UW Libraries’ Negeen Aghassibake selected as 2022 LEADING Fellow
May 25, 2022
Helping UW researchers expand their impact through ORCID connections.
UW Libraries’ Data Visualization Librarian, Negeen Aghassibake
Negeen Aghassibake, a Data Visualization Librarian with UW Libraries, was selected as a 2022 LEADING Fellow, a program focused on data science in library & information studies. The program is part of the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian (LB21) National Digital Infrastructures and Initiatives Project, supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). During this one-year program, fellows will engage in data science education through Drexel University and undertake a data science project working with LEADING project mentors across the U.S.
“…I hope to not only strengthen my data skills, but also to bring those skills back to UW to implement in projects and programs that support students, researchers, faculty, and library staff.”
The fellowship is part of the LEADING project that seeks to scale-up the highly successful LEADS-4-NDP initiative to prepare a diverse, nation-wide cohort of 50 LIS doctoral students and early to mid-career librarians for data science endeavors.
ORCID stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID, is a global, not-for-profit organization that aims to connect researchers, their contributions, and their affiliations by providing a unique, persistent identifier for individuals to use as they engage in research, scholarship, and innovation activities.
One of Negeen’s goals in working on this project is to better understand user needs in demonstrating the impact and dissemination of their research. ORCID (which stands for Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a global organization that provides a unique persistent identifier for users as they conduct research and share their work. The ORCID US Community Data Visualization Project that Negeen will be working on seeks to better understand what collaborations have taken place between researchers at US institutions and globally as well as ORCID adoption across the United States using ORCID data.
This project will help develop a stronger understanding of collaboration between institutions, which is a critical part of diversifying approaches to research and breaking down knowledge and resource silos. As a part of this project, Negeen will also help develop documentation for libraries to be able to look at collaborations at their own institutions, which she hopes to implement at the UW to better understand user needs in collaboration and research dissemination.
Through this work, Negeen also hopes to develop stronger programming skills to better support users who have data science questions.
As a Data Visualization Librarian, Negeen’s role is to help researchers think critically about data visualization and how it might play a role in their work.
“I am excited to participate; as a LEADING fellow, I hope to not only strengthen my data skills, but also to bring those skills back to UW to implement in projects and programs that support students, researchers, faculty, and library staff,” says Negeen.
As a Data Visualization Librarian, Negeen’s role is to help researchers think critically about data visualization and how it might play a role in their work. Through this research, Negeen will gain valuable skills to strengthen UW Libraries’ data and research impact services.
UW Libraries (and Negeen) currently provide a wide range of data and research impact services, including data visualization, as well as data management and literacy support.
To schedule an appointment, or to learn more about these services, visit Negeen’s LibGuide, or check out all of the many Libraries data services through the Open Scholarship Commons.
Congratulations on this exciting fellowship, Negeen!
Inside and Out: Working with Vendors to Improve Accessibility
May 19, 2022
Co-authored by the UW Libraries Accessibility Working Group
Digital resources and services have become an integral part of library functions. While this increases access for many, it can present new barriers for some users with disabilities. To recognize Global Accessibility Awareness Day, we’re sharing more about accessibility audits to help increase digital access and inclusion at the UW Libraries and Press.
Projects involving accessibility audits are becoming increasingly common at the UW Libraries and University Press and help ensure we’re providing our core services in an equitable way.
“Libraries are all about providing access to information – and that’s physical access and electronic access,” said Collection Assessment Librarian Hana Levay, who helped evaluate if Libraries users could retrieve results using only their keyboards. The keyboard navigation project tested roughly 650 library products. Afterward, the team reached out to vendors of products that failed to talk about possible improvements and shared their results publicly so others can use the information in their own purchasing decisions.
Accessibility audits are a process to evaluate the usability of technologies for people with disabilities. They involve performing tests to make sure people with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive disabilities can use web-based resources and services to the fullest, and can help inform prospective clients as to whether or not they should invest in certain products.
“…introducing a new technology without first vetting it for accessibility results in late, impartial and inequitable services”
Implementing these audits before a new technology is adopted helps organizations understand, improve, and plan accommodations for the products that will ensure all users can take advantage of it – rather than scrambling to accommodate disabled users after the fact or leaving the work of ensuring access entirely to the office of Disability Resources for Students.
“Accessibility is becoming the responsibility of those people who are selecting and implementing a new technology to campus,” said Hadi Rangin, IT Accessibility Specialist for Accessible Technology Services. He says when universities introduce a new technology without first vetting it for accessibility, it results in late, impartial and inequitable services for disabled members of our community.
Rangin works with other members of the accessibility team to perform audits of various technologies used at UW, including a number of software products offered by the Libraries. This process includes assessing resources to identify any problems and barriers the user may encounter, and then working with vendors to create a roadmap for improving. Manifold and Pressbooks, two digital book publishing platforms, are examples of resources that have received accessibility audits.
