Tag Archives: holidays

Important Service Updates!

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Hey, #ClubUGL! Some exciting changes are happening in your favorite library!

Photo courtesy of fansedge.com

  • The Doors
    First, we know how much everyone struggles with the doors coming in to the UGL. So, this spring, we’ll be replacing the glass doors with fancy beaded curtains. Not only will they be easier to get through, we think they’ll really class up the joint.
  • Snuggies
    With the weather never making up its mind (is it in the 50s? is it gonna snow 11 inches?), we know the temperature can get a little nuts. So, next time you’re working on a paper and get a little chilly, stop by the Circulation Desk to check out an Illini Snuggie! Mmmm, nothing cozier than a blanket with sleeves…
  • The Courtyard
    We decided that the courtyard wasn’t getting enough use, so we’re working on a plan to seal up the windows and then turn it into a giant salt-water aquarium. Now, instead of gazing out the windows at a few trees, you’ll be able to study with the sharks. We know. You can thank us later.

What do you think about these changes? Read more about our reasons for these service updates, then let us know what you think!

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Spring Break Hours

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Spring break! It’s the most wonderful time of the (academic) year! Whether you’re planning a road trip to the beach, napping for a week on your family’s couch, or sticking around C-U, catching up on projects, we hope you find a little bit of time to relax. We certainly will be doing the same at the UGL, with shorter hours during the week.

We want to go to there. Cannes. Boulevard de la Croisette. Photo courtesy of Cornell University Library via Flickr Commons

Below are the Spring Break hours for the UGL. Check out the schedule for other campus libraries, too.

  • Friday, March 15: UGL closes at 7pm
  • Saturday, March 16: ALL campus libraries are closed
  • Sunday, March 17: ALL campus libraries are closed
  • Monday, March 18 thru Friday, March 22: The UGL will be open daily from 8:30am to 5pm. Please note that the media collection closes at 4:30pm.
  • Saturday, March 23: ALL campus librares are closed
  • Sunday, March 24: UGL opens at 1pm, then resumes regular semester hours.

Enjoy yourselves, #ClubUGL. We’ll be here, ready and waiting, to tackle the rest of the semester with you as soon as you’re back!

 

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IRL @ the UGL

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We at the UGL like to think of ourselves as being pretty comfortable with technology. This Web 2.0 thing? We’ve got it down. But we also understand that sometimes, even the most tech-savvy person gets a hankering for the old-fashioned. Sometimes it’s nice to see a pin-board with actual, physical pins in it. The opportunity to take a break from the seemingly endless computer screens in your life and spend time gazing at cheery paper snowmen is one you may be glad to take.

“Well hello! Welcome to the UGL!”

To fill this occasional craving for the traditional, and to make the physical space of the library more visually interesting and informative, there are several displays in different parts of the library for you to enjoy. The themes change every month to keep things fresh and appropriate to the season – this month, the staff and student workers/elves have put together some holiday-focused displays to help boost your spirit during finals. We’ll give you a preview here on the blog, but you should really come in and check them out in person!

UGL employees bust out their mad snowflake-makin’ skills, just for you.

Right when you enter the UGL from the plaza, this happy little case is ready to suggest some seasonal movies for you. If you’re interested in a title you see inside this mini-winter wonderland, just ask at the circulation desk, and we can fetch it for you! Then you can take it home and get just as cozy as you wanna.

We completely understand, but do try not to drool on the glass.

There are tons of food-themed ‘holidays’ in December. We’re not really sure how official ‘National Chocolate-Covered-Anything Day’ is, but that’s not going to stop us from celebrating it! To help you get in the culinary groove, we’ve got some cookbooks lined up in the display upstairs near the circulation desk, full of delicious holiday treats for you to make and share (or hoard). Come gaze upon these tasty cakes and be inspired.

We made a concerted effort to find books that are qualified to be suggested, and now we’ve got whole binders full of suggestions.

The food theme continues in the lower level! Just beyond the media collection, we’ve got more cookbooks picked out in our Y-shaped display. These aren’t necessarily holiday-specific; we’ve pulled together a wide range of cuisines and food types for you to choose from. Moroccan food? Totally covered. Any and every kind of soup? Right here. In addition to the cookbooks, you’ll find binders of suggested titles from a variety of different genres on top of the display. Pick ‘em up, leaf through them, carry them around to help you locate the books on the shelf – just please return them when you’re done, so someone else can find a good read after you!

Diversity Bulletin Board

Celebrate ALL the traditions!

