Category Archives: Uncategorized

Digital Scholarship, Scholars Lab, Staff, Uncategorized

Data Analysis of Library Data

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Anusha Ravi, a Scholars Lab Graduate Research Assistant (GRA), is entering her second year in the School of Information Science, specializing in Data Science and Analytics. During the last academic year, she undertook a Digital Scholarship Project as part of her GRA position. Collaborating with the Collection Development team, she cleaned, analyzed, and visualized data they had collected over the past few years.

I am a passionate data analyst with a keen interest in leveraging data to drive meaningful insights and decisions. My recent work at Scholars Lab Graduate Research Assistant(GRA) has given me a valuable opportunity to apply my skills in a real-world setting, addressing practical challenges and contributing to the enhancement of our informational resources present at the library. My journey in data science is driven by a curiosity to explore data intricacies and a commitment to using technology for the greater good. As part of my responsibilities, I have to complete a digital scholarship project.

The data points in this graph have been anonymized to safeguard confidentiality.

As my digital scholarship project, I worked with the Collection Development team on improving the process of handling suggested purchase requests. These requests are crucial as their analysis would help them understand and enhance the breadth and depth of the collections available in the library. My role involved exploring historical data to identify gaps and understand its structure thoroughly for future enhancements. Collaborating with the Collection Development team who are my stakeholders, I ensured their needs were clearly understood and actionable. This collaborative approach not only enriched my perspective but also aligned our efforts with the library’s strategic goals.

The data points in this graph have been anonymized to safeguard confidentiality.

Using Python, I undertook the task of cleaning and anonymizing the data. Fixing missing values and ensuring data confidentiality was challenging, yet automating these processes was a significant achievement. Python’s versatility and powerful libraries were instrumental in this endeavor. Looking ahead, I aim to deepen my expertise in Python to automate more complex data workflows and improve efficiency further. Learning to automate this process was a big challenge, but overcoming it was a significant achievement. I had to code with a future use case in mind, which proved to be very insightful and thereby allowed me to improve my skills.

For data visualization, I turned to Tableau, known for its user-friendly interface and powerful visualization capabilities. Creating interactive and simple charts made it easier to communicate complex data insights to non-technical stakeholders. This was confirmed on presenting this dashboard to the Collection Development team who praised the simple but effective dashboard.  Additionally, based on their feedback, I plan to create documentation on using Tableau to ensure easy navigation for future use of the team. 

The Scholars Lab provided invaluable support, offering resources and expert advice that enhanced my analysis. Presenting my findings at a poster session was a highlight, showcasing the success and the practical recommendations for better data organization and future collection improvements. This project taught me the importance of stakeholder collaboration, secure data practices, and the continuous quest for automation and efficiency in data processes. 

Alexander Architectural Archive, Archives, Collections, Uncategorized

Expanding Discoverability for Architecture Treasures

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Zoe Grout is a Graduate Student at UT Austin working toward an MA in English and an MS in Information Studies, with a focus on library and archival sciences. She currently works as an Archival Processing Graduate Research Assistant in the Alexander Architectural Archives.

This past year as the Alexander Architectural Archive’s GRA, I’ve published finding aids for six separate collections to Texas Archival Resources Online (TARO). Those collections are: the Boone Powell collection, the Ford, Powell & Carson collection, the Mardith Schuetz-Miller collection, the Nancy Kwallek collection, the John Covert Watson collection, and the Richard Cleary collection.

The first two collections’ finding aids are the culmination of several years’ work by myself, my GRA predecessors, and the entire AAA staff. Boone Powell is a noted architect in San Antonio. His collection includes records documenting his personal and professional life, such as his work on community projects such as Design San Antonio. Ford, Powell & Carson is likewise a noted architectural firm in San Antonio, known for the construction of the Tower of the Americas for the 1968 World’s Fair and its development of the San Antonio Riverwalk. Records in this collection consist primarily of files and drawings related to major projects conducted over the last fifty years. Pictured below is one such example, a photo of a sketch for the San Antonio River Grotto from the Ford, Powell & Carson collection.

