Library News
Movies From Space!
Posted on February 18th, 2019
Did you know there’s a space exhibit happening at the Booth Library right now? There is, and it’s great! Here on the fourth floor, the best way we could manage to express our excitement is to put together a theme-appropriate movie display. But these aren’t just any regular old movies. They’re movies… FROM SPACE!
We’ve assembled only the best of our collection for your perusal: Informative documentaries, thrilling sci-fi classics, and that one movie where a bunch of dogs put on dog-sized space suits and go to the moon all by themselves. You’ll love it.
Did you also know that the fourth floor is the highest floor in the library, which makes it closer to outer space than all the other floors? How fitting! Float on up and check out our fantastic display!
On the Shoulders of Giants, 50 years since the Moon landing
Posted on January 24th, 2019
The most recent exhibit and program series here at Booth Library will officially open on January 24, 2019. On the Shoulders of Giants is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of NASA’s Moon landing in 1969. The NASA 50th anniversary website provides pictures, videos and audio of the Apollo mission. Check out an interview from the New York Times, held with the three astronauts, a week before the launch. Be sure to come and check out the exhibits and program series here at Booth Library to find out more about this historic event.
The following list of books, currently on display in Marvin Foyer are available for you to check out.
Novels set during the 1918 influenza epidemic
Posted on September 13th, 2018
For readers interested in experiencing what life was like a century ago, as the 1918 influenza epidemic swept through the country, below are some works of fiction that are owned by Booth Library. These novels will take you back in time to reveal stories of family, survival, and personal strength.
This list is offered in conjunction with the fall 2018 Booth Library exhibit “The Flu Then and Now: 1918 to 2018.” Read more about each book, and check its status on the shelf, through the links below.
In Philadelphia in 1918, the lives of the Bright family change dramatically when the flu arrives on their doorstep.
A suspenseful murder mystery set in New York City, as the “Spanish flu” spreads through the city’s population, but were some suspicious deaths caused by the flu, or something else?
Lehane’s epic of the tumultuous post-World War I period in Boston includes significant events of the era, including the influenza epidemic.
The heroine of this quirky historical fantasy novel is a young Italian immigrant with magical abilities who loses her parents to the influenza epidemic and takes control of her life in a unique way.
After returning to the world following a bout with the “Spanish Flu,” Ivy Rowan discovers she can see ghosts of those who died.
At the time of the influenza epidemic in Boston in 1918, a female entrepreneur tries to ensure her future.
The Great Outdoors at Booth Library
Posted on June 20th, 2018
Summer is the travel season and the great American road trip isn’t complete without a stop at one of our nation’s majestic wilderness areas. Enjoy these National Park Service Posters, learn about the American Conservation Movement, and pick up some summer reading about the outdoors. Not traveling this summer? Visit Booth Library’s display of local wildlife photography shot entirely in Coles County, Illinois!
Explore Illinois State Parks
Explore National Parks
Cesar Chavez Day, March 31
Posted on April 6th, 2018
Although the annual marker for Cesar Chavez Day is just past, you can still review the informative exhibit in Booth. Here are several titles currently on display and available to check out.
Tattoo Resources supporting Designs of Duty exhibit
Posted on February 18th, 2018
Currently featured in the Marvin Foyer of Booth Library is the Designs of Duty exhibit of military tattoos.
“an exhibit featuring East Central Illinois veterans and their service-related tattoos, Designs of Duty will be on display at Booth Library from Jan. 22 through May 11, 2018.
“Designs of Duty” tells the stories of seven military veterans who served our country over a 45-year period throughout Asia and Europe. Veterans featured in the exhibit are Eric Hiltner and Wilson Reynolds of Charleston, Ken Fernandes of Newman, Random Clavin of Nokomis, Adam Griffy of Olney, Shane Wright of Shelbyville and Lyle Gordon of Towanda.
The exhibit also features several titles from Booth’s collections about military tattoos and body art in general. These titles are on display and available for check out in the Marvin Foyer.
In addition to these books, Booth also has Electronic Encyclopedia entries on the topic, and scholarly articles via JSTOR from many academic disciplines.
AzkaBanned Books – Banned Books and Intellectual Freedom
Posted on September 24th, 2017
Our Harry Potter: Celebrating a Phenomenon exhibit happily coincides with Banned Books Week, September 24-30. So what do Harry Potter and Banned Books have in common? Harry Potter has faced many challenges in school and public libraries over the past twenty years. Fortunately, in more recent years, critics have left Harry Potter alone, but other books have taken its place on the top ten challenged books of the year. Books receive challenges for a variety of reasons, the most common being religion, sex, language, or even just encouraging young readers to disrespect their elders.
