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December 6th, 2024
Purdue Libraries, as a result of its membership in the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), has partnered with Google to digitize books in its collection that are rare, out of print, and generally unavailable and are no longer needed in print at its facilities. Google aims to digitize these books from libraries across the world and make them searchable on Google Books to promote accessibility and advance the knowledge of users worldwide.
In September 2021, Libraries began the process of sending books to Google in test shipments to solidify logistics and project workflow. The project officially began in March 2022, and Libraries selected and sent over 40,000 books to Google to be digitized until October 2023. The project was then paused to categorize and move books to Libraries’ repository, and will restart in May 2025.
More about the project
The Google Library Project makes it possible for users to search through millions of books written in different languages via Google Books. If a book from the Library Project is in the public domain, Google will make it fully available to the public to read in its entirety. If a book is not in the public domain, the book will still be text-searchable, but Google Books will only display a few lines of text to show the user where their search appears within the context of the book.
Sometimes rights holders of copyrighted books grant permission to show more than a few lines of text; in those cases, a percentage of pages from the book or the entire book may be available for viewing. Also, if a book exists but has yet to be digitized, basic bibliographic information about the book will be available for users to view.
Google works with a number of libraries throughout the world to digitize their collections—once digitized, the libraries also receive a copy to preserve and make available to their patrons as copyright law allows. To learn more about the Google Library Project, visit its website.
December 5th, 2024
On December 3, Purdue Libraries celebrated the contributions of its faculty and staff at the annual Libraries staff recognition event held in Stewart Center. This long-standing tradition honors those who have demonstrated exceptional service to the Libraries, showcases the creativity of Libraries staff members, and recognizes new hires, retirees, and promotions throughout the year.
The event featured a craft show, where Libraries faculty and staff had the opportunity to browse and appreciate the talents of their colleagues. Handcrafted jewelry, original paintings, crocheted stuffed animals, abstract prints, and more were on display, highlighting the creativity of Susan Zeyher, Jessie Scott, Sarah Merryman, Will Ferrall, Ann O’Donnell, Morgan Richert, and Patricia Swanson.
The event also recognized those who reached significant service milestones in 2024. Employees who have contributed their talents and dedication to Purdue Libraries were acknowledged for their invaluable service. These milestones were a testament to the lasting impact of their hard work and commitment to the Purdue community.
Service recognitions
We are proud to recognize the following staff members for their outstanding years of service to Purdue Libraries. Their years of service enrich the library community and continue to foster an environment of learning, creativity, and innovation.
10 years of service:
15 years of service:
20 years of service:
25 years of service:
30 years of service:
35 years of service:
40 years of service:
November 20th, 2024
Celebrating Research aims to highlight the work, innovation, and dedication of Libraries faculty by providing an opportunity to share their research with colleagues. This year, over 30 Libraries faculty members—and one undergraduate student alongside their Libraries faculty mentor—participated and showcased their work throughout the year. From projects in their beginning stages to those that are completed, faculty members shared what they have been working on and what we have to look forward to in the future.
Those who presented and the topic of their projects include:
One of the highlights from the event included professor Zoe Mayhook and her mentee Christopher Ghita, a Purdue senior majoring in finance, presenting his research. With Mayhook’s guidance and expertise, Ghita worked to research the impact of finance case competitions on undergraduate learning and professional skill building.
When reflecting on his experience working with Mayhook, Ghita said “Zoe is the best mentor I could have had. I’ve never done a lot of research, and her understanding of the literature review side and the analyzing data side has been nothing but valuable to me. It’s been a fantastic experience, and I couldn’t ask for a better mentor.”
Celebrating Research was an excellent opportunity to catch up with faculty and learn about their research endeavors. We are proud of our faculty for their commitment and dedication to research and contributing to their fields of expertise, and look forward to seeing how their work will shape the future of their disciplines.
November 8th, 2024
Purdue GIS Day 2024, with the theme of “Exploring GeoAI,” was a success and brought together over 180 students, academics, and industry professionals in a day filled with insightful talks, poster presentations, and networking opportunities. The event, hosted by Gang Shao, showcased the latest advancements in geospatial analysis and its applications across many disciplines.
The conference featured two keynote speakers—Gregory Brunner, an experienced scientist, award-winning professor, and principal data scientist at Esri, a global market leader in GIS software; and Michael Johns, a lead geospatial product specialist at Databricks, a global data, analytics, and artificial intelligence company. Brunner spoke about the rapid growth of the AI model ecosystem and the potential impact it has and will have on GIS, and Johns discussed how to use Databricks to perform scaled spatial analysis while retaining full visibility and control over all of the underlying processes, code, models, and data lineage. Both Brunner and Johns enjoyed getting the opportunity to connect with students throughout the day and share their insights and professional experience with GIS.
