ThinkIR hosts new undergraduate research journal
Posted: October 5, 2020 Filed under: Archives & Special Collections, Digital Collections, Digital Scholarship, Primary Sources, ThinkIR, University of Louisville Libraries, Web Site, Writing | Tags: online scholarship, peer-review, student journal 1 CommentThinkIR, University of Louisville’s institutional repository, will host a new peer-reviewed journal launched by a student group to highlight undergraduate research and scholarship across all disciplines, from astrophysics to art history
The journal, The Cardinal Edge, will publish its first annual issue in the spring of 2021. Jahnavi Sunkara, a joint chief editor, said the goal is to help UofL undergraduates share their work.
“The point of research is to communicate it,” said Sunkara, a junior biology major and Guaranteed Entrance to Medical School (GEMS) student. “We wanted to create an opportunity for undergraduate students at UofL to do that, because they’re doing some really amazing research in lots of different fields.”
The Cardinal Edge editorial team worked with UofL Libraries to develop an open-access portal on ThinkIR, the university’s institutional research database, where students can submit their work and read the journal. The University Libraries hosts and manages ThinkIR. The first issue will be completely digital — and free — but the team plans to print physical copies of future issues.
Students can submit their full-length manuscripts, abstracts and brief reports through December for the spring issue. The journal also will focus on the research culture at UofL with spotlight articles on student researchers and current topics in research, such as diversity and COVID-19’s impact.
Currently, only UofL students can submit articles to the journal, but there is a possibility that the team may accept work from other universities in the future. Submitted papers will be evaluated by faculty and students through a single-blind peer review, in which the identities of reviewers are kept hidden.
“It was important to us to have students involved in every single aspect of the process,” said Betty Ngo, a sophomore psychology major, Grawemeyer Scholar and joint chief editor. “It’s a research journal by students, for students. Students are our authors, reviewers, staffers and readers.”
Priyadarshini Chandrashekhar, a junior biology major, Vogt Scholar and a joint chief editor, said the goal is to provide opportunities for undergraduate students to share ideas and gain experience, whether conducting research, publishing their findings or working on an editorial board.
Aside from faculty advisers Mark Running, Ph.D., and Shira Rabin, Ph.D., of the Department of Biology, and their journal sponsor, Charlie Leonard, Ph.D., executive director of the UofL Grawemeyer Awards, every member of the 14-person editorial staff is an undergraduate student.
“They’re all students,” Chandrashekhar said. “And they can participate in everything — design, review, outreach. It’s a great experience.”
For Ngo’s part, working for and publishing in The Cardinal Edge could show graduate school admissions reviewers that she has research experience and is familiar with the publication process. Chandrashekhar and Sunkara have their eyes on medical school.
“This will help me later in my career,” Sunkara said. “It’s such a unique experience and I really feel we’re building something special here that can contribute to the long-term growth of UofL’s research culture.”
#WeAreUofL
University Libraries’ Citizen Literacy helps students become savvy information consumers
Posted: September 16, 2020 Filed under: Digital Scholarship, Ekstrom Library, Librarianship / Archivy, Primary Sources, Research Tips, Services, Teaching Ideas, University of Louisville Libraries, Web Site, Writing | Tags: faculty, faculty resources, handouts, information literacy, media, media literacy, online toolkit, Primary Sources, student, students, teaching, teaching resource, teaching resources, videos 1 CommentWhen Stephen Colbert coined the term “truthiness” in 2005 it not only described misleading rhetoric during the ramp-up to the Iraq war, it captured a central dilemma of our modern media environment: shattered, segmented media ecosystems allow many of us to create our own version of reality. In such an environment, leaders can manipulate us with words that sound truthful but are false.
Determining reality in a “post-truth” era is challenging. It is also a central tenet of citizenship. Particularly during a presidential election season.
How can faculty teach students to become savvy consumers of information in this environment?