Other initiatives include work at the University Press to create more accessible ebooks for people who use assistive technologies and an effort to collect and assess Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) from library vendors before resources are adopted or renewed. This brings accessibility into the procurement process. These self-disclosed documents describe how the vendors feel they do or do not meet accessibility standards. New methods for assessing VPATs for accuracy and completeness can help with ranking vendors by their accessibility efforts, which brings more attention to those areas most in need of improvement. VPAT assessment gives the Libraries a starting point to have conversations with these vendors about the accessibility of their products and possible improvements.
“I think it’s really important for us as librarians to hold companies accountable for making accessible or more accessible products”
Beyond ensuring we’re serving the entire UW community more effectively, testing products and discussing possible improvements also helps other organizations become more accessible. Many of these audits have included working directly with vendors to identify problems and improve the accessibility of their software. Others have included sharing results publicly, so people considering adopting certain products have more robust information to work with before they decide.
“I think it’s really important for us as librarians to hold companies accountable for making accessible or more accessible products,” said Open Education Librarian Lauren Ray.
That said, the work can present challenges. Often it’s taken on by small or under-resourced groups who aren’t sure where to turn for training or support. In many cases the people initiating the work don’t identify as disabled themselves. And while some vendors and technology companies welcome the opportunity to make their products more accessible, others resist change. Even when they are receptive, the solutions can be complex and costly.
The reality is accessibility work is an ongoing process. “As long as you can test, it continues. I don’t think there’s anything that’s perfectly accessible,” said English Studies and Research Commons Librarian Elliott Stevens. “There will always be a new update to assess, a bug to fix, or an improvement to be made. “This is a long term project. It’s something that we’re going to be working on all the time,” said Collection Strategy and Licensing Librarian Faye Christenberry. “I don’t imagine it’s ever going to be 100% done. It’s about going back and continuing to push for improvement.”
That in and of itself can feel like a barrier – but it’s not insurmountable. “When we started thinking about this it just seemed absolutely overwhelming,” said Beth Fuget, who works with grants and digital projects at the UW Press. “It’s actually not as huge a challenge as it seems in order to get started.”
For those looking for a place to begin, one place to start is seeing if your organization offers training, support, or expertise to vet products and services for accessibility. Rangin also recommends including the expectation of accessibility in contracts – that is, specify that vendors must meet certain accessibility standards as part of the terms of adopting their product – and then hold them accountable for it.
Despite the challenges, it’s important to do some homework to determine how you might start making changes. “We do what we can with the time and resources that we have, but you have to do something,” Christenberry said. “You can make a difference.”
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No Easy Answers: Big Data Vendors, Information Access and Libraries
The UW Libraries is monitoring these developments closely and stands in partnership with SPARCand other industry peers in expressing our strong opposition to any business practices that violate human rights and advocate for change of such practices by UW Library vendors that include Westlaw, and parent company, Thomson Reuters, and LexisNexis.
…”We stand in partnership with SPARC and other industry peers in expressing our strong opposition to any business practices that violate human rights and advocate for change of such practices by UW Library vendors that include Westlaw, and parent company, Thomson Reuters, and LexisNexis.”
At the same time, ensuring access to essential legal resources and information for our scholars and the community is a social responsibility of UW Libraries. When selecting resources, we must consider this great responsibility along with our institutional values, and how best to balance those ideals in the context of limited resources—both financial and physical.
UW Libraries shares the challenge of most major research library systems in that there is little choice in the marketplace but to purchase certain types of research products from these information monopolies.**
Unfortunately, for the specific information sources that our UW community needs and relies on, there are no viable replacement options at this time. Regardless of their cost, alternative databases do not have citators that provide critical context and essential information for performing legal research (Shepard’s for NexisUni and KeyCite for Westlaw). For UW’s non-Law School users, the unique citation content within this resource is the most popular in terms of usage rates. With a shared and unified desire to divest from vendors who do not align with our principles, a Libraries subcommittee spent the better part of the past year doing extensive research on alternative options and concluded that there is no alternative for this critical content that is only available from LexisNexis and Westlaw. Furthermore, lack of access to these resources would result in a greatly diminished ability to conduct legal research for all users.
With no other valid alternative to the primary providers of this data, UW Libraries chooses to maintain access to these resources for the public good (for students, faculty and staff on all campuses and the greater community) while we work in partnership with industry advocacy leaders (e.g. SPARC, ARL and others) who seek federal legislative and regulatory changes to further protect privacy and the sale of personal data from data brokers (the vendor) to third parties, including government agencies.
