Learning Lab intern named one of twelve Gaines Fellows

Aaron Mueller

Aaron Mueller, a UK Libraries Learning Lab intern in the Special Collections Research Center, was just selected as one of the twelve new University of Kentucky Gaines Fellows. Aaron is a sophomore computer science and linguistics major from Louisville. He will be a Gaines Fellow for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 academic years. Gaines Fellows are academically excellent students with a strong interest in the humanities. Learning Lab manager Stacie Williams recommended Aaron as a Gaines Scholar. 

All Gaines Fellows are required to take a specially designed seminar in the humanities during both semesters of their junior year. In addition, each junior fellow must complete a jury project, planning and optionally carrying out an improvement for a local community. In the senior year, each fellow must complete a major independent study project of six to 15 credit hours. At the conclusion of this project, a thesis paper must be submitted and defended in front of a thesis committee of three university faculty members and the director of the Gaines Center.

In addition to the course requirements, Gaines Fellows enjoy a rich program of field trips, lectures, and other activities designed to widen and deepen their educational experience.

A complete news release on the Gaines Fellowship program is available on UKNow.

Congratulations, Aaron.

Stacie Williams on DocNow project advisory board

Stacie Williams

Special Collections Research Center Learning Lab Manager Stacie Williams serves on the advisory board of the “Documenting the Now: Supporting Scholarly Use and Preservation of Social Media Content.” The project is a joint effort of the University of California at Riverside, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of Maryland. Stacie joins other archivists and scholars in developing and guiding project policy.

The project recently received a two-year, $517,000 grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation to preserve and provide scholarly access to historically significant events documented on social media through DocNow, an application still under development. DocNow will be a cloud-ready, open source to collect Tweets, metadata and other related Web content.

Julene Jones and Sandee McAninch present webinar

Julene Jones, head of Database Integrity, and Sandee McAninch, head of the Federal Depository Unit, recently gave a webinar on "Uploading Records to the COE Database: Easy as 1,2,3!". The presentation covered how to get records out of a library’s local catalog and into the ASERL COE (Association of Southeast Research Libraries Center of Excellence) Database. The complete webinar is available inn UKnowledge. It is also viewable on Vimeo, embedded below. 

Adrian Ho presents on scholarly communication during ALA Midwinter Meeting

Adrian Ho

Adrian Ho, director of Digital Scholarship at UK Libraries, spoke about scholarly communication at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Leadership Symposium on January 8, 2016. The symposium, held in conjunction with the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Boston, was targeted at the ARL diversity cohort (students of underrepresented groups who are in the process of pursuing a graduate degree in library and information science).  Adrian's presentation introduced the cohort to the scholarly communication ecosystem and research libraries' roles in it.  The slides are available on UKnowledge. 

InfoKat Discovery is coming in 2016

UK Libraries will release a new library search system, InfoKat Discovery, on January 20, 2016. InfoKat Discovery will be a significant improvement to unified searching of scholarly resources including everything in the current InfoKat, plus hundreds of electronic databases, E-Journals, E-Books, articles, archival resources, media, and much more – all in a single search interface.  InfoKat Discovery will replace the current InfoKat catalog, the E-Journals list, the E-Books list, the Get Text services and WorldCat Local article searching on the 20th.  UK Libraries' own digital resources, such as Explore UK and UKnowledge, will also be added soon to InfoKat Discovery.  

For more information, visit the UK Libraries news page. 

Kazuko Hioki attends Harvard workshop on digital scholarship in Japanese Studies

Kazuko Hioki

Kazuko Hioki, UK Libraries conservation librarian and Asian Studies liaison, attended the two-day workshop “Advancing Digital Scholarship in Japanese Studies: Innovations and Challenges,” organized by the North American Coordinating Council on Japanese Library Resources and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. Kazuko received a scholarship for the workshop, which took place at Harvard University November 6-7, 2015. 

The workshop included presentations by information technology experts, academics in the humanities and social sciences fields, librarians, and museum curators. Topics included: the concept of digital scholarship, teaching courses and research projects, cloud editing, and nurturing object collections and museums within virtual communities.