The University Libraries has created a new online toolkit called Citizen Literacy to tackle the issue. Launched to coincide with the final weeks of the 2020 election season, Citizen Literacy promotes essential information skills like algorithmic literacy, news literacy, how to evaluate expertise, how to investigate the veracity of online sources through lateral reading, and how to become an informed voter.
“We hope faculty will use these tools to engage students with these important information literacy topics in the context of specific academic disciplines,” said Rob Detmering, Ekstrom information literacy coordinator and one of the site’s creators. Amber Willenborg, online learning and digital media librarian, also created content and narrated the videos, and Terri Holtze, head of web services, designed the online site experience.
The site contains short videos, downloadable handouts and infographics that can be incorporated into syllabi or coursework.
In the news literacy section are strategies to help students examine the value of credible news sources and identify deceptive stories, including “fake news.” Another section helps students understand algorithms whose unseen mechanisms skew online searches in a way that impacts privacy and political understanding.
The toolkit includes multiple ideas for class activities that can be easily adapted across disciplines, and that work in both online and face-to-face settings. Faculty can easily incorporate parts in their courses.
To learn more, please visit the site or contact Information Literacy Coordinator Rob Detmering.
UofL Law Librarian writes legal volume on hate crime
Posted: August 6, 2020 Filed under: Books, Collections, Databases, Digital Collections, Digital Scholarship, Law Library, New Items, People, University of Louisville Libraries, Writing | Tags: hate crime, hate crimes, HeinOnline, Law Library, legal volues, legal writing Leave a commentUofL Law Librarian Erin Gow is the author of a new volume in Hein’s Legal Research Guide Series on the topic of hate crime. While the publication date was pushed back amid the COVID-19 outbreak, as of July 15 the hardcover edition of Vol. 81 was on the shelves in the Brandeis Law Library.
Through the process of research and writing, Gow said she learned quite a bit about the evolution of laws surrounding hate crime.
“There have been massive changes in hate crime over the past few decades. The very concept of what a hate crime is, who can be the victim of a hate crime, and how hate crimes are responded to legally have all changed dramatically,” she said.
Erin Gow
“In the US, for example, the Hate Crimes Prevention Act was only passed just over a decade ago in 2009. Many individual states had hate crime laws before this, and the federal government had been collecting statistics on hate crime for many years, but the Hate Crimes Prevention Act changed the whole legal landscape around hate crime in this country.”
“Right now there’s some evidence that hate crimes are increasing in the US and other parts of the world, and that means laws are being tested and observed in new ways.”
Gow said she assembled the proposal in November 2018 and then wrote the volume in and around her other full-time work as Online Services Librarian, finally finishing with a review of the final draft in February 2020.
“When I realized Hein’s didn’t have a volume on hate crime, I proposed the topic to the publishers,” she said. “They reviewed a sample chapter, and accepted both the topic and me as the author.”
All volumes are published both in print and electronically on HeinOnline.
Archives seeks reflections and impressions of life under COVID-19
Posted: March 30, 2020 Filed under: Archives & Special Collections, Collections, Digital Collections, Louisville, Louisville History, University of Louisville, University of Louisville Libraries, Writing | Tags: art, coronavirus, diaries, diary, history, instant history, music, novel coronavirus, university of louisville history, writing 2 CommentsBy Rebecca Pattillo
We are living in an historic moment. In the same way that, today, we want to know how Louisvillians navigated the historic 1937 flood of the Ohio River, years from now, others will want to know how we navigated the experience of a global pandemic brought on by the novel coronavirus.
This illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), reveals ultrastructural morphology exhibited by coronaviruses. Note the spikes that adorn the outer surface of the virus, which impart the look of a corona surrounding the virion, when viewed electron microscopically. A novel coronavirus, named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China in 2019. The illness caused by this virus has been named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
In the spirit of documenting this moment, the University of Louisville Archives and Special Collections wants to collect and preserve the experiences and reactions of UofL students, staff, faculty, and administrators. Personal accounts can range from direct observations to artistic reflection and may touch on any number of themes such as displacement from student housing, working from home, the shift to online learning or teaching, social distancing or self-quarantining, or leading the university through the crisis. Personal accounts can be in the form of a journal or blog, email, photos, videos, audio recordings, or social media posts. (We will collect physical materials once the Archives reopen to the public.)
