In the fall of 1971, students at Illinois Benedictine College (now Benedictine University) were decorating the campus with great enthusiasm in preparation for the upcoming “Roaring Twenties” homecoming week.
Students transformed the library into the Biograph Theatre, the administration building into a 1920’s hotel, and the campus coffee shop into a speakeasy. In addition to preparing for the year’s theme, students enjoyed a week full of fun and competitive activities..
The freshmen class hosted a leg painting contest and a pillow fight with combatants mounted on a greased pole. The sophomores held a greased pig chase around campus followed up by a car smash. The junior class sponsored an ugly man contest and the seniors were in charge of the main event, a wagon relay race around Benedictine Hall (pictured above). Later that night, the seniors held a twenties themed party with a live band and a performance by the Second City theatre group.
Faculty members voted the senior class as having the most creative and entertaining class day for the week. The senior class walked away a fifty dollar prize.
There are no known U.S. copyright restrictions on this image. The digital file is owned by the Benedictine University Library which is making it freely available through a Creative Commons license with the request that the Library be credited as its source.
A vintage op-ed from Bernie Sanders, a Nobel prize-winning novel forgotten by just about everyone, the history of Jell-O: these are a few the latest topics featured on JSTOR Daily.
JSTOR Daily is a free, online magazine that publishes an eclectic mix of stories that tap into the scholarship in the JSTOR database. You can sign up for a weekly newsletter or follow via RSS, Facebook, or Twitter.
As a member of the BenU community, you have full-text access to JSTOR through the Library’s Academic Databases page. JSTOR is home to the complete run of 2,000+ academic journals . In some cases, publications stretch back to the 1700s. Collections span a variety of subjects in the humanities, social sciences and physical sciences.
Google Cultural Institute features art and historical exhibits and collections from archives and museums around the world. In addition to digitized materials, Google Cultural Institute offers World Wonders, which uses Street View technology to allow you to virtually navigate modern and ancient world heritage sites, such as Borobudur and Mont Blanc.
If you’re looking for primary sources, a research topic, or a virtual field trip, Google Cultural Institute is worth a look.
Find more primary source collections (including archival newsreels, local collections, maps of Illinois, and more) on the BenU Library’s Academic Databases: Primary Sources page.
With a My EBSCOhost account, you can save articles and organize them into folders, save searches, and set up search and journal email alerts. More than 30 library databases live on the EBSCOhost platform, including Academic Search Complete, CINAHL, ERIC, Business Source, MLA, Newspaper Source, PsycARTICLES, and SPORTDiscus.
How do I set up an account?
Access any EBSCOhost database (e.g., Academic Search Complete) via the Library website.
Once you’re in the database, click Sign In up in the top blue bar.
Click Create a New Account and follow the prompts.
Explore Chicago Collections (ECC) is a new gateway to Chicago resources. Use it to search for information in the physical and digital archives of a growing number of Chicago-area libraries and museums, including, but not limited to, the Chicago History Museum, University of Chicago, Brookfield Zoo, Art Institute of Chicago, and Newberry Library.
ECC also provides access to over 100,000 digitized images covering Chicago’s architecture, people, politics, history, culture, and more. Browse by topic, name, city, or neighborhood.
ECC is a project of the Chicago Collections Consortium, a membership organization of not-for-profit institutions with collections that chronicle the history of Chicago.
Data USA is a new visualization engine that aggregates public government datasets from various US departments and educational institutions.
Search by location, industry, occupation, or education field. You can share, embed, or download visualizations.
Data USA is a project of Deloitte, Datawheel, and Cesar Hidalgo, Professor at the MIT Media Lab and Director of MacroConnections. The visualizations in Data USA are powered by D3plus.
Data USA automatically generates visualizations–and they can be useful (and fun) to explore. If, however, you’re looking for raw US Government datasets for research or to create your own data visualizations, check out Data.gov.
Keyboard shortcuts are a great way to increase precision and productivity. Chances are you already use a few, such as CTRL + v to paste, CTRL + z to undo, and CTRL + s to save. But there are plenty of lesser-known Windows PC shortcuts that you may find just as useful. Below are some of my favorites:
Alt + Tab – Switch between open applications
Windows key + L – Lock your PC
Windows key + Right arrow – Snap a window to the right side of the screen (Windows key + Left arrow – Snap a window to the left side of the screen)
Windows key + Up arrow – Maximize a window (Windows key + Down arrow – Minimize a window)
Windows key + m – Minimize all windows (Windows key + Shift + m – Restore all minimized windows)
Web browser shortcuts
CTRL + f – Find
CTRL + t – Open a new browser tab
CTRL + Shift + t – Restore the last browser tab you closed
Alt + Left arrow – Back (Alt + Right arrow – Forward)
CTRL + Plus key – Zoom in (CTRL + Minus key – Zoom out)
CTRL + 0 – Return to 100% zoom
Home key – Jump to top of page (End key – Jump to bottom of page)
CTRL + d – Bookmark a page
Microsoft Word shortcuts
Shift + Arrow – Highlight text (To select entire words rather than individual characters each time you press the arrow key, also hold down CTRL)
CTRL + f – Find
CTRL + k – Insert hyperlink
CTRL + scroll up with mouse wheel – Zoom in (CTRL + scroll down with mouse wheel – Zoom out)
CTRL + Backspace – Delete entire word to left of cursor