Read all about it! Trial access to three Oxford Research Encyclopedias

Posted on by Celestina Savonius-Wroth

Have you been looking for something more scholarly than Wikipedia, and felt frustrated that many major reference works have become dated and have not been revised? That’s exactly how we’ve been feeling, and we are trying to do something about it.

The Library has trial access to three subject modules of the Oxford Research Encyclopedias. (We’ve also had access to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History since 2022.)

The Oxford Research Encyclopedias are an ambitious project from Oxford University Press. The aim is to create “a dynamic digital encyclopedia continuously updated by the world’s leading scholars and researchers.” These articles really do function as introductory overviews. Unlike articles in many “Handbook”-type publications, all include substantive discussions of recent scholarship. All articles in history and allied fields have sections about primary sources.

Each subject module is searchable and can also be browsed by subject areas and time periods. The interface is a bit clunky and counterintuitive: to browse by subjects within a module, click on Advanced Search, then look in the lefthand sidebar (you may have to scroll down a bit) for Subjects.

Currently available on trial:

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History

  • Close to 600 articles, on all areas of American history.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion

  • More than 700 articles. Christianity and Buddhism are the best represented traditions, with Islam as a close third. Hinduism is represented by only a handful of articles, and it is unclear if the section is still under development. The Oxford Bibliography of Hinduism is a useful complement.

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Food Studies

  • This is one of the newest additions to the project, and will grow in size over the next few years.

 

Please take a look at these resources and let us know what you think!

Ben Fletcher: Leader in the IWW

Posted on by Kimberly Lerch

 

 

picture of the cover of Peter Cole's book, "Ben Fletcher: the Life and Times of a Black Wobbly"
The cover of Peter Cole’s book, “Ben Fletcher: the Life and Times of a Black Wobbly”

Simply put, Ben Fletcher was an African American dockworker from Philadelphia, a member of the Local 8 IWW (International Workers of the World) union in the early 1900s.

But Local 8, the IWW (known as “the Wobblies”), and Ben are not as simple as that. Fletcher became a man that “helped lead a pathbreaking union that likely was the most diverse and integrated organization (not simply union) despite the era’s rampant racism, antiunionism, and xenophobia” as stated on page one of Peter Cole’s Ben Fletcher: the Life and Times of a Black Wobbly.

Some of the existing unions Ben could have chosen to join (if they would allow a black man to join were):

Ben chose to join the Socialist Party and the IWW early on in his working life. As an international union, it attempted (and is still attempting) to unite all workers, skilled or unskilled, of any race, gender, or creed against the owners of businesses across the world. They wanted to create O.B.U. (one big union). They were anti-capitalist and believed the workers, not the businessmen should reap the rewards of their work. Continue reading “Ben Fletcher: Leader in the IWW” →

Using the IDNC: Researching Black newspapers, labor, and business

Posted on by Jessie Knoles

The Black Press 

Chicago World (Chicago, Ill.), August 27, 1949 

In honor of Black History Month, the Illinois Newspaper Project (INP) is using the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collection (IDNC) to understand Black labor history (rights, unions, and movements) and Black-owned business in Illinois through historical newspapers. We’re highlighting the mastheads of (and people behind) Black newspapers as well as advertisements for Black-owned businesses found within newspapers. A special photograph issue (published December 5, 1943) of the Chicago Sunday Bee specifically highlights Willard S. Townsend, a Black labor leader and first African-American to hold office in a national union, and printed photographs of Black labor leaders present at a Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) meeting in Philadelphia.

Did you know that the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections (IDNC) has a collection of Black newspapers? In order to preserve the cultural and print heritages of Black papers and their readers, the Illinois Digital Newspaper Project (IDNP) has centered past digitization projects around historical Black newspaper printed (primarily) in Illinois.  

 

Continue reading “Using the IDNC: Researching Black newspapers, labor, and business” →

Accessibility Issues in the Case of Microfilm (And Why You Should Still Give it a Chance)

Posted on by Rachel Sudbeck

The History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library (HPNL) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is home to a large collection of both newspapers and microfilm. While both are certainly collections that are still used regularly, there are many people of all generations who have never come into contact with a microfilm reel or scanner before coming here. And really, why would they have too? Everything is accessible on the internet at this point right?

