Stories

The Seattle Sound: A Tribute to Kearney Barton

February 7, 2020

album cover — Album cover of the new compilation to be released by *Light in the Attic Records* February 21st. On Saturday, March 7 (2-4 pm), **Light in the Attic Records** (LITA) will host a record-release party with KEXP DJ **Greg Vandy**. Several of the musicians on the comp are expected to attend and sign records.

Seattle’s Evening show on KING 5 recently visited the UW Libraries to uncover the story behind the soon-to-be released tribute album Kearney Barton: Architect of the Northwest Sound. The album was made possible through the generous donation of Kearney’s masters and support to UW Libraries from Barton’s niece, Patricia Maltsberger (THANK YOU!). This work is one of the many ways UW Libraries protects and preserves the works that shape our local culture and reflect local history.

Watch the Story HERE

We caught up with UW Libraries’ ethnomusicologist and curator, John Vallier, to learn more about this important documentation of Kearney’s legacy.

Why is this collection and record release important?

Say “Seattle Sound” and most think grunge. No doubt, Seattle based bands such as Nirvana, Mudhoney, and Soundgarden helped define that vintage punk infused sludge rock genre. But if you dig deeper and look for a broader understanding of the “Seattle Sound” you’ll find more than just one genre. From jazz to folk, soul to funk, avant garde noise to synth pop and beyond, what one discovers are Seattle sounds.

Seattle-based recording engineer and producer Kearney Barton (1931-2012) embodied this diversity of sounds. While he is considered the so-called Godfather of the “original Northwest sound”–a raw and reverberating analog sonic signature considered to be a 1950s and 1960s precursor to grunge–he is also known for recording across a constellation of genres and styles in his Seattle studios: opera, sitar rock, lounge, calypso, piano jazz, funk, synth pop, doo-wop, garage rock, brass band, prog rock, and so on. In short, Kearney Barton’s lifework reflects the manifold nature Seattle’s past.

With Kearney Barton: Architect of the Northwest Sound a curated selection of tunes have been re-mastered into a double LP release. Its 29 tracks give the listener a representative sample of his collection without having to dive into the archives. However, if what that listener needs is more Kearny Barton, no worries. The UW Ethnomusicology Archives can provide it by way of the over 11,000 items in the Kearney Barton Collection of Pacific Northwest Music.[1]

Why is this collection at the UW Libraries?

UW Libraries’ ethnomusicologist and curator, John Vallier displays Kearney-related items from the UW Libraries collections

In 2010 Kearney Barton, age 79, thought it was time to retire and move his collection of recordings out of his home/studio to UW. Matt Sullivan at Light in the Attic Records and mutual friend Scott Colburn of Gravelvoice Recordings contacted me. I had started a local music preservation project at UW a few years earlier, so Barton’s collection seemed like it would be a good fit. Barton agreed. A short time later, thanks to some initial seed funding from the UW Simpson Center for the Humanities, a small legion of student workers helped move and process the materials on the Seattle campus.

Sadly, in 2012, Kearney Barton passed away but at least he knew his legacy would live on at UW. His collection is now a cornerstone of the Seattle Sounds Archiving and Preservation Project (SSAPP).[2] SSAPP is a part of the UW Ethnomusicology Archives and includes many other collections, such as the Crocodile Café and 206 Hip Hop collections.

About UW Ethnomusicology Archives and Program

UW Libraries’ Ethnomusicology Archives (UWEA) includes music from around the globe and around the block.[3] It is one of the largest collections of its kind with some 50,000 recordings. The newly added BA degree in UW’s Ethnomusicology Program is drawing in undergraduate students who are intrigued by the diversity of the world’s musical expressions and are interested in interdisciplinary perspectives that illuminate music’s cultural contexts and meanings. Learn more about the BA in Ethnomusicology.

>>>Support the great work of UW Libraries<<<

[1] https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv40075

[2] https://guides.lib.uw.edu/research/ps

[3] https://guides.lib.uw.edu/archives

Stories

The ‘story behind the story’ of No-No Boy: Shawn Wong Impresses at this Year’s Friends of the Libraries Lecture

February 6, 2020

Stunning. Provocative. Unselfish. What a treat for the record-breaking attendance at the Friends of Libraries Annual Lecture last week.

