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November 17th, 2017
Assistant Professor and Business Information Specialist Heather Howard’s path to becoming a librarian faculty member at Purdue University Libraries was not as straightforward as some of her fellow colleagues’ routes may have been. The Purdue University alumna (she earned her B.S. in organizational leadership and supervision, with a minor in computer programming technology in 2004) had a varied career before she started at Purdue Libraries in the summer of 2016.
“After graduating, my career was anything but direct. I worked as a restaurant manager, steelworker, advertising account manager, and office manager for a property-management company. In these positions, I was able to hone the skills I had learned in my undergrad program in such areas as talent management, human resources, training and development, and change management,” she explained. “While working towards my MLS [Master of Library Science degree], I started working for Butler University as access services supervisor; then, after graduating in 2014, I took a position as information services librarian at Trine University.”
Now that the multi-talented Howard has landed at the Parrish Library of Management & Economics, it’s no surprise that she has been recognized for her eclectic skill sets and areas of knowledge. Recently, Howard was honored with ATG Media’s “Up and Comers” Award, which is “intended for librarians, library staff, vendors, publishers, MLIS students, instructors, consultants, and researchers who are new to their field or are in the early years of the profession.” This is the first year ATG Media—the umbrella group that includes the Charleston Conference and the Against the Grain news source for librarians—recognized a few individuals with the award.
“Up and Comers are passionate about the future of libraries. They innovate, inspire, collaborate, and take risks. They are future library leaders and change makers,” noted the press release announcing the award winners.
Howard shared more about her work and her love of “connecting people with information” in the brief Q&A below.
Q. How did your recognition in ATG Media’s first-ever “Up and Comers Award” program come about?
Howard: I was nominated by my colleague and fellow business librarian Ilana Stonebraker.
Q. Tell me a bit more about your background and why you decided to pursue a career as a faculty member in an academic library.
Howard: In 2011, I made the decision to attend graduate school. I considered going for my MBA and continuing my work in the business world, but was sidetracked by a friend who was working toward her MLS degree. This was a path I had never considered, but after several long talks with her, I determined it would be a great fit for me, as I have always loved connecting people with information. In the summer of 2016, I started here at Purdue as an assistant professor/business information specialist, which perfectly marries my previous experience with academic librarianship. I’m glad to be back on the Purdue campus after so many years!
Q. What are you working on these days?
Howard: So many things! This semester my time has been taken up with the course I’m teaching in the Krannert School of Management & Economics (MGMT 190), guiding student teams in the Soybean Innovation Competition with their market research, helping students in the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV) program with market research for companies they are starting, helping organize and judge several case competitions, and helping organize the Purdue University Human Library. I am also doing research in the areas of change management in academic libraries, gender parity in academic library administration, social media use by Purdue students, teaching first-year management students about evidence-based decision making, and how the libraries can best serve first-year international students.
Q. As an academic librarian, what do you think are the most important information trends impacting the academic/research library environment?
Howard: I think the open access movement and data management are both areas already changing the nature of academic libraries and will only do so more in the coming years. Additionally, efforts to critically examine our practices (critical librarianship) are working to make our practices, spaces, and resources more inclusive to all our patrons.
Q. Anything else important to include about the award, or anything else you would like to impart?
Howard: I’m honored to win this award and need to give credit to my amazingly collaborative and generous colleagues. I feel very fortunate to be surrounded by such inspirational people and to do work that I love.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, UncategorizedNovember 16th, 2017
Welcome to Database of the Month, a feature from the Parrish Library. Each of these monthly snapshots will give you a very brief introduction to the basic features of one of our specialized subscription databases. This month’s database is eMarketer brought to you by Axel Springer SE.
Focus: eMarketer provides e-business and online marketing statistics, aggregated and analyzed from over 2,800 sources on topics such as market research and trend analysis on Internet, e-business, online marketing, media and emerging technologies.
Link: http://guides.lib.purdue.edu/businessdatabases 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 login and password.
Search: Click here to see the basics of searching eMarketer.
Start with this hint: From the eMarketer homepage, try searching for keywords in the search box, then refine your results by type, geography, publication date, topic, industry, or demographic.
Why you should know this database: eMarketer provides coverage by geographic location on subjects such as mobile, social, digital advertising, demographics, media usage and ecommerce for industries such as advertising, automotive, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, retail, small business, technology, and travel.
Interested in Market Research?
Some other databases you might want to check out, are:
Database of the Month 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 monthly feature.
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, MGMT
November 15th, 2017
On Tuesday (Nov. 14), Purdue University Libraries recognized the research contributions of Libraries faculty members during its annual “Celebrating Research” event. During the celebration, one of the presenters, Associate Professor and Information Literacy Specialist Clarence Maybee, talked about his new book, “IMPACT Learning: Librarians at the Forefront of Change in Higher Education,” which will be available in March 2018.
