RAILS Member Announcements

Visitors of the Palatine Public Library District are discovering a new time-saving option for checking out library materials. Introduced in December 2012, and recently expanded, Express Checkout is fast becoming a popular, time-saving, and convenient option for patrons on the go.

There are two Express Checkout stations on the first floor of the Main Library (near the central staircase), another station on the second floor near the Reference Desk, and one in the Children’s Department. Staff is finding that children are especially enjoying the fun of checking out their own books and learning something new. 

To use Express Checkout, users scan their Library card, enter their account PIN and follow the easy touch-screen prompts to check out books, audiobooks, and magazines. CDs and DVDs in security cases will still need to be checked out in the AV Department. Library staff is available to introduce the service and answer questions. 

“Express Checkout conveniently provides our patrons with the option of a quick transaction, shorter lines, and more independence in managing their accounts,” states Circulation Manager Jose Maldonado. 

Patrons can review their account details, renew items, and confirm or cancel holds. After checking out materials the system will give users a choice to receive a printed receipt or have one sent to their email. Patrons will soon be able to use the Express Checkout stations to pay overdue charges with a credit or debit card, too.

This service provides another way for Palatine Public Library District visitors to choose which option works best for their individual needs.

Publisher sent us 2 copies. We only need 1. Please contact me if interested.

Illinois Valley Community College will hold ‘The Great Book Giveaway” from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday, March 6 in C-316.

Through a recent inventory IVCC’s Jacobs Library will make books available to the local community free of charge. Donations will be accepted on behalf of the IVCC Support Staff Service Project to establish an Emergency Student Living Needs Fund.

The public is invited to visit IVCC and browse for reading material. There will be a variety of items including books, videos and audio books. Book dealers are welcome between 1 and 2 p.m.

This event is open to the public. For information contact Kim Herout (815) 224-0480 or Frances Whaley (815) 224-0263.

The Illinois Central College Library is one of more than 840 libraries and state humanities councils across the country selected to receive the Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American Library Association (ALA). The materials grant includes 25 books, a one-year subscription to a database and three DVD movies. The program aims to familiarize public audiences in the United States with the people, places, history, faith and cultures of Muslims in the United States and around the world.       

The Muslim Journeys Bookshelf includes the following titles, organized by theme:

American Stories:

• A Quiet Revolution by Leila Ahmed
• Prince Among Slaves by Terry Alford
• The Columbia Sourcebook of Muslims in the United States, edited by Edward E. Curtis IV
• Acts of Faith by Eboo Patel
• The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman’s Journey to Love and Islam by G. Willow Wilson

Connected Histories:

• The House of Wisdom: How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance by Jim Al-Khalili
• In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh
• When Asia Was the World: Traveling Merchants, Scholars, Warriors, and Monks Who Created the “Riches of the East” by Stewart Gordon
• Leo Africanus by Amin Maalouf, translated by Peter Sluglett
• The Ornament of the World by Maria Rosa Menocal

Literary Reflections:

• Minaret by Leila Aboulela
• The Arabian Nights (anonymous), edited by Muhsin Mahdi, translated by Husain Haddawy
• The Conference of the Birds by Farid al-Din Attar, translated by Dick Davis and Afkham Darbandi
• Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi
• Snow by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Maureen Freely

Pathways of Faith:

• Muhammad: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan A. C. Brown
• The Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life by Ingrid Mattson
• The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam by F. E. Peters
• The Art of Hajj by Venetia Porter
• Rumi: Poet and Mystic, edited and translated by Reynold A. Nicholson

Points of View:

• In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
• Dreams of Trespass by Fatima Mernissi
• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood by Marjane Satrapi
• House of Stone by Anthony Shadid
• Broken Verses by Kamila Shamsie

Art Architecture and Film:

• The Art of Hajj by Venetia Porter
• Islamic Arts by Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair
• Islamic Art Spots (short films designed, written, and presented by D. Fairchild Ruggles, and produced by Twin Cities Public Television)
• Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World (2011)
• Prince Among Slaves (2007)
• Koran by Heart (2011)

The books and films comprising the Bookshelf were selected with the advice of librarians and cultural programming experts, as well as distinguished scholars in the fields of anthropology, world history, religious studies, interfaith dialogue, the history of art and architecture, world literature, Middle East studies, Southeast Asian studies, African studies, and Islamic studies.

The Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys is a project of the National Endowment for the Humanities, conducted in cooperation with the American Library Association. Major support for the Muslim Journeys Bookshelf was provided by a grant from Carnegie Corporation of New York. Additional support for the arts and media components was provided by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art.

For more information about these materials at the library, contact ICC’s Outreach and Reference Librarian Michelle Nielsen Ott at 309.694-5617.