Author Shawn Wong at his IBM typewriter in his San Francisco apartment at 780 Chestnut Street #3 in 1974. The images counterclockwise over his head are: a poster from the First Asian American Writers’ Conference at the Oakland Museum, a snapshot of Shawn as a child wearing a sailor’s outfit, an oil painting by his mother of his grandfather, and a black and white photo of friend, Nancy Wong from 1969. PHOTO BY NANCY WONG

UW’s Professor Shawn Wong showed an audience of almost 500 that words matter in every generation. As keynote for the 2020 Friends of UW Libraries Annual Lecture, Shawn shared how “The publishing history of No-No Boy by John Okada is part of Asian American literary history, and that story is almost as important as the novel itself.”

Wong took the audience on a highly entertaining look back at the journey of No-No Boy – from Wong’s days as an English major at UC Berkeley, eager to discover and share Asian American literature– to the battle royale de copyright against publishing behemoth, Penguin Books, nearly 50 years later.

Through Shawn’s eyes, the audience got to go behind the New York Times headlines to truly understand how powerful and important this book is to the history of Asian American literature.

As Nicole Mitchell, Director of the UW Press noted, “Asian American literary history dawned with UW Professor Shawn Wong.”

photo of s wong on stage — Wong shares a photo of hundreds of letters requesting a copy of No No Boy. PHOTO: Bruce Hemingway, University of Washington

Throughout the lecture, Wong expertly wove together his experiences in a way that authentically and humbly underscored his life’s work to preserve the integrity of No-No Boy. From his painstaking quest to find Okada, to dealing with rejection from every publisher he met, to eventually going it alone and distributing books out of the trunk of his 1966 Mustang. Perhaps one of the most compelling moments was seeing hundreds of hand-written letters to Wong, effectively a word-of-mouth mail order system to distribute the book in the mid 1970s. These letters were written by a generation hungry for their own stories — letters Wong keeps in his office to this day.

While the legal argument over No-No Boy’s copyright dominated the media narrative, Wong’s lecture gave us unique insight into his hard-fought battle that eventually resulted in victory—including his first foray into social media as an advocacy tool, and the invaluable support of one of the nation’s leading copyright experts. But the lecture didn’t leave the audience pondering at the incomprehension of Penguin’s selfish and tone-deaf defense; rather, it reminded us of the importance of continuing to work with, not against, those who have the platform to reach a broad audience, and to continue to invest in authors and publishers who give voice to the stories of underrepresented populations — publishers like UW Press.

On behalf of UW Libraries, Friends of the Libraries and UW Press, we are honored and grateful to Professor Wong for sharing ‘the story behind the story’ of “No-No Boy by John Okada: The Story of How a Novel Goes from 1,500 Copies Sold to 158,000 Copies.”

No-No Boy, and other UW faculty-authored books are available for purchase through UW Press here.
Videotape of the presentation will soon be available online. If you would like to receive a link to the video, please provide your name and email address to Deb Hemingway, [email protected].

The UW Friends of Libraries helps stimulate private support and encourages an appreciation of current and evolving library resources and services. Learn More

Related Reading:

Blog Post by Frank Abe: Shawn Wong’s 49 year journey to No-No Boy

“The Legacy of No-No Boy” by Vince Schleitwiler in the University of Washington alumni magazine.

Stories

Five Things You May Not Know About the Tateuchi East Asia Library

February 4, 2020

We are celebrating our new name at the Tateuchi East Asia Library in conjunction with the recently announced endowment from the Tateuchi Foundation – a transformative investment that will help us grow and provide more services and programs. Our dynamic librarian staff are always thinking of new ways to engage students, faculty, and the community to “raise the bar” of excellence in support of East Asia studies, including some things you may not know!

Did you Know?

1) We like to sing! When it comes to supporting language learning, singing is one of the most fun ways to engage students — from last year’s open-mic Karaoke program to this quarter’s Korean Singing Club led by Professor EunYoung Won from the Asian Languages & Literature department, the library isn’t just for reading anymore!

