News from the Field

David Free

Virginia Tech Library System Empowers Creativity at Graffiti Workshop Highlighting Hip-Hop Culture

Virginia Tech Digging in the Crates in University Libraries celebrated the 50th anniversary of hip-hop this year by hosting an aerosol art workshop. Students and other members of the community helped experienced graffiti artist Good Homie Signs produce two 16-foot-long murals that honored the history of hip hop and introduced newcomers to the art form. Hip-hop’s most visual element, graffiti has served as a medium for marginalized communities to reclaim public spaces and express cultural identity for decades. The vivid colors, bold lettering, and imaginative designs found in graffiti have been featured on album covers, music videos, and clothing associated with the hip-hop movement and numerous cultures worldwide. Through the workshop, Digging in the Crates shed a positive light on aerosol art, demonstrating how it is an important form of self-expression that can be beneficial to society.

In addition to hosting aerosol art workshops through Digging in the Crates, a graffiti mural that features Virginia Tech’s motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), has been displayed on the second floor of the Newman Library since it was created in the fall of 2020 during a similar Digging in the Crates program.

MSU Libraries Work to Eliminate Harmful Language across Local and National Catalogs

The work that the Michigan State University (MSU) Libraries employees are doing to address harmful language within the public catalog and other resource descriptions on campus has been translated to a national level. The Harmful Language Remediation Working Group (HLRWG) at MSU Libraries formed in fall 2022 with the goal of identifying, assessing, and responding to harmful language issues in the MSU Libraries’ descriptive metadata. This metadata comes from national knowledge organization systems and shared description standards including the Library of Congress Classification (LCC) system and Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).

Work that HLRWG members have accomplished on an internal level includes replacing the problematic LCSH terms beginning with “Indians of . . .” (e.g., “Indians of North America”) with the local subject heading “Indigenous peoples of . . .” (e.g., “Indigenous peoples of North America”) for all physical books starting in April 2022. The HLRWG also receives support in this work from staff in the Cataloging and Metadata Services Unit, who are making concerted efforts to propose updates to these knowledge organization systems.

On the national level, the HLRWG has noted the successful efforts of MSU Libraries Cataloger Michael Erickson in adding a set of classification numbers for asexuality topics to the LCC. While “Asexuality” and “Asexual people” were already subject headings, the addition of specific classification numbers means that materials on asexuality topics can be classed and shelved together rather than within more general sexual behaviors and attitudes classification numbers. Learn more about the project at https://lib.msu.edu/news/article/2023-11/eliminate-harmful-language-across-catalogs.

University of California Launches Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication Resource

The Office of Scholarly Communication (OSC) at the University of California recently announced the launch of its new Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Scholarly Communication resource. This site supports the UC community in gaining a deeper understanding of the challenges of achieving and maintaining diversity, equity, and inclusion in scholarly publishing, including concrete actions for authors, peer reviewers, journal editors, and librarians. Learn more and explore suggested actions by role in the full resource, available at https://osc.universityofcalifornia.edu/scholarly-publishing/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-scholarly-communication/.

The State of Open Data Report Released

The eighth annual The State of Open Data report, developed by Digital Science, Figshare, and Springer Nature, has been released. The report shows that almost three quarters of surveyed researchers overwhelmingly said they are still not getting the support they need to share their data openly. Such data highlights the increased need for greater community collaboration and tools to support researchers in the move to sustainable open science practices. For the remaining 23% of respondents who had sought and received support with data sharing, the support primarily came from internal sources such as a colleague or supervisor (61%), followed by institutional libraries (31%), research office/in-house institutional expertise (26%), publishers (21%) and funders (17%).

More than 6,000 researchers responded globally, with the highest proportion of responses from India (12%), China (11%) and the United States (9%). For the first time, respondents were asked about their experiences of using artificial intelligence (AI) to collect and share data. At a time when almost three-quarters of researchers surveyed say they have never received any support with making their data openly available, looking at the potential of AI technologies for supporting the data-sharing process and benchmarking current attitudes may enable stakeholders across the research ecosystem to consider the future role that AI could play in the research process. The full report is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24428194.

New from ACRL—Rethinking Institutional Repositories: Innovations in Management, Collections, and Inclusion

ACRL announces the publication of Rethinking Institutional Repositories: Innovations in Management, Collections, and Inclusion, edited by Josh C. Cromwell. The book features a collection of ideas, scholarship, and examples that can inspire and reinvigorate how you engage with the repositories at your institution.

