In the Spotlight

Visit the Scholarly Continent Upstairs

Why do scholars of African history and culture come from all over the world to the Library's fifth floor? Because it houses the largest collection of Africana anywhere...

New Reciprocal Borrowing Agreement with Loyola

Northwestern University faculty, staff, and students now have access and borrowing privileges at Loyola University Libraries, thanks to a new reciprocal agreement. Access requires only a valid Northwestern ID card. For more information on borrowing privileges, go to our Reciprocal Borrowing Agreements page and follow the appropriate link.

Mitchell Multimedia Center to Undergo Renovation

Northwestern University Library is happy to announce that the Marjorie I. Mitchell Multimedia Center will undergo a renovation during the summer 2008. The renovation will improve the services and spaces within the Mitchell Multimedia Center. The renovations include a more convenient entrance, a larger service desk, additional public NUcat stations, self-serve carrels and viewing facilities, increased collection capacity, and a video return drop box. Portions of the renovation are part of the Life Safety and ADA updates that have been taking place throughout the Library.

The Multimedia Center and the collection will be closed beginning Monday, June 16, 2008. The Center is offering advance checkout to faculty for summer session and fall quarter classes beginning Monday, June 9 through Friday, June 13. Items borrowed during this period will be due back to the Library on Monday, September 29.

The construction affects the Forum Room, the Video Theater, and Seminar Room 3746, all three of which will be closed throughout the renovation.

The Multimedia Center is scheduled to re-open at the beginning of the 2008 fall quarter.

Contact Beth Clausen, Head Resource Sharing and Reserve Collections, at 847-491-2891 with questions.

Celebrating Two-Wheeled Transportation

Q: What invention changed human history more than the invention of the wheel?
A: The invention of two wheels.

That’s the message of Northwestern University Library’s new exhibit “Life Turns on Two Wheels,” which runs from April 29 to June 26, 2008 in the Main Library at 1970 Campus Drive. In addition to historical materials, the exhibit encompasses a series of events and lectures on related topics.

“What can you do with one wheel?” asks Transportation Library head Roberto Sarmiento, who co-curated the exhibit along with Art Collection head Russ Clement. “But take two wheels, connect them with a pole, and now you have a vehicle that can transport people and goods over long distances.”

Sarmiento and Clement wanted to showcase the ways in which advances in two-wheeled technology have changed people’s lives. For instance:

• In technological terms, the jump from cart to chariot (which was introduced by the Indo-Europeans in about 2,000 B.C.), was roughly equivalent to the jump from carriage to car. Carts had heavy, solid-wood wheels and were pulled by oxen, so they were by nature slow. Chariot wheels had spokes, which made them much lighter, and the vehicles were pulled by horses—a huge advantage in both transportation and warfare situations for their inventors.

• The rickshaw was actually a fairly recent invention, dating back only to the mid-nineteenth century. It originated in Japan, where it caught on immediately because it was a cheap form of transport available to the masses. The Japanese exported it to China and India, and while recently there have been attempts to ban it in several Southeast Asian countries, mainly for safety reasons, these attempts have met stiff resistance because the vehicles are critical to the livelihoods of so many people.

• The bicycle was considered a tool of the early women’s liberation movement. It offered women a way to rebel against the establishment and advocate for their rights. Frances Willard, of Evanston, adopted it enthusiastically at the age of 53 and once said, “If I am asked to explain why I learned the bicycle I should say I did it as an act of grace, if not of actual religion.”

Events and lectures associated with the exhibit explore and highlight the way two-wheel transport enhances our lifestyles today. These include:

May 10: Saturday Bicycle Double-Feature. In conjunction with the Library, the Block Cinema offers free screenings of two bicycle cult-classics: “The Bicycle Thief” at 1 p.m. and “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” at 3 p.m.
May 14: Lecture on “Chariots and Charioteering in the Ancient Roman World” by Dr. Lee Brice, of Western Illinois University, 6:30-7:30 p.m. University Library, Forum Room.
May 16: On “Bike to Work Day,” the Library and the Athletics and Recreation Department will co-sponsor campus events in support of the NU bicycling community. From 8 to 10 a.m., bagels and refreshments will be provided free for cyclists at SPAC. From 11:30 to 1:30, the Wilmette Bike & Sport Shop will hold a series of mini-clinics on Library Plaza on topics like bike maintenance, repair, and security.
May 19: F.K Day and Leah Missbach Day of the World Bicycle Relief Fund will talk about their mission to provide access to independence and livelihood in developing countries through “The Power of Bicycles.” 6:30-8 p.m. University Library, Forum Room.

The exhibit will also highlight the work of local organizations, including the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation and The Recyclery.

For more information, contact Clare Roccaforte at 847-467-5918 or c-roccaforte@northwestern.edu.

Library Launches Space Planning Initiative

Northwestern University Library has begun a master plan study to create an architectural program that aligns the uses and designs of library facilities with new services, collections, and strategies. What will the library system look like 20 years from now? What type of digital resources might be planned for the incoming class of 2030, how will our distinctive special collections be housed, and what must our buildings do to support both the diverse resources and the researchers using them?

Authorized by the Office of the Provost and in conjunction with Facilities Management, this comprehensive study will consider space needs the Northwestern University Library, Galter Health Sciences Library, and the Pritzker Legal Research Center, and propose a long-range plan to suggest approaches to meeting those needs. The architectural firm RMJM Hillier has been selected to conduct the master plan study and will be working with University faculty, students, and staff over the next six months to examine existing spaces and look at new ways to utilize these spaces to continue to provide essential services and perhaps new services desired by the campus community.

In the coming months, RMJM Hillier will be conducting a web-based survey of faculty and students, randomly selecting participants. This spring, if you are selected to participate, we encourage you to represent your peers and complete the survey. Northwestern University Library and Facilities Management will provide forums for general comments on the planning in summer 2008 and responses to proposals in fall 2008.

Questions, comments and feedback may be directed via email to planning@northwestern.edu or to your library liaison.

Updates to the planning process will be posted at the planning website.

Einstein, SFX, EZproxy Maintenance Week of March 24th

Einstein and SFX will be undergoing maintenance Monday March 24th through Friday March 28th to upgrade hardware. These systems will be available sporadically for at least the first three days of maintenance, but please allow for the entire 5-day maintenance window to be used.

EZproxy will be undergoing maintenance on Monday, March 24th between 1-5pm, for software maintenance. Actual downtime should be less than an hour, but please allow for the entire maintenance window to be used.

The following sites will be affected by this maintenance:

Einstein
http://einstein.library.northwestern.edu/

SFX (which links from the buttons)
http://hopper.library.northwestern.edu/

EZproxy
http://turing.library.northwestern.edu/

Thank you for your patience.

They Were Real Lifesavers!

Did you know that from 1877 to 1917, Northwestern students staffed a campus Lifesaving Station that saved more than 400 people from drowning in Lake Michigan? The story begins one morning in 1860, when a group of Northwestern students woke to discover passengers clinging to the wreckage of the Lady Elgin, which had collided with another ship during a storm the night before...

Brought to you by University Archives at the Northwestern University Library.

Download video as an MP4