2) Our student employees are AMAZING. From taking inventory of more than 97,000 volumes last quarter to cataloging rare, ancient Chinese inscription rubbings, our students perform all kinds of critical operational and research tasks that are vital to our mission. Thank you student employees!

Student employee Xianda “Nick” Hou examines Chinese stelae inscription rubbings

3) We are teachers. Our libraries staff teach all kinds of classes and workshops. One of our recent initiatives is Digital Scholarship for East Asia Studies, a program designed to introduce digital resources and methodologies relevant to ALL scholars of East Asian studies. Workshops are led by our librarians, specialists or invited experts, and provide students the opportunity to discuss or present their own research. With twenty-one workshops per year, this ambitious undertaking will have a considerable impact on UW’s East Asian studies graduate student community. Check the EAL calendar and our Facebook for event details. Upcoming workshops:

China Research Workshop: Text Mining and Analysis – February 18th
Tateuchi Research Methods Workshop Series for Japanologists – February 24th

4) We love book clubs. From Booksori, a series of Korean-language book talks — to Japanese Tadoku Club and a soon-to-be established Chinese Reading Club, we are committed to making the Tateuchi East Asia Library a place to build community with all of our patrons, inside and outside UW.

Dr. Fu Hsiung Shen alumnus and former faculty of the UW School of Medicine and political activist, shares recollections on August 25, 2019 through the library’s East Asia Oral History Project.

5) We are history keepers. The library is home to the East Asia Library Oral History Project at the University of Washington Libraries to document the life and experiences of Seattle’s Chinese immigrant community from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and other areas of the world. We host Community Forums for members of Seattle’s Taiwanese and Chinese community to share their stories and experiences with one another, to receive updates on the project, and to learn from and exchange knowledge with guest speakers — academics, oral historians, and community leaders with specialized knowledge.

Okay, it’s actually six (6) things you didn’t know about the Tateuchi East Asia Library — we can’t leave this last one out!

6) Our team wins awards! In 2019, we celebrated our award-winning staff:

- Library Journal named Azusa Tanaka, Associate Librarian of Japanese Studies one of the 2019 Movers & Shakers.
- University of Washington Libraries’ 2019 Distinguished Librarian Award, the highest honor available to a UW librarian went to Hyokyoung Yi, Korean Studies Librarian and Head of Public Services.
- Zhijia Shen, Director and Chinese Studies Librarian received the 2018 Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) Distinguished Service Award, one of the five ethnic caucuses of American Library Association, and is the highest recognition given by the Association “to individuals who consistently demonstrate outstanding leadership and achievement in library and information services at the national and/ or international level.”

To learn more about the Tateuchi East Asia Library, come visit us on the 3^rd floor of Gowen Hall or learn more online here.

Stories

Founding Stories: The Origin of UW Tacoma

February 4, 2020

On the eve of our 30th anniversary, the UW Tacoma Library is spearheading a project to document the origins and development of UW Tacoma through oral history.

Gathering the Voices of Those who Built UW Tacoma

Nearly 30 years ago, in March 1990, the News Tribune asked residents of the Tacoma area where the new “branch campus” should be located. Folks could choose among the four locations under consideration: available farmland in Fife, an area on the Tacoma Community College campus, a site in the Hilltop neighborhood, or a location in downtown Tacoma. As the numbers came in, residents clearly favored the Fife and TCC locations over the downtown site.

1990 maps and survey — Clips from two Morning News Tribune stories about the site selection for the UW Tacoma campus. Left, from March 15, 1990; right, from March 17, 1990.

With the University of Washington Tacoma campus so firmly placed in downtown Tacoma, these numbers might seem surprising today, but they show just how hard it was to imagine a university in downtown Tacoma 30 years ago.

Even as the News Tribune story ran, the legislature had already approved funding to start the campus. Its new temporary quarters in the Perkins Building in downtown Tacoma were already under construction and 13 new faculty had been hired to begin teaching classes.

In the face of clear location preferences among the public, how did the university and the legislature ultimately settle on downtown as the place for the permanent campus?

As UW Tacoma approaches its 30^th anniversary, it is an opportune time to begin asking this and many other questions about the beginnings of what was then referred to as a “UW branch.” UW Tacoma Oral History: The Founding Stories aims to do just that: inquire into the origins and influence of this campus by gathering the voices of students, faculty, staff and community members who have shaped it over the years.