The remaining four finding aids are provisional. These collections have not been processed, and their finding aids, while shortened, are intended to boost accessibility to our collections in the backlog. Mardith Schuetz-Miller is an anthropologist and historian who earned her PhD in American Civilization at UT, and her collection contains publication drafts and drawings, specifically concerning the architecture of Spanish Colonial sites in the American Southwest and Guam. Professor Emeritus Nancy Kwallek is a former director of the interior design program at UT, and was a major contributor to the program’s move to the School of Architecture. Her collection documents the history of the interior design program, as well as some of the works of interior designer Everett Brown. John Covert Watson is a noted Austin architect, known for his residences in the Austin area, especially around Lake Travis and West Lake Hills. His collection consists of architectural drawings for a selection of his projects. Finally, Richard Cleary is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Architecture here at UT, and his collection includes records from his own research and publication processes, as well as materials from courses he taught at UT.

Librarian Lens, Uncategorized

Librarian Lens: “All of Us” Research Program

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The Librarian Lens is an occasional column featuring librarians who support the research lifecycle across a range of disciplines sharing research tips, updates about both Libraries-provided and open source resources, and related topics intended to intrigue, demystify and highlight topics of interest to the research-curious. Posted columns are provided or curated by librarians from the University of Texas Libraries STEM and Social Science Engagement Team.

Calling all researchers, students and anyone interested in exciting developments in health and medical information…read on to find out about the exciting All of Us Research Program that is on a mission to accelerate medical breakthroughs!

The All of Us Research Program is part of the National Institutes of Health. It is actively collecting data from a diverse population of participants across the United States. As of April 1, 2024 the program has 783,000+ participants, 432,000+ electronic health records and 555,000+ biosamples received according to the program’s Data Snapshots, which are updated daily. The program continues to enroll people from all backgrounds and is aiming for 1,000,000+ participants.

The Data

The program aims to connect the research community with the data, which is longitudinal and from a diverse population, including those typically underrepresented in biomedical research. The data are from participants’ survey responses, electronic health records, physical measurements, Fitbit records and biosamples. DNA from participants’ biosamples supply genomic data, including genotyping arrays and whole genome sequences. The data undergoes a curation process with rigorous privacy protections. On average the data is pushed out once a year. The All of Us Research Hub stores the data in a secure Cloud-based space, where it must remain. Imagine the possibility of all the research project opportunities, especially those on precision medicine, with the ability to combine genomic data with phenotypic data and analyze it on a large scale!

Public Access

There is a terrific way to get a better idea of the data that are available whether out of curiosity or for more in-depth study and that is through the program’s Data Snapshots and interactive Data Browser that anyone can access through the All of Us Research Hub. No prior authorization or account is required to explore the aggregated, anonymized data. In fact, this public access data can serve as a great jumping off point for developing a research project question! In addition, the Research Projects Directory, which currently  lists over 10,000 projects, can be viewed by anyone and is a great place to browse for inspiration or collaboration opportunities. For students, it is a wonderful way to see examples of scientific questions and approaches. Papers resulting from these research projects are listed on All of Us Publications and anyone can read them because they have been published open access. The total number of publications is close to 300!

The DNA double helix rests on a field of ACGTs and binary numbers.
Credit: Jonathan Bailey, NHGRI. Public Domain

Researcher Access

The All of Us Research Hub provides access to more granular data along with tools for analysis through the Researcher Workbench. To access granular data either on the registered tier or the controlled tier, researchers must complete registration and be approved. Registration is a four step process. The first is to confirm your institution has a Data Use and Registration Agreement (DURA) in place with All of Us. At the time of this writing, the University of Texas at Austin has a DURA in place. The next step is to create an account and verify your identity. The third is to complete mandatory training. Additional training is required to analyze the controlled tier data because that is where the genomic data is stored. The fourth and final step is to sign the Data User Code of Conduct. Steps two through four take about two hours to complete but do not have to be done all in one sitting. After completing registration, researchers will be able to access the data once they receive notification of approval from the All of Us program. The data can then be accessed and analyzed through the Researcher Workbench where researchers create Workspaces and submit descriptions of their research projects for listing on the Research Projects Directory. The program makes it easy for researchers to invite other registered users from their own institutions or from other institutions to their Workspaces for collaboration. This is especially helpful if a researcher needs someone else to run analysis with R or Python, the two options currently available. The program encourages and supports team science!

