Selected Sites

SILC: Statewide Illinois Library Catalog

The Statewide Illinois Library Catalog, known as SILC, is Illinois' first all inclusive statewide union catalog that integrates WorldCat and the Illinois Library Systems' local consortial OPACs, to provide both shelf status and interlibrary loan capabilities in a single searchable interface. SILC resides on the familiar FirstSearch platform as an additional WorldCat database that allows users to scope to regional groups within Illinois, as well as by type of library. From a single WorldCat record, users will be able to link to a local shared catalog record to see if and where an item is available for loan.

IGI: Illinois Government Information

The Illinois Government Information (IGI) search engine is a joint project of the Illinois State Library and the University of Illinois, providing search capabilities across the state government websites of Illinois.

ELI: Every Library in Illinois

Every Library in Illinois, ELI, is a service provided by Secretary of State and State Librarian, Jesse White, through the Find-It! Illinois portal of the Illinois State Library. This web interface supplies access to directory and statistical information concerning Illinois libraries collected by the State Library. Only ILLINET Libraries are represented in ELI.

Illinois Harvest

Illinois Harvest is a unique service that provides access to publicly available online materials about or related to Illinois. The service is being developed by the University of Illinois with generous funding support from the State of Illinois. The portal will feature materials held by libraries across Illinois and beyond. These materials include among other things: research works by Illinois scholars, photos of and texts about Abraham Lincoln, copies of Illinois constitutions, World War I and II documents, historical Illinois maps and aerial photographs, documents about Illinois during the Civil War, the Bloomington-Normal Black History Project documents, and historic architectural drawings and renderings about the "built environment" of the University of Illinois.

Book Page

BookPage is a monthly book review publication distributed to more than 400,000 readers through subscribing bookstores and public libraries. Founded in 1988 and located in Nashville, Tennessee, BookPage serves as a broad-based selection guide to the best new books published every month. The tone is upbeat and literate, focusing on bestsellers as well as new discoveries. All of the content from the print edition of BookPage is also posted online each month at bookpage.com.

NBC Nightly News

Spotlighting Libraries Making a Difference During Tough Economic Times.

Things in Books

Have you ever found anything in a Library book? Or maybe a book you purchased from a Second Hand Store? Well this website is dedicated to all of the strange and interesting things found in used books.

Interview with Photographer David Zalaznik

David Zalaznik has been a Photographer for the Peoria Journal Star for 19 years. He is a member of the National Press Photographers Association and the Illinois Press Photographers Association. His new book, Life Along the Illinois River, is currently available here at the Chillicothe Public Library in our New Books section.

Snopes

Snopes, also known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a web site that is the best-known resource for validating and debunking urban legends, Internet rumors, e-mail forwards, and other such stories of uncertain or questionable origin in American popular culture.

SHMOOP

About Shmoop Shmoop wants to make you a better lover (of literature, history, poetry and writing). See many sides to the argument. Find your writing groove. Understand how lit and history are relevant today. We want to show your brain a good time. Their mission: To make learning and writing more fun and relevant for students in the digital age. Who Makes Shmoop? Shmoop content is written primarily by Ph.D. and Masters students from top universities, like Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, and Yale. Many of their writers have taught at the high school and college levels. They hold themselves to the highest academic standards. They source their work (see the "Citations" tab in each history section, or in-line citation links throughout their literature and poetry content). Teachers and students should feel confident to cite Shmoop as a source in essays and papers.