Thanks to generous support from Rod Hagenbuch, the Founding Stories project publicly launched in the fall of 2019 with the aim of collecting several dozen oral history interviews. Led by Joan Hua, oral history project manager, it will focus on people who can provide insights into the founding and development of campus: early graduates, founding faculty of the academic programs, campus administrators, long-serving staff members, and community members. All of these oral history interviews will be transcribed, publicly available and searchable in a digital collection hosted by the UW Libraries. Together, they will begin to create a collective portrait of individual experiences of the birth, evolution, and impact of the UW Tacoma campus.

Read the full post on UW Tacoma News and listen to the oral history stories HERE

Stories

Beyond Books: Building Community through Bothell/Cascadia’s Community Reads

January 30, 2020

As public spaces devoted to teaching and learning, our Libraries have a duty and responsibility to steward diversity, equity and inclusion. At UW Libraries, this is embedded in our Libraries Strategic Plan. At the UW Bothell and Cascadia College Campus Library, this work has long been a part of our professional learning and community engagement efforts in the form of events, exhibits, trainings, our social justice group and more; however, one of the most engaging parts of this work has been the Community Reads program.

Established in 2016, UW Bothell’s Community Reads program brings together members of the Bothell and Cascadia campus communities through quarterly book discussions to encourage dialogue on themes of equity, social justice, and diversity. Students, faculty and staff from both campuses gather to discuss issues raised in the chosen book, as well as selected tie-in materials that go beyond a typical book club—artwork, poetry, music, etc. The events provide space to build connections and understanding through shared experiences, diverse points of view and ideas for action.

sketch of Angela Davis — *Angela’s Voice* | by Donna Sullivan (click on image to view)
“The Angela Davis image incorporates a powerful quote from the book, ‘It is essential to resist the depiction of history as the work of heroic individuals in order for people today to recognize their potential agency as a part of an ever-expanding community of struggle.’ The rest of the text in her hair are the 10 points from the 10 Point Program of the Black Panther Party, which she mentions in her book and to which her legacy was forever tied through her arrest and trial. The last two points are on her sleeve.”
– Donna Sullivan, Cascadia College Staff member

Inspired by Angela Davis’s visit to UW Bothell last year, the Community Reads team chose Davis’ Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement for the 2019/2020 program, with an emphasis on the theme of democracy.

In our fall quarter event, the discussions focused on chapter 1 “Progressive Struggles against Insidious Capitalist Individualism” and chapter 5 “Closures and Continuities”. Tie-in materials included the Black Panther Party’s Ten-Point Program, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, and the poem by Langston Hughes, Let America be America Again. A Cascadia staff member, Donna Sullivan, was inspired to create a digital portrait of a young Angela Davis entitled Angela’s Voice, which was featured in Fall Quarter marketing materials. Following the small group discussions, participants were asked to reflect on how they would use their voice, or engage in democratic life. The Community Reads Team has been conscious of incorporating an element to the events that asks participants how they might apply or act on what they heard and learned.

Community Reads underscores the Libraries’ role in advancing equity, diversity and inclusion within the communities we serve. These types of events not only shine a light on underrepresented authors and topics, they provide outlets for expression and connection that are essential to community-building, especially where socio-economic lines can sometimes act as barriers for connection.

Community Reads is one example of how Libraries are evolving by providing a wider range of services and programs “beyond books” – opportunities that encourage connection, learning and collaboration for the public good, enriching the cultural fabric of our communities.

Join the next Community Reads at UW Bothell & Cascadia College Library !

Community Reads is open to all. The Winter events will focus on the theme of mass incarceration, drawing upon chapter 2 of Angela Davis’ book, Freedom is a Constant Struggle. We will also be showing clips from the film 13^th, by Ava DuVernay.