Over the past two decades, institutional repositories (IR) have become commonplace in academic libraries. Library workers have grown accustomed to making the case for why their institution needs an IR, but the more fundamental question of “how” remains: How should libraries use their IRs most effectively to benefit their institutions and communities?

“Rethinking Institutional Repositories” aims to expand on existing scholarship around establishing a repository and increasing faculty submissions by highlighting a variety of approaches to administering IRs, increasing the variety of content, and broadening participation in three sections: IR Management, IR Projects, and IR for ALL.

Chapters explore examples and plans for your IR including migration; engaging remotely; gray literature; student scholarship; partnering with university presses; creating sustainable historical community partnerships; conducting a baseline diversity, equity, and inclusion assessment; automated accessibility audits; captioning; and promoting nontraditional works.

Rethinking Institutional Repositories: Innovations in Management, Collections, and Inclusion is available for purchase in print through the ALA Online Store and Amazon.com; by telephone order at (800) 621-2736 or (773) 702-7010; and as an open access edition at https://bit.ly/IRs.

Project MUSE 2024 Frontlist Collections Now Available

The Annual Frontlist Collections from Project MUSE offer libraries the earliest access to newly published books from the more than 200 university press and related scholarly publishers who participate in MUSE book collections. The 2024 collections are now available for purchase, with the Complete Annual Frontlist collection guaranteed to include more than 2,300 new releases. With the advance purchase of one or more of the 2024 frontlist collections, a library gains access to new titles in the collection(s) immediately upon their release on the MUSE platform and provides its users with the latest scholarship in a DRM-free format. More information, including descriptions of the available collections, is available on the MUSE web site at https://about.muse.jhu.edu/librarians/book-products/.

Bloomsbury Visual Arts Hub Launches

Bloomsbury has launched Bloomsbury Visual Arts, a digital hub bringing its leading online visual arts collections together onto one cross-searchable platform, to support an interdisciplinary approach to study, teaching, and research. The Bloomsbury Visual Arts hub comprises well-established collections including Bloomsbury Design Library, Bloomsbury Applied Visual Arts, and Bloomsbury International Encyclopedia of Surrealism. It is home to a selection of practical ebook collections covering Printmaking, Applied Gaming, Ceramics, Photography, Design Studies, and Animation Practice. Users can also take advantage of an exclusive new collection, Bloomsbury Art Markets, which comprehensively examines the commercial side of art. The collections on Bloomsbury Visual Arts have been designed to fit together seamlessly so that access to any combination of them provides a rich experience for users of all levels. They span a diverse range of content types including textbooks, reference, primary material, monographs, pedagogical tools, and multimedia. Learn more at www.bloomsburyvisualarts.com.

UNC-Chapel Hill Begins Wilson Library Improvement Project

The University of North Carolina (UNC)-Chapel Hill is planning for several improvements in the Wilson Library that will provide critical updates to the historic building. The project will include extending sprinkler coverage, creating emergency egress stairs, and upgrading the fire alarm system. Because this work will be disruptive and widespread given the size and age of the building, Wilson Library will close to the public during construction. The library will remain open for study, meetings, and special events at least until the early spring semester of 2025 and is expected to fully reopen in 2027. Updates on the project will be made available at https://library.unc.edu/wilson-project/.

Gale Debuts Environmental History Digital Archive Series

Gale, part of Cengage Group, recently introduced the first installment of its new Environmental History series of digitized primary sources. Environmental History: Conservation and Public Policy in America, 1870–1980 is the research market’s first digital archive that examines the history of the environment and conservation efforts across the globe from the late 1800s onward. The collection concentrates on the role of various government agencies, conservation organizations, and individual actors who pioneered the study of the natural environment and campaigned for its protection. This new series provides scholars and researchers with historical context on today’s conservation movements from a variety of viewpoints, enabling new insights and connections about environmental efforts.

With Environmental History, researchers can examine unique primary sources that trace the evolution of land rights, resource usage, trade rules, and environmental protections that mark the beginning of the modern conservation movement. Scholars can explore correspondence, reports, memos, pamphlets, newsletters, circulars, legislation, and much more related to the early development of conservation policies and practices from the late 19th century onward. Learn more at https://review.gale.com/2023/09/12/environmental-history-conservation-and-public-policy-in-america-1870-1980/.