Streamers mark books that are being considered for deselection.

Deselection means that we’re evaluating our collection and removing the books and media that aren’t a good fit anymore. As undergrads, you’re more likely to be doing research on current events and contemporary topics. We want our collection to be current, relevant, and useful to you in what you’re working on, so materials that are very old or out-of-date need to be removed. If you do happen to be looking for historical material and are worried about not being able to find it, rest easy – you’ll still be able to find the books we remove in other libraries, or request them from our storage facilities. We’re just reshuffling things so that every book is in its most appropriate place.

A graduate assistant diligently checking book information.

The first step in the process is to identify books that fall outside our desired date range. For this project, that’s anything published in 1980 or before. These books are marked with streamers containing information about their physical condition (are they marked up or damaged?) and their representation in the campus collection as a whole (do we have lots of copies in other libraries? Or does the UGL have the only one?). After the books are marked by the first group of librarians, a second group goes through and decides what needs to go and what should stay, based on the streamer information. The less relevant, redundant or damaged books get moved to more appropriate locations, leaving lots of gappy shelves in the UGL.

Holey shelves, Batman!

What are we gonna do with all this space? Well, obviously, these gaps mean we have more room to put newer and more relevant material – keep an eye on our Pinterest boards (like this one) to see what new stuff we’re adding right now! Or, you could always suggest a purchase. We’re also planning to remove some shelves completely in favor of more seating and tables: we know how hard it is to find a study spot during the midterm//finals rush, especially one that’s near an outlet. Some of the space will also be turned into an audio recording booth as part of our expanding media commons.

In short, lots of exciting things are happening in the lower level. Keep visiting us to see how  things are changing, and let us know what you think!

(Also, a short note on hours: the UGL and all campus libraries will be closed for Memorial Day on Monday, May 27th. We’ll go back to our regular summer hours the following day. See you around!)

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons under the Creative Commons license

If you’re taking a little break during Summer I, don’t forget we have lots of stuff to keep you entertained: new books and movies are arriving regularly (check the New Book shelves on the upper level for our latest additions); we’ve got loads of video games; and don’t forget about our loanable tech items, too!

If you’re sticking around and taking classes during Summer I, we’ve got stuff for you, too! Our reference services will still be available for all of your research questions! This summer, we won’t have a librarian sitting at the Research Desk, but if you have a question about finding sources, using databases, locating statistics or boning up on background info, ask at the Circulation Desk, and they can get one of our “on call” librarians or graduate assistants to come out and help. Ask A Librarian chat service will also be available during Summer I.

Just as a reminder: The UGL will be open M-Th: 8:30am-6pm; F: 8:30am-5pm and Sa-Sun: 1pm-5pm. If you want to visit another library on campus this summer, check out the whole summer schedule.

Alma photo courtesy of illinois.edu/blog

If you are graduating, you don’t have to entirely say goodbye to the library, though! We’ve got great resources for graduates! Check out the guide to Using the Library After Graduation and more info on Services for Alumni.

You can also keep up with the latest in UGL happenings by following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook, or following our boards on Pinterest. (We know you’re gonna be nostalgic for the all-nighters you pulled here. It’s okay to admit it. We get it.)

If you’re not graduating yet, don’t fret! We have plenty of awesome stuff in store for the summer and next school year, too. Keep in touch, come say hello, and stake out your prime study space for next fall! Remember, we’ll be closed this Saturday and Sunday for graduation weekend, but we’ll be back up and running on Monday, May 13 for Summer I hours.

Thank you, seniors, for helping make our work at the library special and important. After all, the library is here to support YOU! Good luck to all the graduates as you embark on your next adventure. And remember, you’ve always got a friend in the UGL!

We’re here for you–all night, every night during finals week.

Here are our special hours for finals week:

• The UGL will be open continuously from now until Friday, May 10th, when we’ll close at 7 PM.
• If you plan on hanging with us all night, read our tips to get the most out of the library services.
• The UGL will remain closed the weekend of commencement, May 11-12.

We’ll start our summer hours on Monday, May 13th. So if you’ll be hanging with us in Chambana this summer, be sure to watch our blog, Twitter, and Facebook for hours updates.

Cuddle up with a book and a pup!

We know how stressful finishing classes can be—especially at the end of the school year. So if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed, need a study break, or just simply love dogs, make sure you stop by to visit.

Sam the Alaskan Malamute and Raven the standard Poodle will be back (Read more about them here!), courtesy of the Champaign-Urbana Canine Connection.

American Fact Finder is hosted by the U.S. Census and is a good source for data about agriculture, education, employment, health, law, etc. Their website features valuable links to other official statistical resources, both domestic and international. Using the Guided Search tool enables you to tell the database exactly what you’re looking for, in an easy, step-by-step format.

To get to American Fact Finder, you simply start at the UGL homepage, and click on “How do I?” in the top right corner:

From there, you’ll look for the heading for “Find Sources” and then click on “Statistics”:

Finally, you’ll see a selection of databases designed for statistics, and you’ll click on “American Fact Finder”:

Once you’re in the database, you’ll see an option on the left side of your screen for “Guided Search.” Just select that option, and follow the link to get started.

The guided search tool will now walk you through several steps to help you narrow  the information you can access. You start with selecting what kind of information you want (like people, industries, housing, or a specific table or dataset). Next you’ll choose topic areas (like age, education, race, etc.), then location (or geography), and on until you can see results that match your criteria. You can add as many topics, geographies, etc., as you like.

Then the database will give you tables and stats based on your criteria, and you can also easily see what census the information has pulled from, so you know how recent it is. Pretty nifty, huh? This is only one librarian-approved source for statistics. If you find yourself needing other types of stats, check out the UGL’s statistics guide for more great sources of information.