After his talk and having an opportunity to connect with students, Brunner said, “I think they are making the connections between the trends that I’m seeing, the direction Esri is going with GeoAI generative AI and what they’re doing with their own work. I hope that work continues and that they continue to make these observations and connections between what they see going on in the broadview spatial community and how it impacts their research, their work, and their interests.”
The schedule also included 14 five-minute lightning talks, presented by undergraduate and graduate students, demonstrating the depth of our student body’s research and innovation in geospatial fields. Additionally, 21 undergraduate and graduate students presented posters at the event, tying in their respective disciplines to the field of GIS.
“I was really impressed with the quality of the posters and presentations. It feels like there’s a lot of grounding around real-world problems that speaks well of how students are being set up here through the program and I think there’s a lot of good questions that are being asked about how students take what they learned at the university and apply it at the level they aim to achieve,” said Johns, reflecting on his experience viewing the student poster presentations and lightning talks.
We were also honored to hear from industry partners during four research and industry presentations and a career panel discussion that connected the practical applications of geospatial technologies between academia and industry. From learning about how to build an open geospatial data ecosystem to finding and accessing statewide GIS data, the speakers highlighted the relevance of these tools in real-world scenarios.
A special thanks to the following individuals for their involvement, participation, and professional insights shared with attendees during the panel discussion and/or their research and industry presentation:
The day concluded by recognizing the best graduate and undergraduate student who had an outstanding lightning talk or poster presentation. Each winner was presented with a certificate and a $100 reward for their unique contributions to the field of GIS.
Undergraduate award winners:
Graduate award winners:
Congratulations to our winners for their outstanding achievements, and to all of our GIS Day 2024 participants for their commendable successes and contributions to the field of Geographic Informations Systems. As we look forward to another inspiring event, please mark your calendars for next year’s conference, which will be held on November 6, 2025.
Filed under: general, GIS, GIS Day, News and AnnouncementsOctober 29th, 2024
In honor of First-Generation Celebration Week held November 4–8, 2024, Purdue Libraries will showcase valuable insights and advice from faculty and staff on our social media channels, many of whom are first-generation graduates themselves. This annual event is dedicated to raising awareness about the experiences of first-generation college students and promoting a positive narrative about their journeys and achievements.
Each year, Purdue proudly welcomes thousands of first-generation college students to campus, who are typically defined as students whose parents or guardians did not earn a four-year college degree. In 2022, approximately 16% of Purdue undergraduate students self-identified as first-generation. First-gen students bring unique perspectives and insights, and an ever-changing skill set.
Visit the First-Generation at Purdue website for additional information and to learn more about first-generation services, and be sure to follow our social media channels throughout the week to discover inspiring advice and tips tailored specifically to first-generation college students from our dedicated faculty and staff.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsOctober 3rd, 2024
Libraries celebrated Banned Books Week this year by hosting three events—a Banned Books Buffet on September 25, and a community workshop at the West Lafayette Public Library and campus seminar in Stewart Center on September 26.
The buffet featured selections of Purdue Libraries’ collection of banned and challenged books on display for visitors to explore as they stopped by.
Shannon Oltmann, associate professor in the School of Information Science at The University of Kentucky, spoke at both the community workshop and campus seminar. She wrote the book “Practicing Intellectual Freedom in Libraries” and edited “The Fight Against Book Bans: Perspectives from the Field.” Her work has been funded by the American Library Association and the Institute of Museum & Library Services. Oltmann has presented her research at numerous academic and professional conferences and webinars and has published widely.
Attendees enjoyed listening to and gaining valuable insight from Oltmann as she focused her discussion on school, public, and academic librarians, and library workers. She discussed topics such as intellectual freedom, book challenges, creating library politics and training for library workers, censorship, and ways to overcome censorship in society at the community seminar.
At the campus seminar, Oltmann touched on similar topics—intellectual freedom, censorship, and ways to overcome censorship in society—from a student, faculty, and staff perspective.
A special thanks to Shannon Oltmann for sharing her knowledge and insights at both talks, and Melissa Chomintra, Jessie Scott, and Jason Filer for planning and organizing these events.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsSeptember 24th, 2024
On August 8, 2024, Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) became an approved CoreTrustSeal data repository.
