This past month, the Texas Digital Library (TDL) and several prominent water researchers began the process of developing a new collaborative resource for sharing water data across the state of Texas. The Texas Water Digital Library (TWDL) will federate water research currently stored in dispersed databases and websites at various Texas universities. A model for the cooperative efforts of the Texas Digital Library, the TWDL will electronically harvest these resources from cooperating institutions (using a technology called OAI-ORE) and deposit them in a TDL-hosted DSpace repository. This federated repository will create a single place for researchers to search for water data from every part of the state: the Texas Water Digital Library. Continue reading Texas water researchers working with the Texas Digital Library
Premiere of new Craycroft project employs Libraries collections
We consider ourselves extremely lucky to be a mere stone’s throw from such great cultural institutions, and more so still when we get the opportunity to swim for a bit in their respective wakes.
As part of its ongoing series of installations by acclaimed contemporary artists called WorkSpace, the Blanton Museum of Art is featuring Brooklyn-based Anna Craycroft’s first in a series – The Union of Initiatives for Educational Assembly – exploring the nexus of art and pedagogy.
The work, entitled Subject of Learning/Object of Study, uses over 500 books from the Libraries collections related to art education Continue reading Premiere of new Craycroft project employs Libraries collections
A-B-C. Well, except in this case…
Our friends at the Harry Ransom Center just announced the opening of the David Mamet papers for scholarly research.
The archive covers his entire career, so it includes the source materials for all of his major plays (Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo, Oleanna), as well as his screenwriting work (The Postman Always Rings Twice – the 1981 adaptation, The Untouchables, The Spanish Prisoner).
Find out more at Cultural Compass.
Michigan says goodbye to an old friend
This article on the departure of the legacy catalog at the University of Michigan recalls the renovations in Life Sciences Library here at the University of Texas, where card catalogs were removed to create space for new seminar rooms for the Undergraduate experience, as well as the removal of a large bank of card catalogs from the Perry-Castañeda Library almost three years ago.
The Michigan move also presages a similar development for those remaining catalog records at the PCL as the library responds to growing demands for student spaces.
Perhaps, though, we’ll follow our colleague Paul Courant’s lead and retain as an artifact a solitary catalog over which the students of tomorrow can ponder a more austere time.
Time to get FORO on your calendar
FORO, the Transborder Library Forum, is a volunteer organization that cultivates a venue for the cooperative exchange of ideas, and the discussion of experiences and efforts concerning the provision of library services in the border regions between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.
FORO objectives include:
- Strengthening links among information professionals concerned with building information bridges across international borders;
- Planning and implement cooperative projects between libraries across geographic borders;
- Facilitating the development of resource networks;
- Introducing librarians to current commercial library products and services;
- Sharing our cultural heritage while promoting literacy and library services.
The 2011 FORO will be held for the first time in Austin, Texas, July 21-23, 2011. Continue reading Time to get FORO on your calendar
Conference at UT Austin to feature experts on digital libraries
This spring, on May 17-18, the Texas Digital Library (TDL) will be hosting the 2010 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries (TCDL) at The University of Texas at Austin. In its fourth year, TCDL provides a forum for TDL members and others to explore issues related to digital libraries and digital scholarship.
The TCDL 2010 conference theme is Collaboration, and the conference program will be packed with experts speaking on issues of partnership and cooperation in the service of advancing scholarly communication.
The TDL is especially excited to announce its two keynote speakers for the event: Dr. Leslie Carr, of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and Dr. Reagan Moore, from the School of Information and Library Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Continue reading Conference at UT Austin to feature experts on digital libraries
February issue of TDL Update newsletter now available
Check out the latest issue of TDL Update (PDF), the newsletter of the Texas Digital Library, to discover the latest news and learn how TDL is working with its members to advance scholarly communications.
The February 2010 issue features the Royce-Darden Gospel Music Collection at the Baylor Electronic Library.
In addition, you’ll find:
- A story on the development of a shared statewide resource for water data and research: The Texas Water Digital Library
- Exciting news about the latest version of Vireo ETD Management software, which is now in the testing phase
- Information about the 2010 Texas Conference on Digital Libraries
- A reminder about Vireo user resources, including video tutorials, a wiki, and a new Listserv
- News about Texas Tech University Libraries’ use of digital scanners
- Information about spring training classes from the TDL
For suggestions about content for the TDL Update, please contact Kristi Park at kristi.park@austin.utexas.edu.
Editors discuss new book on Latino expericence during World War II
The Center for Mexican American Studies hosts a discussion of Beyond the Latino World War II Hero: The Social and Political Legacy of a Generation (University of Texas Press, 2009) with editors Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez and Emilio Zamora today at 4 p.m. at El Mercado Uptown, 1702 Lavaca St.
Beyond the Latino World War II Hero extends on the work of the U.S. Latino & Latina World War II Oral History Project which was founded by Rivas-Rodriguez. The project has interviewed more than 650 men and women of the World War II generation and has multiple components, including a photographic exhibit, a play, three books, and a website which was developed with and hosted by the University of Texas Libraries.
Maggie Rivas-Rodríguez is Associate Professor of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and in 1999 founded the U.S. Latino & Latina World War II Oral History Project. Emilio Zamora is Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of The World of the Mexican Worker in Texas.
Libraries launch online wish list
Making a wish is easy, but getting it fulfilled takes…well it takes you!
The University of Texas Libraries invites you to help us build our library collection by picking an item on our online wish list.
I talk with people all the time about supporting our library. Many of them feel that libraries are very important, but they never think to put their money where their passion is. And when they do they feel that their $150, $400 or $ 1,000 is not really enough to make a difference in the lives of our students and faculty.
The truth is that $150 does make a difference. In the next year, the University of Texas Libraries will add more than 100,000 books to its collection, which will support the learning, research and knowledge of our 50,000 students and Continue reading Libraries launch online wish list
Illinois takes cue from Texas on electronic theses
They say good news travels, and the news about the Texas Digital Library’s Vireo application has made it all the way to Illinois, where the Fighting Illini are finding out what UT Austin already knows – that Vireo can make life easier for graduate colleges and libraries handling electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).
The Texas Digital Library (TDL), headquartered at UT Libraries, is a multi-university consortium that provides shared digital services to institutions of higher learning in the state. UT Austin is a founding member of the organization.
The TDL developed the Vireo application to help graduate schools manage electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), the digital versions of the documents that master’s and doctoral students must submit to obtain their degrees. In recent years, increasing numbers of universities have required students to submit ETDs in addition to (or in place of) paper copies. However, the tools for managing the unique workflow associated with ETDs – the approval process, for example, and the publication of ETDs in a digital repository – haven’t kept up with these changes in policy. Vireo was created to fill this need and is currently in use at UT Austin, as well as several other universities in the state. Continue reading Illinois takes cue from Texas on electronic theses