Access Cost & User Support

Even though there is a cost to researchers for analyzing and storing data for their research projects in the Cloud, there is good news. The program provides researchers $300 initial credits upon creating Workspaces in the Researcher Workbench to help them get started on their research projects. Researchers can get information on how to run their data cost effectively from the program’s User Support Hub. They can also speak with the program’s support team to get an idea of cost before analyzing data.

The All of Us Research Program’s investment in medical breakthroughs could not be more clear with the amount of thoughtful, varied support it has put together to help researchers access and analyze the data. The User Support Hub has video tutorials, articles, a help button, and an event calendar that lists the support team’s upcoming office hours among other events. Support resources for the Researcher Workbench range from getting started to working with the data to credits and billing. The support articles are kept current and are on topics such as using RStudio on the Researcher Workbench. The support team is responsive and ready to help! Help is provided by actual people, not chatbots. The program welcomes feedback and uses it to make the program better. For instance, if there is certain data not being collected that would be helpful to collect, let the program know!

iPad Showing Genomic Data
Credit: Darryl Leja, NHGRI. Public Domain

The Impact

By collecting data from the United States’ diverse population, especially from traditionally underrepresented groups in biomedical research, the All of Us Research Program strives to make the medical data that is currently available to researchers more complete. With researchers having access to not only genomic data, but also phenotypic data, their studies can fuel insights into our health on an individual level; thus potentially allowing for healthcare providers to provide better, more tailored care to each of us. To see the research studies made possible so far by the availability of the All of Us data, take a look at the All of Us Research Highlights today, and check back regularly to keep an eye on advancements and breakthroughs!

The All of Us Research Program seeks to connect the research community with its dataset, which is one of the largest, most diverse ever assembled, to spur research that will improve health for all of us. If you are feeling inspired as a researcher or want to become a participant or are just curious to find out more about the program, visit the program’s websites at researchallofus.org or allofus.nih.gov.

Open Educational Resources, Uncategorized

Open Education Week 2024 Recap

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The Libraries once again recognized Open Education Week (March 4-8) with events and activities intended to raise awareness of open educational resources and their application across campus, foster collaboration, and empower learners and educators alike.

Open Educational Resources (OER) are openly licensed materials that can be:

  • Retained
  • Reused
  • Revised
  • Remixed
  • Redistributed

OER can make a huge difference for students, especially in terms of cost savings. In the 2022-2023 academic year alone, students saved over $1.8 million dollars because OER was prioritized over paid course materials.

The highlight of the Libraries’ Open Education Week 2024 was a virtual panel discussion featuring educators and students who gathered to share their perspectives on the transformative potential of open educational resources (OER) in widening access to quality education. From exploring innovative pedagogical approaches to discussing the role of technology in enhancing learning experiences, the panel provided invaluable insights into the evolving landscape of open education.

Tocker Open Education Librarian Heather Walter amplified the celebration and recognized faculty and student OER advocates throughout the week on web platforms. Dr. Jocelly Meiners (Spanish and Portuguese) received a spotlight for championing open educational resources (OER) and  collaborating with faculty to integrate OER into their courses and promoting awareness of open access principles among students and colleagues. And student advocate Marco Pevia (COLA, Spanish and Linguistics) received a nod for his collaboration with faculty to incorporate OER into courses, participated in open access advocacy efforts, and engaging in projects aimed at expanding access to knowledge.

Walter also used her social media prowess to promote the message of Open Education Week, sharing updates, resources, and insights on Instagram which provided glimpses into the vibrant events taking place, encouraging broader participation and sparking meaningful conversations around the importance of openness in education.

Even though Open Education Week 2024 has drawn to a close, the Libraries continues its commitment to fostering a culture of openness, accessibility, and collaboration in education. Through ongoing initiatives, partnerships, and advocacy efforts, the Libraries strives to empower learners and educators to embrace the principles of openness and drive positive change at UT.

Area Studies, Digital Humanities, Digital Scholarship, Features, Global Studies, Humanities & Liberal Arts, Read Hot and Digitized, Uncategorized

Read, Hot and Digitized: Italian Poetry, Translated and Sonorized

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Read, hot & digitized: Librarians and the digital scholarship they love — In this new series, librarians from UTL’s Arts, Humanities and Global Studies Engagement Team briefly present, explore and critique existing examples of digital scholarship.  Our hope is that these monthly reviews will inspire critical reflection of and future creative contributions to the growing fields of digital scholarship.

