The Illini Book: Student Resource or a Door Stopper?

            The Illini Book, also referred to as the “I-Book,” is a resource available to students to use as an Illinois student. The Illini Book is “Students Planning Events for Students”. The “I-Book” has a plethora of information tooled towards informing anyone who chooses to open it. The first versions of the book, were made out of leather, pocket size and had the Illinois Logo and the current year. The late 1900’s the book was adapted to a note book type look, with a plastic-nylon cover the size had quadrupled. The current book has the intention is to inform the reader. Currently printed by the Illini Union Board, the book has fallen to a state of outdated resource for students. This is a contradiction in itself as a useful piece of reference. Current technology are taking over the current the masses and lending pieces of reference useless. Over the years the value of “I-Book” has declined, not in financial reasons event though my Illini Book was free. Maybe the reason for the decline use of the “I-Book” is the publisher. Despite the advancement of technology it seems that the Illini Book has lost all of the sources such as a use for a phone book, and a directory that made the book valuable to the students. Now the book is more of a calendar and not really a book.

I proclaim that the “I-Book” is no longer a useful resource and it is as useful as a door stopper. The reasons for this claim that information travels too fast for the “I-Book” to be useful. Most things can be found on the internet. Back when the “I-Book” was highly used and was highly resourceful, there was no internet. The “I-Book” was an neccesscity for students just as people used phone books.  My warrants with the contents of the “I-Book currently and the lack of useful information in the book. If I open an Illini Book from the early 1900’s the size of the book was smaller but it contained so much valuable information. Every part of the book had a section and had majority of things a student used such as rail times. It was simple easy to understand and compact. One argument may be that the book is still useful because the Illini Union Board feels that every freshman needs one. Despite everyone on campus having access to the internet the Illini Union Board must put out the book for international students. Maybe they print the book to keep up tradition?

The furthest time I could date the book to be 1900-1910. The school was predominately white. Blacks still were treated less than human beings due to segregation and white supremacy. The university was a little bit more than fifty years old. It was also the same year we won our first homecoming football game 3-0 vs Chicago. The baseball team had won the conference as well. This was right before War World I, the world was still peaceful and serene. Having college degree was not worth acquiring for a job. A lot of changes were constantly happening because the university was still developing adding buildings, and expanding. The campus was only a fraction of what it is today, rules were still being installed for safety. More clubs were being created and events were looking for ads in the I-Book.

The Illini Book should be a reliable resource for students. Even with the advancement of technology the amount of information should be stuffed into this book. I decided to finally open my “I-Book” when deciding to analyze it. As a freshman the majority of students rely on Facebook, Twitter, etc., or even word of mouth to receive information. Being freshman there are a lot of thing that we do not know about that isn’t listed in online or anywhere else. The Illini-Book from 1910 has so much information that you had everything that was relevant at your fingers. There are 30,000+ students at this prestigious university and some things fall through the cracks, but information can’t be lost if they are in between the covers of a book.

While the Illini Book was still fairly young, the book was going to be published by the Illini Union Board. The Illini Union Board still prints the Books to this day, and the book was still a thriving back in the age before computers. Due to the schedule of us college students the “I-Book” has become an inferior resource. Google currently answers any questions we may have.

The “I-Book” could be a way to keep track of the events like council meeting, social gatherings, and important dates for students. There is just too much going on to keep up with everything on campus, but the book can assist students with time management. This way the book will be valued in the eyes of the students. Books are valued more than the internet in some people eyes. Books are more accurate than internet, “To gather information, the students either use the Internet or books. The Internet is very easy to access, and it is flooded with information. However, the problem with the internet is that there is some information that might not be accurate, or that it might even be completely wrong. Students have no way of knowing if the information is accurate because they expect it to be accurate”, (Detera)

Understanding that the problem is the book and not necessarily the internet as a whole is a first step. It is in fact the combination of the internet, lack of information, and lack of worth the students value the book at. The Union Board is responsible making it better for us the students.

