Pushing Buttons

Posted on July 22, 2013 by CN

Looking for yet more ways to have fun this summer? Of course you are. And, of course, the UGL is here to help. We’ve got video games and everything you need to play them, so why not indulge in a gaming marathon before the fall semester starts and your life gets crazy again?

I’m somewhere in the UGL, eternally jumping! Come find me!

You can always come in and browse the shelves in our media collection to pick out a game, but if you want to see what we have from the comfort of your own home (or see everything we offer, not just what’s currently on the shelf and not checked out) you can also search for video games using the catalog. If you’re comfortable using the Classic Catalog, then we have a partial list of games for each console linked from the Games and Consoles page. If you’d rather use the VuFind catalog, here are some ways you can search in there.

To see basically every video game ever, go to the catalog and do a search for ‘Video Game,’ selecting ‘Subject’ from the drop-down menu next to the search box. The results this gives you will contain all our video games, but it will also contain books and movies about video games (like this one!). So, to make sure you get only video games, use the limiters on the right-hand side of the screen to choose ‘Software/Computer File’ as the format. This will take out all those books and give you only games – about 1,700 of them!

If you don’t want to look at all 1,700 results – say, you only want to look at games that we have for a certain console – there’s a way to do that, too. First, decide what console you’re looking for, type that into the search bar, and select ‘Keyword’ as your search criteria. Then hit the ‘Find’ button.

The search box is on the main catalog interface.

If you want to find computer games, ‘PC Games’ is a good search term to use. Don’t worry, it’ll bring up Mac games, too.

Then, like you did before, select ‘Software/Computer File’ as your format to remove any books or non-video game objects from the results.

The format limiter is on the right-hand side of the screen under "narrow your search"

If you DO want books about video games, pick ‘Books’ instead.

You can check video games out for up to a week and play them on your own devices at home, but we also have several handheld consoles available for one-week loans – you can check out the UGL’s Loanable Tech page to check on their availability. And if you want to play a game on a platform you don’t own, remember that we have several available (with all their associated controllers) in our gaming space as part of the Media Commons! Bring all your friends and have a good time. While you’re there, check out the new display showing off selections from our vintage gaming collection – if you don’t go anywhere else this summer, you can always travel down memory lane.

Short and Sweet

Posted on July 15, 2013 by CN

Most of our reading recommendations here on the UGL blog have been novels and nonfiction. It can be immensely rewarding to invest your time and energy in a long read, and it can keep you entertained and stimulated for hours and hours. This week, however, we thought we’d recommend a different kind of reading experience: the pleasure of reading short stories.

Much has been said about the literary form of the short story. Noted short story writer and essayist David Sedaris has said that “A good [short story] would take me out of myself and then stuff me back in, outsized, now, and uneasy with the fit.” Rather than the dedicated effort that a novel requires, short stories allow you to quickly quickly immerse yourself in a new world, and reemerge just as quickly, perhaps with a new idea or new perspective about something. You know that feelings you get after you finish a good book, where you’re still wrapped up in the story and riding the high of the emotions it gave you? Good short stories let you have that feeling over and over again, in a single volume! That’s just a good value.

Here are some short story collections available from the library that can help you get your toes wet in the short story pool:

If none of the above seem like quite your cup of tea (or if they’re all checked out to voracious short story readers!), you can always find more by doing a search in the Library Catalog for books with ‘Short Story’ as a Subject. Like so:

Enter Short Stories into the catalog search bar, and select 'Subject' from the drop-down menu next to it.

You can also search in I-Share, of course, if you want even more options.

Once you have some results, you can narrow them down to your area of interest by using the Topic limiters that show up on the right-hand side of the results screen.

A list of topics within short stories, including stories from different countries.

And so on, and so forth.

If you have a favorite short story collection, let us know about it in the comments! We wish you happy reading, whatever format it takes.