The bulletin board in the lower lobby of the UGL is sponsored by the Library’s Diversity Committee, and each month it showcases diversity in a different area. For the month of December, we’ve got a festive round-up of winter holiday traditions from around the world. Curious about Wren’s Day, or Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year? You can learn all about them, right here!

That’s what’s going on IRL at the UGL – we’re happy that you’re reading our blog, but we’d also be happy to see your faces in the library checking out our displays. Come on down and scope ‘em out!

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Ho-Ho-Holiday Flicks

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We know you’ve got about zero free time with finals looming (and it’s a bit tough to get in the holiday spirit when the grass is still green and temps are hovering well above freezing), but we would still like to call your attention to some holiday films in the library in case you need a little cheer during a well-deserved study break.

(Click on the image to see location/availability)
If you need a laugh…
        
Or… A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas, Home Alone

If you’re feeling like a kid…
       

Or…The Polar Express

If you’re feeling nostalgic…
      

If you’re celebrating Kwanzaa, Hanukkah or Festivus…
     

If you’re in the mood for something darker…
  

Or… Gremlins, Edward Scissorhands

If you’re feeling romantic…
  
Or… The Family Stone, Four Christmases

If you’re in the mood for TV celebrations…
       
Or… Community season 2, 30 Rock season 3

What are your favorite holiday movies? Tell us in the comments!

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DIY Gifting

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Thanksgiving has come and gone, and the calendars have been flipped to show that most gift-laden of months – December. You know what this means: the holiday season is undeniably in full swing, and there’s about to be some wild present-swapping happening! It’s time to start thinking about how you want to show your friends and family that you care about them.

Buying all your gifts may seem like the simplest answer, but that can be a huge drain on your wallet, and braving the hectic retail environment in search of the perfect stocking-stuffer may well result in lots of bruises and general crankiness. The alternative of making gifts yourself can save you from both overspending and taking terrible trips to the mall, and – not to get all sappy or anything – adds a little bit of extra meaning to your offering. Who wouldn’t feel special after receiving something made by hand, just for them? If that sounds like something  you’d like to have a go at, here are some handy library resources we’ve rounded up to help you give it your best!

Greeting Cards
by Sharon McSwiney
If you want to keep things simple, you can try making holiday cards for all your loved ones. You can make them very basic, or, using the techniques in this book, make them quite elaborate and fancy. The best part is how easy it is to send them through the mail, helping you let even your most far-away friends and family know you’re thinking of them.

 

The Happy Hooker: Stitch n’ Bitch Crochet
by Debbie Stoller
The art of crochet enables you to use a small hook to transform shapeless hunks of yarn into fantastic offerings for your more stylish friends and family members. This book will introduce you to the basic techniques and materials of the craft and provide you with over 40 project ideas to choose from. Think beyond potholders!

SimpleChic: Designer Knits, SuperQuick!
by Jil Eaton
Those of you already initiated into the yarn-based arts may prefer to knit items rather than crochet. If pointy sticks thrill you more than dull hooks, this book has plenty of gift ideas for you to choose from, including adorable elf hats for the babies in your life, or tiny sweaters for your dog, if that’s your thing. We won’t judge you if it is, and your canine pal is sure to love you anyway (and look very sharp!).

 

Microcrafts: Tiny Treasures to Make and Share
Compiled by Margaret McGuire, Alicia Kachmar, Katie Hatz and friends
When travelling over the holidays, luggage restrictions can sometimes lead to huge bummers. One way to make sure you’re able to carry home all your painstakingly handcrafted gifts is to make them all itty-bitty. Miniature projects abound in this book, and they’re designed to use up crafting scraps left over from your other projects, so you hopefully won’t have to buy lots of new stuff! It’s a win-win, really.

 

Perfumes, Scented Gifts, and Other Fragrances: Make Beautiful Gifts to Give (Or Keep)
by Kelly Reno
Smell is closely connected to memory, so if you present someone with a made-from-scratch perfume or scented oil, your generosity is not likely to be forgotten. Or, you can make season-specific smells like pine and cinnamon for yourself, and keep the holidays in your heart all year round.

 

Christmas Gifts of Good Taste
Edited by Ann Van Wagner Childs
Gifts are one part of what makes the winter holidays such an exciting time; food is another. Why not combine the two and give food as gifts? The books in this series combine tasty recipes with charming ideas for presenting them to their recipients. You can also make some extra for yourself, obviously, to reward yourself for your hard gift-making work.

