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May 2017 New Database

The following database is now available from the University of Houston Libraries:

Nursing Reference Center Plus
Nursing Reference Center Plus is an evidence-based information resource designed specifically for nurses, nurse educators, recent nursing graduates, and nursing students. Content includes: core measure topics, nursing care plans, nursing management and leadership topics, regulatory and risk management topics, nursing skills checklists, videos and images, continuing education modules, patient education handouts, nursing reference books, etc.

New Publication by Business Librarian

Orolando Duffus, business librarian at the University of Houston Libraries, has a new article.

“Assessing UNC-Greensboro’s Reference Interns Program” appeared in the May 2017 issue of College and Research Libraries News. Duffus provides an overview of the university’s LIS program and examines its benefits for interns as they move into professional roles.

New Digital Collection: Selections from the Marjorie Randal National Women’s Conference

The Selections from the Marjorie Randal National Women’s Conference Collection contains approximately 150 items documenting the planning and activities leading up to, during, and after the 1977 National Women’s Conference and includes brochures, flyers, newsletters, invitations, correspondence, and publications. Materials in the collection date from 1974 – 1982, with the bulk of the collection dated 1977.

The National Conference, held in Houston November 18 – 21, was the first conference of its kind since the Seneca Falls Convention of New York in 1848. Dubbed Seneca Falls South, over 2,000 delegates representing 50 states and 6 territories as well as over 20,000 other participants gathered in Houston during this historic event. The conference was supported by $5 million in federal funding and charged under federal law to assess the status of women across the US and identify barriers that prevented women from full participation in national life.

Leading up to the National Conference, a team of relay runners carried a torch to Houston from Seneca Falls, New York. This was a symbolic gesture of honoring the site of the first US women’s rights convention in 1848 and the passing of the torch to Houston to carry on the work.

During that historic weekend, the Conference’s goal was to create a national plan of action for gender equality. As a result of discussions during the pre-conferences, 26 issues or planks were created for consideration at the Conference, including abortion, lesbian rights, minority rights, education, healthcare, rape, and the Equal Rights Amendment. At the conclusion of the conference, the assembly of delegates submitted their recommendations and a report to the President and Congress on means by which barriers to women’s equality could be removed. Although, the Equal Rights Amendment ultimately failed to pass in 1982, the conference’s legacy resulted in increased political activism and membership by women across the spectrum, and expanded the dialogue of women regarding reproductive rights and sexual identity that persists to this day.

The original materials are available in UH Libraries Special Collections in the Marjorie Randal National Women’s Conference Collection.

New Publications by Liaison Librarian

Alex Simons, history, political science, and government information librarian at the University of Houston Libraries, has two new publications.

Simons’ book, Sudden Selector’s Guide to Government Publications (ALCTS), will be available in May. It is a guide intended for library workers and addresses the Government Publishing Office and the Federal Depository Library Program, management and marketing government document collections, and finding the best sources for online government resources.

Simons’ article, “Librarians, Faculty, and the Writing Center Partnering to Build an Interdisciplinary Course: A Case Study at the University of Houston, USA,” was published in New Review of Academic Librarianship. It covers how an interdisciplinary course was developed with the aim of helping students improve their research, information literacy, and writing skills across disciplines.

Tech Training Impact

The Technology Training program at the University of Houston Libraries continues to grow, providing the benefits of free, instructor-led courses to current UH students, staff and faculty.

Tech trainer Chris Holthe has compiled a report demonstrating the accomplishments of the program over the past year, including attendance and class statistics. View infographic (PDF)

IMLS Grant Awarded for Measuring Reuse of Digital Objects

A multi-institutional project team has been awarded a 2017 Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grants for Libraries award.

The Digital Library Federation (DLF) Assessment Interest Group (AIG) Reuse subgroup received the grant LG-73-17-0002-17 for their project titled “Developing a Framework for Measuring Reuse of Digital Objects.” The purpose of the project is to conduct a formal needs assessment that will generate use cases and desired functionality for a future reuse assessment toolkit. This future toolkit will compile resources, best practices, and use cases for studying the reuse of digital assets held by cultural heritage organizations, building upon recommendations set forth in the team’s white paper, “Surveying the Landscape: Use and Usability Assessment of Digital Libraries.”

The project team comprises members from six institutions: Genya O’Gara (Virtual Library of Virginia), Elizabeth Kelly (Loyola University New Orleans), Caroline Muglia (University of Southern California), Ayla Stein (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), Santi Thompson (University of Houston, principal investigator), and Liz Woolcott (Utah State University).

This project was made possible in part by the IMLS, which is the primary source of federal support for the nation’s 123,000 libraries and approximately 35,000 museums. The mission of IMLS is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning­­­­­, and cultural and civic engagement.

National Leadership Grants for Libraries support projects that address challenges faced by the library and archive fields and that have the potential to advance library and archival practice with new tools, research findings, models, services, or alliances that can be widely replicated.

News release: IMLS Awards $9.7 Million for Librarian Training and for Excellence in the Field

News release: IMLS Funds DLF “Reuse” Assessment Framework

Carnegie-Whitney Grant Awarded for Data Journalism Resource Guide

A project team at the University of Houston has recently won a Carnegie-Whitney Grant.

Wenli Gao, communication, sociology, and anthropology librarian at UH Libraries, and Lindita Camaj, PhD, assistant professor in journalism and mass communication at the UH Valenti School of Communication, received a grant for their project titled “Storytelling with Data: A Resource Guide for Data Journalism.” The purpose of the project is to create a centralized place where journalism students learn basics of data journalism, from locating data sources and understanding data, to visualizing and displaying data. Students in journalism programs nationwide and journalist practitioners can use this resource to get started with data journalism, or sharpen their knowledge of data journalism. In the long run, this resource will prepare next-generation journalists to analyze complex data, tell powerful stories, and effectively communicate these stories to various audiences.

The Carnegie-Whitney Grant is administered by the American Library Association (ALA) Publishing Committee and is awarded for the preparation of popular or scholarly reading lists, webliographies, indexes and other guides to library resources that will be useful to users of all types of libraries in the United States.

News release: 2017 Carnegie-Whitney Grant Winners Announced

May 2017 Technology Training

Free workshops in Adobe Acrobat Pro XI, After Effects CS6, Excel 2013, Google Docs, Photoshop CS6, PowerPoint 2013, Premiere Pro CS6, Project 2010, RefWorks, Word 2013 are being held in May.

The Technology Training program at UH Libraries offers technology courses to current UH students, faculty and staff. View the full calendar and reserve your seat.

NEH Grant Awarded for Hispanic Archives Project

The University of Houston’s Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, a program of Arte Público Press, was recently awarded a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to conduct the project titled “A Survey of Small Historical Societies, Libraries and Museums for Hispanic Materials and Their Management.”

The project will produce the first-ever guide to Hispanic archival collections in the Southwest. Nicolás Kanellos, PhD, primary investigator for the grant and director of the press, will collaborate with UH librarians Jackie Bronicki, assessment and statistics coordinator, and Lisa Cruces, Hispanic Collections archivist, in conducting and analyzing the survey that will be available for general reference on the Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage/Arte Público Press website. Following the survey, strategies will be developed for preserving and making the materials in these collections accessible.

News release: NEH Announces $21.7 Million for More than 200 Humanities Projects and Programs Nationwide