The Illini Book: Student Resource or a Door Stopper?

The Illini Book, also referred to as the “I-Book,” is a resource available to students to use as an Illinois student. The Illini Book is “Students Planning Events for Students”. The “I-Book” has a plethora of information tooled towards informing anyone who chooses to open it. The first versions of the book, were made out of leather, pocket size and had the Illinois Logo and the current year. The late 1900’s the book was adapted to a note book type look, with a plastic-nylon cover the size had quadrupled. The current book has the intention is to inform the reader. Currently printed by the Illini Union Board, the book has fallen to a state of outdated resource for students. This is a contradiction in itself as a useful piece of reference. Current technology are taking over the current the masses and lending pieces of reference useless. Over the years the value of “I-Book” has declined, not in financial reasons event though my Illini Book was free. Maybe the reason for the decline use of the “I-Book” is the publisher. Despite the advancement of technology it seems that the Illini Book has lost all of the sources such as a use for a phone book, and a directory that made the book valuable to the students. Now the book is more of a calendar and not really a book.

I proclaim that the “I-Book” is no longer a useful resource and it is as useful as a door stopper. The reasons for this claim that information travels too fast for the “I-Book” to be useful. Most things can be found on the internet. Back when the “I-Book” was highly used and was highly resourceful, there was no internet. The “I-Book” was an neccesscity for students just as people used phone books.  My warrants with the contents of the “I-Book currently and the lack of useful information in the book. If I open an Illini Book from the early 1900’s the size of the book was smaller but it contained so much valuable information. Every part of the book had a section and had majority of things a student used such as rail times. It was simple easy to understand and compact. One argument may be that the book is still useful because the Illini Union Board feels that every freshman needs one. Despite everyone on campus having access to the internet the Illini Union Board must put out the book for international students. Maybe they print the book to keep up tradition?

The furthest time I could date the book to be 1900-1910. The school was predominately white. Blacks still were treated less than human beings due to segregation and white supremacy. The university was a little bit more than fifty years old. It was also the same year we won our first homecoming football game 3-0 vs Chicago. The baseball team had won the conference as well. This was right before War World I, the world was still peaceful and serene. Having college degree was not worth acquiring for a job. A lot of changes were constantly happening because the university was still developing adding buildings, and expanding. The campus was only a fraction of what it is today, rules were still being installed for safety. More clubs were being created and events were looking for ads in the I-Book.

The Illini Book should be a reliable resource for students. Even with the advancement of technology the amount of information should be stuffed into this book. I decided to finally open my “I-Book” when deciding to analyze it. As a freshman the majority of students rely on Facebook, Twitter, etc., or even word of mouth to receive information. Being freshman there are a lot of thing that we do not know about that isn’t listed in online or anywhere else. The Illini-Book from 1910 has so much information that you had everything that was relevant at your fingers. There are 30,000+ students at this prestigious university and some things fall through the cracks, but information can’t be lost if they are in between the covers of a book.

While the Illini Book was still fairly young, the book was going to be published by the Illini Union Board. The Illini Union Board still prints the Books to this day, and the book was still a thriving back in the age before computers. Due to the schedule of us college students the “I-Book” has become an inferior resource. Google currently answers any questions we may have.

The “I-Book” could be a way to keep track of the events like council meeting, social gatherings, and important dates for students. There is just too much going on to keep up with everything on campus, but the book can assist students with time management. This way the book will be valued in the eyes of the students. Books are valued more than the internet in some people eyes. Books are more accurate than internet, “To gather information, the students either use the Internet or books. The Internet is very easy to access, and it is flooded with information. However, the problem with the internet is that there is some information that might not be accurate, or that it might even be completely wrong. Students have no way of knowing if the information is accurate because they expect it to be accurate”, (Detera)

Understanding that the problem is the book and not necessarily the internet as a whole is a first step. It is in fact the combination of the internet, lack of information, and lack of worth the students value the book at. The Union Board is responsible making it better for us the students.