Our first few days in Illinois

We're only a few days in Illinois and we've already orientated ourselves with the bus system and the shopping malls. Although a little bigger and a larger variety, things are not so much different!



We were introduced to the Mortenson programme yesterday. An informal discussion and quick tour through the undergraduate library as well as the main library made me realised that we share more or less the same concerns and problems.



The main focus here, however, is on the comfort and needs of clients, namely the students, researchers and faculty staff. The university has also an obligation to support the needs of the general public. The physical design, services delivered and sources provided are all centered around supporting user needs.



The University of Illinois has several unique collections, such as the Slavery and East European collection, the early documents of the American Library Association (ALA) in the archive and a wonderful movie collection.



Users can also borrow technology, such as video recorders, Play stations, digital cameras and labtops from the library. There are also a large game collection (my son will just love this!) and game nights are held from time to time in the undergraduate library.



Today we went to the most beautiful library, namely the Ames Library at Illinois Wesleyan. This library has everything to contribute to the highest academic performance. The librarians here are also focussed and in touch with user needs.











We learned about the Ethnographic Research Illinois Academic Libraries (ERIAL) study which gave more insight about the needs and abilities of students, as well as digital repositories, library instruction and how they manage their e-journal collection.


I'm looking forward to the next day in Illinois...