University of Illinois

I am not a Cubs fan. I have nothing against the Cubs, but growing up in Central Illinois meant that all of the locals were either Chicago Cubs fans or St. Louis Cardinals fans. If you've ever had the urge to plumb the depths of human stupidity, ask a Cubs fan what they think about the Cardinals, or a Cardinals fan about the Cubs--but not until you've got your riot gear firmly attached.

Since completing my M.S. at the University of Illinois in May 2006, and before that my B.S. in December 2003, I've been carrying a huge pile of binders filled with notes, homework, exams, quizzes, and other ballast from place to place, once from Illinois to Virginia, once within Virginia, and once from Virginia to Texas. They were heavy, required too much volume to store.

Now, I have only one more place to transport all of these papers: to the recycling bin.

Another building at Illinois that was under construction when I was last here, but is now completed. (In the foreground is the Morrow Plots; some things never change.)

See this photo on Flickr.

Yet another building that was under construction when I was a student, but is now a completed building.

See this photo on Flickr.

See this photo on Flickr.

See this photo on Flickr.

See this photo on Flickr.

Illinois, CIC Join Google Book Search Project

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) -- the Big11Ten plus University of Chicago, formerly of the Big Ten -- are scanning books for Google. Good to see Illinois in this project.

Paula Kaufman, UIUC University Librarian:

"Now, we can search every word in every volume and make connections across works that would've taken weeks or years to make in the past.