ThinkIR Highlights BIPOC Scholarship
Posted: October 25, 2021 Filed under: Archives & Special Collections, Art Library, Digital Collections, Digital Scholarship, Ekstrom Library, Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, Librarianship / Archivy, Music Library, People, Primary Sources, ThinkIR, University Archives & Records Center, University of Louisville Libraries Leave a commentPart of Open Access involves building structural equity in OA venues. To this end, the Libraries have created The Collective, an initiative to uplift BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) faculty and staff at UofL by highlighting their research and providing open-access to BIPOC-produced scholarship on ThinkIR, the University’s digital institutional repository.
Hosted and managed by the University Libraries, ThinkIR promotes genuine open access and sustainable scholarship by making the work of UofL researchers freely available to a global audience without requiring costly and unsustainable access to journal subscriptions. “The Collective” was initiated in response to research showing that faculty who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or people of color are underrepresented and marginalized in academia. According to the Higher Education Research Institute’s 2016-2017 faculty survey, there were large gaps between white and BIPOC scholars feeling a need to work harder to be perceived as a legitimate scholar. “Substantially more Black (72.2%), Asian (70.7%), Latino/a (70.6%), and Native American (66.7%) faculty perceived a need to work harder than their peers to gain legitimacy compared to just 46.8% of White faculty who felt similarly.”
By featuring a BIPOC scholars research collection in our institutional repository, we hope to encourage scholars of all disciplines to intentionally seek out the research and scholarship of their colleagues of color.
Helpful Links and Resources
Home – ThinkIR – UofL Libraries at University of Louisville
BIPOC Scholars – ThinkIR – UofL Libraries at University of Louisville
HERI-FAC2017-monograph.pdf (ucla.edu)
Celebrating International Open Access Week
Posted: October 25, 2021 Filed under: Archives & Special Collections, Art Library, Digital Collections, Digital Scholarship, Ekstrom Library, Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, Librarianship / Archivy, Primary Sources, ThinkIR, University Archives & Records Center, University of Louisville Libraries 1 CommentInternational Open Access Week (IOAW), held this year from October 25-21, advocates for the right to use and access knowledge freely and without subscription and copyright limitations. Every year, IOAW attempts to raise awareness of the potential disparities that arise when some scholarship is made more exclusive and less accessible to the public.
The theme for this year’s IOAW is “It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity.” This theme was created to align with the recently released UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science:
Open Science should embrace a diversity of knowledge, practices, workflows, languages, research outputs and research topics that support the needs and epistemic pluralism of the scientific community as a whole, diverse research communities and scholars, as well as the wider public and knowledge holders beyond the traditional scientific community, including Indigenous Peoples and local communities, and social actors from different countries and regions, as appropriate. (UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science, Page 7)
Often large publishers force academics to sign contracts limiting publication of their work to a single journal, and then charge high subscription fees for access to the work. This creates a disparity in who can access the knowledge.
ThinkIR, UofL’s Digital Institutional Repository, offers an online venue for sharing the work of our researchers, making it free, open, and accessible to a wide audience. There are no paywalls, no copyright contracts. ThinkIR is managed and hosted by the University Libraries.
Helpful Links and Resources
Home – ThinkIR – UofL Libraries at University of Louisville
Celebrating National Medical Librarians Month
Posted: October 5, 2021 Filed under: Clinical Librarians, Kornhauser Health Sciences Library, Librarianship / Archivy, People, Services, University of Louisville Libraries | Tags: medical librarians, Medical Library Association Leave a commentOctober is National Medical Librarians Month and an opportunity to celebrate Kornhauser Health Sciences Library and Rowntree Library employees who continue to provide specialized library support to UofL physicians, faculty, staff, and students across the health sciences disciplines. This year, the focus is on health equity.
Medical librarians provide a pivotal role in helping eliminate disparities in health outcomes. Kornhauser and Rowntree librarians and staff frequently assist researchers in finding information on issues related to health equity, from disparities in pancreatic cancer outcomes experienced by African Americans to cross-cultural differences in palliative care preferences.
When UofL physicians or medical personnel have questions that require specialized medical research, they will reach out to our librarians who will quickly respond with the most up-to-date information. This enables physicians to make the best decisions related to patient care, a crucial step in ensuring health equity. None of the research is behind a paywall or requires a special fee for service.
In addition to providing support for specific research questions, the librarians on the health sciences campus work to offer broad access to resources related to health equity issues. Earlier this year, Kornhauser expanded its collections to broaden DEI-related titles and the clinical librarian team created a Diversity Resources Hub for resources related to the social determinants of health, health disparities, cultural competence, consumer health resources, and more.
Social factors and equity concerns are involved in all aspects of healthcare, and the medical librarians at Kornhauser and Rowntree are glad to do their part to help researchers, clinicians, and students navigate these important issues.
