UIS professor emeritus to give ECCE presentation

The University of Illinois at Springfield’s Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speaker Series will present UIS professor emeritus of History Cullom Davis for a lecture titled “Prisoners of Conscience in the Modern Era” on April 16 at 7 p.m. in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library on the UIS campus. The event is free and open to the public.

During his presentation, Davis will reflect on the lives of modern and contemporary prisoners of conscience, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (Burma), who has been under house arrest for much of the time since 1988 for opposing the repressive national government.

Davis served for fifteen years as founding director of Sangamon State University’s Oral History Office and helped found the university’s master’s program in Public History. From 1988 to 2000, he was also director and senior editor of The Lincoln Legal Papers. In 2008, Davis was one of thirty citizens world-wide to receive the special bicentennial edition of The Order of Lincoln, the state’s highest honor.

A dessert reception will follow the lecture in the Public Affairs Center Restaurant. The event is sponsored by the Friends of Brookens Library.

The complete schedule of ECCE speakers and topics for the 2009 Spring Semester is available at http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries. For information about any ECCE event, contact Kimberly Craig, series coordinator, at 206-6245 or e-mail speakerseries@uis.edu.

Brookens to host "An Evening with Ray Bradbury"

Brookens Library will host an evening with legendary author Ray Bradbury, via a live satellite interview, beginning at 7 p.m. Wednesday, November 19, in Brookens Auditorium. The program and a reception in the PAC restaurant immediately following are free and open to the public.

Bradbury is the author of such classics as Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and Something Wicked This Way Comes. From his home in Los Angeles, he will discuss his life and work in a conversation with Dr. Loren Logsdon, professor emeritus of English and Western Civilization & Culture at Eureka College. Logsdon, a friend of Bradbury and an expert on his writing, will open the evening with a short address.

Bradbury is a native of Waukegan, Illinois, and one of 35 Illinois authors whose names are engraved on the fourth floor frieze of the Illinois State Library. Fahrenheit 451 is a cautionary tale about a media-obsessed society where citizens have stopped reading. Some of its themes are censorship, freedom of expression, and the effects of television and technology on society.

The program is part of The Big Read in West Central Illinois. For more information about the program at UIS, contact the office of the dean of Library Instructional Services at 6-6597.

Reception honoring Caryl Moy

The Friends of Brookens Library will host a reception with Dr. Caryl Towsley Moy, SSU Professor Emerita of Child, Family, and Community Services

7 to 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, October 28, in the PAC Restaurant

to celebrate the publication of her new book, Naperville's Genevieve: A Daughter's Memoir.

For more information, contact the Development Office at 6-6058.

Friends of Brookens Library Book Sale

9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Friday, October 3, in front of the library

Friends members preview sale - 5 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, in the Bibliographic Services area

Presented in conjunction with Homecoming Week

For details, contact Marci Rossi at 6-6597.

Director of Harvard University Press to speak

Dr. William P. Sisler (at left), director of Harvard University Press, will present a guest lecture titled "The End of Reading, the Future of Scholarly Publishing" at 7 p.m. Tuesday, September 9, in Brookens Auditorium at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Brookens Auditorium is located on the lower level of Brookens Library at UIS. The event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Sisler will address themes raised in the National Endowment for the Arts' 2004 report "Reading at Risk" as well as in Ray Bradbury's classic novel Fahrenheit 451.

Sisler's lecture is part of the University of Illinois Press’ 90th anniversary celebration and The Big Read Campaign, an NEA initiative designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. A reception hosted by event co-sponsor The Friends of Brookens Library will immediately follow in UIS' Public Affairs Center Restaurant.

More information

UIS to co-sponsor workshops on nonprofit fundraising

Two workshops designed to help nonprofit organizations focus on giving trends within Illinois and more effectively raise money in difficult economic times will be presented from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Thursday, July 31, at the Wedeberg conference facility, Memorial Medical Center, in Springfield. The program is open to the public, however advance reservations are required.

Sikich and the Donors Forum are sponsoring the event in conjunction with the Central Illinois Nonprofit Resource Center at the University of Illinois at Springfield, Sangamon County Community Foundation, and United Way of Central Illinois.

The session "Understanding and Getting Your Slice of the Pie" will include a presentation of the Donors Forum publication Individual Giving in Illinois. Participants will also see how charitable giving in the state compares nationally and will learn what characteristics define donors locally.

"Foolproof Funding for Hard Times: What Works Now?" will examine where to find local sources of unrestricted funding and will share techniques for raising money during an economic downturn.

Cost to attend the event is $35 per person, which includes lunch.

Sikich is a leading provider of professional services in the Midwest. The Chicago-based Donors Forum serves as a resource for networking, education, information, and leadership on behalf of philanthropy in Illinois.

The Central Illinois Nonprofit Resource Center, housed in Brookens Library at UIS, is a cooperating collection of the Foundation Center, a national authority on philanthropy dedicated to serving grant seekers, grant makers, researchers, policymakers, the media, and the general public. As a member of their nationwide network of libraries, community foundations, and other nonprofit agencies, the CINRC provides free public access to various materials and databases.

The Sangamon County Community Foundation acts as a vehicle to link donors at all levels with appropriate agencies. Funds raised during annual United Way campaigns are invested in local programs to create lasting changes in individual lives and in the community.

For more information or to register, call the Donors Forum at 888-578-0090 or contact Pamela Salela, coordinator of the Central Illinois Nonprofit Resource Center at UIS, at 217-206-6633.

Library to screen documentary on writers' colony

The Friends of Brookens Library will host a showing of the documentary Inside the Handy Writers' Colony on Tuesday, June 24, at 5:30 p.m. in Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library at the University of Illinois at Springfield. The event is free and open to the public.

Writer, director, producer Dawn Shapiro drew heavily on materials housed in the Brookens Library Archives to make this film about the Marshall, Illinois, writers' colony whose most famous member was James Jones, author of From Here to Eternity.

Founded in 1950 by Lowney and Harry Handy, the colony in its heyday supported numerous young writers, many of whose works were published. The colony dissolved after Lowney Handy died in 1964.

Shapiro will attend the screening, which will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

For more information, contact Jane Treadwell, UIS dean of library instructional services, at 206-6597.

See more information about the Handy Writers' Colony materials housed in Brookens Archives

The James Jones Literary Society

More about Friends of Brookens Library