 

 

Remember – these are just starting points! Use these books to get some ideas, then adjust them to fit your own style (and the styles of the people you’re making them for!). The most important thing about a hand-made gift is the thought and care that goes into it, and that comes straight from you, not any book.  We wish you the best of luck!

(If you decide, for whatever reason, that you don’t want to make gifts yourself, you can check out a certain Pinterest board made by a certain underground library for book-buying suggestions! Your UGL librarians fully endorse books as great holiday gifts – but we may be a little biased.)

 

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Witch Ghoul’s For You?

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Image courtesy of the New York Public Library under Creative Commons

I spot the hills
With yellow balls in autumn.
I light the prairie cornfields
Orange and tawny gold clusters
And I am called pumpkins.
On the last of October
When dusk is fallen
Children join hands
And circle around me
Singing ghost songs
And love to the harvest moon;
I am a jack-o’-lantern
With terrible teeth
And the children know
I am fooling.
Theme In Yellow by Carl Sandburg

Halloween is upon us, and whatever your creepy traditions (carving pumpkins, going all out on costumes, scary-movie marathons or telling ghost stories at haunted houses), the UGL is here to help set the mood. The UGL graduate assistants put together a list of a few books and films that would fit into anyone’s Halloween traditions. What are some of your favorite scary flicks and reads? Let us know in the comments!

The Addams Family
Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Anjelica Huston, Raul Julia, Christina Ricci
This is a classic for Halloween. Based on a cartoon, the film has retained popularity since its 1991 release due in no small part to its playfully macabre characters. Did you know there was even a musical made in 2010 based on this quirky family? Currently, it’s touring in Brazil.

 

 

 

Arsenic and Old Lace
Directed by Frank Capra; starring Cary Grant, Priscilla Lane
If horror isn’t your thing, watch this classic film. On Halloween, Mortimer Brewster gets married, discovers a terrible but strangely humorous secret about his beloved aunties, attempts to deal with a cousin who believes he’s Teddy Roosevelt, and tries to force another cousin with a criminal record out of the house. Hilarity ensues.

 

 

 

Clue
Directed by Jonathan Lynn, starring Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd
We’ve all seen bad movie adaptations of board games and video games, but Clue is everything it should be: costumes + murder + hilarious dialogue you’ll be quoting for years. Will it be Colonel Mustard with the lead pipe? Mrs. Peacock with the knife? How high will the body count go?

 

 

 

Ghosts Among Us: True Stories of Spirit Encounters
By Leslie Rule
Despite the huge number of horror films and novels available, nothing’s scarier than a real-life ghost story. In Ghosts Among Us, Rule researches reported encounters with the supernatural, which are bolstered with black and white photos of haunted locations. If you’re into more serious research on all things spooky, check out the University’s Mandeville Collection. It’s got info on everything from UFOs to witchcraft and magic. To search for items in the catalog, type “Mandeville Collection” and the choose “Subject” from the drop-down menu. Proceed at your own risk…..

 

Hellboy
Directed by Guillermo del Toro; starring Ron Perlman and Selma Blair
Maybe it’s not directly related to Halloween, but Hellboy has got plenty of demons, monsters, and spooks to keep you entertained. If you watch the movie and want still more, why not check out some of the comics as well?

 

 

 

Hocus Pocus
Directed by Kenny Ortega; starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimi
Clearly the best Halloween movie of all time. Enough said.

 

 

 

 

 

I Spy Spooky Night: A Book of Picture Riddles
Photos by Walter Wick, riddles by Jean Marzollo
This fun picture book is part of a series of “find-it” riddles for kids, but the photography is unbelievable! Walter Wick creates a series of eery pictures from miniatures that really makes you feel like you’re roaming through a haunted house. And what better way to take a break from school and gear up for Halloween than playing a kid’s game?

 

 

 

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
By Alvin Schwartz
This is a collection of short stories that have been adapted from folklore and stands out among my best memories of reading as a kid. It is a great book to share during Halloween season. Even today, the original artwork is pretty creepy and beautiful. It’s noted by the American Library Association as the most consistently challenged books in the 1990s, so you know it has to be good!

 

 

Something Wicked This Way Comes
By Ray Bradbury
The story is about two boys–one born just before midnight on Halloween, the other born just after midnight. The circus has come to town, and there’s something that is just not quite right. The story investigates what it means to be young, to be scared, and it will scare your boots right off. Ray Bradbury presents realistic characters with real wants and needs, and mixes in the horror of a circus gone wrong with a dying summer and the need to escape in the just right way.
Need some more spooktacular recommendations?

 

Check out the UGL’s Pinterest board Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) for more haunting suggestions!

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