Jennifer Bartlett represents UK Libraries in China delegation

Jennifer Bartlett represented UK Libraries in China

Jennifer Bartlett, Director of William T. Young Library Reference Services, represented UK Libraries as part of a recent delegation to China sponsored by the UK Office of Education Abroad and Exchanges and the UK Confucius Center. Twenty faculty and staff representing 17 UK colleges visited education abroad programs at universities in Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin May 9-20. They also visited cultural and historic sites including the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. 

The delegation’s goal was to explore the enhancement of education abroad programming and support of international higher education opportunities in China. Thanks, Jen, for representing UK Libraries.

Jaime Marie Burton receives scholarship to AALHE

Jaime Marie Burton

Jaime Marie Burton, director of Research Services and Education at the Special Collections Research Center, is the recipient of a scholarship to attend “Actionable Assessment," the 2015 Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE) annual conference, June 1-3, 2015. The conference provides the opportunity to network with assessment practitioners from across the nation, to connect with leading thinkers in assessment, and to gain professional development opportunities in preparation to lead and advocate best practices in assessment.

The scholarship is sponsored by the UK Office of University Assessment, the Office of Undergraduate Education, and UK Analytics and Technologies. 

Congratulations to Jaime. 

Two million downloads from UKnowledge spread institutional research

Research items available from UKnowledge have been downloaded more than 2 million times around the world. Since its establishment in late 2010 as University of Kentucky’s institutional repository, UKnowledge has enabled timely discovery of and unfettered access to a variety of scholarly contents generated at or sponsored by UK.  

UKnowledge includes a map tool to visualize downloads worldwide.

Theses and dissertations command the major portion of the 2 million-plus downloads. Meanwhile, open access journals housed in UKnowledge continue to draw much attention. To see an up-to-date list of the 10 most downloaded items, visit this page. 

The featured collections page offers a window into some of the remarkable collections on UKnowledge. Currently highlighted there are three publications and an image gallery:

• Proceedings from the UK Linguistics Program’s Defaults in Morphological Theory Conference revealing how researchers of four major morphological theories analyze word structure. Visitors can not only download the slides and abstracts of the conference presentations, but also view the videos of different sessions. 
• Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research, an open access journal based at the UK College of Public Health, which publishes peer-reviewed papers on actionable public health infrastructure research. One of its articles, "Public Health Services Most Commonly Provided by Local Health Departments in the United States," has been the most downloaded article for months among the thousands of items available from UKnowledge. 
• The Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report demonstrates the center’s expertise in and authority over various transportation engineering topics. With reports dating back to the 1940s, this growing collection is readily available 24/7 and has been of interest to researchers and engineers around the globe. 
• Created in celebration of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Year of the Middle East, Middle Eastern Passage showcases intriguing images of Arabic and Persian calligraphic manuscripts archived in the UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center. The zoom and pan functionalities enable viewers to examine every minute detail of an image. In addition, Ghadir K. Zannoun, assistant professor of Arabic and Islamic studies, and Kamyar C. Mahboub, Lawson Professor of Civil Engineering, have provided annotations to illuminate the cultural and historical significance of the featured manuscripts. 

Created in celebration of College of Arts and Sciences’ Year of the Middle East, "Middle Eastern Passage" showcases intriguing images of Arabic and Persian calligraphic manuscripts archived in the UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center. From "Storehouse of Mysteries," this is an image of the first of five narrative poems, or "Panj Ganj" (the "Five Treasures"), written by Persian poet Nizami.

Holding more than 11,300 items, UKnowledge aims to share the university's research and scholarship with learners and researchers everywhere.

UK faculty and students interested in using the resources and services made available by UKnowledge may contact Adrian Ho, director of Digital Scholarship.

Article reprinted from UKNow.

UK Libraries at ELUNA conference

Four faculty members represented UK Libraries at the ExLibris Users Group of North America (ELUNA) Technical Seminars and Annual Conference held in Minneapolis May 4-8.

Marsha Seamans, Director of Cataloging and Database Integrity, participated in the “Hands-On Alma” workshop, a full-day workshop focusing on nine major functionalities of our next-generation library system.