To celebrate Health Literacy Awareness Month, Kornhauser will present a webinar on October 21 from noon-1 p.m. titled “Health Literacy: Your Role as a Healthcare Professional.” Kornhauser Clinical Librarian Dani LaPreze will discuss how healthcare providers can help their patients better understand medical information, how providers can improve communication through cultural awareness and competence. She will also describe the resources that are available for both providers and patients. A Q&A will follow. To register, visit: https://library.louisville.edu/kornhauser/health-literacy-webinar.
Celebrating Black History and Excellence Throughout the Year
Posted: February 24, 2021 Filed under: Books, Collections, Databases, Digital Collections, Digital Scholarship, Ekstrom Library, Librarianship / Archivy, Louisville, Louisville History, New Items, Photographs, Primary Sources, University of Louisville Libraries, Videos | Tags: african american, Anti-racism, Anti-racist, Black Academics, Black history, Black History Month, Black Scholarship Leave a commentBy: Alexandra Howard, Business Research & Teaching Librarian
Here at the University Libraries, we recognize that the celebration of Black history deserves more than a month. Ekstrom Library’s Research Assistance and Instruction department has created a library research guide that the UofL and global research community can use to investigate and celebrate Black history and Black excellence 365 days a year, every year.
The guide not only introduces library resources on Black history, but also celebrates the history of the Black community in Louisville and recognizes the struggle for racial justice in our city. In 2020, Louisville made national headlines after Breonna Taylor was shot and killed inside her home by police officers. Black history is being made every day in Louisville as leaders work to empower their communities, to secure systemic recognition that Black Lives Matter, and to demand justice for Breonna Taylor. The Louisville portion of the research guide highlights community organizations in Louisville involved in these important efforts.
The Celebrating Black History library research guide also seeks to expand the traditional Black History Month narrative honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X. While these are important figures, it is vital to expand the narrative and highlight Black scholars from across academic disciplines. We want to ensure that our Black and African American students see themselves reflected in their disciplines. We want to encourage faculty and staff to incorporate the work of Black scholars into their curriculum and research. Our Academic Leaders portion of the guide offers a selection of written material within our collection by Black scholars in different academic disciplines. We plan to expand this portion of the guide and are working on an initiative to highlight the research and scholarship of BIPOC faculty, staff, and students at the University of Louisville.
Some of the incredible resources our library offers to research Black history are the African American Newspapers database, Ethnic NewsWatch, Louisville Leader Collection, and an oral history collection of African American community interviews. The University Libraries recently launched an initiative to diversify our collections. Please send us your recommendations.
If interested in learning more, please email Alexandra Howard: alexandra.howard.1@louisville.edu.
“Which bridge did Muhammed Ali throw his medal off of?” and other interesting questions answered by the Research Assistance & Instruction Department
Posted: October 10, 2017 Filed under: Archives & Special Collections, Books, Collections, Databases, Ekstrom Library, Librarianship / Archivy, People, University Archives & Records Center, University of Louisville, University of Louisville Libraries | Tags: Anna Marie Johnson, Ask a Librarian, questions, Research Assistance and Instruction (RAI), research questions Leave a commentBy Anna Marie Johnson
Imagine a job where you were able to learn about all kinds of different and fascinating topics in the process of helping someone answer a burning question that they have. That is part of the work of the Research Assistance and Instruction (RAI) office. Librarians, professional staff, and peer research assistants answer questions like these (and much more prosaic ones such as “Why can’t I access this journal article I need?”) via e-mail, chat, phone, or face-to-face:
- How many buildings are there on Belknap Campus?
- How did St. Paul come to be a Roman citizen?
- What is the childhood address of Hunter S. Thompson?
- What was the roll call vote for the Kentucky senators and House members for the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
- Can you help me research design for justifying the excavation of a privy?
- What are the cultural reactions regarding American Indians during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (1870-1929)—particularly in how American Indians and the related federal policies were represented in the media?
- Where can I find industry and consumer data for Gillette Fusion?
- What are the general prosodic characteristics of English and Spanish?
Over the years, we have helped with questions that ranged from the esoteric (journal articles on the dead Sabaean language, from someone wanting to piece together the language and write a book about it) to the downright impossible, such as the patron who wanted a copy of the WHAS Radio broadcast license from 1927, or the patron researching obscure magicians and street performers from Europe.
“What’s the best book you’ve ever read?”
While we go to great lengths to track down an answer, sometimes there’s a little luck involved. One day, a call came in to Rob Detmering, the librarian responsible for Film Studies. The caller was looking for one of the original copies of a 1972 film called Asylum of Satan. The film had reportedly been shot here in Louisville and the out-of-state caller thought that the university might have a copy. Rob asked around to the Archives, the Art Department, and a few other campus contacts that he thought might know something,
“How many theaters exist in the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel?”
but to no avail. Rob did some digging in the online database for the Courier-Journal that the library subscribes to and discovered the film had been shown at a film festival in 2008 at Baxter Avenue Theatre. Rob called the theater and spoke with someone who not only knew the film but knew the location of the copy that they had used in the showing.