When:

Tuesday February 18, 1:30-3:00pm
Wednesday February 26, 12:00-1:30pm

Where: Bothell Campus Library room LB1-205

Please join us! https://guides.lib.uw.edu/bothell/communityreads/w20

Stories

What We Can Learn from Ancient Chinese Inscription Rubbings:

December 30, 2019

I have been working at the UW East Asia Library since I was a freshman. With a strong interest in ancient Chinese history and some good fortune, I got the opportunity to work on a collection of epigraph rubbings rich with historical information from the Northern Wei, Tang, and Song dynasties. The East Asia Library received these valuable rubbings from a previous donation. The set includes approximately thirty-six complete inscriptions from the Tang (618-907), Zhou (690-705, led by China’s only female emperor Wu Zetian), and Song (960-1279) dynasties.

Many of them preserve historical information and literary texts not found in contemporary historical writings, enriching our understanding of events like the An Lushan Rebellion, linguistic phenomena such as the distinctive characters associated with Empress Wu,demographic trends such as Iranians resident in China, and religions such as Buddhism, Daoism, and Zoroastrianism. One interesting inscription records that a Samarkand chief/king led his people, comprising 5000 “tents,” to commit their allegiance to the Tang empire. It also provides evidence of Zoroastrian religious practices such as sun and moon worship. Another records the life of afemale Buddhist devotee from Samarkand who married a man from Bukhara (modern Buxoro) and lived in Shendu (Luoyang). One portrait tablet of a warrior from the Northern Wei dynasty (386-534) depicts the dress of a military officer from the dynasty. An inscription commemorating Emperor Wu Zhao’s cousin reveals details about the Wu family and Tang dynasty political structures.

There is much more interesting information to explore. Inscription rubbings hold a special place in Chinese culture and history. These examples enrich the East Asia Library’s collections, and provide fruitful material for historical and literary research. I learned traditional stone rubbing techniques in China, and have studied medieval Chinese arts since primary school. I am impressed by the quality of these rubbings and the clarity with which they render the inscriptions. I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to help catalog them over the summer.

Coveted link to China’s past found in a basement at UW – Seattle Times, 2005

Stories

Connecting business students with professional information tools

November 25, 2019

Alongside the Libraries’ ongoing efforts to expand student information awareness, the Foster Business Library hosted “PitchBook Night” on November 12, a dynamic session on how data informs the work of entrepreneurs and private-sector investors. In this first-of-a-kind event for the Foster Library, the session attracted 25 Foster School of Business undergraduates and MBA students to learn more about PitchBook, a library-subscribed search platform that tracks private-equity and venture-capital market data.

Following a welcome by Amy Sallin, director of the Buerk Center for Enterpreneurship, PitchBook account managers Katie Kelsh and Jessica Trowbridge (both UW alumni) described PitchBook’s data gathering process and its applications in startup fundraising, venture capital investing, and related business decision-making and due diligence.

“PitchBook Night” was the first of a planned series of similar events that will improve students’ abilities to locate and apply business information available through Foster Library subscription resources.

Located in Paccar Hall, The Foster Library has over 60,000 books, over 400 student study seats and 11 tech-enabled group study rooms. Foster Business Librarians provide a range of student and faculty support services, from student research consultations to classroom teaching and training, and partnering with faculty on research assignment development.

Learn more

Students seated in rows of seats — Foster business students learn about PitchBook in the Foster Business Library

Three presenters behind a podium, addressing an audience. — Buerk Center Director Amy Sallin introduces PitchBook account managers Katie Kelsh and Jessica Trowbridge.

Stories

Mythbuster: The Facts About Greta Thunberg’s Photo Twin

November 21, 2019

One of the images within UW Libraries Special collections has garnered a lot of media attention lately regarding the resemblance of a young girl in a photograph from 1898 to 16-year-old Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg. Several creative theories abound from time travel to how Greta’s image may have been inserted into a historical photo, which is most definitely not the case.

Greta ThunBerg Conspiracy The Truth — University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, Hegg 3209

As part of the UW Libraries Special Collections, the photo in question is an original. It is one of many photos taken by photographer Eric A. Hegg (1867-1947). It is one of the Libraries’ cornerstone collections, and one of the largest Klondike-era documentary photograph collections in the region, if not the country. The Hegg collection came into the Libraries Special Collections in the 1960s, pre-dating modern record keeping that would illuminate more detailed information such as who donated the collection, or prior ownership. There are no notes or documentation regarding the identity of the subjects.

