News and announcements
🛳️🇵🇦📸 The Northwestern University Transportation Library has digitized a collection of photographs from the construction of the Panama Canal. “The photos show both construction sites of the canal and more leisurely photos of towns and people in Panama at the time […]. Parades, family portraits, and days on the beach are all shown in the photos.” It’s a relatively small collection (153 photographs and 30 postcards), but the photographs are fascinating!
🔍🤖✨ The University of Arkansas Libraries are testing a new natural-language search tool, powered by generative artificial intelligence, as part of its discovery interface. More importantly, they provide a brief overview of how it works for students. I love that the instructions include the step “look for the sparkles.”
🆓👩🏫📚 The University of Virginia Libraries has an interview with two of the faculty involved in its Open Educational Resources Learning Community, which it co-sponsors with the university’s Center for Teaching Excellence. Through the interview, they talk about the library’s role in supporting OER, student support, and offer their advice to other faculty interesting in doing similar work.
🦋🪻🐝 The Woodruff Library at Emory University recently took a patch of grass and converted it to a pollinator garden. I love to see how academic libraries take responsibility for their spaces in ways that reach beyond simple building maintenance.
🎙️👨🎓🐺 A fairly recent alumni from NC State University Libraries is creating an endowment to help fund an oral history program called “Wolf Tales,” designed to help the library capture the stories of NC State alumni though video narratives and interviews.
On social
This TikTok from the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester [TikTok] does not have nearly enough likes. I don’t know whether this pinch-zoom idea is original (though it feels meme-ish, I haven’t seen it used elsewhere), but it’s brilliantly fun and an engaging way to show off large spaces.
I have been wanting to do a “view from a book” style video for ages now. UNC Libraries [Instagram] did a fun version. The soundtrack choice is perfect. Related: Also from UNC Libraries [Facebook], they asked their followers to help them name their book trucks. The results [Instagram] did not disappoint.
The University of Kansas Libraries [Instagram] hosted a plant swap that included crafting and items from special collections. The resulting video makes good use of b-roll footage. Reminds me that I need to capture more video at our events!
I don’t know if this counts are sponsored content or a collaboration or what, but the University of Missouri Libraries [Instagram] made a video highlighting a local ice cream shop and the joys of reading. The two best parts of summer!
Notable mentions
- The Georgia Tech Library has hired its inaugural Affordable Learning Librarian.
- Washington University in St. Louis has a helpful primer on the difference between public access and open access.
- Illinois State University Library explores the role of women in World War I through the lens of its digital collections.
- Today I learned that John Ruskin was really into rocks. The University of Delaware Library explores the provenance of a piece of quartz in its collection.
- Georgia State University is seeking proposals for a piece of original artwork to be installed in one of it’s spaces (I love the idea of libraries paying artists for their works)
- How do you sum up three decades of work at an academic library? Stephen Cunetto started his job at Mississippi State University Libraries as a student and ended it as associate dean.
Renovations
Summer time for most colleges is the season of projects that can’t be easily accomplished during the school year. Not surprisingly, it’s often the best time to renovate or make substantial progress on long-term construction projects. A number of colleges are in the midst of renovations and upgrades. Here is just a sampling, in no particular order:
UNC Charlotte, Cornell, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Arkansas, Texas Christian University, University of Central Florida, Rowan University, MIT, Stockton, UC Santa Barbara, Harvard, Northeastern, University of Georgia [Instagram], UT Dallas, Florida Atlantic University [Instagram], UC Riverside, and Northwestern
(header photo: Transportation Library, Northwestern University Libraries)