The book covers how librarians in academic libraries can help enable the success of college students “by creating or partnering with teaching and learning initiatives that support meaningful learning through engagement with information,” states the book’s description on the publisher’s website.
“Since the 1970s, the academic library community has been advocating and developing programming for information literacy. This book discusses existing models, extracting lessons from Purdue University Libraries’ partnership with other units to create a campus-wide course development program, Instruction Matters: Purdue Academic Course Transformation (IMPACT), which provides academic libraries with tools and strategies for working with faculty and departments to integrate information literacy into disciplinary courses,” the description continues.
At Purdue, Dr. Maybee is among the group of faculty members in the libraries and in other academic areas demonstrating the importance of information literacy not only for college students, but also for new graduates and mid-career and long-time professionals–indeed, for everyone.
To create awareness about this importance Maybee, Libraries Information Literacy Instructional Designer Rachel Fundator, with the help of Julia Smith, graduate assistant, and Teresa Koltzenburg, strategic communication director, implemented “Inform Purdue,” a social media campaign to “celebrate information literacy at Purdue. The campaign features interviews with Purdue students, alumni, and faculty in a series of videos and social media posts.
“Purdue Libraries’ approach to information literacy is to teach students to use information in the context of learning about something—much as they will do on the job, or to make personal decisions after graduation,” Maybee explained. “In the ‘Inform Purdue’ campaign, Purdue students, faculty, former faculty, and staff share their own ‘stories’ of teaching and learning about information literacy, and how it helps them to accomplish their educational and professional goals.”
The campaign concludes today with a final video featuring Dr. Maybee (see above).
You can catch more of the videos online at www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfiLH31ZZsO3vwygf_oblFiyZfqZzWV1k or via the Libraries’ news and announcements website at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/inform-purdue/.
Filed under: general, RSRCHNovember 9th, 2017
This blog post is written by Larry Hanover, co-author of Rebuilt from Broken Glass: A German Jewish Life Remade in America (Purdue University Press, July 2017).
Seven years ago, when I proposed to Fred Behrend that we work together to tell the story of a life that changed forever on Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass – I never envisioned it would have much relevance today. I thought his memories and the history etched in the pages of his father’s diary and that of his own were just that … fascinating but somewhat dusty history.
How wrong I was.
Thank God, as we tonight mark the onset of Kristallnacht’s 79th anniversary, we have no reason to think we will see its likes here in America. Yet Charlottesville proved beyond doubt that Rebuilt from Broken Glass: A German Jewish Life Remade in America, is relevant . . . beyond imagination.
Neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacists rallied at the University of Virginia in August, holding torches in the night, intentionally evoking images of Kristallnacht-like terror as they chanted “blood and soil” (an English rendering of a Nazi slogan) and “Jews will not replace us.”
On the night of Nov. 9-10, 1938 then 12-year-old schoolboy Fred Behrend walked to school in Cologne, Germany, to see his own terror and to see his childhood stolen from him. One magnificent synagogue was in flames, and then a second, and then what appeared to be the Jewish school itself seemed on fire as well (it was actually the attached synagogue). He didn’t understand why it was happening . . .
As described in this Chapter 2 (“Kristallnacht and Sachsenhausen”) excerpt:
Before November 7, 1938, no one knew the name of a 17-year-old Polish Jew named Herschel Grynszpan. However, his actions that day marked the beginning of a series of events that changed not only my life but that of every Jew in Germany. Grynszpan, a teenager just five years older than I, was living in Paris when the Nazis decided to arrest and deport all German Jews of Polish origin. Because Poland wanted no part of them, either, they were left stranded in a small town along the German-Polish border. Grynszpan was enraged when he received a postcard from his father informing him that his family members were among the 12,000 Polish Jews trapped in this nightmare.
Grynszpan reacted in a way his father never could have foreseen. He walked into the German Embassy in Paris, said he was a German resident, and requested to see an embassy official. The clerk on duty asked an embassy diplomat, Ernst vom Rath, to speak to him. Grynszpan walked into vom Rath’s office, pulled out a revolver, and shot him five times. Vom Rath died two days later.
This was an act that any respectable, civilized human being would condemn, regardless of the outrages being committed by the German government against the Jews. But the Nazis, not satisfied simply to remove Jews from the nation’s economic machinery, used the assassination as an excuse to proceed with the next step toward resolving the Jewish “problem.” They orchestrated a pogrom on the night of November 9–10, setting out to arrest all Jewish males from the ages of 14 to 83, with the goal of accelerating the widespread Jewish emigration already underway.