The Libraries decisions around collection management are guided by a set of specificCollection Management Principles and Strategies aligned with both our mission to accelerate learning for the public good and our core values of accessibility and sustainability. These principles provide a framework for evaluation and decision-making in collection management across all formats and disciplines. The Library has worked extensively in recent years with the Faculty Senate to adopt formal resolutions that further defineLicensing Principles and Expectations for Vendors, in alignment with our mission and values. Most recently the Faculty Senate approved a Class C resolution to support the UW Libraries’ Principles in Licensing Scholarly Resources, including discontinuing negotiations with vendors that conflict with these principles aimed at protecting the privacy of researchers and their data, equitable access, and support for new models of sharing (rather than limiting) the dissemination of knowledge.
If you have questions on this topic, please contact: [email protected]
This keynote talk for the Academic Surveillance and the Big Data Economy event given by Sarah Lamdan, Professor of Law at City University of New York. The event was co-sponsored by the UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons and the Research Commons, and it took place on May 3rd, 2022.
This month’s update is packed with events and important news about summer operations. Undergraduates— there’s still time to apply for the UW Libraries Undergraduate Research Award for a chance to win up to $1,000! Existing or potential grad students— don’t miss the very helpful workshop on Finding Funding For Graduate School!
June 13th Closure/Catalog and Search System Down: All UW Library locations on all campuses (with the exception of Health Sciences) will be closed to accommodate a system-wide upgrade to the catalog/search software on Monday, June 13th.
If you have saved searches or permalinks in your course materials, you will need to take action BEFORE June 13th. Learn more.
“It’s a wonderful feeling to be holding a first edition of a book from the 1700s in your hands,” says student Mia Middleton, with Special Collections’ Sandra Kroupa, in her 53rd year with UW.
Libraries in the Classroom: From centuries-old French literature to a 1940s copy of Vogue magazine, go inside UW’s Textual Studies Program where students are working with UW Libraries Special Collections to explore how text is shaped by publication processes and technologies, and how it can be reinvented over time. Read the story from UW Arts and Sciences
I HEART LIBRARIES Student Video Contest – 2022 winners announced! Congratulations to first place winner, undergraduate Phuong (Jolie) Tran who gave us a very memorable “dawg’s eye view” of UW Libraries’ resources – check out all the winners.
“Time heals”; A drawing submitted by Anna Barrera to the Community Reads online gallery. See the many beautiful and moving creations of art, poetry and more celebrating the theme of “well-being” in conjunction with this year’s text: Undrowned, by Alexis Pauline Gumbs.
Community Reads, hosted by UW Bothell and Cascadia College Campus Library, strives to build community through shared experiences and discussions around social justice, equity, and diversity centered on a quarterly theme and text. All are welcome to join in on the discussion/reflections/and contribute through the creative gallery. Participate/learn more.
REAL Lit – UW Tacoma Library’s Real Lit[erature]: Reading for Social Justice book club will be reading Jaquira Díaz’s Ordinary Girls. This book club is open to anyone within the UW Community. The club meets virtually, every Thursday from 12:30-1:20. Sign up and/or learn more.
The recently published Routledge Companion to Korean Literature is the most extensive collection to date of English-language articles on Korean literature, written by Associate Professor Heekyoung Cho with contributions from Asian L&L faculty member Dr. Ungsan Kim, UW Korean Studies Librarian Hyokyoung Yi, among many others. Learn more.
Special Events
May 3 – Academic Surveillance and the Big Data Economy: Explore the topics of academic surveillance, data politics, and the economics of academia through a keynote talk and panel featuring CUNY Professor of Law Sarah Lamda, followed by a complimentary online session “‘Like Lesbians Walking the Perimeter’: Experiences of U.S. LGBTQ+ Folks with Online Security, Safety, and Privacy Advice”, brought to you by the UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons.
May 10 – Poetry Storytelling Workshop: a poetry reading and workshop with Jamal Gabobe centered around his new book The Path of Difference.
Images and writings of Henrietta Woods, references from McDaniel’s book “Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution.” Image source.
May 23 – Discovering AI@UW: Join the conversation with AI (Artificial Intelligence) experts from across the University of Washington campus! Offered by the eScience Institute, a partner of the UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons.
May 25 – 6th Annual GIS Symposium: The GIS Symposium highlights and celebrates the transformational role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, and data visualization technologies at the UW and beyond. Submit a lightning talk proposal by 5/20 for a chance to present your research!
May 19 – Finding Funding For Graduate School: Join the Graduate Funding Information Service for an overview of funding types, search tools, and search strategies!
May 6 – Fast Fingers & Slow Fashion: Crafting Dissertation Research, researchers demonstrate how they incorporate textile craft practices into dissertation research in the fields of Anthropology/Education and English. Offered by the Simpson Center for the Humanities’ UW Textile Studies Graduate Research Cluster.
