Research

Research

Living in Interesting Times

Living in Interesting Times

, , Library Resources, Matt Dilworth, Research
Do you keep a diary?  In times of crisis, firsthand, contemporaneous accounts are among the most valuable to the historians of later decades.  We call these ‘primary’ sources – those created by the people who lived the events that are described.  Letters and diaries have long been fertile sources for understanding history, and the blogs and emails of today will likely inform the historians of tomorrow.  While our times can seem unprecedented, calamities of various sorts have always shaped the eras they happened in.  The Influenza pandemic of 1918, commonly called the Spanish Flu, is often held up as a comparison to today’s struggle with the COVID-19 coronavirus.  Studying how people survived previous crises and catastrophes; and the lived experience … Continued
The Internet Archive, a trove of amazing things

The Internet Archive, a trove of amazing things

, , Research, Website
Founded in 1996, the Internet Archive is a free resource of materials ranging from previous versions of websites to video games to concerts from well known recording artists and much more.  So much, in fact, that it can be quite overwhelming.  As an avid user of Archive.org, KT Lowe, Instruction Librarian, is glad to provide you with a list of her all-time favorite resources. Let us know on Facebook what is YOUR favorite Internet Archive resource! FEATURE FILMS: Sita Sings the Blues – a full length animated film by Nina Paley recounting the Ramayana from the perspective of a divorcee. Terrific animation, a great soundtrack featuring the music of 1920’s jazz chanteuse Annette Hanshaw and a thoroughly enjoyable set of … Continued
HathiTrust Special Book Access

HathiTrust Special Book Access

, , books, Library Resources, Research
IU East credentials (user name and password log-in) provide students, faculty and staff with access to many types of scholarly resources, even during the coronavirus pandemic. However, physical books are not currently accessible. IU East owns close to 20,000 print volumes, and millions of books from other IU libraries were also readily available at the click of a button in the library catalog, IUCAT.  Since book stacks are closed, e-books have been valuable; but not all books (particularly older books) are available as e-texts, nor do all publishers license their output for electronic access. There are available digitized copies of print books. Thanks to efforts like Project Gutenberg, we can freely access public-domain books. But some initiatives, such as the … Continued
Educational Resources – Free Online (ERFO)

Educational Resources – Free Online (ERFO)

, , , Frances Yates, Jesse Whitton, Library Resources, Library Services, Research, Website
Providing reliable and useful resources is a large part of the mission of our Campus Library.  This includes numerous databases, e-books, and media that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars that are paid to aggregate vendors, producers and publishers. More and more resources are becoming “open access,” meaning they are publicly accessible and free to use. However, much content needed by academic library users still comes with a cost. That situation is changing, in an interim response to the coronavirus pandemic.  Many formerly subscription-only resources are temporarily open access, some through April, some until June and some open-ended. To help our users discover newly-free resources, we have created a resource guide with access information: https://iue.libguides.com/ERFO/College. We will continue to update … Continued
(Some of) the curious cultural history of women in chocolate

(Some of) the curious cultural history of women in chocolate

, , , Programs, Research
Chocolate is one of the most widely beloved foods in the world today, used in a variety of dishes from chocolate pasta to mole sauces to, of course, decadent brownies.  However, much of what we know about chocolate is fairly recent and limited in context.  Let’s open up a bit of that history and take a look at chocolate through the lens of women. For much of the 20th century, women have been closely associated with chocolate – mostly by craving it.  While this is a stereotype, it is rooted in a small bit of truth.  Chocolate is in fact the most desired food in the US, and while there is little consensus as to whether or not that desire … Continued