ROLLING PRAIRIE LIBRARY SYSTEM

Eighth RPLS Seminar

Thursday, March 26, 2009

RPLS Seminar 2009

Lincoln, Literacy and Legacies

Printable pdf version.

Inside:

Registration 9:00am @DPL
Session 1
lunch
Session 2
Session 3
At a Glance
Tracks of Interest
Registration in L2

Keynote: "Lincoln, Literacy and Legacies" - Kim Bauer (9:30 - 10:30 @ DPL Elizabeth Madden Auditorium)
Kim Bauer, Director of the Decatur's Lincoln Heritage Project will be the keynote speaker at the Rolling Prairie Library System seminar, “Lincoln, Literacy and Legacies”. Mr. Bauer will discuss Abraham Lincoln’s reading habits, and how the works that he read influenced him.

Mr. Bauer has a Bachelors and Masters degree in history from Eastern Illinois University. He formerly was Lincoln Curator for the Henry Horner Lincoln Collection at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library. The distinguished Horner Collection is the largest pre-presidential collection concerning Abraham Lincoln in the United States. Mr. Bauer is also past co-editor of the prestigious Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association. Mr. Bauer is the author of a dozen articles and book reviews on President Lincoln. He has been a past speaker at the Lincoln Fellowship of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the George Painter Lecture Series at the Lincoln Home National Historic site; the Conference on Illinois History; the American Association for History and Computing; the Illinois History Symposium; and Lincoln Memorial University’s Lincoln Conference. Recently, Mr. Bauer has appeared on Illinois Stories on PBS. His credits also include Good Morning, America, C-SPAN; the Discovery Channel, A&E and the History Channel, to name a few.

The cost to attend the RPLS Seminar whether in whole or in part is only $20 for those registering and paying by Friday, February 27th, and $30 per person for those registering after that date. Registration ends Wednesday, March 18th.

The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Resources for Libraries
Daniel W. Stowell, Director / Editor and John A. Lupton, Associate Director / Associate Editor of Papers of Abraham Lincoln, will demonstrate The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Second Edition, a new online version of the Lincoln Legal Paper’s 2000 DVD-ROM publication. The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln includes images of more than 96,000 documents from Abraham Lincoln’s law practice, arranged into more than 5,100 cases and nearly 500 non-litigation activities. A database with more than 2 million facts (litigants, attorneys, courts, legal actions, case summaries, etc.) allows users to search using one or more of two dozen indexes. This publication will be of interest to scholars, students, genealogists, and the general public interested to learn more about Abraham Lincoln’s legal career, the issues that found their way to courts, and the people with whom Lincoln interacted in mid-nineteenth-century Illinois. A brief discussion of The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases, 4 vols., will explain how the two publications are complementary. The presentation will also include a demonstration of The Lincoln Log: A Daily Chronology of the Life of Abraham Lincoln. This resource provides information on every day of Abraham Lincoln’s life for which documentation has survived (more than 7,100 days). Users can browse or search the entries, and can also navigate directly to a specific day or month in Lincoln’s life. The Papers of Abraham Lincoln continues to update this online resource with new information based on new discoveries. Finally, the presentation will provide an overview of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, its scope and goals. This project, which began in 1985 as the Lincoln Legal Papers, is one of the most ambitious documentary editing endeavors ever undertaken. With the publications listed above, Series I: Legal Papers is now complete, and researchers are hard at work on Series II: Illinois Papers, and Series III: Presidential Papers. This portion of the presentation will discuss the staff’s efforts to locate every document written by or to Abraham Lincoln throughout the nation and beyond. It will provide attendees with a glimpse of the challenges and rewards of this complex and fascinating project.

Daniel W. Stowell is the director and editor of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln. After joining the staff of the Lincoln Legal Papers in 1996, he became the director in 2000, and managed its expansion into the Papers of Abraham Lincoln. He is the author or editor of five books, including The Papers of Abraham Lincoln: Legal Documents and Cases (4 vols., 2008), Rebuilding Zion: The Religious Reconstruction of the South, 1863-1877 (1998), and In Tender Consideration: Women, Families, and the Law in Abraham Lincoln's Illinois (2002). Dr. Stowell received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Georgia, and his doctorate in American History from the University of Florida.

John A. Lupton is the Associate Director and Associate Editor of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln, a project of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. He has been with the project since 1991. Lupton received his bachelor’s degree in history from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and his master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Springfield. He has published several articles and chapters about Abraham Lincoln and antebellum law. He has also appeared on PBS, NPR, and C- SPAN.