Eventually, ASC hopes to extend the request to all of Louisville, but is beginning with the UofL community for now.
To submit digital material, continue to the following form: https://louisville.libwizard.com/f/my_covid-19_experience
2020 Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon Postponed
Posted: March 13, 2020 Filed under: Art Library, Events, Librarianship / Archivy, University of Louisville, University of Louisville Libraries, Writing | Tags: art, Bridwell Art Library, Speed Museum, wikimedia, Wikipedia, women, women artist, women artists, Women's History Month Leave a commentWe regret to announce our Art+Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon event has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our top priority is the health and safety of our faculty, staff, students, and community. We will keep you informed once the event has been rescheduled.
African American Read-In celebrates 30 Years at UofL
Posted: February 3, 2020 Filed under: Ekstrom Library, Events, Literature, People, University of Louisville Libraries, Writing | Tags: african american, African American History, authors, read aloud, reading, spoken word, writers Leave a commentThirty years ago, a group of UofL scholars gathered to read African American authors’ works aloud, celebrating literature during Black History Month. Led by Celeste Nichols, who in 1992 earned her PhD at UofL – the first African American to do so – the event boasted such auspicious attendees as Blaine Hudson, later Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Ed Lassiter, who worked in a variety of roles at UofL including as director of Black Student Affairs.
Ed Lassiter (r) emcees at the African American Read-In in 2019.
This year, on February 10, UofL’s African American Read-In celebrates its 30th anniversary. Readers will gather in Ekstrom Library’s east side lobby from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. to read their favorite authors’ works aloud. Lassiter returns as the event’s emcee, Joan D’Antoni and Fannie Mae Cox continue as organizers, students, faculty, staff and the public are invited. Thus the tradition begun by Nichols, who passed away in 1996, continues.
UofL’s event is sponsored by the University Libraries, the UofL English Department, and the Commission on Diversity and Racial Equity (CODRE). The Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English founded the event nationally in 1990 to celebrate literacy during Black History Month.
Volunteers who would like to read are invited to contact D’Antoni, U of L professor of English Composition, at j0dant01@exchange.louisville.edu to schedule a time. Readers receive free books; attendees have the chance to win free books via periodic drawings.
Books to be handed out include I’m Down, Mishna Wolff; Living by the Word, Alice Walker; The Work, Wes Moore; Sassafrass, Cypress and Indigo, Ntozake Shange; and The Story of Ruby Bridges, Robert Coles, among many others.
Research DIY: Self-Guided Library
Posted: September 5, 2017 Filed under: Books, Collections, Databases, Ekstrom Library, Primary Sources, Research Tips, Services, Teaching Ideas, Technology, University of Louisville Libraries, Writing | Tags: information literacy, librarians, Project Information Literacy Freshman Study, research, Research DIY, Research Guides Leave a commentBy Amber Willenborg
Research assignments can lead to enlightenment, but, as the scholarship on information literacy indicates, the path isn’t easy. The Project Information Literacy Freshmen Study found that students face many challenges with finding and using information, from locating appropriate databases to reading research articles and evaluating information. With this in mind, and in direct response to faculty requests for a one-stop research resource for students, the library has unveiled our new Research DIY website.
Research DIY is an online tool featuring visually appealing infographics, videos, and step-by-step instructions to help students get started with a wide variety of research tasks. The PIL Freshmen Study revealed that students struggle most with formulating online searches, selecting and locating research resources, and reading and comprehending materials. On the DIY website, students will find resources that directly address these struggles: a video on generating keywords for searching, numerous videos with instructions for finding a variety of source types like scholarly articles, and an infographic on how to approach reading research articles. Research DIY also includes content created in conjunction with the University Writing Center to help students appropriately integrate sources into their research papers.