We often learn a lot as we’re helping. Our former Libraries Diversity Resident George Martinez received a question from a faculty member asking about the history of the African American Theater program at UofL. He looked through some microfilm and consulted with our colleagues in the Archives & Special Collections to find articles that traced the history of a controversy over how money generated by the Fiesta Bowl was being used for scholarships. The results of that controversy was the increase in hiring and scholarship distribution to increase the diversity at UofL.
Got Questions? Ekstrom’s RAI Department can help you track down your answer! Oh, and there is some doubt as to whether Ali ever threw his medal off any bridge, but the closest answer is the Clark Memorial.
Help Us Make Better Libraries
Posted: August 28, 2017 Filed under: University of Louisville Libraries | Tags: Maurini Strub Leave a commentBy Maurini Strub
August 28, 2017
Have you ever visited one of our libraries and thought: “If only the library would…”, or “I wish that they could…”, or even, “If I had designed this, I would have…”, but those thoughts never go beyond an internal dialogue? Well, the University Libraries loves having the opportunity to connect with our users and building spaces to discover how to better serve our users. In 2011, Dean Fox initiated the Libraries Student Advisory Board (LSAB) to learn more about our users and their evolving needs. It is one of the ways that we are committed to making communities where we can hear honest feedback from our users. The board usually meets for one hour 4-6 times per academic year.
One benefit of being part of the LSAB, is that members often get sneak peeks into new initiatives. Examples include members getting to see early architectural renderings of redesigned spaces as well as being a part of the creative process of developing the libraries tag line. At every meeting there is an audience of key library administrators who listen to the boards honest reactions and is one of the ways the libraries can be responsive to what is shared.
Apart from providing feedback, LSAB also allows the libraries to explore effective and creative solutions to our users’ learning and research behaviors. For instance, LSAB brought a user’s perspective to our new website design, by helping organize and label the content of our webpages in to categories that create an online experience that matches users expectations. And, in the case of Ekstrom Library’s 1st floor redesign, removing the wall that used separate the quiet study room to allow more natural light (a popular request for our spaces) had its genesis in the advisory board. Take a listen to what Conrad Smart (a recent alumnus and former board member) has to say about the LSAB!
Want to Join Our Community?
When you walk through our virtual and physical doors, we want you to succeed at meeting your academic goals. Would you like the opportunity to get engaged and help shape the spaces and services of your library? Drop us a line! All currently enrolled students are eligible to become a member. We’d love to hear from you!
Wikipedians Unite at UofL Libraries
Posted: March 27, 2017 Filed under: Art Library, Digital Scholarship, Events, Technology, University of Louisville, Writing | Tags: Sarah Carter Leave a commentBy Sarah Carter
March 27, 2017
2017 is the second year that UofL’s Margaret M. Bridwell Art Library hosted community members to learn about how to edit Wikipedia. Over a dozen people attended this event to combat gender disparity in the art world.
Artist Elizabeth Catlett wrote “No other field is closed to those who are not white and male as is the visual arts. After I decided to be an artist, the first thing I had to believe was that I, a black woman, could penetrate the art scene, and that, further, I could do so without sacrificing one iota of my blackness or my femaleness or my humanity.”1
Not only is the field of contemporary art difficult for women and non-binary people to break into, but the highly-masculine culture of Wikipedia is also a barrier to gender equality. For example, articles about topics typically associated with females (Polly Pocket) are typically shorter and link to fewer references, while those associated with males (Nerf) are longer, and include more references.
In a 2011 survey, Wikimedia found that less than 13% of its contributors were female.
Art+Feminism is a global, grassroots campaign to end gender disparity within Wikipedia, not only in terms of the number or articles about women in the visual arts, but more importantly the number of female editors. Attendees gathered to attend a training about how to edit Wikipedia articles before beginning to make edits of their own. In Louisville, attendees included UofL students, professors, and local St. Francis School high school students. New editors corrected facts, added citations to existing article, and ultimately created two new articles.
Articles improved include those about African-American artists Senga Nengudi and Elizabeth Catlett. Both are sculptors, and known for their work on themes of race, gender, and class.
- Farris, Phoebe. Women Artists of Color: A Bio-critical Sourcebook to 20th Century Artists in the Americas. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999.
Seeking Your Opinion on Ekstrom Renovation
Posted: March 23, 2017 Filed under: Ekstrom Library, University of Louisville Libraries, User Experience | Tags: assessment, Ekstrom renovation, renovations, surveys Leave a commentBy Maurini Strub
March 23, 2017
It’s been over a year since the east wing of the 1st floor of Ekstrom Library was renovated. We hope that during this time you’ve enjoyed using the space, and maybe discovered a new favorite spot.
