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February 23rd, 2023
Humanities, Social Science and Education Library’s Featured Database will give you a very brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. This time we’re featuring African American Poetry database, brought to you by ProQuest.
Link: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/db/db302
Access the databases off-campus with your Purdue login and password.
Focus: This database contains nearly 3,000 poems by African American poets of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This includes the major poets of the nineteenth century, like Paul Laurence Dunbar and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.
Tutorial: Click here see the basics of using the African American Poetry database.
Quick tip: If you look to the right side of the screen, you will notice a list of article titles. These are suggested sources that are compiled from various ProQuest databases that might help with your research. If you scroll down and click on the view all link, you will see their list of suggestions, which may assist in finding additional resources.
Related Resources:
Other databases you might want to explore are:
Black Thought and Culture: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/db/bltc
JSTOR: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/db/db347
February 21st, 2023
This article first appeared in the February 2023 edition of Libraries’ Research Highlight newsletter.
With project funding from the Purdue Innovation Hub, Libraries faculty Heather Howard, Margaret Phillips (project-PI), and Dave Zwicky, with Professor Fred Berry (PPI, School of Engineering Technology), have spent several months hard at work creating a series of information modules, packaged into a new Brightspace course titled “University to Workplace Information Strategies.” The best part about the team’s innovative approach is that these new modules are designed to be foundational, not discipline specific, and can be used independent of one another, providing instructors the flexibility to further develop higher level lessons and assignments relevant to their own discipline and students’ needs.
“The series has a “workplace” focus,” Phillips said, “and we think this will result in graduates who are better prepared for the information demands of today’s workplace environments.” In developing the module content, the team consulted industry leaders with ongoing interest in hiring Purdue graduates, a local entrepreneurship expert, faculty from the Purdue Polytechnic Institute, the Krannert School of Management, and Purdue undergraduate students. “The video modules are also being used at two multinational companies who hire Purdue students to train new hires,” Phillips added, indicating their usefulness to industry.
Students who complete a module earn a digital badge that can be shared with potential employers on their résumés, and through badge compliant platforms like LinkedIn. “In our pilot phase, we integrated the modules into a senior level PPI course and a first year business management course with success,” Phillips said. “We have awarded nearly 1,000 badges to Purdue undergraduate students to date.”
The series currently includes five modules on the following topics:
Each module consists of 6–10 videos, each 3–5 minutes in length, plus short quizzes. Students who watch each video and complete each quiz earn a badge in Brightspace. More information, including sample videos and the ability to sign up for the Brightspace course, is available on the project website: https://sites.lib.purdue.edu/workplaceil/index.php.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, press_release, Research HighlightFebruary 15th, 2023
This article first appeared in the January 2023 edition of Libraries’ Research Highlight newsletter.
At this paradoxical moment in history, more Americans have access to high quality, factual information at their fingertips than ever before, and yet, conspiracy theories and their believers have never appeared more prevalent or more powerful in inspiring grassroots fanaticism. How did this happen, and more importantly, what can we, as educators, researchers, and concerned citizens, do about it?
At Libraries and School of Information Studies, we are actively seeking solutions to the misinformation epidemic. One faculty member at the forefront, Dr. Matthew N. Hannah, is exploring the public impacts of information technology and the way such technology facilitates and accelerates the growth and spread of viral online conspiracy theories. His research focuses on the visual aspects of conspiracy graphics and maps and the role they play in convincing Americans of a conspiracy theory’s legitimacy, the rhetorical and structural elements of social media in spreading mis/disinformation, and the informational dynamics of online conspiracies.
In 2022, Dr. Hannah brought his research into the classroom to engage students in a challenging project with real-world applications. Co-directed with Associate Professor Bethany McGowan (Libraries), “Diplomacy Lab” focused on global mis/disinformation. Collaborating with the Purdue Policy Research Institute and the U.S. Department of State, Dr. Hannah and Professor McGowan led an undergraduate initiative to respond to the information needs of U.S. diplomats in assessing mis/disinformation. While learning to be smarter consumers and creators of information and data themselves, students had the opportunity to design and build an information toolkit for government officials (see the toolkit here) that was well-received by the Department of State.