CoreTrustSeal approval reflects PURR’s commitment to being a high-quality, trustworthy, and reliable data repository for Purdue researchers and their collaborators. Obtaining this approval is a significant milestone as it provides additional, formal validation of PURR’s compliance with federal funding agencies’ required data repository characteristics. It will be beneficial to the over 5,500 registered PURR users and Purdue researchers submitting data management plans with grant proposals who plan to use PURR for data sharing and preservation.
The certification process involved a thorough written report and subsequent review of PURR’s procedures and documentation by external independent reviewers. To provide transparency, all documentation is available for public consumption.
This approval would not have been possible without efforts from the PURR team—Reid Boehm, research data systems manager; Standa Pejša, data curator and project lead; Jerry Kuang, senior software developer; and Kelly Burns, research data management specialist.
About the CoreTrustSeal
CoreTrustSeal is an international, community-based, non-governmental, and non-profit organization promoting sustainable and trustworthy data infrastructures. It is an industry-standard certification, recognized internationally, and offers any interested data repository a core-level certification based on the Core Trustworthy Data Repositories Requirements that reflect the essential characteristics of trustworthy data repositories.
Filed under: general, News and AnnouncementsSeptember 20th, 2024
Banned Books Week is this week!
This is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. It spotlights attempts to censor books in libraries and schools and brings together the entire book community—librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types—in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas.
Celebrate with us next week by attending these community and campus-wide events:
Banned Books Buffet on Wednesday, September 25, 10:00 AM–5:00 PM in the STEW lobby. Stop by to explore Purdue Libraries’ diverse collection of challenged and banned books, take a selfie with your favorite banned book, and have the chance to win Libraries swag.
Community workshop on Thursday, September 26, 11:00 AM at the West Lafayette Public Library. Join Shannon Oltmann, associate professor in the School of Information Science at The University of Kentucky, as she discusses the basic elements of intellectual freedom, with emphasis on how to implement it into public and school libraries. This workshop is great for school, public, or academic librarians, any library workers, and community members; register now at https://hubs.la/Q02PTvr10
Campus seminar on Thursday, September 26, 4:00 PM in STEW 202. Join us for a Banned Books seminar with Shannon Oltmann. Shannon will be discussing topics such as intellectual freedom, widespread issues of censorship, and ways to overcome censorship in society.
Filed under: general, News and Announcements, UncategorizedSeptember 4th, 2024
Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies will be hosting Faculty Orientation+ on Thursday, September 26, 11:00 AM–1:30 PM on the third floor of the HSSE Library in Stewart Center.
New and returning faculty members are encouraged to stop by and learn about the services and support methods Libraries has and offers. This is an open house-style event with a light lunch offering. Please register today for this informal and informative event.
Discover more about:
August 30th, 2024
Enhance your Purdue experience with a minor in Information Studies offered through Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies. It is more than just a supplementary credential; rather, it is designed to provide students with invaluable insights on how to navigate our increasingly complex information landscape.
Students throughout all academic disciplines can take advantage of and benefit from this new opportunity. Courses for the minor touch on historical, cultural, and ethical dimensions of information—key contexts to consider in all fields of study when learning how to disseminate information.
Students who complete the Information Studies minor will be equipped to:
Specific course requirements cover trending topics ranging from data ethics, misinformation dynamics, online culture, intellectual property, and the transformative effects of technological innovation, which are all trending points of discussion in today’s interconnected, technology-driven world.
Required courses for the minor include:
Required foundation course (3 credits)
ILS 100 Introduction to Information Studies
Choose one of the following courses (3 credits)
ILS 300 Information, Culture, and Society
ILS 301 Data Foundations, Tools, and Applications
Choose courses 10000 level or higher (6 credits)
Any ILS 10000–59999 OR
MGMT 110, MGMT 175, IDIS 201
Choose course(s) 30000 level or higher (3 credits)
Any ILS 30000–59999 OR
BCHM 421 OR CHM 513
View the list of ILS courses here: https://infostudies.purdue.edu/course-listing/
Whether pursuing careers in industry, non-profits, entrepreneurship, government agencies, cultural organizations, or furthering studies in graduate programs, the skills garnered from this minor will serve as a cornerstone for lifelong success.
Visit infostudies.purdue.edu/minor-in-information-studies for additional information, email infostudies@purdue.edu for minor-related questions, and contact your academic advisor to officially enroll in the Information Studies minor.
Filed under: general, News and Announcements