward to helping students learn about the Roosevelt Library system and figuring out how to use the library to enrich their university experiences.  I am hoping to continue working in a college or university setting throughout my career and also continue to work in theatre, hopefully in a performing arts library or theatre reasearch institute, so this feels like a great place to start.

Undergraduate Research Awards

The Library celebrated Student Appreciation Week with a program announcing the winners of the Undergraduate Research Award.

Congratulations to the following students on their achievements!

Honorable Mentions:

($50 prize)

Kristina Simpson

Paper: "Prohibition, Monsters, and an Unlikely Meeting Place"

Faculty Sponsor: Professor Margaret Rung

Josh

(prefers to remain anonymous)

Paper: "Erasing Anarchy"

Faculty Sponsor: Professor Erik Gellman

Winner of the 2008 Undergraduate Research Award

($250 prize)

Danielle Nelson

Paper: "From Prayer to a New Feeling of Strength: Contrasts of Style in the Third Movement of Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 132"

Faculty Sponsor: Professor Greg Reish

Both the Schaumburg and downtown libraries celebrated the day with receptions honoring the winners. In keeping with the theme, "Get Jazzed at the RU Library!" entertainment was provided downtown by CCPA students, Laura Grill, David Holloway and Alan Linney; The Montage Trio. Schaumburg had their own jazz trio, comprised of other CCPA-ers, Jake Ramseyer, Andy Schlinder and Bryan Doherty. No party would be complete without food; cake and snacks were plentiful. A drawing was held, and two lucky people won iPods. Congrats to: Helen McManaman and Janetta Pegues!

Be sure to check out the photo album of the day's events at the top left corner of the blog.

Our thanks go to all of the students who entered the competition, and whose quality work made the decision a tough one, indeed.