Monthly Pressbooks Workshops: Pressbooks’ suite of products– offered through #YourUWLibrary– makes it easy to create, adapt, and share educational material. Learn how to create open textbooks, course materials and more.
Digital Scholarship Drop-In Help Hours (via Zoom) on Thursdays: Through the Libraries Open Scholarship Commons, we offer consultations for research and course-related projects. Examples include support for digital publishing, building digital exhibits, and more! We can help you find the right tools, resources and instruction whether you’re just getting started or are working on an ongoing project.
GIS Help Drop-In Hours:The GIS Lab, provided by the University Libraries Open Scholarship Commons, assists users with locating geospatial data, integrating data into GIS projects, and basic ArcGIS functionality. Drop by Suzzallo Library on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10 am – 2 pm for assistance.
Open Writing Circles Tuesdays:virtual weekly meetings offering 90 minutes of quiet writing time and community with fellow writers from across campus, every Tuesday! Offered through the Odegaard Writing and Research Center through May 31st.
Featured Resources, Collections
UW Tacoma Libraries Relaunches Campus Meaningful Reads: Share your voice and help build a UW Tacoma collection that highlights the books, articles, or creative writings that have been meaningful to members of our campus community. Learn more.
If you have a question about any of the resources in this guide, ask Harry Murphy, American Ethnic (African American, American Indian, Asian American, Chicano) Studies Librarian
The Diversity Collection: Is one of the many resources you’ll find in UW Libraries’ American Ethnic Studies Research Guide. Learn about history, society, and politics from the perspective of communities and individuals who lived through it. In the Diversity Collection, you’ll have access to ethnic, minority, and native presses, grassroots newspapers and magazines, and newsletters focusing on gender and sexuality, from 1970 to the present day. This interdisciplinary full-text source is brought to you by UW Libraries.
Exhibits and Displays
“Oars Out, Roll Cameras” highlights the upcoming filming of Boys in the Boat in conjunction with the opening weekend of boating season/Windermere Cup May 6-7. On display in Allen North from April 6-May 31!
And Then She Said: Voices of Feminists Past and Present was sown from The Dead Feminists series, a collaboration between local artists in the form of a collection of 31 broadsides elevating voices of women throughout history. Learn more.
The Pacific Northwest in the ‘70s This quarter’s theme is Workin’ for the Man— a look at the decade’s labor activities and how they shaped how we work today. May 9-August 19, 2022
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Community Reads
April 29, 2022
“We, too, on land are often navigating contexts that seem impossible for us to breathe in, and yet we must. The adaptations that marine mammals have made in relationship to breathing are some of the most relevant for us to observe, not only in relationship to our survival in an atmosphere we have polluted on a planet where we are causing the ocean to rise, but also in relationship to our intentional living, our mindful relation to each other.”
-Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Undrowned, p.21
UW Bothell and Cascadia College Campus Library’s Community Reads program strives to build community through shared intellectual experiences and discussions around social justice, equity, and diversity. The intention of the program is to choose readings/viewings/recordings to cultivate productive discussion, reflections and creativity in the campus community around these topics. Each quarter, the Community Reads team, made up of staff from the UWB/Cascadia Library, selects a guiding theme for participants to follow along with and reflect on over the quarter.
This academic year, the Community Reads program has focused on Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammalsby Alexis Pauline Gumbs. The book consists of a series of “meditations,” or chapters, encouraging readers to think about their wellbeing and presence in the world and community, inspired by the practices of marine mammals and Black feminist thought. Each quarter, Community Reads has focused on two meditations relating to a common theme:
Fall 2021: themes of self-care, breath, and reflection. Meditations: breathe and go deep.
Winter 2022: themes of community care and support. Meditations: collaborate and be vulnerable.
Spring 2022: individual and community practices in the face of systemic injustice. Meditations: practice and take care of your blessings.
“We Are All Connected” by Austin Picinich
Due to the ongoing pandemic, Community Reads has taken an asynchronous form this year, in the form of an online digital gallery of artwork. The Community Reads program is open to the entire UW community, and participation is encouraged at any time throughout the quarter. Community members are encouraged to reflect on the meditations or any of a series of prompts, to create some form of artwork in response to those reflections, and share their artwork with our online gallery as part of a community art piece. This gallery is viewable to anyone on the internet and is designed to highlight diverse and accessible means of story-telling and reflection. Examples of past contributions include poems, photographs, spoken word collections, collages, diagrams, and short stories.