Good Times

Posted on June 10, 2013 by CN

There’s a time and place for everything, and summer on campus is the time for (among other things) relaxing with some movies from the UGL media collection. If you find yourself with time to kill between your summer classes, why not try watching a film on the theme of time travel? Here are a few we’ve picked out – let us know if we missed any good ones!

DVD cover: some men have built an ominous box

Primer
This movie focuses on the consequences of time travel and how difficult it might be to navigate the ethics of time travel. It’s written, produced, and directed by Shane Carruth, who also plays one of the main characters, and who also was formerly an engineer, so I think we can trust his technological insights. The movie won big time at the 2004 Sundance film festival.

DVD cover: Jean Claude Van Damme has a futuristic gun
Timecop
For those that prefer their time travel to be heavy on the action, this 1980s flick might hit the spot. Set in the distant future year of 2004, it follows a government agent tasked with combating time crime. He races back and forth through time periods, unraveling political intrigue and avoiding the schemes of the perpetrators. It might have some plot holes, but it could still be worth your time if you’re looking for pure entertainment.

DVD cover: young Keanu Reeves and friends in a telephone booth
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Two high schoolers travel back in time in a phone booth and meet famous historical figures in an effort to pass a history class. Should they fail the class, their fates will be altered and the future Utopian society based on their leadership will never happen. This is why you should spend your time wisely, and study.

The Time Machine DVD cover: a scientist looks distraught as a monster assaults a person
The Time Machine
H.G. Wells’ novel The Time Machine is the origin of the popular term…”time machine.” It’s a classic of science fiction that has stood the test of time and inspired countless derivative works and sequels. This film version is from 1960, and won an Academy Award for Visual Effects for its time-lapse photography.

The Time Traveler's Wife DVD cover: people are snuggling sideways
The Time Travelers’ Wife
Most movie time travelers make use of technology or magic to move through time, but the protagonist of this story travels due to an unexplained genetic condition. He is unable to control when and where he ends up, his love life suffers many unpredictable consequences. The film is based on the novel of the same title by Audrey Niffenegger, which you can also check out.

The Fountain DVD cover: figures perched on sci-fi landscape
The Fountain
The characters in this film may not actually travel through time themselves, but the viewer is transported to many different time periods, connected by a narrative thread: a couple in love try to cope with the reality of death. Heavy stuff, but it’s worth reflecting on how to cope when your time is up.

That’s all we have time for right now – pick these up from the UGL if they interest you, or let us know in the comments what time travel movies you prefer!

Summer Survival

Posted on June 3, 2013 by CN

Ah, summer. The time of year when temperatures rise, and nature simultaneously asserts itself as a source of enjoyment (Sunshine! Flowers!) and a force to be reckoned with (Sunburn! Bug bites!).

If battling the heat and summer classes have got you down, take a break and enjoy something from this reading list inspired by the age-old theme of People Versus Nature. Some of them are very suspenseful, and some are not – you can choose according to how adventurous you’re feeling. And all of them, of course, are enjoyable from within the air-conditioned luxury of the library. Stop in and pick one up!

The characters in Gilligan’s Island may be shipwrecked, but they really don’t have it that bad. It seems there is no problem they can’t solve using bamboo and coconuts. Enjoy all three seasons of their exploits, and if their craftiness inspires you, check out this book on Eco-Crafts; maybe you, too, can make something useful or fun from the things in your environment.

One step up from Gilligan’s Island is the classic adventure story of Robinson Crusoe. The main character still gets clever with his surroundings, but the stakes are higher, since cannibals and wild animals are everywhere. Don’t worry about him too much, though – in the end he gets rescued. For a contemporary spin on the shipwrecked loner theme, try the film Cast Away. It has a sadder ending, but 100% more anthropomorphic volleyballs.

If you’re ready to step away from the confines of fiction, pick up this autobiography of Bear Grylls, TV survival artist extraordinaire. What will this man not do to survive? He has, for instance, ” utilised the corpse of a sheep as a sleeping bag and flotation device.” I expect big things from a person like that. If things go really wrong, however, his support crew is never too far away, so he’ll make it out alright.