Much of what we do know about Hegg is detailed within the UW Libraries digital collection record. As noted in the record, in 1902, Hegg’s negatives and photographs were sold to a Seattle, Washington firm of Webster and Stevens, who removed the Hegg studio imprint from the negatives and sold prints made from Hegg’s negatives as products of their studio. The remaining assets of the Skagway studio were absorbed by Dedman’s Photo Shop, which continues in business to this day in the town of Skagway. That said, there is no way to confirm if the images within the collection originated from this third party, or from other sources.

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE COLLECTION

Hegg was born in Sweden and arrived in the Puget Sound region in 1888, settling in Whatcom County.

In the fall of 1897, after hearing of the gold strikes in the Yukon Territories, he joined the thousands of gold seekers heading north, eventually opening up several photography studios in Alaska. He captured the people of Skagway, Bennett and Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush from 1897 to 1901. Hegg took one of the most iconic photographs of Chilkoot Pass of miners and prospectors climbing the ice stairs upwards to the top and the awaiting Canada–US border.

In 1997, the Libraries hosted a special exhibit to showcase the collection: Klondike Gold Rush: The Perilous Journey North. In addition to featuring the Hegg collection, people from the community also contributed additional photographs and lent their expertise to further help identify images, some of which feature family members who lived in the area.

“Conspiracy theories aside, we are delighted that the collection is receiving attention because it underscores the historical importance of the images as well the unique role that Libraries and other archives play, not only in safekeeping, but in telling these stories, and ensuring accessibility,” says Lisa Oberg, interim director for the UW Libraries Special Collections.

The University’s Special Collections brings together the University of Washington Libraries’ most rare and unique resources. From papyrus to born-digital, our holdings span history and the globe, and offer boundless opportunities for exploration and discovery. Learn more.

Instructions for Use of Images from UW Special Collections

Single use fees apply to any for-profit entity (news).
In order to use photos legally, permission is required. Please refer to the UW Libraries Permission for Use Instructions. And the corresponding application form.
Any use of the image requires the appropriate citation: University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections, Hegg 3209.

For all media inquires, please contact the UW Libraries Communications Director, Sandy Hawley: [email protected]

Stories

UW Press and Libraries Collaborate on Open-Access Books

October 22, 2019

Reposted from UW Press Blog 10/21/2019

From October 21st to 27th, the University of Washington Press will be highlighting its open-access publications and partnerships as part of International Open Access Week.

UW Press and Libraries Collaborate on Open-Access Books

Thanks to a new partnership between UW Press and Libraries and a grant from the Kenneth S. and Faye G. Allen Library Endowment Transformation Fund, many books in the press’s long-standing and award-winning series Studies on Ethnic Groups in China (SEGC) are now openly available.

UW Libraries’ support for the initiative is part of its larger commitment to open and emerging forms of scholarship. Betsy Wilson, Vice Provost for Digital Initiatives and Dean of University Libraries, explained that “the UW Libraries’ strategic plan prioritizes the advancement of research for the public good. We are living this commitment by investing in infrastructure and developing publishing resources to support open-access scholarship in all forms. Our staff are constantly working to expand support for all UW authors who publish openly and to assist students and faculty in navigating open-access opportunities.”

Edited by UW professor of anthropology Stevan Harrell, SEGC presents research from a wide variety of disciplines on ethnic groups and ethnic relations in China. Anthropologists, historians, geographers, political scientists, and literary scholars have contributed works on minority ethnic groups from various regions of China, as well as on the majority Han and their relationships with other groups. Works are both historical and contemporary and cover topics ranging from identity, local relations, folk literature, and religion to medicine, governance, education, and economic development.

“I’m delighted that UW Press has selected Studies on Ethnic Groups in China as its first book series to go online in open-access format,” said Harrell. “This makes our books available to a wider public. In addition, using the Manifold platform gives authors, editors, and readers the opportunity to publish supplementary material, make comments, and see some of our authors’ gorgeous photographs in full color.”

Manifold is a new publishing platform developed by the University of Minnesota Press, CUNY GC Digital Scholarship Lab, and Cast Iron Coding and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. In addition, SEGC books will be hosted on several other platforms including the UW Libraries ResearchWorks, JSTOR, MUSE Open, HathiTrust, and OAPEN.