Now in its seventh year, the Community Reads program has reached hundreds of students, faculty, and staff across all three UW campuses. As an integral part of the UWB/CC Library, this program has played a fundamental part in the library’s outreach during the pandemic, as it allowed for students, faculty, and staff to directly interact with library staff and collections from home. Here are some past testimonials from previous Community Reads participants:
“Everyone deserves to BREATHE” by Audrey Yang
“The Community Reads Program, and in particular, the online art exhibition enabled my class to explore course content in a public sphere increasing professional practice learning and providing students a public exhibition space for their work which we are lacking at UW Bothell. In freshman courses, this experience was particularly powerful in how they developed and resolved their work, and it was an incredible confidence-building experience for the students–many of whom were relatively new to the arts. In conjunction with the reading, the prompts for art contributions broadened the approaches my students were exploring and inspired a much deeper level of engagement with the content; it became a project with real-world implications rather than simply another assignment they needed to complete. This was an incredible addition to the learning experience.” – gary carpenter, artist/lecturer, UW Bothell
“When I think about my wellbeing in connection with community wellbeing, I act and am better with myself and all those around me—human and non-human alike. The occasional prompts I get from the Community Reads program are helping me make the connection between myself and my community (and I’m broadening the definition of ‘community’, too). I feel lucky that I got a physical copy of Undrowned, as I revisit it often and know that I’ll need to in the future!” – Je Salvador, library staff
How to participate in Community Reads during Spring Quarter:
Read the meditation(s) practice and/or take care of your blessings
View the online gallery of submissions community members have submitted in response to readings from Undrowned. Fall and Winter Quarter submissions are engaging and quite beautiful.
Submit to the gallery: We have provided a series of prompts developed to inspire a creative response to the readings. Submissions can be in any form of artistic expression (drawing, collage, writing, photography, audio, etc.). Submit on your own, or make this a team activity.
Develop a course assignment using these readings and gallery space. In the last two quarters, faculty at Cascadia and UWB have created course assignments centered around the selected readings in Undrowned and asked their students to submit them to the gallery. If you would like to consult with the Community Reads team on an assignment, we would be thrilled to hear from you (it is not necessary to consult with us, however, to use the readings and gallery in your classes).
“Climate Change” by Mercedes Ro
Community Reads is always looking to broaden its outreach to the greater UW Community by engaging directly with faculty and staff who teach in areas relevant to the program’s themes. If you would like to work with Community Reads, please contact theCommunity Reads team.
This program complements other EDI-based reading and collection work happening across our UW campus community such asRecommended Reads for Equity program and UW Tacoma’sREAL Lit[erature] Book Club, both of which are continuing as remote/online programs.
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2022 Student Video Contest Winners
April 19, 2022
UW Libraries is excited to announce the winners of the 2022 I HEART UW Libraries Student Video Contest! Every year, we are entertained, inspired and amazed by the creativity, time and effort students put into their submissions. Congratulations to first place winner, undergraduate Phuong (Jolie) Tran who showcased some excellent video production techniques and gave us a very memorable “dawg’s eye view” of UW Libraries’ resources:
Special thanks to the Libraries Excellence Fund who generously funded the cash awards for the winning videos. The Libraries Excellence Fund provides support for activities, projects and programs to enhance the overall excellence of the UW Libraries, including services, speakers, publications and special projects.
In this light-hearted “husky” view on UW Libraries, explore the libraries’ resources through the lens of our favorite mascot. Watch the husky study for exams, write essays, and even engage with fictional library staff as they explore all of the reasons to love the libraries.
The UW Libraries genie is here to assist you in your research! See one student’s wishes granted as they are shown all of the ways UW Libraries can help you study, from 24/7 research help, to tools that find different study spaces on campus. This video truly highlights why the libraries are “magical”!
UW Libraries student employees are the best! Former student employee Sophia Dowling reflects on her time working at UW Libraries, and shares her favorite parts of the libraries in this moving tour of library spaces.
UW Libraries is has many great study spots, and this humorous video shares the highlights of them!
*Titles were assigned to videos submitted without a title.
If you missed this year’s contest, save the date and bookmark this page for next year (contest usually starts end of winter quarter). Get inspired by watching all previous winners and submissions on our You Tube Channel!
Thanks to all who participated and congrats again to all of our 2022 awardees!
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Celebrating Nominees for the Distinguished Librarian Award
We wish to congratulate the ten librarians who were nominated for the Distinguished Librarian Award (DLA). Nominees come from all three UW campuses. Five were nominated in 2021 and five remained in the pool from their nomination in previous years. The outstanding work and contributions reflect the many ways librarians engage with teaching, research, and the wider community.
The DLA began in 2008 as an award given to a librarian whose contributions advance the mission of the Libraries and the University. The award recognizes “excellence in librarianship, especially as it benefits the academic community through innovative approaches to professional practice, research, and/or teaching and learning.” The librarian also demonstrates “creativity, leadership, service, scholarship, and demonstration of the University of Washington values of integrity, diversity, excellence, collaboration, innovation and respect.” Since it began, 14 librarians have received the DLA.