For most of human history, poetry has been an oral tradition, with poets singing their verses to an audience rather than writing them down and disseminating them in print. Italianpoetry.it, an independent digital humanities project without academic affiliation, aims to share the beauty and lyricism of recited Italian poetry with a wider audience, offering recordings of Italian poems alongside the original text and English translations.

The site, which is frequently updated with new poems, focuses on a simple but very effective content model. Poems are published in their entirety in the original Italian, with the English translation of the text beneath each line. An audio file containing the recording of the poem is embedded at the top of each page. When the audio file is played, the word being read is highlighted in both the Italian and the English translation, allowing users to follow along with the recording and to see how the word order and phrasing in the translation compares to the original text. This allows for a streamlined, user-friendly experience that facilitates appreciation and enjoyment of the original text—both for its sonority and its meaning—regardless of the user’s knowledge of Italian. Each poem also has a brief write-up by the site’s creator at the bottom of the page, providing additional context for the work. A guide to navigating the site is also provided to make it easy for new users to interact with its content.

Screenshot of a poem from the site.
The page for the poem “A una zanzara.”

The site is intentionally simple and, per the author, “unapologetically retro-looking” in its appearance, allowing users to focus on the site content without interference from unnecessary or distracting web elements. Focusing on simplicity is not only an aesthetic choice, though, as it helps make the site more accessible for users with slower or unstable internet connections who may have trouble browsing more complex webpages. The site uses the BAS Web Services set of tools to synchronize the poems’ texts with the audio recordings. The BAS Web Services are provided by the Bavarian Archive for Speech Signals, and provide a broad and valuable set of tools for speech sciences and technology.

Screenshot of a list of poem titles available on the site.
The selection of all poems available on the site, including options to sort by composition date, date added to the site, author, and title.

In addition to the main pages created for each poem, there is also an audio-only podcast version of the poems for those who would like to listen to the audio without the interactive elements of the main site. The site’s creator makes clear that the poems selected are in no way representative of Italian poetry as a whole, and that they were chosen at the author’s discretion. This adds a personal touch to the site sometimes absent from more comprehensive digital projects.

Screenshot of the site's podcast offerings.
The podcast audio files included on the site.

Italianpoetry.it is a valuable resource for those wishing to explore Italian poetry, regardless of their experience with the Italian language or knowledge of its history. While intentionally a personal selection rather than a wide-ranging survey of the Italian poetic tradition, its content offers a great introduction to that tradition that can spur further interest and exploration. It also provides a very interesting and accessible way to explore the relationships between written and spoken text, sonority and textual structure, and translation and original texts.

For more information, please consult the UTL resources below:

Picchione, John, Lawrence R. Smith, John Picchione, and Lawrence R. Smith. Twentieth-Century Italian Poetry : An Anthology. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019.

Lind, L. R. (Levi Robert). Lyric Poetry of the Italian Renaissance; an Anthology with Verse Translations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1954.

Lucchi, Lorna de’. An Anthology of Italian Poems, 13th-19th Century. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1922.

Bonaffini, Luigi, and Joseph Perricone, eds. Poets of the Italian Diaspora : A Bilingual Anthology. New York: Fordham University Press, 2014.

Staff Highlighter, Uncategorized

Staff Highlighter: Yi Shan

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What’s your title, and what do you do for UTL?

Yi Shan: My title is East Asian Studies Librarian. I manage all East Asian language materials at the UTL and support the research and teaching of East Asia-related topics and disciplines on UT campus.

Any library (UT or otherwise) memory worth sharing?

YS: I can never forget my research trip to the Seikado Bunko Library in Tokyo. It’s a relatively small private collection but holds some of the rarest and most valuable premodern Chinese books. The reading room rules are very strict. You have to leave your shoes outside (like many Japanese places), wash your hands, and leave your electronics before entering the reading room. Interestingly, however, you can eat (!) your lunch inside the reading room. There is a designated lunch table at least by the time of my visit in 2019.