UW Press Director Nicole Mitchell commented on the project’s early success: “We’ve been pleased to see that readers have accessed the open editions from at least 105 countries so far, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. We’re grateful for the support of the Allen Transformation Fund and fortunate that in launching our first open-access books, we’ve been able to draw on services like JSTOR and Project MUSE that have built strong global networks for scholarship, as well as the work of colleagues at Minnesota and other university presses involved in developing new infrastructure, processes, and standards for open-access monograph publishing.”

What Is International OA Week?

This year’s OA Week theme, “Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge,” builds on the groundwork laid by last year’s focus, “Designing Equitable Foundations for Open Knowledge,” which highlighted the importance of making a central commitment to equity as we develop new systems for sharing knowledge.

The Allen Transformation Fund grant, awarded to “facilitate the transition towards open publishing models,” promotes equitable access not only by making the SEGC books available to readers across the globe, but also by enabling all authors in the series to make their books openly available regardless of their institutional affiliations or resources.

In addition, UW Libraries works with providers like Manifold to address the accessibility of open-access tools for all users. Working collaboratively with UW Libraries and UW Accessible IT, the Manifold team significantly improved accessibility features in the platform, helping to ensure open access for all.

OA Week on Campus

UW Libraries is hosting special events and information sessions during Open Access Week. This year’s theme, “Open for Whom?,” invites us to consider equity in open access.

Accessibility Pop-Up Tables – Explore your favorite websites using assistive technologies to better understand the everyday experiences of disabled members of our community.

Tuesday, Oct. 22, noon–2:00 p.m. outside the HUB if the weather is good, inside the HUB if the weather is bad
Wednesday, Oct. 23, noon–2:00 p.m. in the Allen Library Research Commons

Copyright and Creative Commons Licenses – If you need photos, music, or other media for a project and are unsure about copyright restrictions, join us for this one-hour primer. Learn how the Creative Commons helps creators share and use media.

Tuesday, Oct. 22, 3:00–4:00 p.m. in the Allen Library Research Commons
Wednesday, Oct. 23, 3:00–4:00 p.m. in the Allen Library Research Commons

Open Media – This Guide to Open Resources will connect you with media you can use without charge.

Open Educational Resources (OER) – See this Guide to OER to learn how to find and create open textbooks and courses.

Open Access at UW Press – Finally, be sure to check out the open editions of SEGC books as well as the Digital Projects page of the UW Press website for more information about the press’s open-access work.

Stories

“Open for Whom?” – Accessibility and Open Access

October 22, 2019

At UW we’ve been thinking about OA Week’s theme of “Open for Whom?” in the context of our efforts to increase the accessibility of our resources and services. We’re pleased that the latest version release of the Manifold digital book publishing platform included substantial accessibility improvements, largely due to a partnership between Cast Iron Coding, the web development firm building Manifold, and UW’s Accessible Technology Services (ATS) Office.

We spoke with Ava Cole, a Student Accessibility Assistant in ATS, about their experience working on this project.

What is your role in ATS?

I support Hadi Rangin [Information Technology Accessibility Specialist] in his endeavors to evaluate, advocate, and ensure the accessibility of software used on campus. Ideally we’d have five Hadis, but since we only have one he has a number of students as his henchmen. I’m a full-time student, and I work part time. Right now there are two students, but we’re hoping to add more.

How does an ATS evaluation typically play out?

Usually it starts when the manager / owner of a new, software-related service at the university comes to us and says “we want to adopt this new software, but we want to make sure it’s accessible.” Spoiler: it’s never accessible.

We collaborate with that person to do a full evaluation, testing the functional tasks the software is designed to perform, and the workflows that people will typically use it for. We use different techniques, including a static review of the code, testing the software with different evaluation tools, and also using assistive technologies to try to complete each of the tasks. We compile a big list of issues, put them in a spreadsheet, and write an accompanying report describing the overall status of accessibility. When we are done we hand off our findings to the service owner / manager who then uses it to advocate for accessibility in the purchasing process. Usually UW-IT is surprised but supportive, and the company is defensive.