Prior to the pandemic, the Libraries recognized all of the nominees at a “Celebrating Distinction” reception, usually held in February. Because of the challenges of organizing in-person events, the Distinguished Librarian Award Selection Committee has chosen to experiment with a new way of publicly-recognizing our colleagues. Committee members have written brief profiles of each nominated librarian, drawing on materials from their nomination files. During a time when library workers of all kinds have stretched services, programs, and projects far beyond the physical walls of the Libraries, we believe it is important to make these outstanding contributions visible.
Serving on the DLA Selection Committee is a rewarding opportunity to get a view of the breadth and quality of the work of UW librarians. I would like to thank all those who served on the committee this year for contributing their perspectives and creativity in writing the profiles. The committee included:
Jessica Albano, Head, Government Publications, Maps, Microforms & Newspapers, Reference & Research Services
P.V. “Sundar” Balakrishnan, Professor, UW Bothell School of Business / Faculty Council on University Libraries
Conor Casey, Head, Labor Archives of Washington, Special Collections
Electra Enslow, Director, Clinical Research and Data Services, Health Sciences Library
Nia Lam, Research & Instruction / Media Studies Librarian, UW Bothell/Cascadia Campus Library
Deb Raftus, Romance Languages & Literatures Librarian/Arts & Humanities Liaison Team Leader, Reference & Research Services
Andrew Weaver, Media Preservation Librarian, Preservation
Justin Wadland, Head, Digital Scholarship, UW Tacoma Library (Chair)
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Why Support the UW Libraries on Husky Giving Day?
April 1, 2022
On Husky Giving Day, you can support every Husky with a gift to UW Libraries. Why support the Libraries? The library is not just a building, it is a gateway for discovery with access to vast resources available to scholars around the world. Our Libraries and librarians are essential to teaching, learning and research across all campuses and disciplines.
What does this look like? Your fellow Huskies share their thoughts about why UW Libraries are so important to every husky’s success.
“The Libraries provide personal instruction and training that is really important for researchers to do this type of digital scholarship work. Before this project, I didn’t realize how much UW Libraries is committed to digital and public scholarship.”– UW doctoral candidate Anna Nguyen, on her counter mapping project, Entanglements: Mapping the History of Asian Migration onto Coast Salish Lands.
“This (class) was such a fun, inspiring opportunity! I would have never published a paper on my own, had I not taken this course. – A student in ART H 400, a collaboration with UW Libraries to create a new book, Jacob Lawrence in Seattle,
“UW Library has been instrumental in supporting my research and teaching…. I have grown as a scholar because of them, and they make my life so much easier. Our subject librarian regularly attends my courses to help students with their research projects, creating research guides and training modules. They help us to navigate all the digital tools and resources available to UW students and faculty, including expertise on copyright issues.” – Maya Angela Smith, Associate Professor of French; Interim Chair for the African Studies Program, Jackson School of International Studies.
“I come from an interpretive/qualitative background and often this type of research activity is learned on the job or through learning what not to do the next time around, so having this type of (Library) workshop can really help people like me prepare a lot better for the next big project.” – Student participant of UW Libraries Research Data Management Course
… “Students regularly comment on how helpful the library (classroom session) has been to their research, and often relay that meeting with subject librarians outside of class played a critical role in project “breakthroughs” as well. I feel so lucky to be able to partner with UW librarians in this way.” – Instructor Annie Dyer, Comparative History of Ideas (CHID) 491 Senior Thesis
Did You Know? Through the Open Scholarship Commons, students and faculty can learn and get help with a wide range of knowledge-creation tools and technologies used across disciplines.
“Fortunately for UW students, faculty, & staff, the UW Libraries has been a global and local leader in digital initiatives, including online teaching and learning, for many years before pandemic. Librarians always partner with departments and faculty to support student learning, achievement, & engagement.” – Beth Kalikoff, Director, UW Seattle Center for Teaching and Learning; Associate Professor, SIAS, UW Tacoma
Sweet Tweets …(Yes, we read them all)!!
“I just wanted to express my gratitude again for everything that library – and ILL (Interlibrary Loan) – staff do and have done, especially during the pandemic. You’re key! – Tyler Lange, Affiliate Assistant Professor of History
“The campus librarians played a major role in my college experience – only person you could count on to help reference a research paper at 3am.”
“Thank you @uwlibraries for an e-book bounty that gave me a great reading list. (My only prob is that I can’t squeeze in all the brilliant books you people have written lately!)”
“Thank you to the ILL (Interlibrary Loan) team @uwlibraries for working tirelessly to get us the information we need for our studies and research. Your efforts are so appreciated always”
Did you know?? UW Libraries provides hundreds of learning workshops throughout the year covering everything from basic research techniques to advanced scholarly publishing tools and more, helping UW scholars excel in their work and prepare for their futures.