Throughout the workshop experts emphasized the role of libraries as central players in digital scholarship. Presenters frequently used phrases such as: “the library is the place interdisciplinary collaboration happens,” “librarians bridge various disciplines,” and "[libraries assist in] achieving greater success by helping others.”

The workshop program and presentations are accessible online at:  http://guides.nccjapan.org/c.php?g=397542

UK Libraries marks Open Access Week

Open Access is a consistent theme in university libraries across the world, as researchers seek to share and collaborate in new ways. “Open for Collaboration” is the theme of Open Access Week 2015, a global event taking place October 19 - 25. As scholars, research institutions, and funding agencies acknowledge the benefits of open access, they have made an increasing amount of scholarly content freely available online for people to reuse and build upon for innovation. 

An advocate for open access, University of Kentucky Libraries has forged collaborative partnerships with various campus units to enable free online access to unique research and scholarship via UK’s institutional repository, UKnowledge. UKnowledge houses remarkable collections. UK faculty and students interested in using the resources and services made available by UKnowledge can contact Adrian Ho, director of Digital Scholarship at UK Libraries, for information and assistance. 

Highlights from the UKnowledge Open Access collection:

Ablation Workshop

Alexandre Martin from the UK College of Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering has been a key organizer of the NASA-sponsored Ablation Workshop in the past few years. To ensure high visibility and ready access to the outcomes of the workshop, Martin collaborated with UK Libraries to publish online proceedings on UKnowledge. Scientists and engineers anywhere in the world who specialize in aerothermodynamic ablation can now effortlessly access papers, presentations and test cases discussed at the workshop with just a few clicks. 

A Glimpse into Ancient Mexico: Writings of the Aztecs, Mixtec and Maya

To celebrate ¡Viva México! in the 2013-14 academic year, Chris Pool and Barry Kidder from the UK College of Arts and Sciences Department of Anthropology annotated facsimile codices housed in UK Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center and had them digitized for a virtual exhibit. The annotated images, which can be examined in detail using UKnowledge’s zoom and pan functionalities, tell little-known stories about the ancient cultures in Mexico. Some intriguing images in the exhibit have attracted attention from around the world and have been downloaded hundreds of times. 

Agricultural Economics Textbook Gallery

David L. Debertin, a professor emeritus of the UK College of Agriculture Department of Agricultural Economics, is a leader in knowledge sharing. Based on his experience of teaching applied economics, he authored and self-published five textbooks and made them freely downloadable online. One of the textbooks offers 98 pages of illustrations that demonstrate Debertin’s skills as a production economist and also as a graphics artist. Another title provides spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides, and class materials to facilitate teaching and learning in the digital era. 

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

Published by the Committee on Social Theory in the College of Arts and Sciences, disClosure is an annual thematic scholarly journal that investigates new directions in contemporary social theory through a variety of media including scholarly essays, poetry and visual art. The complete run of 24 issues is accessible via UKnowledge. disClosure welcomes new submissions to the 2016 issue. More information is available in the call for papers.

Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center Special Report

The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) is a partnership between the Kentucky Department for Public Health and UK’s College of Public Health. Its studies cover important topics and combine rigorous academic inquiry with practical public health initiatives. KIPRC has also published other reports that address work-related fatality.

By Adrian Ho, UK Libraries, and Whitney Hale, UK PR & Marketing

Republished with permission from UKNow. 

Apply now for Undergraduate Diversity Scholar Internships

2014 - 2015 Undergraduate Diversity Scholars
Nathan Moore, left, and Ebony-Nicole Davis

UK Libraries is currently seeking applicants for the 2015 - 2016 Undergraduate Diversity Scholar Internships. The Diversity Scholar(s) will participate in activities across UK Libraries, learning about career options related to academic research libraries. During this paid internship they will participate in and lead activities focused on the benefits of diversity, multicultural awareness, and inclusivity among UK students, staff, and faculty.

More information about how to apply to the Undergraduate Diversity Scholar program is online. The deadline for applications is September 16, 2015.