I found a lot of valuable primary sources for my dissertation there, and the librarian was so kind, knowledgeable, and helpful. The most exciting story is that I was so lucky to stumble upon a presumably Ming dynasty (1368–1644) manuscript that one 18th-century collector that I studied rescued from a stack of old scrap paper.

You’ve lived in many places. How does Austin compare?

YS: Austin is such a lovely city! Having lived in a few giant cities, I find the size of Austin perfectly manageable. In some way, I surprisingly find that the view of Zilker and Barton Springs area resembles a lot to my hometown, Taiyuan, at least in the way it appears in my memory. I used to say that I was okay with the cold but not the heat. Now I guess I am getting there to make my body think otherwise. Anyway, I spent my college years in one of the most notorious four “oven” cities in China, and having survived last summer in Austin, I guess I can cope. But how the heat has been trending for the future does scare me a lot.


What’s something most people don’t know about you?

YS: I love to cook. This interest in culinary art started during my grad school, and I always went to the occasion cooking lessons at the student union. Another version of myself always dreams to own and operate a restaurant. I’m pretty familiar with cooking in Chinese, French, Italian, and Japanese styles, and now I am foraying into Thai. I like to bake as well, but the oven has not been treating me as kindly as the stove has. Or when I bake a cake, it starts to hate me. 

As a historian, what makes you gravitate to the past, and how does it influence your perspective on the future?

YS: Trained mostly as a premodernist, I think what makes me excited about the past is you really have to use imagination to understand it. There’s the saying that “past is a foreign country,” but I think it is more than that. It’s like a whole different phenomenological and ontological universe. By imagination, I don’t mean that historians are inventing things and events that never existed or happened. It is that we so often need to question the take-for-granted categories and ways we thought what the past was like.

I think the future, like the past, invites bold imaginations. Building a better future, like understanding the past, needs us both to engage and work with the structures we have today but also to break free from their constraints. It’s all about defamiliarizing the familiar and bravely embracing the unfamiliar with an open and empathetic heart.

I understand you may be a train enthusiast. What is it about trains?

YS: I think my enthusiasm for all mass-transportation vehicles, trains, civil aviation, etc, all comes down to my like to travel to faraway places. I spent a big chunk of my childhood in my grandparents’ apartment right next to a train station (the complex and the station share a wall). My grandfather would tell me, “Look, this train is bound for Beijing, that is for Shanghai, that is for Xi’an,” and I always wanted to take the trains to those places.

And most times I just like the feeling of being on the way, and it has to be a long way that you don’t have to constantly worry about missing your stop. The sound of a train ride or the engines of an aircraft kind of calms me down, and I like to read and write on my way. However, I do hate packing for a trip and spending time at a train station or an airport. 

Favorite book, movie or album?

YS: Min Jin Lee’s novel Pachinko is my favorite of all fiction (very few) I’ve read since 2019. Dream of the Red Chamber/Story of the Stone (Honglou meng) is an all-time favorite. Since 2022, I’ve been following the #readingthestone reading-together project (mostly listening to their podcasts) started by Prof. Eileen Chow at Duke University. If you are interested in getting small doses of this greatest piece of Chinese literature (in both original and translation), this is the perfect place to start.

Recently I’ve started Four Treasures of the Sky, a fiction inspired by the Dream of the Red Chamber, and I am loving it.

Favorite food or drink? Make it at home or go out (and where)?

YS: My favorite food recently is Cantonese roasted duck. Ho Ho Chinese Barbecue’s roasted duck is, so far, the best that I’ve found in town. It’s very difficult to make at home, and best to leave for the pros. 

What’s the future hold?

YS: There are so many new developments in Higher Education that make the future both exciting and scary. But knowledge/expertise and a strong collection should always be our best assets to embrace the challenges and grow from them. Right now, I am exploring OCR and automated textual processing of CJK (the library jargon for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) texts and also identifying strategic growth points for our East Asian collections.

In the long run, together with my UTL colleagues and the learning community on campus, I hope to build such a collection that makes UT a strong and unique resource for East Asian studies in the world. I hope this collection will not only serve the existing and emerging research and pedagogical needs but also foster, nurture, and inspire scholarly and pedagogical innovations.