Image of microfilm reel of the 1978 Daily Illini and accompanying box
Microfilm reel from HPNL’s collection of the Daily Illini

Well not exactly. 

In the past, microfilm was used as a form of preservation for more fragile objects like old books and newspapers that were printed on quickly degrading paper. There was a huge boom in the microfilming industry in the 50s and 60s when archivists and librarians became a little bit obsessed with increasing the longevity of their collections and saving space. During this process, however, they threw out many of the original copies of items that were filmed which made them only accessible on microfilm. At the time this probably seemed like a great idea (saving space and all that), but as we have transitioned into the digital age, physical-based media are seeing less and less use.

That dip in use does not reflect microfilm’s overall usefulness, however. People come into our library daily to view microfilm for a variety of reasons. But if these resources are so useful, why are they being used less and less? I can think of a few reasons: Continue reading “Accessibility Issues in the Case of Microfilm (And Why You Should Still Give it a Chance)” →

HPNL Hot Blast + Our Annual Gift Guide

Posted on by Geoffrey Ross

Everyday Newspaper Titles (Zzzzzz)

Do not waste your time counting sheep; if you’re having trouble settling in for your long winter’s nap, you might find newspaper titles as sedating as Seconal: the “Gazette,” the “Times,” the “Examiner,” the “Post,” the “Tribune,” the “Sun,” the “Star,” the “Journal,” the “News”… and then the hyphenated titles, formed by newspaper mergers: “News-Tribune,” “News-Gazette,” “Journal-Star,” “Sun-Times,” “Star-Tribune,”and on and on.

A handful of interesting exceptions do, however, cross my desk. I’m often puzzled by the “Sun-Star” and “Star-Sun” unions. Is it an unholy marriage of night with day, or a Rosicrucian signal: sun is star; star is sun; sun marries self, a terrible autogamy and its dread progeny? Imagine waking every morning, or returning home every evening, to that Yeatsian horror: “[W]hat rough beast, its hour come round at last, / Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?”(Oh, and, Merry Christmas, if you celebrate!)
Continue reading “HPNL Hot Blast + Our Annual Gift Guide” →

Flesh Out your Genealogical Searches with Small Town Newspapers

Posted on by Kimberly Lerch

 

Change of plans: no more rabbit holes. Geneaology!

Stephen Cornett Pribble Obituary
Stephen Cornett Pribble’s Obituary

Genealogy is more than just names and dates, jobs and relationships. I started in the late 1990s researching my dad’s side of the family. I  live in the area that my ancestors lived in back in the 1870s. There are a lot of us (Pribbles) in the Vermilion and Champaign County area. How did I find this out? Censuses, talking to older relatives (I interviewed my great-aunt, Anna Kathryn Pribble McNeese, 98 at the time), cemetery listings and walks, and joining the Illiana Genealogical and Historical Society. I used the society’s resources which, at the time, were reference books and microfilm. I looked on sites such as Ancestry.com, which were free back then, but there was a gap between my known Pribbles and the Pribbles listed on the site. Where did we fit in to the line that came over from England as an indentured servant?

Using HPNL’s libguide entitled Geneaology Resources, I found a number of aids useful in tracking down ancestors. Ancestry.com is still available, but you must pay to access the information there now, but Family Search is free.

Through the USGenWeb Project, I accessed the ILGenWeb site and from there, the Vermilion County genealogy website. From this site, deaths, marriages, military information, newspapers, and obituaries can be accessed. I’m just looking in Vermilion county for my folk, but the ILGenWeb has a site for each county in Illinois, and the USGenWeb Project for each state. I have used this site in the past to verify deaths and marriages.