Cheryl Strayed might not have ever done anything ingenious with a dead sheep, but she did walk the entirety of the 1,100-mile Pacific Crest Trail, alone, with no previous backpacking experience and no TV crew to help her. The experience helped Strayed cope with the disintegration of her personal life and come out ahead of many personal challenges.

Sometimes those who face the forces of nature don’t come out on top. Into the Wild is the story of an American hitchhiker who disappeared from civilization and attempted to live off the Alaskan wilderness, and who was eventually found dead in an abandoned bus. His motivations for undertaking such a dangerous expedition, and how basic preparation could have perhaps prevented his demise, have inspired much discussion, and even a movie version.

If reading these tales of humanity versus wilderness leaves you hankering for your own outdoor adventure, make sure you adequately prepare, so you can spend your time enjoying nature instead of struggling to live. Check out a book on outdoor skills, such as Hiking in Illinois or the Wilderness Survival Handbook, and get information about local destinations and regulations via Champaign Park District or the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Your favorite underground library will still be here to offer you shade and comfy chairs when you get back!

Collection Developments

Posted on May 20, 2013 by CN

Most of our dear blog readers may have gone away for the summer, but some of you are still here pluggin’ away – and your faithful librarians, as always, are also here, working hard. You may have noticed large groups of us doing mysterious librarian things in the stacks (fancy librarian word for book shelves). What are we up to in our underground fortress? The answer is: we’re doing some deselecting!

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.

Image of graduate assistant working on weeding in the stacks

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!)

Crowdsource Your Reading

Posted on April 22, 2013 by CN

A bulletin board was entirely covered front and back with students' favorite books.

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!

Remembering Roger Ebert

Posted on April 18, 2013 by RAL

If there’s one thing we think esteemed alum Roger Ebert might’ve appreciated about the updates to the UGL, it’s the expansive film collection on the lower level. This weekend marks the 15th Annual Ebertfest Film Festival in Champaign, and it’s the first without its namesake, following Ebert’s passing on April 4.

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 book cover links to book in catalog 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.

Listful Thinking

Posted on April 11, 2013 by CN

April showers bring not only May flowers, but also May caps, gowns, degrees and graduation ceremonies. Many of you will be leaving us forever soon, and we wish you the best! Before you go, though, you should make sure that you’ve gotten the most out of the library during your stay.

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!

UGL 101: I-Share

Posted on January 28, 2013 by RAL

Even though the University library has millions of books (at least 13 million, to be exact), occasionally, you might need a book we don’t have. Especially if you’re looking for books for class at the beginning of the semester. If you find your catalog searches coming up short, the next step is to check out I-Share.

I-Share is a group of libraries in the state of Illinois that swap books with one another. If you find a book in the catalog from an I-Share library, you can request it to be sent to the library of your choice (like the Undergrad Desk, for example). The books usually arrive within a week, and you’ll get an email when it’s ready to be picked up. Then, you just need your I-Card and you can check out the books like normal.

Here are a few steps to follow to search for books in I-Share if you don’t find an item in the Local Catalog:

Start at the Online Catalog (there’s a link right from the UGL homepage, too):

Then change the drop-down menu from “Local Catalog” to “All I-Share Libraries.”

Then, go ahead and search the catalog like normal by keyword, author, title or subject. Once you’ve found an item you’d like to request, check to see its availability by clicking on the title of the book in the results list. Once you’ve clicked on the book title, there will be a screen that shows the locations/availability of the book. You can then click on “Request This Item” (if there’s only one copy available) or “Request 1st Available” if there is more than one copy available.

Once you’ve clicked “Request,” you will be taken to a screen to log in with your MyAccount. Haven’t set up a MyAccount yet? No prob! It’s super easy—check out our blog on MyAccount for more info on setting up yours.

After you’ve logged in, you will see a drop-down menu that allows you to pick which library on campus you’d like to have the book sent. Select the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the pick-up library, and then whichever specific library you’d like as the pick-up location (Undergrad, Main Stacks, ACES, your residence hall library—whatever makes the most sense for you).

