Month: February 2017

At Burns Library, commemorations of the Irish Rebellion of 1916 began early in 2016. The acquisition of the Loretta Clarke Murray collection, which provides a unique perspective of the Irish nationalist movement through the eyes and words of female activists, along with the Thomas and Kathleen Daly Clarke papers lent significant impetus to create an exhibit based on women’s involvement in the revolutionary period, 1900-1923.

Items on display reflect issues and events leading up to the Easter Rising of 1916, the ensuing Anglo-Irish War, and the Civil War that took place after the much contested 1921 Treaty with England. A handwritten journal from Margaret Skinnider, a combatant in the Rising in Dublin, is featured, as are: two versions of the constitution of Cumann na mBan (Irish Women’s Council, a sister organization to the Irish Volunteers); memorabilia from activist groups such as Inghinidhe na hEireann (Daughters of Ireland), co-founded by Maud Gonne; and autograph books circulated by women who were imprisoned during the Civil War. Several brooches—some styled after the Tara brooch, another incorporating a rifle and the abbreviation for Cumann Na mBan—materially represent the organizations that arose during this period of cultural and political activism. A particular highlight is a large and colorful embroidered panel featuring the Four Jewels of Ireland that was designed and executed by Maud Gonne.

In the years leading up to 1916, Irish nationalists sought to create an independent identity for Ireland in opposition to British rule. Individuals and groups looked back to a perceived golden age in literature, visual arts, language, crafts, athletics, and folklore. A great sense of national pride drove their politics, and eventually led some to engage in violent rebellion. The cultural revival fed into the ideologies of rebellion leaders and those committed to following them. The language of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic issued on the eve of the Rising in April 1916 reflects the passionately patriotic mindset: “In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.” An original copy of the Proclamation, on loan from The Irish National Famine Museum in Strokestown, Ireland, is also on display thanks to support from the Irish Heritage Trust.

Two events have been held in conjunction with the exhibit. On November 18, collector Loretta Clarke Murray visited and was on hand for a reception and discussion co-sponsored by Burns Library and The Eire Society of Boston. The discussion, facilitated by Burns Visiting Scholar Louis de Paor and BC English professor Joe Nugent, focused on the continuing importance of the Irish language. On February 3, Lucy McDiarmid, the Marie Frazee-Baldassarre Professor of English at Montclair State University, gave a luncheon talk titled “Fairies, Rebels, and the Boundaries of the House in 1916” based on her award-winning study At Home in the Revolution: What Women Said and Did in 1916.

Burns Library has continued to reach out to interested audiences by highlighting a few of the leading women of the Irish Rebellion in a series of entries on the John J. Burns Library blog. The posts have allowed us to provide more extensive information about these extraordinary women than could be contained in the exhibits panels and to reach those who cannot visit in person.

The exhibit has also offered students the opportunity to gain further insight into the time period. At least seven classes have visited the exhibit so far. Feedback from students and other visitors has been rich and varied.

Katherine Oksen, student assistant to Burns Library Conservator Barbara Adams Hebard helped to create mounts for items in the exhibit. Oksen wrote a blog post about the pieces of jewelry she worked on, and commented:

“The opportunity to be able to work on the Irish Women Rising Exhibit was rewarding in that it took elements of events that I had been learning about in my history class and expanded on it, while simultaneously zeroing in on the people my textbooks have tended to ignore. While it would be naive to declare that I can understand exactly what these women went through, I was given a fresh set of stories and materials to at least try to. I really loved having my work and my studies complement each other.”

Catherine McKenna, the Margaret Brooks Robinson Professor of Celtic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University and department chair, remarked after bringing students from her “Ireland Rising” course to see the exhibit:

“[They] couldn’t stop talking … about the dozens of interesting things they’d seen and learned. And as for me, it was a revelation—Mollie Gill, Margaret Skinnider, about whom I’d known nothing at all…”

In addition to showing previously unknown documents and artifacts associated with prominent Irish women activists, the exhibit also brings to light roles played by lesser known women, thereby enriching our understanding of the significant but often overlooked contributions that hundreds of women made to Irish nationalist movements during the early decades of the twentieth century that ultimately led to independence from Great Britain and the establishment of the Republic of Ireland in 1949.

Irish Women Rising: Gender and Politics in Revolutionary Ireland, 1900-1923 will be on display at Burns Library through March 25, 2017.

On Thursday, February 23rd, University Librarian Tom Wall hosted a fireside chat in the O’Neill Reading Room on Maintaining Community Throughout Difficult Conversations. This conversation engaged panelists Tom Mogan, Associate Vice President/Dean of Students; Vincent Rougeau, Dean of the Law School; and Anthony Penna, Associate Vice President of Mission and Ministry. The four campus leaders discussed the state of civil discourse in today’s society and the role that educators here at Boston College can have in improving communication and preparing students to participate productively in difficult conversations throughout their lives.