Head of Database Integrity Julene Jones, by request of the conference planning committee, presented “Top 10 GDC projects at University of Kentucky Libraries.” Systems Librarian Tari Keller presented “Forgive and Forget: Voyager Fine Forgive and Patron Purge Jobs Explained,” while Kathryn Lybarger, Head of Cataloging and Metadata, presented on “Personalizing Voyager using Browser Extensions.”

All four attendees participated in technical seminars and conference sessions. Thanks to all for representing UK Libraries.

More than 150 attend UK Libraries Spring Gala

On May 12, 2015, more than 150 guests attended the UK Libraries Spring Gala in William T. Young Library. The event began with a presentation in the UK Athletics Auditorium, during which guests heard updates from Dean Terry Birdwhistell, Director of Development Daniel King, and UK Libraries National Advisory Board President Gail Hart.



Advisory Board President Gail Hart

2014-2015 Undergraduate Diversity Scholar Nathan Moore, a recent UK graduate, shared his experiences working in UK Libraries.

Student Intern Nathan Moore

UK Provost Tim Tracy presented the Paul A. Willis Award for Outstanding Faculty to Dr. Doug Boyd of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the Special Collections Research Center.

Provost Tim Tracy and Dr. Doug Boyd

UK President Eli Capilouto spoke, and presented the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement to Dr. George C. Wright, UK alumnus and President of Prairie View A&M University.

President Eli Capilouto

Left to right, Provost Tim Tracy, Dr. George C. Wright, President Eli Capilouto

Dr. Wright delivered the keynote address offering an overview of his four decades of international research on race relations.

Dr. George C. Wright

Dr. Wright addressed attendees. 

Dr. Wright received a standing ovation.

Following the presentation, guests enjoyed a reception in the atrium of Young Library including music provided by the UK College of Fine Arts School of Music, hors d'oeuvres, and beverages.

Student musicians from the UK School of Music performed.

William T. Young Library was transformed for the Gala. 

Young Library provided an excellent venue for guests.

Dr. George Herring, left, and Dr. George C. Wright

Left to right, Jenny Dr. Boyd, Doug Boyd, and Mary Beth Thomson

All in attendance deemed the event to be a success, and guests lingered long into the evening.

Ida Sell is new Library Manager in SCRC

Ida Lucille Sell

Ida Lucille Sell will join UK Libraries as the Library Manager on the CLIR Grant in the Special Collections Research Center effective June 1. Her supervisor will be Deirdre Scaggs. Ida earned her MLIS from the University of Kentucky and is currently employed by UK Libraries as a temporary assistant archivist processing the Prichard Committee records. Welcome, Ida.

Reflections and Observations

Nearing the completion of five years as Dean of Libraries I am excited as ever about the future of UK Libraries. We have been through a very severe economic recession but in many ways I believe that UK Libraries has emerged from the challenges stronger than ever before. 

With the help of the UK administration the cuts to collections have not been as deep as they might have been. Without a major reorganization we have been able to reassess our faculty and staff needs and make adjustments that have supported our strategic goals and provided career paths for our employees. We have improved the focus and outcomes of our library instruction, created the highly successful UKnowledge, more fully incorporated the highly regarded University Press of Kentucky, completed a major renovation of William T. Young Library’s second floor and several branch locations, initiated creative approaches to providing undergraduates access to unique collections, and built upon the international recognition of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the Special Collections Research Center.

Our international focus has expanded dramatically; this week two UK librarians and the Press director are in China and one librarian is in Australia. Another librarian just returned from China. Other faculty have attended conferences and presented in several countries during the past year. Closer to home, our faculty are busy this summer exploring how UK Libraries might enhance learning and student success in UK’s nearly 20 Living Learning Communities and offer first-year students a fun, yet informative, exposure to UK Libraries during K-Week. Thanks to our marketing and development efforts our private fundraising is showing very positive trends that is preparing us for the university’s upcoming capital campaign.

There has never been a more exciting time to be at the University of Kentucky and be part of President Eli Capilouto’s and Provost Tim Tracy’s push for a re-imagined University of Kentucky as a land-grant, highly residential, research intensive, public university. I look forward to the next five years as we build upon these initiatives and accomplishments and work together to fulfill the promise and expectations of our new strategic goals.

Thank you for all that you do for UK Libraries.

Terry Birdwhistell,

Dean of Libraries and   

William T. Young Endowed Chair