New Exhibition Features Drawings of Burdette Keeland Jr

A new exhibition, The Art of Architecture: Drawings by Burdette Keeland, Jr., has opened in the first floor display cases of the MD Anderson Library. The exhibition by UH Special Collections celebrates the artistic talent of architect Burdette Keeland, Jr. (1926 – 2000), a longtime member of the UH architecture faculty.

Before the advent of computer technology, architects helped clients visualize proposed designs through hand-drawn sketches and architectural renderings. Today, these presentation drawings are valued as much for their artistic merit as for the architectural designs they represent.

The exhibition, which contains selected images from the Burdette Keeland Architectural Papers, was curated by Stephen James with important production assistance from Greg Yerke and J Fisher. Visitors are invited to view The Art of Architecture: Drawings by Burdette Keeland, Jr. now through August 2017.

Newly Revamped Group Study Rooms Now Open

The University of Houston Libraries has updated twelve group study rooms, thanks to a generous donation.

The rooms, located within the MD Anderson Library on the second and third floors in the Red Wing, offer 60-inch monitors with wireless keyboards, wall-mounted AV panels allowing students to connect personal devices, tempered glass whiteboards, and bold accent walls. Colorful new furniture, including soft seating (couches and ottomans), has been added. Most of the tables are movable and can be reconfigured into various layouts.

Students can reserve the group study rooms online.

View photos of the revamped group study rooms.

New Digital Collection: Socialist and Communist Pamphlets

The Socialist and Communist Pamphlets digital collection includes 40 socialist, communist, and anarchist pamphlets from a larger collection of radical political pamphlets held by the UH Libraries. These are the earliest pamphlets in the collection, dating from 1872 through 1920, the period leading up to and including the Russian Revolution of 1917.

Most of the pamphlets in this part of the collection are American or British, created primarily in the urban hubs of New York and London. Their publishers include the British Socialist Party, Charles H. Kerr & Company, the Socialist Publication Society, and many other outlets for radical thought. Well known authors are Nikolaĭ Bukharin, Friedrich Engels, Peter Kropotkin, Vladimir Lenin, and Leo Tolstoy.

The original materials are available in UH Libraries Special Collections in the Socialist and Communist Pamphlets Collection.

Commemorative Exhibit for Recovery Project Conference

The Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project 25th Anniversary Conference will be taking place at the University of Houston from February 9 – 11, 2017. In honor of the Project’s history and collaboration with UH Libraries, Special Collections will be displaying a commemorative exhibit on the second floor of the MD Anderson Library through February 17.

Highlighted in the exhibit are the collections of early civil-rights leaders and activists, including Alonso S. Perales and Leonor Villegas de Magnón. Lisa Cruces, Hispanic Collections archivist, said that “it was a pleasure putting this exhibit together and to have it run in conjunction with the Recovery Conference. Our collaborative relationship embodies how research, scholarship, and preservation work together to save and disseminate the history of the Latino community.”

For more information, contact Lisa Cruces at 713-743-9903.

Founded by Arte Público Press twenty-five years ago, the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project is an international project to locate, preserve and disseminate Hispanic culture of the United States in its written form since colonial times until 1960. The archives of the project and historical collections identified and obtained by the project are housed and preserved as a part of University of Houston’s Hispanic Collections in Special Collections.

New Health Sciences Librarian at UH Libraries

The University of Houston Libraries welcomes Rachel Helbing into her new role as health sciences librarian.

Please describe your new role and talk about some of your professional goals and/or research areas.

I will be supporting a variety of programs, current and future, that fall under the umbrella of health sciences. My main responsibilities out of the gate are the School of Nursing and the College of Pharmacy. I am part of the team that will develop new services for the forthcoming health sciences library, which is an exciting prospect. A major professional goal is to help make the new library a successful and integral part of the University’s Health and Biomedical Sciences Center. My interests lie primarily in the areas of evidence-based practice and health informatics. I plan to conduct research on the role of interactive technologies in health information-seeking behaviors.

Please share a bit about your background and interests. How do these inspire and shape your approach as a librarian?

I have been a librarian for nearly a decade. I did not plan to become a medical librarian, but it has turned out to be a very happy accident. Health sciences librarianship is a great fit for me, as I have a background in psychology and a personal interest in all things related to medicine and healthcare. I have worked in a consumer health library, a hospital library, an independent nonprofit library serving academic and clinical users, and now an academic library. I also have a Master of Science degree in Health Informatics, which studies the intersection of healthcare and technology. This variety of roles has allowed me to develop a 360-degree view of healthcare. As a librarian, I strive to focus on the end user, promote systems thinking, and contribute to breaking down some of the barriers between academics, clinicians, and patients.

Houston + Feminism Wiki Edit-a-thon

A new event hosted by the University of Houston Libraries will focus on creating and improving Wikipedia pages related to gender, women, and feminism.

The Houston + Feminism Wiki Edit-a-thon, scheduled for March 7, will bring together participants who are interested in editing and writing high-quality wiki articles. The event aims to raise the representation of women and feminist topics on Wikipedia. Attendees will receive practical instruction on wiki writing, and learn about the importance of diversifying the historic record being created on Wikipedia.

During the edit-a-thon, attendees will be given a list of suggested Wikipedia pages to create or enrich and can also choose their own. We will also provide information resources relating to the UH Special Collections Carey Shuart Women’s Research Collection and other associated collecting areas for ideas and to encourage discussion.

The event will kick off with a panel discussion in the MD Anderson Library Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion at 2:00 p.m. The edit-a-thon will run from 3:30 – 9:00 p.m. and participants are welcome to arrive and depart at their convenience. A limited number of laptops will be available; attendees are highly encouraged to bring their own. Food and drinks will be provided.

The event is coordinated by UH Libraries in collaboration with the UH Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Program, the UH Women and Gender Resource Center, and the UH LBGTQ Resource Center, as well as Rice University and feminist organizations in the greater Houston area.

What: Houston + Feminism Wiki Edit-a-thon
When: Tuesday, March 7, 2017 from 2:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Where: Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion, MD Anderson Library