Tom Wall initiated the session by asking panelists about their respective experience of community at  Boston College and how they see it being challenged by the current political climate. Each of the speakers noted the strength of BC’s sense of community and the work  undertaken to strengthen this through personal interaction. Fr. Penna commented on how much the school has changed in the last 25 years and emphasized that the faster pace of life has contributed to many students existing in narrow “orbits” that might prevent them from developing the deepest possible sense of community. He advocated for stepping outside the comfort zones saying that “sometimes it is good to disrupt your orbit” whether you are a member of the faculty, a student, or a staff member.

This led the discussion to a perceived loss of the “art of listening” and the impact of social media on how conversations happen. Dean Rougeau noted that most students have never known a world without social media, which contributes to a sense that there is no down time and no opportunity to step away from the flow of content and pressure to respond. He noted that “It takes away critical aspects of human interaction – the ability and the responsibility to understand non-verbal communication and contextualize comments. Thinking before you speak.” He sees a role for faculty in helping students to learn other ways of engaging in conversation and communication. Dean Mogan observed that it can be difficult to reach students beyond a specific core group that may not normally engage with these types of topics. Fr. Penna mentioned trying to pull students out of social media to connect with people in person, but also noted that students find value and community in online spaces as well.

Tom Wall next raised the issue of how to tackle complex issues, which are often over-simplified online or encounter an anti-intellectualist pushback. Dean Rougeau noted that the anti-intellectualist current has a long history in the U.S. and that educators must work to give students the tools to think about and discuss controversial topics logically and rationally. Boston College offers opportunities for just this sort of development not only in the classroom, but also in extracurricular life as Dean Mogan noted. This led naturally into a discussion of objective truth and “fake news”, which everyone agreed is a difficult and timely problem that demands educators model shared practices in both finding reliable information and coming to shared understandings on complex and controversial topics. Finally Tom Wall asked about whether Boston College’s focus on student formation offers an opportunity to improve civil discourse. Dean Rougeau felt that this and Boston College’s religious foundation provides a strong set up values that can serve as a crucial basis of future development and growth throughout life.

The conversation ended with an opportunity for members of the audience to ask questions, which led to further discussions of the way that some national characteristics of the United States, such as individualism and suspicion of intellectualism contribute to these issues, how these important topics can be integrated into the curriculum more effectively, and the role of student protest on campus. Afterwards, attendees had the opportunity to continue the discussion with the panelists during a reception.

The cost of textbooks and course materials is a well-known issue both here at Boston College and throughout higher education. Research suggests that about one-third of high financial need students at Boston College don’t buy any course materials and the cost, which can be over $1,000 per semester, can be a strain for other students as well. For the third year in a row, the Boston College Libraries and the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), with the support of the Provost, will be offering small grants to support full-time faculty who wish to use affordable course materials in their curriculum in an effort to address these issues. These new curriculum resources may be any combination of newly-created materials, publicly accessible resources, and items to which Boston College Libraries subscribe. Recipients of these competitive grants will receive $2,000 and the assistance of a team of library and CTE staff who can help them to prepare their new curriculum.

If this sounds like an interesting opportunity, please register to attend one of the Affordable Course Materials Initiative information sessions to be held on March 14 from 10-11 am (Please Register) and March 15 from 2-3 pm (Please Register). At these sessions, you will hear from librarians and CTE consultants who will be available to discuss:

• an overview of the initiative and support available for faculty
• locating open educational resources
• copyright and licensing issues
• accessibility concerns
• creating a sustainable curriculum
• managing resources in Canvas
• assistance with creation of new content

When you are ready to prepare your grant proposal, please refer to our guide to the Grant Process for the complete details and a link to the application form. The deadline for submission of grant proposals is April 12, 2017 and awards will be made in early May. Please note that preference will be given to faculty to who plan to implement the new curriculum no later than Spring 2018. If you have any further questions, please contact your subject liaison for more information.

I started at BC eight years ago this spring. At that time, we had virtually no digital presence, and certainly no digital initiatives or programs. Now, as I consider my comments for the BC Libraries Spring Newsletter, I’m struck by the fact that almost all the articles revolve around digital programs and/or content in some way. Moreover, the delivery of the Newsletter is now entirely digital. Does this mean libraries are becoming only digital? Not at all.