Ideally this is then the start of a collaboration with the company. With good projects they will assign us a liaison, and we’ll work with them to fix the accessibility issues. Sometimes it’s great, and they’re strong advocates within the company for the changes to be made. But sometimes we spend a lot of time “talking to the hand.” In every collaboration it’s a process of educating them and doing our best to help them help themselves, but it can be hard.

What was it like working on the Manifold evaluation?

It was the same process of Elliott Stevens [English Studies & Research Commons Librarian], who is, by the way, a fantastic collaborator and leader, approaching us about Manifold. The Libraries had already begun using the software, which isn’t unusual. So we looked at the platform, and immediately saw that it had a lot of issues.

What was really different with this project was that after the initial evaluation, instead of handing it off to execs and having it trickle down to the developers, we met with Matt Gold and Terence Smyre [two of the principal investigators on the Manifold grant project]. They were immediately receptive, saying they hadn’t realized there were so many holes. And because Manifold is open source software, hosted on GitHub, instead of waiting for the spreadsheet to get in the right hands, we started filing issues directly into their GitHub.

Within five minutes of filing the first issue, Zach Davis [Cast Iron’s Principal and Chief Technologist] replied and said “thank you, I’m putting it in the workflow.” This is exponentially faster than how it usually happens. So as we continued to put the findings on GitHub, we were getting fixes back really fast. That cycle of us doing the testing and them doing the fixes has been totally different than other projects we’ve worked on.

Another change, and this is something I think about a lot, is the way this project is letting us share our own work. We put all this publicly funded time into researching how to fix software accessibility issues, and some of it is really bleeding edge. Like for one project, the software had these interactive data grids that were really functional and powerful, and looked great visually, but were horribly inaccessible. It took a month of ruminating and talking and brainstorming and research, including bringing it up in Hadi’s monthly Explore with Hadi meetup, to come up with a suggested design pattern for the company and provide them with the solution. However, that application is proprietary – so all the work is now hidden. The knowledge created from that discourse is effectively gone.

But with Manifold, it’s all open. We’ve been doing the same kind of discussion and research around Manifold’s highlighting and annotation functions. And the good news is that the findings are now available in GitHub – it’s public knowledge. It’s cool when it’s publicly funded work, and the work is actually public.

So, it’s been a good collaboration?

It’s definitely stood out, people-wise. In some collaborations it feels like we have to convince people of why accessibility is important – having to hold their hand. Sometimes the only reason the company incorporates our feedback is because it’s a selling point; we tell them “making it accessible will increase your market share.” With the Manifold team, as soon as we mentioned it they were really excited. They were really open to the feedback and motivated on their own to make accessibility a priority.

What’s the current status of the project?

Right now we meet with Terence and Matt on a regular basis, continuing to test new features as they put them out. We’re starting a new push on the authoring side; the way content is managed in Manifold doesn’t make sure that the content itself is accessible. Manifold isn’t an authoring tool – it ingests existing content. So if the ingested content isn’t accessible, it doesn’t matter if the application is accessible. We’re encouraging them to add an accessibility checker for uploading content. It would be great if it actually enforced accessibility of the content, but that would be very ambitious.

What lessons can the Open Access and Accessibility communities share?

We live in a world that isn’t set up to be open or accessible; our position as advocates are similar, in that we’re the underdogs. Accessibility, privacy, security, and equity are always neglected until someone tells people they have to pay attention. Usually it has to happen using policy or law; without the ADA our office wouldn’t exist.

They also all have to be part of the development process from start to finish, otherwise it won’t be a good outcome. Hadi always says accessibility can’t be an afterthought – something you tack on to the end of the software development process. If you do it that way it’s never going to be functionally accessible, letting people use it in a meaningful way without a lot of pain.

Higher education is a great launching pad for this work, but I want to emphasize that these have to be community efforts. With accessibility, it can’t just be our office who’s worried about it – we do a lot of work but we can’t cover everything. Any institution that has buying power needs to consider the agency they have to advocate for access, privacy, and accessibility. This means UW as a whole, or divisions like the Libraries and UW Medicine. Often people think they don’t have power, but they really do. People look up to the Libraries; how can that power be leveraged?