Last, click “Request” and you are all done. Viola! For more detailed instructions (including a demo video!), check out the Library’s page on requesting items that are not at Illinois.

As a note, some items may not be requested through I-Share. If a library won’t send the item, you will get a message before you try to log in. There can be several reasons, including: the item is on reserve at the home library for a class; it’s a media item (DVD, VHS, etc); the item already has a request placed on it by another patron; it’s a text book that the home library wants to keep on campus, etc.

If you run into a problem with requesting books through I-Share or can’t seem to find the item you really need, please stop by the Research Desk in the UGL or Ask A Librarian via chat! We’re always happy to help you track down the items you need!

Easy E-Reading

Posted on January 24, 2013 by CN

In the flurry of wrapping paper and obstinate sellotape that often represents Christmas, did you, dear reader, perhaps suddenly find yourself to be the proud new owner of an e-reader? Or have you long been the possessor of a Kindle, Nook, or iPad, acquired by some other means?

In any case, congratulations. In order to help you get the most out of your device and your library experience, we’re excited to enlighten (or remind) you of the wonders of using library e-books. The library has over 280,000 electronic books available for your use; putting them on your e-reader instead of reading them on a computer could save you a lot of frustration. Think about it: you could read that important article or book chapter on the bus. Or in the bathtub. The options are infinite.

The idea of our patrons using their e-readers to access library content happens to make us so excited that we went and made you a LibGuide for it. The LibGuide is the place to go for in-depth information about how to plunder the e-book treasure troves, including how to make sure they’ll work with your device, but we’ll go ahead and brief you on it here, because that’s what we do for fun.

Finding E-Books

You can find e-books at the library through Easy Search (that friendly-looking search bar at the top of the UGL page), or through the Catalog. In Easy Search, just type in your keywords and press the ‘Search’ button. When you get to the results screen, look for these links to appear in the list of results:

Catalog results are listed under theading "Books, Ebooks, Media in UIUC and Illinois Libraries"

It’s the mother lode!

If you’re going through the catalog, click on the ‘advanced search’ button below the search bar, and on the advanced search screen make sure that the ‘electronic resource’ and ‘book’ limiters are selected, like so:

Choose 'electronic' as your version, and 'book' as your format.

E-books can neither run nor hide from you, because you are a master searcher, and they are inanimate.

Then press the ‘find’ button, and tada! You should have plenty of results to choose from. (Note: Due to licensing issues, e-books are currently not available over I-Share. This means if an e-book is in our catalog but listed as belonging to another library, you won’t be able to access it online. It’s a bummer, but if you’re having trouble finding a copy of a book that you can access, you can always Ask a Librarian about it!)

Getting E-Books onto Your Device

Once you’ve found the e-book that you want, the first step is to download the file to your computer. When you’re actually viewing the e-book online, look around for a button or link that says ‘download’ or ‘PDF.’ The location on the screen will vary depending on who provides the e-book, but it should be around there somewhere. You can always use CTRL+F to do a “find” search for it. Once you click it, the file should be downloaded to your computer.

Most of the electronic resources available from UIUC are available as DRM-free PDFs. Most e-readers should let you open these PDFs with no problems; if you’re using a tablet or smartphone, you may have to download an app for reading PDFs, but there are free ones available!

To figure out how to get the files onto your e-reader from your computer, check out that LibGuide we told you about earlier—there should be tabs at the top for different kinds of devices. Hover over the tab that matches your device, and from the drop-down menu that appears, select the type of e-reader you have. You should then be given step-by-step instructions for how to move the files onto your gadget. Most of them use a simple drag-and-drop procedure, so you should be ready to go in no time.

That should cover the basics! If you find yourself getting really into e-books, here is a list of other sources you can peruse. And as always, if you find yourself confused or stuck or just eager to know more at any point in your searching, just ask us for help!

Undergraduate Library Blog

Information and Updates on Getting the Most out of the UGL

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