Purdue Alum to Present Feminist Data Structures, Data Literacy Talk Feb. 23

February 8th, 2017

As the first installment of the 2017 Library Seminar series, Purdue University Libraries will host Purdue alumna Dr. Christine Masters Thursday, Feb. 23, for her talk, “Feminist Data Structures and Data Literacy.” Masters, who earned her Ph.D. in English rhetoric and composition from Purdue, will present her lecture from noon-1 p.m. (Feb. 23) in the SWAIM Instruction Center, located on the fourth floor of the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Education (HSSE) Library (in Stewart Center).

Masters—whose dissertation is titled “Encounters Beyond the Interface: Data Structures, Material Feminisms, and Composition”—published the article “Women’s Ways of Structuring Data” in the November 2015 issue of Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology.

“Just as infrastructures are often invisible, women’s roles within them traditionally have been rendered even more invisible. Whether or not it has been articulated with this particular vocabulary, a goal of feminism has been to make visible our ubiquitous cultural, political, social, and economic infrastructures and the roles of women within them. While infrastructures are usually transparent, the structures within them—including collections of data—can be more consciously designed from feminist perspectives,” Masters explained. “My talk will examine some of the rhetorical and cultural issues surrounding data literacy—a key term that I define as an understanding of how collections of data are compositions that involve rhetorical choices to include or exclude certain criteria. Especially in university settings, we need to understand how data literacy fits into the larger project of information literacy. Students should be encouraged to think about databases and data sets as culturally situated compositions that can either support or work against social justice issues. To this end, I propose ways that educators and information specialists can use rhetorical frameworks to encourage critical analysis of data resources.”

Masters is an assistant professor of English at Francis Marion University, and she coordinates the professional writing program there. She earned her B.A. in English from the University of Washington and her M.A. from Western Illinois University.

WALC Sign in Place

February 1st, 2017

It’s a sign… that the new Thomas S. and Harvey D. Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC) will open in 2017!

Located in the heart of campus, the WALC (when it opens later this year) will serve as a central location for classroom and library space. The 164,000-square-foot facility houses 27 classrooms designed for active learning. Library study and collaborative spaces are interspersed with the classrooms throughout the building. The WALC will be open 24/7 (with some exceptions during the year), and the design of structure creates highly efficient use of university space.

The building will combine six disciplinary libraries (Chemistry; Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences; Engineering; Life Sciences; Pharmacy, Nursing and Health Sciences; and Physics) in the Engineering and Science Library. In planning for the WALC, Libraries faculty and staff consulted learning design expertise, based on the creation and success of current active learning classrooms.

In addition, an Au Bon Pain café and bakery will provide food services on the first floor and will open onto the patio adjacent to the building.

Learn more about the innovative vision for the WALC – “a learning commons for the 21st century” and the first of its kind in higher education – at www.lib.purdue.edu/walc.

You Could Win $1K! “Why I Love Purdue Libraries” Video Contest Deadline Feb. 1

January 26th, 2017

Why do you love Purdue Libraries? Show us in a 1-3 min. video and you could win $1,000. Prizes for second and third place are $750 and $500, respectively.

The deadline is coming fast! Enter your video on or before Feb. 1 for a chance to win.

Complete rules and guidelines available at www.lib.purdue.edu/videocontest.

Below are winners from previous years…

2015

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

2014

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

Open Access Advocate to Speak at Purdue University Libraries Jan. 26

January 20th, 2017

“Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. Open Access ensures that anyone can access and use these results—to turn ideas into industries and breakthroughs into better lives.” — Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)

Long-time Open Access Advocate Ada Emmett will discuss the challenges and opportunities in scholarly communications and Open Access at Purdue University Libraries from 2-3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26 in the Stewart Center, room 313. The event is open free to the public.

In her presentation, Emmett — who currently serves as the head of the University of Kansas Libraries’ Shulenburger Office of Scholarly Communication & Copyright — will talk about the opportunities (on both the national and international scenes), advances made, and the current challenges in Open Access and scholarly communications

Emmett currently serves on the steering committee for SPARC.

“Maps and the Human Experience” Now Open in Archives and Special Collections

January 19th, 2017

Located in the Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center (fourth floor of the Humanities, Social Science and Education [HSSE] Library in Stewart Center), the exhibit features maps, books, documents, and artifacts.

Featured in the exhibit are maps that progress from days of “looking down,” with traditional aerial maps; “looking out,” with the expansion of exploration and technology (such as railroads and canals); and “looking up,” with star charts, flight plans, and lunar maps.

Surveying tools, cloth maps used by a World War II pilot, and map pins used by Lillian Gilbreth, the first female engineering professor at Purdue University, are also included in the exhibit.

For more information, contact Adriana Harmeyer at 765-494-2263.