Community Informatics Corps event

[Vanessa Paige Nelson]

I'm in the Community Informatics Corps at UIUC GSLIS. I take classes at the Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago because UIUC has a partnership with the center. UIUC students work with PRCC staff and volunteers on various projects related to LIS generally and community information systems more specifically. So, for example, over the last year UIUC students have been a part of the development of curriculum at Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos High School (an alternative to Chicago Public Schools and an affiliate of the PRCC), a website for the local paper, a bilingual coloring book depicting local culture and landmarks, and an OPAC for the PRCC library. One of the most interesting activities was research dealing with the 1977 riots in Humboldt Park for a play being written by Tato Laviera (http://college.hmco.com/english/lauter/heath/4e/students/author_pag...) which will be performed by the local youth arts group Cafe Teatro Batey Urbano (http://bateyurbano.org/).

I suppose I'm writing about this because I think the partnership and the PRCC programs are worth checking out if you are in the Chicago area. The 2007 Community as Intellectual Space Symposium is coming up next week. It's a fantastic conference that demonstrates how communities find, receive, create and disseminate information - health and fitness information, political information, social information, cultural information, historical information, etc. Info and registration at:

http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/programs/cpd/CIS2007/

Registration is $95 and includes three days of programming and some meals and snacks. If you want more info, send me a message.

Word.

[Mandy Simon]

I really wish I would've been able to visit the PRCC while I was in chicago. Next time...right?

[Karin Dalziel]

This sounds like a really interesting project. I love the idea of a "Community as Intellectual Space Symposium" - So much of what draws me to libraries has to do with the space itself. I hope you report back on some of what you learned...