Come to the Marvin Foyer to look at a variety of children’s titles that have been challenged over the years. Exercise your first amendment rights and check out a banned book.
Harry Potter: Interpretation and Exploration
Posted on August 16th, 2017
Go beyond the Harry Potter books to find other books by J. K. Rowling. Or, explore critical literary theory through the Harry Potter books. Like the movies? We have cinematic analysis as well.
Civil Rights era video, streaming for all the world to see @Booth
Posted on September 29th, 2016
This collection of African American Civil Rights Movement era film and television is available to stream through Booth’s subscription to Alexander Street Press. The selected videos build on the bibliography compiled by Marlene Slough in the program booklet for the For All the World to See exhibit currently at Booth. The videos are subtitled and accompanied by text transcripts. (Please note that viewing access is restricted to Eastern Illinois University patrons.)
All Power to the People!
Documentary on the historical context for the establishment of the civil rights movement and the formation of the Black Panther Party. (1996, 1 hr. 57 min.)
A Child Shall Lead Them
Tells the story of public school desegregation in Nashville, Tennessee, beginning with first graders in September 1957. (2008, 23 min.)
The Color of Justice
Explores judicial decisions that have shaped America’s racial attitudes—the Dred Scott case, Plessy vs. Ferguson, the 1970 court order to integrate the schools of Lamar, South Carolina—and reviews the efforts of modern political and judicial leaders to help break the color line in the nation’s schools, voting booths, courtrooms, and public accommodations. (1970, 24 min.)
February One
Documentary on the sit-in staged by four Black college students at the lunch counter of the Greensboro, North Carolina, Woolworth five and dime store. (2003, 57 min.)
Freedom Summer
Spotlights the murder of three civil rights workers in Mississippi on June 21, 1964. From the History Channel television miniseries 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America. (2006, 38 min.)
The Freedom Train
Documents the National Negro Labor Council, formed in 1951 to advance Blacks in the workplace and eliminate racism inside the unions. (1996, 30 min.)
Freedom’s Call
Dorothy Gilliam and Ernest Withers, two African-American journalists who covered the events of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, return to the deep South where it all took place. Their journey to Memphis, Little Rock, Oxford, Jackson and the Mississippi Delta brings back memories of those turbulent times. (2007, 47 min.)
Home of the Brave
Documentary on the civil rights activist Viola Liuzzo, who was murdered in 1965 as she campaigned for Black suffrage in Selma, Alabama. (2003, 1 hr. 14 min.)
July ’64
Using archival footage and interviews with those who were present, this film explores the genesis and outcome of a three-night riot that erupted in two predominantly Black neighborhoods in downtown Rochester, New York—the culmination of decades of poverty, joblessness and racial discrimination. (2004, 54 min.)
Never Turn Back
This tribute to Fannie Lou Hamer, a nonviolent motivator in the civil rights movement, includes an interview with her, comments from individuals who knew her or her work, and scenes of her galvanizing civil rights workers. (1983, 59 min.)
Off the Pig / Mayday / Repression
A trio of early documentaries about the Black Panther Party, by the Newsreel film collective. From the What We Want, What We Believe: The Black Panther Party Library collection. (1968, 14 min.; 1969, 13 min.; 1969, 13 min.)
Oh, Freedom!
Traces the Black civil rights movement from 1955 when a Black woman refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, to the cry for Black power nearly a decade later. Explores the movement and its impact through the words of the people involved, and through examinations of the concept of Black Power. (1970, 27 min.)
Revolution ’67
Focuses on the explosive urban rebellion in Newark, New Jersey, in July 1967, to reveal the long-standing racial, economic, and political forces which generated inner city poverty and perpetuate it today. (2007, 1 hr. 14 min.)
The Road to Brown
This documentary tells the story of the battle to overturn Plessy v. Ferguson and of the man who led the charge, lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston. Moving from slavery to civil rights, the program provides a concise history of how African Americans finally won full legal equality. (1990, 57 min.)
Rosa Parks: The Path to Freedom
Biography of the dynamic but quiet woman whose demand for her civil rights led to the social changes of the 1960s. This documentary contains an overview of the events that took place in Montgomery, Alabama: Mrs. Parks’ arrest, the bus boycott, and the segregation laws that were finally overturned. (1996, 25 min.)
The Strange Demise of Jim Crow
Not all civil rights victories of the 1960s played out in front of television cameras. This documentary focuses on Houston, Texas, as an example of how many Southern cities were desegregated in a quieter fashion, with behind-the-scenes negotiations, secret deals, and controversial news blackouts. (1997, 57 min.)
Voices of Civil Rights
Personal narratives of everyday people who lived through this transformative era, from bus boycotts in Birmingham to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. From the History Channel “Save Our History” series. (2005, 45 min.)