This would become known as Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass.” Besides conducting arrests, members of Hitler’s SA (Sturmabteilung) and SS (Schutzstaffel) beat Jewish men and women into a bloody mess, plundering their businesses, breaking their windows, and destroying everything in sight. They did not stop there. The Nazis burned or destroyed 267 synagogues and 7,500 Jewish businesses, and killed at least 91 Jews, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The insanity stood in contrast to the old German saying, “Am Deutschen Wesen, Soll Die Welt Genesen” (The world will benefit from the German character and conduct).
Little did I realize that the insanity had already arrived at our front door in Lüdenscheid. I would only learn the details years later through conversations with my parents and reading my father’s diary.
The greatest terror of all was his father, back at the family home in Lüdenscheid, being arrested and taken to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was released on the condition the Behrends leave Germany forever. They escaped to the only place that would take them – Cuba – until their quota number was called to enter the United States.
So, yes, the book is a remembrance of a history that grows ever more distant, a Holocaust that costs 6 million lives that we must “never forget.”
But there are real-life Nazis out there still, trying to instill terror even though they are small in numbers. There are real-life white supremacists who think they are the master race.
Oh yes, Rebuilt from Broken Glass is a story that, sadly, we need today.
Rebuilt from Broken Glass: A German Jewish Life Remade in America
Purdue University Press, July 2017
Hardcover with jacket, 184pp, ISBN 9781557537843
“[This] powerful book is the story of a boy whose sheltered childhood gave way to hell; of a hard-working family finding refuge, first in Cuba and then in the United States; and of growing up to become a businessman and author with a voice as empathetic on the page as in person. Rebuilt from Broken Glass is, after all, not simply a memoir about family and faith, but a work of history, written by an eyewitness.”
–Philadelphia Inquirer
November 5th, 2017
Many buildings have been part of Purdue’s campus landscape over the years. Some became institutional landmarks while others were here only briefly, built to serve a specific purpose for a limited period of time. Can you identify the structures in this photograph, their purpose, and where they were located? Share your theories in the comments and check back on Friday for the whole story!
UPDATE:
Purdue was a military training location during World War I and men from across the country traveled to West Lafayette before shipping out to other parts of the world. To accommodate the influx of so many new people on campus, many of whom stayed for just a few weeks before being replaced by the next group of recruits, the university constructed temporary military barracks on the north side of campus in what had been farmland. This photograph looks south toward the barracks that sat on the site of the current Mechanical Engineering Building with the tower of Heavilon Hall visible in the background. They were demolished shortly after World War I ended in 1918.
Interior scene of Company 5 Barracks photographed in Fall 1918.
Please join us again for our final From the Archives photo of the year on Monday, December 4.
Filed under: general, SPECNovember 3rd, 2017
An assignment to find research about a particular drug ultimately changed the way Cameron Pate–a 2017 Purdue University pharmaceutical sciences graduate–searched for information during his studies at Purdue.
Pate, who recently started a new job with the Dow Chemical Company in Indianapolis, said, for this particular assignment, when he had exhausted Google, he headed to Purdue Libraries.
“Thankfully, personnel at Purdue Libraries showed me the access I had to vast electronic resources, including several well-respected research article databases, because of my Purdue student status. This fundamentally changed how I would search for information the rest of my college career and helped me tremendously,” he noted.
Pate also learned to apply his information literacy skills to other aspects of his college career, including how to get the most of out a job search. As part of the Inform Purdue Information Literacy campaign, Pate talks about how he used information to maximize his job search in the video below.
To see more from Inform Purdue, visit https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/inform-purdue/.
Filed under: generalNovember 2nd, 2017
An Open House and Reception for the “Missing You: Navigating Amelia Earhart’s Last Flight and Enduring Legacy” exhibition at Purdue University Libraries’ Archives and Special Collections (ASC) is set from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18. The ASC is located in the Humanities, Social Science, and Education (HSSE) Library, Stewart Center, on the fourth floor.
The family-friendly event will offer activities for kids and a chance for individuals to visit the “Missing You” exhibit before it closes Friday, Dec. 8.
Refreshments will also be served, and paid parking will be available in the Grant Street Garage across the street from the Purdue Memorial Union.
For more information, contact Tracy Grimm at grimm3@purdue.edu.
Filed under: events, general, press_release, SPECOctober 26th, 2017
Suresh V. Garimella, Executive Vice President for Research and Partnerships and the R. Eugene and Susie E. Goodson Distinguished Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, was honored with the 2017 Leadership in Open Access Award from Purdue University Libraries and the Office of the Provost Monday, Oct. 23.
This week (Oct. 23-29) academic institutions and libraries across the globe are celebrating the benefits of Open Access for research and scholarship during the 10th annual International Open Access Week commemoration.
According to Dean of University Libraries James L. Mullins, Garimella was selected to receive the recognition this year for leading by example in the Open Access movement at Purdue University. Garimella has more than 400 works posted in the Purdue e-Pubs repository, which have been downloaded close to 256,500 times.