Back on the Geneaology Resources libguide page, I selected “V” under the “Illinois” sidebar on the Genealogy Resources page, and am taken to the “Where to Start” page for searching information in Vermilion county. This led me to a number of books that may contain useful information. As for my Vermilion county cousins, I was able to read about them from an entry in History of Vermilion County… (Beckwith). Yohos can still be found in the area I went to school with Henthorns in Catlin, a nearby village to Westville, Georgetown and Sidell. It is a small world. One of my West Virginia (migrated in the 1870s, settling in Ridgefarm) cousins can be read about here. Frank’s brother was named Wilbur. Go figure. Kinfolk, but definitely independent lines from a common ancestor. Continue reading “Flesh Out your Genealogical Searches with Small Town Newspapers” →

New Life Will Rise From the Ashes… Right?: An Short Analysis of The Phoenix Complex: A Philosophy of Nature by Michael Marder in Our Current Contexts

Posted on by Rachel Sudbeck

Hurricanes continually pummel the coasts of the United States, we had record high temperatures across the country this summer, and we are biting our nails waiting for what winter may hold. When you really think about it, there is only one logical explanation for the extreme weather we have seen over the last decade: The government. 

Or at least that is what I saw some people saying on social media. 

While it may have been appalling to see people say that, it unfortunately isn’t a new train of thought. Climate change is a topic that has been debated for as long as I can remember and people around the world have always come up with any possible explanation that points the finger away from the human race’s involvement in it. If it is even a real thing at all, that is.  Continue reading “New Life Will Rise From the Ashes… Right?: An Short Analysis of The Phoenix Complex: A Philosophy of Nature by Michael Marder in Our Current Contexts” →

New and recent books by Illinois faculty

Posted on by Celestina Savonius-Wroth

One of the most satisfying parts of my job as an academic librarian is to see a research project that started out as a twinkle in someone’s eye appear in the Library as a published book. Here are some new titles by University of Illinois faculty members in the subject areas we collect here in the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library (African American Studies, History, Jewish Studies, Philosophy, and Religious Studies) that we’ve recently acquired (a few are still on order). Congratulations, all! Continue reading “New and recent books by Illinois faculty” →

HPNL – A Great Place to Study!

Posted on by Michelle Self-Ballard

Are you still looking for a good library to study in?

Come and visit us in the History, Philosophy and Newspaper Library located on the second floor of the Main Library building in room 246.

Directory April 2019 (illinois.edu)

Hours:

During the academic semester, HPNL is open from 9am-7pm Monday-Thursday, 9am-5pm on Fridays and 1-5pm on Sundays.

HPNL Study Space:

HPNL is a semi-quiet study space that has both large study tables that work for both individuals and small groups, as well as new individual study carrels! There is both traditional library seating as well as soft seating. The library has great natural lighting through large windows in the main reading room. If you need an even quieter space to read or study, and don’t mind a bit of cool temperatures, we also have a few seats in our microfilm stacks available for use. Continue reading “HPNL – A Great Place to Study!” →

Archives Bazaar: All Aboard the Preservation Train

Posted on by Jessie Knoles

Preserving Railroad History: An Invitation

Since 2017, The Urbana Free Library has hosted an event called the Archives Bazaar, where cultural heritage organizations from the Champaign-Urbana area—including special collections libraries, historical societies, archives, museums, and independent collectors—congregate to exhibit materials found in their collections. Archives bazaars exist to promote the preservation of our cultural heritage and to promote the use of archival collections by highlighting popular, “hidden,” or interesting collections within an institution. Bazaars are a chance for organizations and repositories to leave the stacks and connect with people in the community (not just the scholarly researchers one may think of when one thinks of archives!). It’s a way for us to say, enthusiastically, “Isn’t preserving history neat?” and “Please come use our collections!”

This year, The Urbana Free Library’s Archives Bazaar has a central theme on the history of the Illinois Central Railroad. 2024 marks the 100-year anniversary of the Illinois Central depot in Champaign, Illinois. The Illinois Newspaper Project, jointly administered by HPNL and the University Library’s Preservation Services Unit, will table at the Bazaar to showcase the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections (IDNC) and to promote our newly-published (and very first!) research guide featuring articles about the Illinois Central Railroad found in the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections. Continue reading “Archives Bazaar: All Aboard the Preservation Train” →