We love this kind of teaching and having @illinoisstatecas professor Dr. Kathryn Jasper working with Latin students in the Reading Room all semester has been a treat! news.illinoisstate.edu/2026/04/pale...

Paleography illuminated: Manuscript translation project connects language, history

Dr. Kathryn Jasper's student research group learns through translation of medieval manuscripts.

news.illinoisstate.edu

It's a new year, a new semester, and a new wardrobe! Check out the latest exhibit of the Ueckert Circus Wardrobe Collection-we promise this #Circus Galaxy is out of this world. Pictured, photographer Ellie Harman & Special Collections Librarian Rebecca Fitzsimmons install the #LibraryExhibit.

It’s such a festive time, so let’s celebrate the last of December and the impending new year with a look at a pair of festivals held in honor of the Sun King, Louis XIV, and immortalized in the 1687 festival book Roma Festeggiante. Read more in our blog post: news.illinoisstate.edu/2025/12/fest...

A Latin and French treasure, this book marks an exciting moment in educational texts for young readers. The second in a series of three, De re Navali Libellus is a simplified and translated text intended to teach adolescents to read Latin. Read more on our blog: bit.ly/4rDZA3h

Images as learning aids in a historical textbook

By translating works into vernacular languages—particularly French—Charles Estienne brought accessibility of the literature to a much wider audience.

bit.ly

Collectors are often the heart of a Special Collections department. Read about Communications between and beyond the pages in our news post about the Will Johnson Collection of Children's Literature. news.illinoisstate.edu/2025/11/comm... #SpecialCollections #ChildrensLiterature

Communications between and beyond the pages

The Will Johnson Collection of children’s literature showcases an important aspect of a collector’s relationship to books and their creators—thoughtful, intentional communication.

news.illinoisstate.edu

Read about a fantastic collection of watercolor sketches by artist Charles Bianchini: news.illinoisstate.edu/2025/10/hist... #CircusAndAlliedArtsCollection

As Halloween approaches, digitization intern has written about the danse macabre, or dance of death that appears in books at Milner and in Special Collections: news.illinoisstate.edu/2025/10/danc...

The Milner Library Special Collections Fall 2025 Circus & Allied Arts Fellow Stav Meishar will be giving a presentation titled “Circus Jews Under National Socialism” at the Moses Montefiore Temple on October 18, 2025. This talk is free and open to the public.

A new display of pieces from the Ueckert Circus Wardrobe Collection is on view on floor 3 at Milner Library. Read more: news.illinoisstate.edu/2025/07/new-...

The Musselmans took a lot of epic-looking road trips apart from their circus travels. So, as we head into the long weekend and the unofficial start of summer, we’re wishing everyone a happy #NationalRoadTripDay. Make the most of it however you get there! bit.ly/MMusselman

For World Meditation Day, please enjoy one of our Special Collections Librarian's cat, Sasha, lying on the floor staring at her while she meditates at home. She gets the assignment. #WorldMeditationDay

Happy #WorldBeeDay! We threw some butterflies into the mix because bees are awesome, but so are all the other pollinators out there! These illustrations are from volumes of the 1843 Naturalist”s Library (vol. 34 — bees, vol. 4 — butterflies). #pollinators #bees #butteflies

Beautiful and chilling imagery!

European Commission@ec.europa.eu · last yr.

Today, over 20,000 bee species are buzzing for #WorldBeeDay 🐝 Bees & other pollinators keep 80% of crop and wild flowering plants alive. Yet, 1 in 10 bee, hoverfly, and butterfly species are now at risk of extinction in the EU.

You can't argue with the awesomeness of an octopus! So, as we head toward the weekend, please enjoy this illustration of an Octopus from Johnson’s Natural History. (We assume that the man pictured is getting whatever he deserves, 🤣) #NaturalHistory #octopus

We're saying goodbye today to our Reading Room exhibit on anthropomorphic animals in children's literature and we'll miss all our friends from Peter Rabbit, The Wind in the Willows, Maurice Sendak, The Jungle Book, and more. #LibraryExhibit #research #StudentResearch

2025 Circus & Allied Arts Fellowships are here! Applications are due 6/19/25 for a fall visit. Check out the link for more information and directions to apply. bit.ly/CAACFellow The fellowship is open to graduate students, faculty, and researchers. #research #fellowship #circus

We had an incredible talk by Dr. Kate McDowell this morning. “Library Data Storytelling and Information Wisdom” was more timely than ever, and an inspiring reminder of what we can accomplish when we know how to wield #data.

Join us tomorrow in the Digital Scholarship Lab (Milner FL 1) from 10-4 for a transcribe-a-thon! You can always head over to FromThePage.com to work on Milner Library's projects, but we think hanging out and transcribing in a space together is a fun way to end the week!

Dr. Kelly Schrum gave a fantastic lecture on scholarly digital storytelling @ISUMilnerLib. The lecture highlighted student works, teaching, and wonderful discussion on the research and communication value of distilling complex ideas into short visual stories. The work is impressive and inspiring!

Coming soon to our digital collections and to the display case on Floor 3! We joined in the fun this morning to dress mannequins from the Ueckert Circus Wardrobe Collection so the costumes can be digitized in the coming weeks.

Join us for a hands-on introductory workshop on building collections and exhibits using Omeka. Faculty, staff, & grad students, register here: prodev.illinoisstate.edu/events/milner/ Or just show up at the Digital Scholarship Lab @ Milner next Friday, March 21 at 2 p.m.! We have plenty of spots!

It’s that time of year again! We love that Canadian geese nest around campus i. The spring and we just spotted a pair standing atop the Bowling and Billiards Center next to the library. Just stay clear and they will [probably] let you pass 🤣.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! IL #DH Symposium: Focusing on Student Work Submit a 200-500 word abstract for a poster or 20-min paper to Sean Winslow at smwinsl@ilstu.edu Deadline: March 7, 2025. Event info: April 11, 2025 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Milner Library, @IllinoisStateU @ISUResearch

From maps to monsters and portraits to prints, the new #exhibit Out of the Map Case & Into the Light is on view in the Floor 6 Gallery @ISUMilnerLib. The exhibit highlights objects from all four of our collection areas with a focus on the diversity of ways they are used in the classroom.

The DS Lab @ISUMilnerLib hosted another excellent Tea & DH session last week with history department graduate student Connor Monson. Connor discussed digital public history projects he spearheaded as the director of the Champaign County History Museum.

We're deeply saddened by the passing of Cherie Valentine, who was such a wonderful friend to us in Special Collections. Her presence, enthusiasm, and boundless knowledge will be sorely missed.

We recently added several Renaissance era prints to our collection that were selected by @artschoolisu.bsky.social students in ART 305/415, which is Dr. Saskia Beranek’s Seminar in Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture. We just love the selections! #VintagePrints #research

Announcing our 3rd call for OER! Join us in building a collection of free, reusable, remixable teaching resources for Caribbean studies. ‼️ CFP: #OER in #CaribbeanStudies 👉 Proposals due April 14, 2025 ℹ️ Info: tinyurl.com/OER-Caribbean

We couldn’t let #LibraryShelfieDay get past us! Library shelves are truly the most amazing things to behold—full of richness and possibilities. Hers a few of ours.

We had a great chat with Bradford Brown, history professor @bradleyuniversity, at Tea & DH the other day! He is using the StoryCorp app in his classroom to help students engage in meaningful classwork by conducting #OralHistory interviews with people they know.