Digital Scholarship, Scholars Lab, Uncategorized

Scholars Lab Newsletter – February 2024

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Digital Humanities Workshop Series

Digitization, Digital Projects, and Copyright Issues

When: Feb. 2, 2024, 12 pm – 1 pm 

Where: Perry-Castañeda Library Scholars Lab Project Room 6 (2.218)

Join us in-person for a discussion about some of the common copyright issues that pop up when digitizing materials or creating digital projects. We’ll have some scenarios to talk through as a group, but feel free to also bring your questions and we’ll try to discuss some of those scenarios as well.

In-Person Registration

Interactive Writing in Twine

When: Feb. 9, 2024, 12 pm – 1 pm

Where: Zoom 

Twine is an open-source application used to write interactive narratives ranging from fictional adventures to practical decision trees. This workshop will introduce the basics of Twine story creation: creating your first passage of text, linking passages, incorporating HTML and variables, and publishing a Twine project. The session will include a variety of example Twines of different complexity and purpose, and by the end, participants will have their skeleton decision tree that they can expand into a larger text. 

Zoom Registration

Getting Started with Scalar

When: Feb. 23, 2024, 12 pm – 1 pm

Where: Zoom 

Scalar is a free, open-source publishing platform designed for long-form, born-digital, and media-rich digital scholarship. This workshop will give an overview of Scalar and discuss what differentiates it from other content management systems, before demonstrating how to build your Scalar site.

Zoom Registration

Data & Donuts Workshop Series

 Research Data Management Best Practices

When: Feb 16, 2024, 12 pm – 1:15 pm

Where: Perry-Castañeda Library Scholars Lab Data Lab (2.202) and Zoom

This workshop will go over helpful strategies and techniques for effective research data management in all stages of the research lifecycle, from the drafting of comprehensive data management plans to successful publication of research data. Join this session to learn how to overcome data management challenges and stay in compliance with research data management regulations.

Zoom Registration

The Institute for Historical Studies in the Department Workshop

“Mapping Trauma: A Workshop on Space and Memory”

When:  Feb 19, 2024, 12 pm – 1:30 pm 

Where:  Perry-Castañeda Library Scholars Lab Data Lab (2.202) and Zoom 

Anne Kelly Knowles has been a leading figure in the Digital and Spatial Humanities, particularly in the methodologies of Historical GIS, for more than twenty years. She has written or edited five books, including Placing History: How Maps, Spatial Data, and GIS Are Changing Historical Scholarship (2008); Mastering Iron: The Struggle to Modernize an American Industry, 1800-1868 (2013); and Geographies of the Holocaust (2014). Anne’s pioneering work with historical GIS has been recognized by many fellowships and awards, including the American Ingenuity Award for Historical Scholarship (Smithsonian magazine, 2012), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), and three successive Digital Humanities Advancement grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (2016-2022). She is a founding member of the Holocaust Geographies Collaborative, an international group of historians and geographers who explore the spatial aspects of the Holocaust through digital scholarship. She is currently developing a public website to share data on over 2,200 Holocaust camps and ghettos and nearly 1,000 survivor testimonies to enable students and scholars to map the historical geographies of named and unnamed Holocaust places.

Levi Westerveld is a geographer and award-winning cartographer with broad experience in spatial data gathering, analysis and visualization. He has 8 years of work experience in GIS and mapping for environmental modeling, impact assessments, community engagement and communication. Levi has international project management experience overseeing multidisciplinary teams with delivery in the Arctic and Pacific, and thematic knowledge in land and marine environmental issues, including climate change, waste and biodiversity. He is the lead editor of the forthcoming Arctic Permafrost Atlas. He is currently employed as senior engineer in the section for digitalization and innovation at the Norwegian Coastal Authority.

For In-person Registration email: cmeador@austin.utexas.edu

Zoom Registration

Digital Scholarship in Practice

Computational Approaches in the Study of History: The Case of People’s Daily

When: Feb 21, 2024, 12 pm to 1 pm 

Where: Perry-Castañeda Library Learning Lab 3

In this talk, we will explore what computational approach and methods may look like in historical studies. Alongside the potential advantages, the talk will also discuss the limitations and pitfalls in computational historical analysis. We will focus on a case study of the People’s Daily 人民日报, a prominent national newspaper of the PRC, to demonstrate the outcomes and limitations of applying computational methods in historical research.