“Working with the UW Librarians is an exhilarating opportunity for students to experience the intersection of a close-knit, undergraduate-focused department with the resources of a major research institution. In addition to UW’s vast holdings (physical and digital), students discover that the Librarians themselves provide invaluable guidance in navigating the sea of information effectively and in using research tools to further refine their projects. – UW CHID instructor Nick Barr
So for these reasons, and many more – THANK YOU for supporting #YourUWLibrary on this Husky Giving Day.
UW Libraries Undergraduate Research Award Applications are due May 2nd! Share your research work for a chance to win up to $1,000! Undergraduate students from all 3 campuses can apply!
Happy Spring! Whether you are a new or returning Husky, UW Libraries Faculty Guide and Student FAQ (both updated for spring quarter) provide a “one stop shop” of helpful links and important information to help you navigate and make the most of UW Libraries vast resources. And don’t forget to apply (or encourage your students to apply) for the 2022 UW Libraries Undergraduate Research Award !>>>>>
Masks: Masks will continue to be available at all public service desks. In line with UW recommendations, UW Libraries highly encourages wearing masks indoors during the first two weeks of spring quarter.
Special Collections: Starting March 28, special collections will have OPEN EXHIBIT HOURS from 10AM-12PM! (see below for a summary of the amazing exhibit on now!)
Tateuchi East Asia Library Summer Construction: The Tateuchi East Asia Library (TEAL) will close to the public for summer construction/renovation starting June 11, 2022 and tentatively plans to reopen at the beginning of fall quarter, 2022. Some materials will not be available prior to the closure. See deadlines and learn more.
A Library Lifeline for Underserved Communities– see how UW Health Sciences Library is increasing access to health resources for health practitioners and local communities across the region.
Featured Resources, Collections
Celebrate National Poetry Month by exploringColumbia Granger’s World of Poetry. The UW Libraries brings you this premier poetry database with over 250,000 full text poems and with citations to almost a half a million more. From huskies to hula, a random keyword search will help you find poems with specific words or subject themes; get inspired with featured monthly poems and try your hand at daily poetry trivia!
Events
April 18th- Reclaiming Your Past, A Radical Act of Healing: Hear from a panel of Afro-Indigenous leaders from on and off campus to explore Black and Indigenous family history as a tool for intergenerational healing, reclamation of identity and reconciliation with the past. Learn more.
Learning Workshops
Apr 8 – Python, your personal research assistant: An introduction to the Python programming language as a tool to aid for qualitative humanities work, brought to you by The eScience Institute and the UW Libraries Open Scholarship Commons.
“I was unaware of the data librarians on campus! This is a great workshop — exposing me to a lot of considerations about data management that I did not know about. Thank you!” – past attendee of UW Libraries Research Data Management Course
Apr 14 – Author Profiles: managing your scholarly identity and making your work findable: Get started with your digital portfolio! In this hands-on workshop, you will learn the importance of author profiles, and you’ll leave with your own ORCID and Google Scholar profiles. Join us if you don’t have a profile yet or if you want to learn strategies for keeping your profile current.
Pressbooks Workshops: Pressbooks’ suite of products– offered through #YourUWLibrary– makes it easy to create, adapt, and share educational material. Learn how to create open textbooks, course materials and more.
April 7th – Tateuchi East Asia Library Presents:The Landscape of Historical Memory w/ Dr. Kirk Denton. Join the virtual or in-person discussion with Dr. Kirk Denton, Professor Emeritus of Chinese literature at Ohio State University as we explore themes from his book The Landscape of Historical Memory: The Politics of Museums and Memorial Culture in Post–Martial Law Taiwan.
April 11- Bigger than Leadership: Join Brittany Do, UW junior in accounting and finance, and author of “Bigger Than Leadership” in the Foster Business Library to learn why you are already a leader, even if you don’t realize it yet. Brittany will also discuss what it is like writing a book as a college student and some of the best parts of becoming an author.
REAL Lit – UW Tacoma Library’s Real Lit[erature]: Reading for Social Justice book club will be reading Jaquira Díaz’s Ordinary Girls. This book club is open to anyone within the UW Community. The club meets virtually, every Thursday from 12:30-1:20. Sign up and/or learn more.
ANYTIME- Community Reads is an annual program designed to build community and connection through collective group reading and reflecting experiences. The program is hosted by UW Bothell/Cascadia College Library, and is open to all. Participants can join anytime. This year’s chosen book is Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs.
Drop-In Help
Digital Scholarship Drop-In Help Hours (via Zoom) on Thursdays: We offer consultations for research and course related projects. Examples include support for digital publishing, building digital exhibits, and more! We can help you find the right tools, resources and instruction whether you’re just getting started or are working on an on-going project. Learn more.