“Dr. Garimella has demonstrated leadership in Open Access to Scholarly Publications by depositing his numerous papers and articles, consistent with copyright and contractual agreements, into Purdue e-Pubs. Therefore, we present the 2017 Leadership in Open Access Award to him in recognition of his outstanding leadership and continued partnership with Purdue e-Pubs to increase visibility of scholarship at Purdue,” Mullins noted.
“It is a great honor to be recognized for our research group’s commitment to Open Access. I am deeply thankful to the scores of students in my group who, over the years, have contributed to the impactful publications that have been eagerly downloaded through the University’s excellent Purdue e-Pubs portal,” Garimella said.
Since 2012, Purdue e-Pubs has close to 15,153,000 downloads from users all over the world, with the average download rate of 2,256,893 per year.
“Dr. Garimella embodies the spirit of the land-grant institution through his work to make scholarly research widely available,” said Jay Akridge, interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Diversity. “I congratulate him and all of the students in his group who contribute to global learning by broadening the reach of scholarship.”
For more information about Open Access at Purdue, visit www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess. Learn more about Purdue e-Pubs at http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, press_releaseOctober 24th, 2017
Kenny Nguyen (Hilliard, OH), a Purdue University senior majoring in neurobiology and physiology, knows something about applying classroom learning to real-life research work.
“Taking joint lecture-lab science courses not only taught me about the life cycle of cells, but also how to raise them in a real research environment,” he noted.
In 2015, Nguyen experienced a “real” research environment, when he was selected as a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship intern and received the William H. Phillips Undergraduate Research Grant from the Purdue Department of Biological Sciences. In addition, he completed an internship at the National Institutes of Health.
In the Fall 2016 edition of JPUR (Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research), Nguyen published “Degeneration of Neuronal Mitochondria in Parkinson’s Disease” (p. 41), the result of his studies examining “the degeneration of mitochondria in neurons and the implications in Parkinson’s disease.”
The information literacy skills Nguyen — who plans to pursue an M.D. or a Ph.D. in the medical field — has developed in his coursework at Purdue has led to his successful research, publishing, and internship endeavors outside of the classroom.
In his answers below, Nguyen talks about the ways he has learned to use information in his undergraduate studies at Purdue, as well as why it will be important for him to continue to develop his information literacy skills throughout his career in the medical field.
Q. What ways are you learning to use information at Purdue that will be useful for your future professional (or personal ) endeavors?
Through Purdue, I am learning how to apply the information I have learned in the classroom into real-life work directly, such as research or in medical centers. These skills will be vital to me in my future career in the medical field, in which physicians are expected to be updated continually on the progress of medical technology, news, and research. I will be expected to understand these findings and apply them directly to my work. I believe that my time at Purdue has strongly prepared me for my future profession.
Q. Describe a time when you learned to use information in a new way to help you accomplish something.
I used to be the managing editor for the “Purdue Review, Inc.,” the premier campus news magazine. In 2015, we decided to venture onto the online platform to provide news for students in a more easily accessible, convenient manner. None of the members in our organization had knowledge on developing a website, so we used the information and resources available to us for our advantage.
The design team had to learn to design not only magazine spreads, but also online pages, and the writers had to learn how to write articles in a succinct, eye-catching manner that is more suitable for online. And I learned how to upload news articles online and manage the operations of the website.
I had knowledge on how to use Microsoft Office, and by applying the information and skills that I was already familiar with, I learned to effectively use an online software that was entirely new to me.
Q. Have you learned to use information in a course that you have applied to a different situation?
During my freshman year I took a course called COM 217, “Science Writing and Presentation.” In this course, I learned the basics of presenting science to informed and lay audience members, how to craft compelling and informative posters, and write science articles. I used the skills and information I learned in this course to present my research poster for the first time at the Purdue Undergraduate Research Symposium, and publish my work in the 2016 edition of JPUR. Had I not taken this course, I would not have known how to present science, both orally and through writing, effectively.
Filed under: general, UncategorizedOctober 23rd, 2017
Clubs have always been an important part of student life at Purdue. This photo provides a glimpse into the activities of one club and includes its most famous member. Can you identify the club and one of the men in this image?
Share your theories in the comments and check back on Friday for the reveal!
UPDATE:
Neil Armstrong, Purdue class of 1955, was an active member of the Purdue Avionics Club, also known as the Aero Club or Aeromodelers. In the mystery image, Armstrong (right) and fellow club member Frank Claire wear Purdue Aeromodelers t-shirts as they stand among partially assembled model airplanes and parts at Purdue.
Armstrong put his aviation skills to good use as a test pilot before entering the astronaut program and becoming the first man to walk on the moon.
Test Pilot Neil Armstrong poses here with the X-15 rocket plane after a research flight in 1960.
Original X-15 photo courtesy of NASA. Aeromodelers photograph courtesy of Andrew Claire.
Filed under: general, SPEC