Discovering Lincoln at the Library of Congress
Richard Satchwell, Midwest Center for Teaching with Primary Sources, and his staff will introduce the Library of Congress website and the more than 11 million free digital primary sources available to educators. This session will provide a broad overview of the resources available with an emphasis on sources related to Lincoln and the Civil War. This is a hands-on session and seating is limited.

Lincoln Library Wiki
Brandy Hansen of Lincoln Library, Springfield's Public Library has created a wiki to aid in communication with and dissemination of information to her library's staff. Brandy, Reference Librarian and Mandy Magill, Branch Library Assistant will present the reasons behind using a Wiki at their library. They will discuss training and development issues, as well as the pros and cons of using the Lincoln Library Wiki. They will also demonstrate how the Wiki works.

Talk Up a Good Book
Rachel Miller, RPLS School/Youth Services Consultant, will share ideas for promoting books to young people and teens.  From traditional booktalks to popcorn pep talks, we will think about ways to make readers reach out for good books.  Join this session for an opportunity to learn new ways to make your books fly off the shelves.

Lunch will consist of a selection of Panera box lunches, coffee and tea.

Registration 9:00am @DPL
Session 1
lunch
Session 2
Session 3
At a Glance
Tracks of Interest
Registration in L2

Legacies at Your Fingertips: Genealogical Resources for Libraries and Their Patrons from the Illinois State Archives
In September of 2008, Family Tree Magazine named the Illinois State Archives online databases web page as one of the “101 Best Websites for Genealogy”. Karl R. Moore, Supervisor of the IRAD System for the Illinois State Archives, will take you on a guided tour of the online databases available through the online databases Web page, so that you can help your genealogical patrons.

Programapedia Wiki
Prairie Area Library System and Shawnee Library System using an LSTA grant created a wiki, Programapedia, to aid in sharing programming resources throughout the State of Illinois. Sandy Ringstrom, the Director of Consulting and Continuous Learning, responsible for overseeing consulting and continuous learning services throughout the Prairie Area Library System service area, will show you how you can use and participate in Programapedia.

Sandy Ringstrom facilitates continuous learning programs, oversees professional educational opportunities including an MLS program from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Northern Illinois University, promote programs and training throughout the PALS area. Sandy will be discussing the development of Programapedia, as well as opportunities for librarians to participate in Programapedia. Sandy will demonstrate also how the Programapedia Wiki works.

"The project is supported through grant funding awarded by the Illinois State Library (ISL), a Division of the Office of Secretary of State, using funds provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), under the federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA).

Director's ASK!: Jennie Alexander’s Legacy
Bev Obert, RPLS System Director, will present the key components of the former LibraryU module, Director’s ASK!, created by Jennie Alexander when she was the Director of Mt Zion Public Library. Bev will discuss the important lessons in this poignant story and the reasons why taking the time to create a “Director’s Administrative Secret Knowledge!” notebook for your library is so important.

Big 6 – Information Literacy

Michelle McKinney, National Board Certified librarian at Monticello Middle school, will discuss strategies for successful research projects with students. These strategies include using essential questions to challenge students to think critically and stop the cut & paste plagiarism, using databases to find accurate & reliable information, and developing information literacy skills using “Big6”. Big6 is an instructional system for teaching information and technology skills, which was developed by Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz.

Help Me Organize My Research: How to Use Zotero!
Joe Hardenbrook, Educational Technology Coordinator, Research/Instruction Librarian & Assistant Professor at Millikin University’s Staley Library will do a hands on session on how to use the free open source research tool Zotero with Firefox. If you bring a USB flash drive, you will have the opportunity to download and use Zotero and Firefox. There are a limited number of seats for this session, so signup early!. 

Decatur Public Library Insiders Tour
Have you always wondered how other libraries worked? Lee Ann Fisher, Director will give you an inside look of their library on this tour.

ROLLING PRAIRIE
LIBRARY SYSTEM

Rolling Prairie Library System
345 W Eldorado St
Decatur, IL 62522

Serving libraries to better serve you.

WE'RE ON THE WEB @
www.rpls.ws

• To Decatur Public Library for generously allowing us to use their facilities.
• To the speakers and presenters who donated their time and talent for the improvement of us all.
• To the member librarians and their staff who acted as hosts and hostesses and who by their presence made the Seminar a reality. 
• To the member libraries who shared information about their collections.
• To the RPLS staff members who went the extra mile to see that the Seminar went as smoothly as possible.