While the website is easy for students to find and use on their own, we encourage instructors to link to the site on Blackboard or in their syllabus, or direct students to sections of the website that would be helpful for particular assignments. In addition to Research DIY, the library offers a variety of teaching tools including online learning modules for practice with information literacy concepts and research guides for more in-depth information on research topics and resources. Librarians are also available to create custom content tailored to your class or assignment. The path may not be easy, but the library is here to illuminate your way forward to success.
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.
He swings, fans swoon: UofL library displays its renowned Tarzan collection
Posted: June 21, 2016 Filed under: Archives & Special Collections, Books, Collections, Events, Exhibits, University of Louisville Libraries, Writing | Tags: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan Leave a commentUofL Archives and Special Collections will display a portion of its enormous Edgar Rice Burroughs collection July 1, just in time for the release of the new “The Legend of Tarzan” film. Burroughs famously created the original Tarzan character and stories.
The Burroughs collection is the largest in the world, with more than 100,000 items such as first-edition books, fanzines, film stills, scrapbooks and posters, games and other memorabilia from the author’s life and works.
Known as “The Grandfather of American Science Fiction” Burroughs penned 63 novels, 21 short stories and 26 literary sketches. Originally writing for pulp magazines, Burroughs quickly mined a deep vein with his Tarzan character by capitalizing on the stories’ success by allowing merchandisers to create knives, bows and arrows, belt buckles, watches, figurines, candy, bread, pop-ups, coloring books and costumes. Many of these items are part of the collection.
Beginning July 1, to synchronize with the movie’s release, ASC will exhibit editions of “Tarzan” in 37 different languages, to emphasize the worldwide appeal of Burroughs’ iconic character. It will be on the first floor of Ekstrom Library, in the west wing across from the circulation desk, and run until Sept. 2, one day after Burroughs’ birthday.
“What better time to showcase some of this important collection, which means so much to the numerous fans of Burroughs, than at the release of another ‘Tarzan’ movie,” said Carrie Daniels, director of Archives and Special Collections. “Just the fact that this story, with an indelible character at the center, prompts a major movie release shows the longevity and imaginative depth of Burroughs’ original tale.”
Most of the collection was donated and curated by Archives and Special Collections Professor and Curator Emeritus George T. McWhorter, as a tribute to his mother, who taught him to read early in life using Burroughs’ stories. The collection is officially named in her honor.
In addition to the displayed exhibit, all items from the collection are available in Archives and Special Collections Research Room, Ekstrom Library, lower level 17. Anyone with a photo ID may view or research individual items 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.
For more information, contact Daniels at 502-852-6676 or carrie.daniels@louisville.edu.
Students Share, Learn, Improve Writing During Annual Event
Posted: April 6, 2016 Filed under: Ekstrom Library, Events, People, University of Louisville Libraries, Writing | Tags: Ashley Triplett, Bruce Keisling, Delinda Buie, George Martinez, Josh Whitacre, Rob Detmering Leave a commentBy Rob Detmering
At the 2016 Celebration of Student Writing (CoSW) last week, UofL undergraduate students from a variety of courses showcased their writing through posters, readings, and digital media presentations. Over 100 students presented their work at the event, which was held March 30 in the Ekstrom Learning Commons, its location since 2014.
Highlights of CoSW included “Concept in 60” digital videos, where students must convey a single idea in just sixty seconds. Another event, genre analysis assignments, featured students exploring conventions of particular types of writing, such as scholarly articles in different fields. As in years past, many confident and enthusiastic students attended the event to learn and showcase their writing, research, and learning.
Co-sponsored by the Composition Program, Ekstrom Library, and the Writing Center, CoSW was made possible through the efforts of Assistant Directors of Composition and PhD students Travis Rountree, Rachel Gramer and Drew Holladay, as well as the support of Director of Composition Brenda Brueggemann.
On the library side, Rob Detmering, Bruce Keisling, and Josh Whitacre provided liaison and logistical support; Delinda Buie and George Martinez represented the Libraries as judges; and Ashley Triplett created a wonderful promotional poster (below).
University of Louisville Libraries News 