Building on the success of “Diplomacy Lab,” Dr. Hannah is also leading a research initiative through the Institute of Information Literacy at Purdue, entitled “Information Literacy in the Age of Online Mis/Dis/Malinformation.” This project will bring experts in psychology, political science, computer science, and communications together to develop an information literacy toolkit for the masses, designed to help the public intervene directly when encountering online conspiracy theories. This framework will provide the basis for future toolkits to help de-radicalize conspiracy theorists.
If you are interested in reading more of Dr. Hannah’s work, his research on the conspiracy theory QAnon has appeared in First Monday and Social Media + Society. He has an article focused on online conspiracies and information literacy forthcoming in a special issue of the Journal of Information Literacy, and a chapter forthcoming in the book Extremism and Conspiracy Movements: From the Alt-Right to QAnon (Lexington Books). He is also co-editor with Dr. Christopher Conner (University of Missouri) of a special issue of Frontiers in Communication focused on the public impact of conspiracy theories, entitled “Paranoid Publics: Conspiracy Theories and the Public Sphere.” This semester, Dr. Hannah will teach “American Studies 301: American Conspiracy Theories,” which focuses on the conspiracism pervading American cultural and political life in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (see the syllabus here).
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, press_release, Research HighlightFebruary 10th, 2023
By: Ayn Reineke, in conversation with Professor Sarah Huber
A revolution in creative pedagogy is coming to the third floor of the Wilmeth Active Learning Center (WALC 3007). When the Libraries’ Knowledge Lab opens on February 14th, the Purdue community will have its first opportunity to engage with a brand new conceptual space on campus where students, staff, and faculty can explore a variety of maker tools and materials, get creative, and have fun while turning their ideas into rapid prototypes, podcasts, textile art, and more. Offering tutorials, guidance, and free low-stakes resources such as a vinyl cutter, sewing machine, Riso printer, a podcast booth, heat press, yarn, cardboard, and fabric, it will serve as a first stop in a pipeline of opportunities on campus to fully actualize an idea.
I had the privilege of sitting down with Sarah Huber, associate professor and faculty librarian supervisor of the Knowledge Lab, to discuss the new space in advance of the grand opening celebration on February 14th, 2023.
AR: As a creative person who would have absolutely loved having access to a resource like this as a student, it’s like walking into a toy store as a kid, but even better, it’s all free to use! How did this happen?
SH: That’s great to hear, and just the kind of impression we want people to have coming into the space. The Knowledge Lab is a natural extension of Libraries’ Mobile Making efforts. After five years of developing programming across campus, which included partnering with departments and the Purdue cultural centers, we kept asking, “Why do Making in an academic setting?” We know why people Make in a costume shop or an engineering lab, but why should we encourage and facilitate Making across all disciplines in academia? We realized that we needed space to explore this question in more depth.
AR: Interesting. How do you find an answer to that question?
SH: One experience in particular sparked me to dig deeper into the idea of Making in an academic setting. A couple years ago, I partnered with Dr. Pam Sari from the Asian American and Asian Resource Cultural Center (AAARCC) to host a podcast. The podcast was dedicated to examining the ideas of who is a Maker and what is the definition of Making.
AR: We should pause there. Could you define Making for readers who may not be familiar with the concept of Making with a capital M?
SH: Yes, traditionally, Making included areas such as robotics, 3D printing, and woodworking. It was often associated with males in the STEM fields. That wasn’t always the case in practice, of course, but that’s the reputation it gained.
AR: Thank you. So, what happened on the podcast?
SH: We took it in many fun directions, and I learned a lot. One guest, a PhD candidate at the time, Kadari Taylor Watson, talked about her exploration of African print fabrics as her scholarship. She didn’t want to dilute her work into a journal article—she wanted to present her work in the form of an exhibition, and that would be her scholarship. The episode is called Making with African Print Fabrics. That was it for me, the spark that set us on a path towards the Knowledge Lab.
