February 2016 New Databases

The following databases are now available from the University of Houston Libraries:

America’s News
Includes the complete electronic editions of more than 1,500 U.S. news sources and news video clips, covering local and regional news, including community events, schools, politics, government policies, cultural activities, local companies, state industries, and people in the community.

Food Studies Online
Provides researchers rich archival content, visual ephemera, monographs, and videos that explore how food shapes the world around us.

Houston Chronicle
One of Texas’ largest news organizations, the Houston Chronicle provides in-depth coverage on local issues in Houston. It also covers state, national and international news.

Texas News Sources
Searchable collection of 56 newspapers from the state of Texas.

New Digital Collection: Carlos (DJ Styles) Garza Drawings and Memorabilia

Enter the world of Carlos “DJ Styles” Garza, who has in turn been a high school b-boy and aspiring graffiti artist, an up and coming club DJ, producer for the highly creative hip hop artists Odd Squad and Devin the Dude, and an independent producer and audio engineer. This digital collection contains approximately 50 artworks, sketches, fliers, and promotional items from the eighties to the 2000s, related to Garza’s life in hip hop.

Carlos Garza was born in Reynosa, Mexico in 1968, and settled in Houston with his family in the 1970s. As a teenager in Bellaire, he fell in love with hip hop through the music of the original pioneers, and films like Wild Style. In the mid-1980s Carlos began break dancing under the name DJ Pace Master. He and a few friends formed the Dynamic Crew, a break dancing group which performed at parties and participated in contests. They and other friends also sketched hip hop style artwork and practiced making potential graffiti tags. After a year of break dancing, Garza decided to switch to DJing and began performing at house parties and school events under the name DJ Styles.

Garza got a job at Soundwaves Records on South Main in 1987, where he worked until 1992 as the store’s buyer for hip hop (at a time when many music stores in Houston were not stocking hip hop). During that period, he launched the career of the legendary producer DJ Premier by recommending his friend to a New York label owner who was looking for a member to join the group Gang Starr.

In the early 1990s, Garza began working with the group Odd Squad (Rob Quest, Devin, and Jugg Mugg) as a producer, contributing to their classic Rap-A-Lot album Fadanuf Fa Erybody. He has also done production for Devin the Dude and the Coughee Brothaz, and these artists are represented in the digital collection.

The original materials are available in UH Libraries Special Collections in the Carlos “DJ Styles” Garza Papers.

Essinger Receives HW Wilson Foundation Research Award

Catherine Essinger, coordinator of the Architecture and Art Library and librarian for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Houston Libraries, recently received one of the H.W. Wilson Foundation Research Awards for 2016. Essinger’s research project, “She-Gods, Gangsters and Gunslingers: Subversive Images of ‘The New Woman’ in the Early Films of Roger Corman,” will provide a critical discussion and record of an underrepresented, multidisciplinary topic, according to the awards committee.

This research will explore the concept of the “New Woman” in the visual arts from 1894 – when the term first appeared in an article – to 1960. The project is of interest to the field of librarianship generally as it involves the examination of archived film that is not available in any other format and the work of libraries in preserving these unique items.

Essinger will be honored at the 2016 joint conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America and the Visual Resources Association (ARLIS/NA + VRA) to be held in Seattle this March.

The H.W. Wilson Foundation Research Award supports research activities by ARLIS/NA individual members in the fields of librarianship, visual resources curatorship, and the arts. The award encourages the professional development of the membership in their capacities as information intermediaries and as subject specialists in the arts.

LibGuides Upgrade

The new version of Research Guides is now available on the University of Houston Libraries’ website, with a much cleaner and more modern look and feel. Its layout has been restructured to include features that have been shown to improve usability, such as left-hand side navigation, increased whitespace, and vertically scrolling information.

On the editing side, the new system has a centralized content repository that makes it much easier for librarians to reuse and edit frequently-needed information, and gives far greater flexibility in content placement. It also provides more robust statistics reporting that demonstrate how our users interact with guides, and how we might be able to improve them.

