Three librarians were recognized at yesterday afternoon’s Chancellor’s Years of Service event. Congratulations to Kari Mofford (15 yrs), Bela Gupta (5 yrs), and Jessica Almeida (10 yrs). (Pictured below – left to right)
Kari is the Health Sciences & Engineering Librarian, and Bela is the Metadata & Cataloging Librarian. Both work at the Claire T. Carney Library. Jessica is a Public Services Librarian at the Law Library. We thank them for all their contributions to the University’s teaching, learning, and research activities!
Many recently published theses and dissertations are available electronically through Claire T. Carney Library. You can browse the collection online, search the library’s Primo catalog for a specific title, or use one of the department links below.
New content from the Williams Institute at UCLA has been added to the LGBTQ+ Rights collection available through the HeinOnline database. This database can be accessed through the A-Z database list on the Carney Library website.
“As the newest addition to HeinOnline’s Social Justice Suite, LGBTQ+ Rights is dedicated to charting the gay rights movement in America, showing the civil rights codified into law in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as the inequalities that still exist today. Titles in this collection are grouped into subcollections focused on specific areas of society, examining issues from same-sex marriage to employment discrimination, military service, and more.
A unique interactive piece within this collection is the Timeline charting the American gay rights movement from 1950 up to present day. Pulling in documents from HeinOnline, photographs from the Library of Congress, and YouTube videos, this timeline allows users to both visualize the progression of the gay rights movement as well as how HeinOnline documents connect to this overall historical narrative.” –HeinOnline LGBTQ+ Libguide
We are looking for a Senior Administrative Assistant to join the Claire T. Carney Library staff. Here’s a general statement of duties and responsibilities:
“Provide direct support to the Dean and the Associate Dean in the Library, which includes management of all daily office administrative and fiscal operations. Monitor expenditures to ensure budgetary compliance for all funds overseen by the Dean; prepare, review, and analyze financial reports; prepare and review requisitions, purchase requests, payroll, contracts, etc. Oversee the daily administrative business functions and operations of the library, working in conjunction with the Chancellors’ Office, Provost’s Office, Administrative and Fiscal Services, Student Affairs, Campus Services, Facilities, etc. Coordinate complex and highly confidential administrative functions for the Dean and Associate Dean. Assist and provide guidance to Library Division Heads regarding university administrative and fiscal policies and operations.”
Welcome back for the Spring Semester. We hope you enjoyed the break, and we are excited to have you back on campus!
Here are a few helpful library tips and reminders:
Research Help: Our subject librarians are here to help you find articles, books, and other resources for research projects/papers. Don’t be shy! You can email, chat, text, call, or stop by LIB-233 to connect with one of our librarians.
Get Items from Other Libraries (ILL): If you need articles or books that the Carney Library doesn’t provide access to, request it through interlibrary library loan (ILL). Our ILL department can get you articles, books, and more from libraries across the country and around the world. The best part is there is no extra cost to you.
Equipment Loans: The library loans a variety of equipment including overnight laptops, TI-84 Plus calculators, whiteboard markers, and more. Stop by the 1st floor circulation desk to borrow items.
We are excited to announce the appointment of Judy Farrar as the new Interim Dean of Library Services. Ms. Farrar joined the UMass Dartmouth library in 1996 as the Archives and Special Collections Librarian. As Provost Huang noted in his campus announcement, “Ms. Farrar has seen the Claire T. Carney Library Archives and Special Collections grow exponentially, from less than 100 linear feet to a collection of over 2,000 linear feet. She has been part of major initiatives like the establishment of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese American Archives, the addition of the papers of former Congressman Barney Frank, the acquisition of the Schooner Ernestina-Morrissey Archives, and a major facility renovation.” Ms. Farrar also has a long history of innovation and collaboration with library, campus, and community partners. We look forward to her applying her knowledge and experience in this new role!
The Claire T. Carney Library introduces a student-centric space where workshops will be held to demonstrate online tools and scholarly research methods. Digital Scholarship is a broad concept that refers to using digital platforms and methods to answer scholarly inquiries, conduct research, and create scholarly outputs. The DiSH is a multidisciplinary center that engages with data and digital content. This includes managing data, developing a project, digital mapping, and more. Think statistics, temperatures, product comparisons, finances, rankings – essentially, any scholarly scenario where conclusions can be drawn from organizing and manipulating information in a digital format. The hub offers an opportunity for students to engage with and create knowledge outside of a traditional class setting. It is also an opportunity for multidisciplinary collaboration across campus.
The DiSH is piloting a data workshop series in November called “Fall in Love with Data” where graduate students in the Data Science program will facilitate workshops intended for an interdisciplinary audience. Please RSVP (emma.wood@umassd.edu) to attend a workshop, and join us for snacks and collaboration in a casual setting, room 135 on the first floor of the library. The facilitators of the first workshop in the series, “The Art of Problem Solving,” are enthusiastic about their area of expertise and about sharing their knowledge with others:
“I fell in love with data only when I realized that data is of no use unless you are searching for an answer or trying to solve a problem. Curiosity is my necessity.” – Vijay Mohan Yeddu, Data Science graduate student
“I believe data is the new oil and refining it wisely will supply an abundance of insights which help solve real-world problems!” – Abhiram Raju, Data Science graduate student
Contact Information for DiSH: Emma Wood, Scholarly Communication Librarian Email: emma.wood@umassd.edu Phone: 508-999-8681
International Open Access Week (October 24-30, 2022) is a time to recognize free, accessible information online and to inspire scholars to engage in this advantageous model in scholarship and research. The term Open Access refers to scholarly information that is available digitally free of charge and without other access barriers. Some teaching and learning materials, referred to as Open Educational Resources (OER), are published online under flexible licenses called Creative Commons Licenses that allow for sharing and tailoring the information. This includes textbooks – Yes, we said FREE textbooks. Each day this week we will feature a UMass Dartmouth faculty member who uses OER in their classroom or publishes scholarly work under a Creative Commons license. Today’s UMD faculty member is an instructor who has adopted an Openstax textbook, a digital book which is completely free to students.
David Kagan is a professor of physics who has taught at UMass Dartmouth for about 10 years. The foundational concepts of physics don’t change much over time – gravity and magnetism are quite reliable – but student learning styles and modes of teaching continue to evolve. So to keep students engaged, Prof. Kagan opts for dynamic teaching resources, sometimes replacing a standard reading assignment with a video or seeking interactive ways for students to do assessment and learn the material. In class, Prof. Kagan relies heavily on content that he creates himself such as slides and notes. Like many faculty members, teaching during the pandemic accelerated Prof. Kagan’s multimodal approach because one has to get creative when trying to reach students via Zoom. Prof. Kagan uses a trusted resource from Openstax that carries a Creative Commons Attribution License v4.0, and can be shared and adapted. Students need only visit the website and download the book to have access to the required reading. This OER option is comparable in content to the textbooks by Halliday and Resnick that have historically been the cornerstones of introductory physics classes.
Kudos to Prof. Kagan for seeking cost-savings for students and a dynamic classroom experience! For more information about OpenStax textbooks, check out their website https://openstax.org/.
If you are a faculty member who wants to know more about OER, please reach out to our Scholarly Communication Librarian, Emma Wood.