I wanted our Maker programming to explore the idea of finding the best medium to deliver your content. I wanted us to host a space that facilitates the exploration of different mediums to deliver new knowledge. Plus, there’s no getting around it—it was not easy lugging equipment and materials all over campus. The Knowledge Lab allows us to provide a greater variety of Maker tools that are too heavy or impractical for Mobile Making, like our RISO printer, which is a printer that produces the look of digital screen printing. We’re hoping students will create zines and booklets with it.
AR: Right. I imagine a giant printer doesn’t travel well! In Libraries, we like to say that we are “More Than Books,” and that certainly applies here.
SH: Absolutely! The intention of the Knowledge Lab is for the Purdue community to experiment with different media as a means to express an idea, to test ideas under different circumstances to see what medium best serves that idea in a new and innovative way. We hope it will serve faculty and students as a space for discussions about alternative, non-traditional scholarship that will contribute to Purdue’s knowledge landscape. We want to facilitate a focus on process, not just product, so that an idea isn’t forced into an expected container, such as the traditional expectation of a journal article, but fully realized in a way where the creator and the audience can best connect with the intent and content.
AR: Was the Knowledge Lab inspired by the makerspaces we see popping up in cities around the world?
SH: I would say that we have built on the makerspace principles of building, creating things with your hands, and testing ideas. When people look into a makerspace and see students working through their ideas, I think the word “autonomy” often comes to mind. I think this is a very important facet of makerspaces, maybe the most important. Where we take a step in a different direction, I think, is by challenging students to answer the question, “How can your Making be considered scholarship?” or “How can it lead to a final outcome that is your scholarship?” It’s all about working through the creative process and approaching ideas from new angles, because that’s what drives innovation.
AR: What makes Libraries the best home for a space like this?
SH: As a faculty librarian, this is my elevator pitch, “We used to be the gatekeepers of knowledge, then we became the curators of knowledge, and now, libraries are both curators and facilitators of new knowledge.” Our libraries are inclusive places of information sharing, and the Knowledge Lab allows students and faculty to actively participate in information creation. We see and value students’ creative processes and output, and we want to facilitate and acknowledge their contribution to Purdue’s information landscape.
AR: My understanding is that everyone in the Purdue community can use Libraries resources, regardless of discipline, major, or degree. There’s no gatekeeping, no prerequisites. I imagine that the mission of the Knowledge Lab aligns well with that.
SH: Yes. We want everyone to feel comfortable visiting the Knowledge Lab, exploring their ideas and creative processes, and using our resources. You don’t need to be proficient in a particular software or enrolled in a specific academic program to find a place here. We encourage experimentation and discovery through trial and error because it’s all part of the innovation process. And our staff will help familiarize visitors with the resources we offer, or troubleshoot if they get stuck.
AR: Tell me more about the role staff will play.
SH: The Knowledge Lab Manager, Robin Meher, and her team will be present to help students safely use the equipment, software, and discover the materials to spark their creative thinking. If they’ve never used a particular tool, or simply have a great idea but no clue where to start, our staff is here to help. That said, we also understand that sometimes, you just need time and space to work out a problem or explore an idea independently, and we are sensitive to those needs, too. We are happy to provide as much or as little guidance as our visitors need.
AR: Will there be opportunities for more in-depth instruction if someone wants to build their skills with a particular resource?
SH: Yes, absolutely. We plan to invite campus experts, artists, and I hope, eventually, some of the talented students who use the Knowledge Lab, to give one-hour introductory tutorials and share their own creative and learning processes. Our first KNOW 101 session is already planned for March 9th. I’ll be teaching participants the basics of machine sewing. We’ll be making soft toys for their favorite cats and dogs.
AR: That sounds like a fun way to get comfortable with sewing machines, which, let’s face it, can sometimes be intimidating with their bobbins and needles to thread, and frustratingly vague instruction manuals.