“Research Guides facilitate student success by providing 24/7, point-of-need online research support, tailored to individual courses and programs by their subject liaisons,” said Ashley Lierman, instructional design librarian. “The upgrade has not only made these resources more attractive and easier for students to use, it’s made guides easier for librarians to design, update, and monitor, which will help guides stay current with the latest resources and provide the most value to library users.”

UH Libraries Hosts African American Read-In

The University of Houston Libraries will host the African American Read-In, the first event of its kind held on the UH campus.

The UH African American Read-In will take place on Tuesday, February 9, 2016 between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm. UH faculty, staff and students are invited to read their favorite poems, passages of fiction or nonfiction, lyrics, plays, or speeches written by African Americans to an audience in the Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion at the MD Anderson Library. Guests, classes, and organizations are encouraged to attend. Sign up to be a reader.

The UH Libraries joins schools, churches, bookstores, libraries and professional organizations across the country in participating in the National African American Read-In, now in its 26th year. The African American Read-In celebrates diversity in literature and is a new addition to the University’s Black History Month activities. Through the support of the Libraries, the University, and the Houston community, the event is destined to become a campus tradition.

The African American Read-In is made possible through campus partnership with the UH Libraries, the UH Center for Diversity and Inclusion, the UH African American Studies program, and the UH Department of English.

What: UH African American Read-In
When: Tuesday, February 9, 2016 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Where: Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion, MD Anderson Library

Cruces Awarded IMLS-RBS Fellowship

Lisa Cruces, Hispanic Collections archivist at the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections, has been awarded an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Rare Book School (RBS) Fellowship for Early-Career Librarians.

The IMLS-RBS Fellowship program is designed to educate early-career special collections librarians, with an emphasis on recruiting participants currently underrepresented in the field. Fellowships include funding for a course at Rare Book School and attendance to the annual conference of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS) of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL).

The program is funded by a grant from IMLS through the Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program, and includes a previous cohort of twenty fellowships awarded last year. The grant also funds a replicable, longitudinal study of the program’s impact on the professional development and career growth of participating fellows.

Just Ask! Libraries Welcome Table

UH Libraries will welcome students back to campus during its Just Ask! Library Spring Welcome Table.

Students are encouraged to drop by the MD Anderson Library on Thursday, January 21, or Friday, January 22, between 10:00 am and 2:00 pm to learn more about the Libraries’ services and programs.

Staff will be stationed at a table in the library atrium, providing informational handouts, answering general questions, and providing giveaways.

TxETDA Conference to Be Held at UH

The 2016 Texas Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association (TxETDA/USETDA) Region 3 conference will be held at the University of Houston on February 25-26.

USETDA Region 3 members are especially invited to attend this conference, but all of those with an interest in ETDs, regardless of location, are welcome. USETDA Region 3 includes the states of Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming.

TxETDA and USETDA aim to increase the knowledge of ETD professionals and enhance ETD operations by providing professional development opportunities and encouraging the sharing of best practices. Additionally, this conference provides unique opportunities to build bridges and engage in conversations between the graduate school and library around ETD-related issues.

Please note that one of the Republican presidential debates will take place on February 26th at the University of Houston; book your hotel room early.

NSM, Libraries Host Downton Abbey Event

The University of Houston College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the University Libraries and Houston Public Media recently hosted a Downton Abbey-themed donor appreciation event.

Guests were invited to watch an episode of the final season of Downton Abbey before it aired on television, and to be a part of the studio audience for the post-show taping of Manor of Speaking with host Ernie Manouse.

Event photos on UH Libraries Facebook

Event photos on Houston Public Media Flickr

Cronk Blogs ‘Brave New Workplace’

Lindsay Cronk, collections and online resources coordinator at the University of Houston Libraries, writes “Brave New Workplace,” a series on “methods for organization, prioritization, acculturation, and technology adaptation in a new workplace,” as part of the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) blog. Read more