In 1978, Frederick Lancaster wrote a provocative book entitled Toward Paperless Information Systems. Around that time, many people were predicting the demise of libraries, and one could argue that for much of the 1980’s that seemed like a real possibility. Then the idea of “Library as Place” began to germinate, perhaps partly inspired by the trend in bookstores offering open comfortable spaces for potential customers to read and relax in, and continuing as expectations of information service evolved, exemplified by the success of the Apple Store “Genius Bar”.  I was fortunate to be at the vanguard of the transformation of library spaces throughout that time. Academic library spaces were becoming centers, places where students and faculty could meet and collaborate, access scholarly resources and research support, attend lectures and events, and learn from the early computing programs and resources available.  In essence, the library became a destination for all things academic and a place to see and be seen.

These trends in transforming library spaces have continued throughout academic and public libraries, and we have been active in incrementally making similar changes here at Boston College. We have remained committed to print resources while introducing a variety of digital initiatives and services that integrate well with traditional services and allow us to expand the reach and impact of the work done on campus. In fact, folks should realize that much of what makes libraries successful goes on behind the scenes in the form of technical and technology services which in turn make items, both digital and print, easier to find and use from any location. At the same time, the physical library provides the tools, collaboration spaces and services for students and faculty to better discover, present and create using the vast amounts of content available through the BC Libraries. The positive reception of such changes at BC is evinced by the tremendous increase in the number of visitors to the library, up nearly 200% since 2009.

I’ve never been more excited about the role of the BC Libraries in providing services, spaces and content to our community and the global academic community. We have recruited staff from the best universities and research centers in the world, while developing strong, committed teams. We have become leaders in establishing undergraduate use of special collections; developed an increasingly global library in support of our unique content and mission; provided robust and collaborative digital scholarship opportunities; and maintained rock solid operations from a number of unsung heroes throughout the library. We continue our commitment to trying new things, exploring interesting ideas and taking strategic risks. Most of all, we greatly value input from all of you. Throughout the spring, we will be reaching out to the community to gather your ideas and perceptions of the Library and our services. If you have comments or suggestions in the meantime, we encourage you to reach out to the library staff directly or through our feedback form. We take your feedback seriously as we strive to live up to the BC motto of “Ever to Excel”.

How can you properly study an author whose collected works have not been reprinted in nearly a century and a half?

Digitize them.

What if they comprise 28 oversize volumes?

Digitize them. All of them. The two volumes of indexes included.

In 2011, the Boston College Libraries Digital Library Programs did just that for the “opera omnia” of the Spanish Jesuit philosopher and theologian Francisco Suárez (1548–1617), which were last published in Paris between 1856 and 1878.

When Robert Maryks, an associate director of the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Jesuit Studies, arrived at Boston College in 2013, he took note of this achievement and encouraged the Libraries to also digitize earlier printings of Suárez’s works so that their editorial history could be critically examined. With the 400^th anniversary of Suárez’s death approaching in 2017, and an accompanying resurgence of interest in a thinker who pivoted medieval Scholasticism toward modern concepts of the individual and society, Maryks contended that Boston College could contribute much to contemporary scholars’ investigations of Suárez by making the older editions of his works more accessible, digitally.

Burns Library holds the most extensive collection of Jesuit philosophical and theological works in North America, so it could provide a ready supply of rare, early copies of Suárez’s works for the project.

A prospective list of 49 titles in 121 volumes was generated by Head of Digital Library Programs Betsy Post in May 2014. Maryks reviewed and approved the list, and the scanning soon began. About half of the volumes, the sturdier ones, were sent to Internet Archive scanning team at Boston Public Library. Over the years, the Libraries have contracted with the team to scan thousands of books.

Some of the Suárez volumes were too bulky or too fragile, and so were scanned by Libraries’ staff on the Atiz scanning station in Burns Library. The Atiz has a pair of Canon EOS 5D Mark II cameras that capture double-page openings at 375 pixels per inch. Digital Content Specialist Cheryl Ostrowski logged 384 hours capturing a total of 45,682 pages from 63 volumes—an impressive rate of 119 pages per hour. Imaging Assistant Naomi Rubin managed a group of nine students who devoted another 802 hours to “post-processing”—straightening and cropping images to correct alignment issues caused by the special propping needed to gently open the antique bindings for scanning.

Several other Libraries’ staff contributed their time and expertise to the project as well, in particular Digital Production Manager Bill Donovan and his successor Chris Mayo, Conservator Barbara Hebard, and Rare Book Cataloger David Richtmyer.

By August 2016, the last of the volumes had been scanned. The final tally: 44 titles in 119 volumes, all of which can be freely viewed and downloaded via the Internet Archive website as well as the HathiTrust digital library. Records in the Libraries’ own catalog contain links to the online versions as well as call numbers for the original copies, which may be consulted in the Burns Library Reading Room.