SH: Ha! Yes, and we still have lots of vague instruction manuals throughout the space. The good news is—people will be here to help. Once you de-mystify the equipment for the user, it opens up a world of possibilities for innovation, ideation, and exploration. That’s something that is really important to us in the Knowledge Lab. We have the resources and expertise to help you learn and make things you may have previously taken for granted, like bags with different types of closures—zippers, snaps, buttons, etc. We don’t want any barriers to entry and welcome all ideas, no matter how “out there” you may think it is. We never want anyone to feel intimidated in our space. We are located in a beautiful corner space on the third floor of the Wilmeth Active Learning Center. Between the big sunny windows and the gorgeous views of campus, it’s a warm, welcoming space where we hope to build a community of makers, dreamers, and creative risk-takers.
AR: You mentioned community. With all these cozy nooks and open work stations, the space seems to invite conversation and idea sharing.
SH: Yes! Thank you for pointing that out. We want to encourage and nurture students in developing their ideas in tandem with others. We often focus on the digital, the data-driven. Of course I see the value and the place for that, but Information consumption and creation so often takes place by ourselves, in isolation, and is done almost entirely on screens. The research is there—working with our hands and bouncing ideas off each other helps us both process information and develop ideas. And honestly, it’s just fun. Bring your cup of coffee, sit in our textile section and knit with a classmate, share ideas, and give each other feedback on a way to deliver a math concept through knitting.
AR: Sounds like the Knowledge Lab encourages a much more active, creative ideation process. I’d like to think there could be social and mental health benefits, too.
SH: I hope so. This is a space where students can talk through and explore their ideas without the pressure of a letter grade. It’s just for them, for the benefit of their own creative process and idea actualization. I know for myself, when I work with my hands, it activates something in me that helps calm me and takes my mind off of something stressful I may be going through.
AR: Speaking of letter grades, how will faculty and instructors use the Knowledge Lab?
SH: First and foremost, I hope they come to explore the space. I hope they reach out to me for a conversation on how to integrate Making into their course design. Ultimately, we want this to become a service that the Lab offers in the future. And I’d like them to understand that the heart of this space is inclusion. That inclusion relates to valuing the different ways students exist in the world. So, let’s give them opportunities to express that in the classroom, in their course deliverables, in their scholarship.
AR: How will you assess the impact and learning taking shape here?
SH: I hope the Lab will foster discussions on how to assess diverse deliverables. We know how to assess a paper or a PPT, but how do we assess something Made, something exhibited? Well, we can learn from teaching and learning practices of faculty across different disciplines. I want to make one clarification, though—this effort is not intended to be prescriptive. When I look back on my most impactful instructors, they knew their content well and they taught it in very different ways from one another. I respect that if faculty believe the best way for students to learn a section of their content is through a specific format, their experience and knowledge informed that decision. This space and concept is for instructors who want to experiment with ways to give autonomy to students in their course deliverables.
AR: Having sat through many dry final project slide-based presentations as a student, I can’t tell you how much more engaged I would have been if, after having all learned the same content, my classmates and I were given the freedom to demonstrate our learning proficiency in ways that excited and inspired us as individuals.
SH: Exactly. To take one concept and see it actualized not only in data or a research paper, but also in art, robotics, music, you name it—that depth and creativity breeds synthesis, reflection, and innovation. And once they have taken their ideas as far as they can go in the Knowledge Lab, we will help students confidently connect to other resources for the next phase of their actualization journey on campus, if they choose to take it further. There is no pressure.
AR: So, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey?
SH: Very much so.
AR: Lastly, why should people come to the grand opening on Valentine’s Day? Besides free food and coffee and the opportunity to design the DIY mug of their dreams.
SH: (laughing) Because it’s amazing, of course! Come and see what we’re doing. We want to hear your thoughts, get the conversations, and the Making, started!
AR: Thank you so much for your time.
The grand opening of the Knowledge Lab will take place in WALC 3007, on Tuesday, February 14, 2023, from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. All members of the Purdue community are invited to drop in, explore the space, enjoy snacks, and participate in maker activities. For more information about the Knowledge Lab, upcoming tutorial sessions, and hours, please visit our website at https://www.lib.purdue.edu/KnowledgeLab.