GIS Help Drop-In Hours:The GIS Lab is provided by the University Libraries to support the use of GIS for coursework and research by UW students, faculty, and staff. GIS Lab staff are available to assist lab users with locating geospatial data, integrating data into GIS projects, and basic ArcGIS functionality. Drop by Suzzallo Library on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10am – 2pm for assistance.
Open Writing Circles Tuesdays: virtual weekly meetings offering 90 minutes of quiet writing time and community with fellow writers from across campus, every Tuesday! Offered through the Odegaard Writing and Research Center.
Exhibits and Displays
“Oars Out, Roll Cameras” highlights the upcoming filming of Boys in the Boat in and in conjunction with the opening weekend of boating season/Windermere Cup May 6-7. On display in Allen North from April 6-May 31!
And Then She Said: Voices of Feminists Past and Present was sown from The Dead Feminists series, a collaboration between local artists Chandler O’Leary and Jessica Spring in the form of a collection of 31 broadsides elevating voices of women throughout history. Featuring quotes by historical feminists, the broadsides are also tied to current political and social issues. Each limited-edition broadside is letterpress printed from hand-drawn lettering and illustrations. The exhibit augments the series with items from the Libraries’ collections as well as reflections from library staff about what the artwork means to them and how it resonates with their own experiences. Starting March 28, special collections will have OPEN EXHIBIT HOURS from 10AM-12PM! You can still make an appointment to view. Learn more.
The Pacific Northwest in the ‘70s This quarter’s theme Keep on Truckin’focuses on the industries and entertainment made famous during the 70s. Groove through the ‘70s in this exhibit of photos, ephemera, and publications from the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. Each quarter will feature different aspects of the pivotal decade that brought the end of the postwar economic boom, an increase in social progressive values, greater political awareness, and expanding liberties for women.
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Stories
Learning Research Data Management with the UW Libraries
March 23, 2022
image source: CSC Services for Research
Curious about the fundamentals of good data management, or just looking to buff up your already polished skills? Are you new to UW and unfamiliar with the wide variety of resources available to you? The UW Libraries’ Research Data Management (RDM) course is for you! Whether you are a student just starting on your first research project, or a seasoned project manager with years of experience, the RDM course aims to provide enrollees with information on best practices, thought-provoking questions, and further resources for learning. This spring’s class will be held April 18 – 21, 2022; registration is on the RDM class guide.
This four-day, online asynchronous course allows enrollees to complete about an hour of guided readings and short daily discussions on their own time, with UW librarian tutors available for further questions and support. Each of the first three days focuses on a specific topic: basic data management concepts, data handling during a research project, and what to do at a project’s completion. The final day acts as a review of the “big picture” concepts, and covers the research lifecycle as a whole.
Why Enroll?
So why bother with research data management? Learning about good data management practices allows researchers to protect against data loss and corruption, optimize organization, and encourages open access, sharing, and reuse of scholarly material. Enrollees who complete this course also report an improvement in their comfort with data management concepts, including with creating a data management plan, which are increasingly required for funding agencies in research projects.
But don’t take our word for it–here are some quotes from past workshop attendees:
“This is a great workshop — exposing me to a lot of considerations about data management that I did not know about. The tutor responses have been really helpful. I was unaware of the data librarians on campus and will definitely reach out to them for more resources. Thank you!”
“Very helpful and important for anyone working with data.”
“I was really impressed with this workshop. It had so many wonderful resources and I learned a lot. The tutors were fantastic … The materials were great and easy to understand as well. It was good to know I’m heading in the right direction with data management and know how to really improve my data management.
“I come from an interpretive/qualitative background and often this type of research activity is learned on the job or through learning what not to do the next time around, so having this type of workshop can really help people like me prepare a lot better for the next big project.”
For instructors at other institutions interested in implementing a version of the Research Data Management course, see the OSF page on the course, as well as the template on the Canvas Course Commons.
Contact the Scholarly Communications and Publishing team [email protected] with any questions.
The fellowship is part of the LEADING project that seeks to scale-up the highly successful LEADS-4-NDP initiative to prepare a diverse, nation-wide cohort of 50 LIS doctoral students and early to mid-career librarians for data science endeavors.
Charlotte Cote, author of 
May 3 – 
“The Libraries provide personal instruction and training that is really important for researchers to do this type of digital scholarship work. Before this project, I didn’t realize how much UW Libraries is committed to digital and public scholarship.”
Did you know??
The Tateuchi East Asia Library (TEAL) will close to the public for summer
“Oars Out, Roll Cameras” highlights the upcoming filming of Boys in the Boat in and in conjunction with the opening weekend of boating season/Windermere Cup May 6-7. On display in Allen North from April 6-May 31!
And Then She Said: Voices of Feminists Past and Present was sown from 