Uncategorized

A Boot Camp for Researchers: Successes in Systematic Review Support

Librarian teaching in a classroom

On a Monday morning before the semester started in January 2024, members of the Systematic Review Interest Group gathered to prepare for a multi-day event. The Systematic Review & Evidence Synthesis Boot Camp, to be precise, took place over the course of three days, and was designed as an educational series of short workshops describing best practices for conducting systematic reviews, from idea formation through content screening (with many steps in between). Content sections were interspersed with opportunities for one-on-one, customized consultation sessions with a librarian, for working through questions and creating actionable takeaways.

A systematic review starts with a very specific question and then reviews a variety of empirical sources of literature that offer a response to that very specific question.

Systematic reviews are the most common and best-known type of systematized evidence synthesis methodologies. Originating in the field of medicine, they have spread across other disciplines such as education, engineering, sociology, criminal justice, public health, environmental sciences, and beyond. A systematic review starts with a very specific question and then reviews a variety of empirical sources of literature that offer a response to that very specific question. Because this review type attempts to be highly thorough (or systematic) in finding sources to include in the review, librarian assistance is often sought. The support offered can take on multiple forms, from advising on database selection and helping with search strategy development to recommending and training on tools to ease the steps in the process. If the librarian’s schedule and bandwidth permit, they may take on a request for more intensive assistance with a review project and be a co-author on the final published review. 

In the spring of 2021, the UT Libraries’ Systematic Review Interest Group offered a 6-part workshop series on evidence synthesis methodologies. Though the series offered thoughtful content that was well-received, discussions persisted about whether scholars were receiving adequate support, given the multiple weeks between sessions. We thought they may instead want to progress at a faster pace and need more individual time with librarians, so this more concentrated and intensive session was conceived. Teamwork was required to pilot the Boot Camp approach – with eight librarians working together to contribute content similar to what is on our shared library guide page, coordinate and present the prepared sessions, and provide the one-on-one breakout consultation sessions – in a “many hands makes light work” model.

Librarian working in small group session

On that opening morning, Boot Camp participants and providers consumed a welcome breakfast of tacos and enjoyed coffee in the new PCL Scholars Lab. Jenifer Flaxbart, one of the Boot Camp’s sponsors and UT Libraries’ Assistant Director for Research Support and Digital Initiatives, provided an official welcome to both the Boot Camp and the newly introduced Scholars Lab. The Scholars Lab turned out to be a great space for the event. On each of the three days, librarians offered presentation sessions and then we broke out into individual work sessions for one-on-one support. The flexibility offered by the multiple, yet nearby, spaces in the Scholars’ Lab made the transitions seamless. In addition, the spaces supported back-and-forth communication without causing strain to hear or be heard. 

Librarian in a one-on-one support session
Librarians working in small group sessions

This intensive Boot Camp method of delivery presents a unique opportunity for both librarians and scholars. The support offered falls somewhere in between having a few librarian consultations with a research team and serving as a co-author on a project. At a large campus like UT Austin, it is not feasible for librarians to support every request received at the co-author level. We need to budget our time and yet we also want to offer our expertise to scholars wherever we can. This method allowed us to deliver three days worth of content and one-on-one support. It is yet another mechanism in our toolbox to help meet the growing demand for evidence syntheses here on the UT campus. In addition, it was a rare pleasure to collaborate in building this experience with colleagues and learn from one another in the process.

At the end of the three days the participants, hopefully not too overwhelmed with information, took a survey to inform possible future Boot Camp planning efforts. The coordinators were pleased to see positive responses on the survey and an increase in knowledge about the concepts covered. Just a few quotes are evidence of the positive reception: 

  • THANK YOU for this amazing learning opportunity
  • Interaction with the amazing Librarians and their support [favorite part]
  • The small group session is really helpful to establish the appropriate search strategy which is the one the most important steps to do systematic review. [favorite part]
  • Learning about all of the tools available (e.g., searching, deduplication, and screening) which will make future literature reviews, including systematic and more general reviews much more efficient and comprehensive. [favorite part]

As illustrated through these comments, many participants gained the knowledge and confidence needed to go forward and conduct their planned review project. It will be exciting to follow these projects through to publication and track the impact made in future years by the results of the evidence synthesis collaborations resulting from the Boot Camp. 