Before the renovation, we collected feedback on your needs, desires and difficulties, and that data helped inform the design of the space. Design solutions include a clearly identified, “one-stop shopping” service desk; enhanced technology support and printing services; an intuitive approach to the layout of services and spaces; and a mixture of learning and study spaces.
Assessing how well we met our goals is the focus of a survey we’ll be conducting through April 25. As you walk through the first floor-east, you’ll see some questionnaires, and a large red box as you enter the east lobby (see photos).
The survey seeks to discover your satisfaction with these improved learning spaces, how these spaces have impacted your success at UofL, your experience using our services, and the value of collocating some of our primary services. Concurrently, we’ll conduct periodic observations and review collections usage data.
We’d love to hear about your experience in these new spaces. Please feel free to complete this very short questionnaire or fill out the paper one and leave it in the red box in the lobby!
Law School News from World War II
Posted: May 26, 2016 Filed under: Law Library, Librarianship / Archivy, People, University of Louisville, University of Louisville Libraries | Tags: Marcus Walker Leave a commentBy Marcus Walker
05/26/2016
The Law Library and I are pleased to announce the addition of Law School News Letters to our digital collections. As they were published during World War II and focused on those affiliated with the Law School who had served in the Armed Forces, Memorial Day seemed like an appropriate time to prepare and release them to the public.
This photograph from 1942 features, from left to right, law librarian Pearl Weiler, Chester Hart, William (Bill) Harvin, and Shadrach (Shad) Boaz. Miss Weiler edited the newsletter. Each of the three gentlemen above joined the Armed Forces and were included within the News Letter pages, for better and, in one case, sadly worse.
In 1943, law librarian Pearl Weiler (later Von Allmen) began to compile excerpts of letters written to her and others in the Law School along with news gathered from other sources, sending the resulting newsletter to alumni back to the Class of 1940 and other persons affiliated with the Law School who served during the war.
The popularity of the News Letter prompted Miss Weiler to expand coverage to the Class of 1939 by the sixth issue (it had already included more recent alumni as well as students who left law school to join the ranks), and then further expand it to any interested law school alumni the following issue. The News Letter ended with its tenth issue in February 1946 not out of lack of interest, but because, to roughly quote Miss Weiler, “so many of [them were] back in civilian life, it seem[ed] unnecessary.”
To that point, the last issue had a form for the School of Law’s records, which received nearly fifty responses, and more than a handful included notes of appreciation for the news or hopes – that Pearl shared – that the News Letter would turn into a Law School Alumni newsletter.
We are still awaiting word on whether or not we can post the responses online; while most of the respondents have likely passed on and the information found within them is not confidential, it is always better to be safe than sorry in privacy matters. In the meantime, they are accessible at the Law Library.
Feminist Wikipedia Editors Gather at UofL
Posted: March 28, 2016 Filed under: Art Library, Events, Technology, University of Louisville | Tags: Sarah Carter 1 CommentBy Sarah Carter
March 28, 2016
A global phenomenon, Art+Feminism, arrived in Louisville on Saturday, March 19th when Bridwell Art Library and the Hite Art Institute co-hosted a satellite Wikipedia event. Over the course of an afternoon, nine Wikipedians collaborated to write a new article about the International Honor Quilt (IHQ), an important community-based art project inspired by Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party artwork. Although the quilt has been acknowledged as a precursor to the well-known NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, no Wikipedia article had been created for the IHQ.
Editors work on the International Honor Quilt article at the University of Louisville. Examples of the quilt can be seen pictured in the background.
Co-organizers Trish Blair and Sarah Carter ran the event to teach community members how to create Wikipedia accounts, understand the anatomy of a wiki page, establish notability, and learn to code using wiki mark-up. One experienced Wikipedian drove in from Lexington to attend the event and provide her support. A grad student, community artist, UofL alumna, and regional quilter made up the rest of the work group.
Event flyers for the Wikipedia Art+Feminism event on top of a selection of useful reference books.
Writing the article involved locating published sources documenting the quilt. This is where the Art Library’s collection of books and periodicals came into play. Wikipedians were able to locate books and articles in the library that mention the quilt’s origin and importance within Judy Chicago’s career. By the end of the day, the International Honor Quilt article was live on Wikipedia.
The Art+Feminism movement is in its third year, having held its inaugural edit-a-thon at the Museum of Modern Art in 2014. According to an article published last year, the movement’s goal is to simultaneously “close the gender gap in both content and participation in Wikipedia.” Louisville joined over 125 locations across Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania, North and South America in holding a satellite event.
University of Louisville Libraries News 