Filed under: events, faculty_staff, general, News and Announcements, press_release, services, WALCFebruary 1st, 2023
The Roper Center for Public Opinion Research has released a new opinion poll database, the Health Poll Database , dealing with health related survey questions. It is included in the Purdue University Libraries’ subscription to the Roper Center’s iPoll Databank .
Filed under: collections, general
January 26th, 2023
Humanities, Social Science and Education Library’s Featured Database will give you a brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. This time we’re featuring Newspaper Source Plus database, brought to you by Alexander Street.
Link: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/db/db234
Access the databases off-campus with your Purdue login and password.
Focus: This database provides more than 860 full-text newspapers, including regional, national, and international newspapers. It also provides newswire coverage, which includes AP Online (Associated Press), Asia Pulse, Canadian Press Wire, and the World Stream Newswires.
Tutorial: Click here see the basics of using the Newspaper Source Plus database.
Why you should know this database: This database provides a full-text digital collection of the world’s major news content. It includes millions of articles from newspapers and newswires and offers television and radio transcripts and ongoing daily updates from popular news sources. provides. In addition, the database has more than 850,000 television and radio news reports.
Quick tip: If you notice to the right side of the screen, you will see a list of tools. On that list, there is a button called “Export.” You can use this tool to download the information directly to the citation management software of your choosing. Popular options include EndNote and Zotero, but there is also a generic option that can be used with other software.
Related Resources:
Other databases you might want to explore are:
ProQuest Newstream: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/db/pqn
NexusUni: https://guides.lib.purdue.edu/nexisuni
January 20th, 2023
Parrish Library’s Featured Database will give you a very brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. This time we’re featuring Hospitality & Tourism Complete brought to you by EBSCO Information Services, a division of EBSCO Industries, Inc.
Hospitality & Tourism Complete covers scholarly research and industry news relating to all areas of hospitality and tourism. This collection contains more than 828,000 records, with coverage dating as far back as 1965. There is full text for more than 490 publications, including periodicals, company and country reports, and books.
The List of Business Databases is the alphabetical list of the databases specially selected for those in a business program of study. Access the databases off-campus with your Purdue Career Account.
Click Getting Started with Hospitality & Tourism Complete to see the basics of using this database.
Some other resources you might want to explore are:
Featured Database comes to you from the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management & Economics. If you would like more information about this database, or if you would like a demonstration of it for a class, contact parrlib@purdue.edu. Also let us know if you know of a colleague who would benefit from this, or future Featured Databases.
Since usage statistics are an important barometer when databases are up for renewal, tell us your favorite database, and we will gladly promote it. Send an email to parrlib@purdue.edu.
Filed under: database, general, MGMTNovember 1st, 2022
International Open Access Week is upon us! Open Access removes “reader pays” access barriers to scholarly research, allowing wider dissemination, access, and use of scholarly works. Scholarly research published using an Open Access pathway is free for anyone to read and reuse. International Open Access Week is an opportunity for academic and research communities to learn about the benefits of Open Scholarship and inspire wider participation in Open Access.
Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies provides support for Purdue authors to participate in Open Access. Through a series of Open Access Publisher Partnerships, Purdue authors can choose to publish openly—at no cost to themselves–in journals managed by our publishing partners. This includes journals published by PLoS, Cambridge University Press, Association for Computing Machinery, and Wiley. In addition, Purdue authors can apply for funding from the Open Access Publishing Fund to cover article processing charges (APCs) in journals that make all their content immediately Open Access. For approved applicants, this fund will cover up to $2,500 toward APCs while funds are available. Details, as well as a link to apply for funding, are available at https://www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess/fund. Questions and requests for in-person question and answer sessions about these agreements can be directed to Nina Collins, Scholarly Publishing Specialist, nkcollin@purdue.edu.
In addition to providing support for born-open scholarship, Purdue Libraries provides support for Green Open Access—archiving works on the institutional repository—and retroactive opening of gated scholarship. A vast majority of publishers support Green Open Access sharing policies. These policies allow authors to post their works to Purdue e-Pubs, the institutional repository for Purdue University. The Purdue e-Pubs team offers a free, publisher sharing policy review service. The team reviews sharing policies of publishers, provides a list of your works that can be opened, and will manage all the uploads and publisher fine print. Purdue authors who wish to retroactively open their works can email a list of publications, or a link to one, to epubs@purdue.edu to request this free service.