Open Scholarship, Open Science, Scholars Lab, Uncategorized

Scholars Lab Hosts First Open Science Summit

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The doors of the new Scholars Lab at the Perry-Castañeda Library swung open for the first Texas Open Science Summit, held on Wednesday, September 20.

Hosted by the Libraries, this summit was organized as a call to action for the advancement of open science in recognition of the Year of Open Science, a move by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to advance national open science policies across the federal government in 2023.

The Summit marked an initiatory gathering to highlight the commitment of advocates in the campus community to openness, collaboration, and the dissemination of knowledge. The event took place both in-person and virtually, to ensure accessibility to a wide audience.

The event served a diversity of ideas and perspectives to attendees, with participants from various disciplines and backgrounds coming together to explore the benefits of open science practices and individual experiences in the application of those practices. It offered a platform for sharing success stories, discussing challenges, and brainstorming solutions, all with the ultimate goal of promoting transparency and accessibility in research.

The summit provided inspiring keynote addresses and panel discussions featuring local and national experts in open science, including representatives from Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS) and NASA’s Transform to Open Science (TOPS) program.

These thought-provoking sessions covered a broad spectrum of topics, from open-access publishing to data sharing and reproducibility. Participants left inspired and armed with practical insights to implement in their own work.

Attendees were also introduced to the university’s new Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) – funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation – which has recently been launched to promote open source and open science opportunities to students, faculty, staff and researchers at UT.

Those who attended expressed that the Summit was a resounding success in reaffirming the global scientific community’s dedication to open science principles. Participants left the event with a deeper understanding of open science practices and a shared commitment to making research more transparent and accessible.

Acquisitions/Foreign Travel, Collections, Global Studies, Uncategorized

Collecting Francophone Zines and Books in Montreal

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Due to generous donor support to a Hornraiser campaign for foreign acquisitions trips, I was recently able to travel to Canada to attend the Montreal Anarchist Bookfair and purchase books for the UT Libraries’ collections. In addition to meeting with vendors and participating in the international community of librarians, zine makers, booksellers, and publishers at the book fair, I collected materials that continue to grow the UT Libraries’ collection of Francophone zines and literature, further developing our collection of rare and distinct materials related to global leftist movements past and present.

The Montreal Anarchist Bookfair is North America’s largest anarchist book fair, and has been held since 2009. Attracting visitors from all over the continent, the fair included over 80 vendor tables where attendees could browse and purchase materials and discuss non-commercial publishing and distribution directly with content producers. Vendors ranged from established presses like AK Press and PM Press to individual creators selling their zines and other materials. The book fair also featured a diverse range of speakers and workshops, including offerings such as an introduction to anarchist thought, a talk on Mastodon and federated social media, and a panel discussion about the book Black Metal Rainbows recently published by PM Press.

A picture of zines and books purchased at the bookfair.
A small selection of books and zines purchased at the bookfair.

The book fair offered many opportunities to acquire materials we would not otherwise have access to, and to speak directly with publishers, writers, and artists and to learn about the processes and motivations behind why certain books or zines were written and made. A couple of my favorite acquisitions for the UTL library include a global history of the Industrial Workers of the World, a radical union founded in 1905 that is still active today, and a zine-bibliography highlighting resources on the transfeminism movement. The trip also gave me a valuable opportunity to build our holdings of Francophone materials from North America, expanding our corpus beyond materials published in Europe, the Caribbean, and Africa, thereby making our holdings even broader globally than they already were.

Picture of two books and two zines acquired at the book fair.
Additional books and zines acquired at the book fair.

Beyond all this, the trip allowed me the opportunity to represent UT Austin internationally to a diverse group of vendors, artists, and colleagues, and I’m grateful that I was able to serve the Libraries in such a capacity. I look forward to continuing to build our distinctive holdings and further expand UT’s collections to include diverse ideas and voices.

Librarian Ian Goodale standing at the entrance to the bookfair.
Librarian Ian Goodale standing at the entrance to the bookfair.