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Welcome to my CSU blog for my Spring 2026 practicum in the CSU Archives and Special Collections!

This is a blog devoted to my Field Practicum (for LIS Practicum 5970-51) for Chicago State University. I'm Liz (Elizabeth) Mason, in the MLIS program, and my specialization is in Archives and Records Management. This is the Spring 2026 semester. This blog serves as a journal to document my experience as required by the class.


This class is a 1 credit course, and the practicum itself is on the CSU campus, in the University Archives and Special Collections (it’s on the 3rd floor of the Gwendolyn Brooks Library), with university archivist Kheir Fakhreldin.


So far I have gone in for one day, even though technically the semester hadn't started yet.


The day I went in was last Thursday, 1/8/26, and I was there from 10am to 3pm. Kheir gave me a tour of the archive (including what peridocials it holds, the CSU prediential portraits, the offices and workrooms of the archive and more). He also showed me selected materials (newspaper clippings, documents, pictures etc) from the Justice Freeman collection that is in progress of being processed, that which we will be curating an exhibit and corresponding event on February 17th, from 4:30pm-7:30pm in the CSU library. Kheir also showed me the various glass cases and other exhibits around the library (including material from the Provident Hospital of Cook County where Michelle Obama was born, as well as material from Gwendolyn Brooks herself when when was on campus). Kheir also introduced me to a number of mentors and staff in the library too.


I also had an opportunity to spend more time with the Justice Freeman material to look at things, taking notes to consider what things might be good for display in the exhibit (and I started a document where I took notes about potential things). Justice Freeman was the first black Illinois Supreme Court of Justice and swore Mayor Harold Washington into office. Many of things that CSU is processing come from Justice Freeman's son Scott, after Justice Freeman passed in 2020. There was some very interesting stuff in there, including military documents. He had an honorary discharge from the military to go to law school.

Kheir also had me watch an online panel courtesy of the Getty Institute regarding the Johnson Publishing Company, (the Chicago-based publisher of Ebony and Jet magazines). It was a panel he presented at (along with other scholars and librarians) and they talked about editors of JPC though time, including Lerone Bennett Jr., Ben Burns and Era Bell Thompson.




I will be going in again tomorrow, which is Thursday 1/15/25. The day I will be going in each week will mostly be Thursdays, with the exception of a few weeks where it will be a different day because of schedule conflicts.
--
Today's standards fulfilled as per the Society of American Archivists:
A. CORE ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE, 2. Knowledge of the Profession, c) Professional Ethics and Values (p. 7)
A. CORE ARCHIVAL KNOWLEDGE, 3. Contextual knowledge, a) Social and Cultural Context, d) Underserved & Underrepresented Communities (pp. 7-8)
Location: 9501 S King Dr, Chicago, IL 60628, USA

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