Scholarly works posted to Purdue e-Pubs are freely available to a global audience and auto-indexed in Google Scholar, increasing discoverability. Authors receive monthly auto-notices that include COUNTER-compliant usage statistics and access to the Author Dashboard. This provides insights for authors such as where their work is being downloaded and how frequently. Purdue e-Pubs also includes a PlumX Analytics integration. PlumX is an altmetric tracking tool that collects mentions of individual works on social media, blogs, news sites, and more. The Unpaywall browser extension further enhances discoverability of works in Purdue e-Pubs by directing users from the publisher’s version of record to our Open Access version. For further information on Purdue e-Pubs, Green Open Access, or to request a free review of your publications, contact Nina Collins or epubs@purdue.edu.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, News and Announcements, Open_Access, scholcommNovember 1st, 2022
Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies is pleased to recognize two individuals with the 2022 Leadership in Open Access Award: Dr. Harry Denny, Professor of English and Director of the Writing Lab and Dr. Yung-Hsiang Lu, Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. The Leadership in Open Access award is given annually in recognition of exceptional commitment to broadening the reach of scholarship by making Purdue research freely accessible online. This award is granted to nominees who have worked in collaboration with one or more repositories supported by Purdue Libraries, such as Purdue e-Pubs, Purdue University Research Repository (PURR), or Purdue e-Archives.
Denny, along with his fellow journal editors of the Writing Center Journal, successfully transitioned this formerly closed access, print journal to an Open Access journal. The journal was made openly available in Purdue e-Pubs through a partnership with Purdue University Press. In addition to publishing all forthcoming content from the Writing Center Journal, all back issue content has also been made available on the Open Access site and provided with DOIs, making the journal’s legacy stable and globally accessible. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/wcj/
Lu has been the lead organizer of the annual IEEE Low-Power Computer Vision Challenge since 2015. Between 2015-2021, 108 international teams submitted more than 500 solutions. Since 2019, winners have to release their solutions and present their solutions in conference. The winners’ solutions are collected and published in a book “Low-Power Computer Vision Improve the Efficiency of Artificial Intelligence”, Chapman and Hall/CRC, ISBN 978-0-3677-4470-0, February 23, 2022. For transparency, the referee system’s source code as well as reference solutions are released before the challenges (https://github.com/lpcvai). The reference solution serves as the basis for participants to improve upon. Lu is also a strong proponent of Open Access to research software. Each of his research papers is accompanied with a github repository of the software used for generating the data presented in the research paper. Most important, Lu promotes Open Access in his courses. He teaches students the concepts of Open Access and explains the tools for managing Open Access—including software and data. In the past 5 years, more than 1,000 students have learned the skills to manage and share Open Access information.
Dr. Harry Denny and Dr. Yung-Hsiang Lu join the growing list of previous recipients of the Leadership in Open Access Award.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, News and Announcements, Open_Access, scholcommNovember 1st, 2022
Parrish Library’s Featured Database will give you a very brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. This time we’re featuring Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) developed by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Wharton Research Data Services, also known as WRDS, is a data management and research tool that provides single-point access to over 350 terabytes of data across multiple disciplines, including finance, marketing, and economics.
The List of Business Databases is the alphabetical list of the databases specially selected for those in a business program of study. Access the databases off-campus with your Purdue Career Account.
Click Getting Started with Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) to see the basics of using this database.
Some other resources you might want to explore are:
Featured Database comes to you from the Roland G. Parrish Library of Management & Economics. If you would like more information about this database, or if you would like a demonstration of it for a class, contact parrlib@purdue.edu. Also let us know if you know of a colleague who would benefit from this, or future Featured Databases.
Since usage statistics are an important barometer when databases are up for renewal, tell us your favorite database, and we will gladly promote it. Send an email to parrlib@purdue.edu.
Filed under: database, MGMT