This does not come close to representing how many books you all posted.

Usually when reading recommendations get posted on our blog, it means a librarian sat down and thought about books for a while (as librarians tend to do) before making a list and posting it for your perusal. It’s fun for us and hopefully for you, too! That’s not how this post got made, however – this week, we thought we’d turn it over to you.

if you visited the UGL in person last week, you may have noticed a whiteboard just inside the doors of the upper level. The whiteboard wanted to know what books had influenced you the most, and as you can see the picture above, lots of you responded! The board stayed up for a few more days after this picture was taken, so even more people wrote down and posted their most influential reads as time went on. Book titles filled up both sides and even started creeping around the edges.

Since you were all so eager to share your recommendations with each other (and showed a lot of variety in your choices) we’ve made today’s readers’ advisory based on the books you posted to the board. If you saw an interesting title on the board, maybe you’ll find it linked below and check it out – and if it’s one of the many we missed, you can look it up in the catalog or ask a librarian to help you find it.

What book has influenced you the most, Club UGL?

Whew! That’s a load of good books right there, and it doesn’t even begin to cover it. If you contributed to the board (and therefore today’s post) thanks for you contributions. If you missed out, feel free to share your recommendations now in the comments, and keep an eye out for future whiteboard questions in the UGL!

Aside from his renowned writing style and deep love for the movies, Ebert was also dedicated to his hometown of Urbana and his alma mater, the University of Illinois. Check out the moving blog brought to you by our friends at the other end of the tunnel, the University Archives. Not only do they have a great collection of Ebert’s papers and correspondence, they also have interesting info on his life and time as a student at Illinois, including his tenure as editor of the DI.

If you’re looking for more information about this ground-breaking (and oft-controversial) film critic, devotee of the motion picture, and proud U of I journalism student, the library has plenty of his books:

 Awake in the Dark: The Best of Roger Ebert, Forty Years of Reviews, Essays, and Interviews

Scorsese By Ebert

I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie

Life Itself: A Memoir

Roger Ebert’s Four-Star Reviews: 1967-2007

An Illini Century: 100 Years of Campus Life

The Perfect London Walk

A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length: More Movies that Suck

For other books by Ebert, head to the online catalog. Type Ebert, Roger (the best format when searching for authors) in the search box, and change the drop-down menu from “Keyword” to “Author.” Happy reading and hats off to an admirable man and friend of the University, library and the fields of journalism and film.

First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April. It asks us to take a week out of our crazy-busy year and consider how much libraries contribute to our lives as students and as community members. Here at the UGL, we work hard to offer you the space, materials, and helpful staff you need to be successful as students and in the future.

If you want to bask in the library love this week, there are a lot of things you can do to explore different libraries on campus. Start with our library bucket list. Other things to consider?

• Check out “The James Bond Theme: Music to Live, Die, and Love Another Day” Exhibit at the Sousa Archives.
• Attend the Savvy Researcher Workshop on using the library after graduation to learn how you can continue to use library services after graduating from this fine institution.
• Scope out the Rare Book & Manuscripts Library’s “Casino Royale and Beyond: Sixty Years of Ian Fleming’s Literary Bond” Exhibit where you can see different editions of the first James Bond novel, as well as letters, reviews, photos, and more.

Also consider saying thanks to the library workers you encounter on Tuesday, April 16, which is National Library Workers Day. And on Thursday, April 18, it’s Support Teen Literature Day, so stop in to the Center for Children’s Books or the Education library’s Children & Young Adult Lit Collection.

There are so many ways libraries impact our lives every day, so this week, take some time to say thanks. Let us know your favorite things about #ClubUGL in the comments or share your UGL love with us on Facebook or Twitter (#libraryweek) or visit our Library Love board on Pinterest.

We’ve made a handy library ‘bucket list’ to help you explore all the secret levels and unlock all the achievements in your beloved UIUC library system. Be forewarned – the more things you do on this list, the more you’ll understand how awesome the library is, and you may never want to leave.

Image courtesy of homedepot.com

• View the Gutenberg Bible fragments stored in the Rare Book Collection
  
• Watch an entire television series from the UGL Media Collection
• Go bird-watching in the Main Library (by which we mean check out their Audubon prints!)
• Visit the Center for Children’s Books or the S-Collection, find your favorite children’s book, and be transported back to your childhood
• Read an entire comic book series from the UGL’s graphic novel collection
• Predict your post-college future with divination books from the Mandeville collection
• Try to find a book on your own in the main stacks – look out for ghosts, mole people, and low ceilings!
• If the main stacks aren’t creepy enough for you, try the stacks in the Math Library
• If the Math stacks are too creepy for you, you can just check out the lovely murals in their rotunda!
• Ask QB all your burning questions! If you don’t ask now, when will you ever find out?
• Publicly defeat your friends at a game from the gaming collection
• Get an international perspective on the news in the Communications Library News Lounge
• Take a gander at the Sousa Archive’s current exhibitions (then go home and make Sousa’s favorite spaghetti)
• Read the plaque next to the Morrow Plots – that’s the weird corn patch next door to the UGL. That corn is part of why the Undergrad is Underground – learn more about it!
• Step outside into the UGL courtyard to enjoy the spring sunshine and read all of the words engraved around the upper wall
• There are plenty more interesting things in the other libraries on campus – to round out the list, why don’t you try to visit them all?

If you’ve got a few semesters to go before you graduate, you can of course still do the things on this list – you can just do them at a more leisurely pace! If you enjoy completing this list (or if you think of any important library attractions that we forgot) make sure to tell us about it in the comments, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter. Good luck!