Francisco Suárez Collection on the Internet Archive

Quick stats:

• 44 titles in 119 volumes published between 1599 and 1878
• 24,745 page views as of January 1, 2017

Already, Internet Archive statistics suggest a story of scholarly use. Collectively, the 28 volumes comprising the Parisian Opera omnia edition have received more than 18,000 pages views since they went online in 2011. The more recently added volumes—all of which represent earlier editions of treatises included in the Opera omnia—have received another 6,000 page views. This last figure could indicate that some researchers are comparing the transmission of texts through successive printings.

Suárez is not an easy thinker to penetrate, yet his influence has been wide-ranging and far-reaching, leaving its marks on philosophers more commonly associated with modern thought such as Descartes and Leibniz, Locke and Heidegger. For historians of Jesuit intellectual culture like Maryks, Suárez embodies elements of “Jesuit distinctiveness,” which make him all the more interesting to scholars today whose inherently interdisciplinary approaches bring sociological concerns to textual analysis. Providing digital access to a comprehensive corpus of Suárez’s works in their various editions can render such investigations more practical and more fruitful.

To commemorate the 400^th anniversary of Suárez’s death and bring renewed attention to his legacy, the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies is co-organizing a symposium on Suárez and early modern Jesuit philosophy in Seville, Spain, in 2018.

You will soon have a new way to distinguish yourself and your work from all others.

Boston College has become a member of the ORCID (Open Researcher & Contributor ID) organization. When you register for an ORCID (a process that takes about one minute), you receive a unique researcher identifier. At Boston College, the Provost’s Office, Information Technology Services and the Libraries are joining forces to provide a new interface for faculty, researchers and students to register for an ID and associate it with their Boston College identity.

One of the primary problems ORCID solves is name ambiguity. Research queries turn up articles by authors of the same name, across a wide variety of disciplines. This issue plagues researchers and university tenure committees alike and the problem increases as interdisciplinary work becomes more common. The ORCID ID is a unique, persistent number that identifies and travels with the researcher through changes in institution. It is not affected by name changes, cultural differences in name order, inconsistent use of initials, or use of different alphabets.

Importing publication data using other system IDs (such as Researcher ID) and databases (such as Scopus) is easy and ORCID tracks 37 types of works – including not just text but datasets, performances and artworks, making it a system that can be used by all disciplines.

This ID will:

• Serve as a unique, persistent identifier for you throughout your career across institutions and disciplines
• Distinguish your work from others’ in the field and give it greater visibility
• Allow you to create a profile that connects all of your scholarly output with your ID, including non-traditional works
• Streamline submissions to publishers and grant funders, who increasingly integrate ORCIDs into their processes and send data to your profile
• Automate annual reporting in systems that offer ORCID integration, such as Data 180
• Give you control over what is made public, private, or available only to trusted parties

The benefits for Boston College include accurate, up-to-date information on scholarly output and the ability to follow the careers of our scholars and graduates.

We hope to roll out this new interface later this Spring. In the coming months, the Boston College Libraries will offer opportunities for you to learn more about ORCID. You will be able to register for an ORCID ID linked to your Boston College credentials, or to link an ORCID you already have.

In the interim, please read more on the Libraries’ ORCID webpage.

The Boston College Libraries make it possible for senior thesis students to archive their faculty-approved projects in eScholarship@BC, the Libraries’ digital repository.  Archiving the work in the repository affirms that Boston College takes seriously the endeavors of seniors as aspiring scholars.  The archive can be helpful to academic departments in documenting the accomplishments of their students, and in providing references and examples to future thesis writers. Faculty encouragement of senior thesis writers to place their work in the repository should add incentive for students to take their projects seriously and to adhere to the standards of proper scholarship.  Students who undertake thesis projects, knowing that their work will be available to the wider scholarly community, could be impelled to higher levels of academic achievement.  Additionally, students who give access to their theses beyond Boston College can include the permanent web address in their résumés for potential employers. Academic departments and their students can thus benefit from having theses archived in eScholarship@BC.

The eScholarship@BC program makes possible the preservation of the thesis work of undergraduates as part of the University’s institutional record.  Archived theses are accessible either openly via the internet, or on Boston College campus premises only.  Students, with guidance from their faculty advisors, can elect the most suitable type of access on the thesis deposit form.

The Libraries support thesis students who take advantage of the eScholarship@BC program in many ways, including research assistance provided by subject librarians during the writing phase, and procedural aid when the time comes for actual submission into the repository.

Guidelines and instructions for submitting a thesis to the repository can be found on the   Undergraduate Theses Submission Guidelines page.

Examples of undergraduate theses archived in eScholarship@BC at present can be seen here .

Questions regarding the undergraduate thesis deposit program may be directed to Lopa Williams at lopa.williams@bc.edu .

The Digital Scholarship Group at O’Neill Library is excited to announce the recent addition of three new members. Sarah Melton, the Head of Digital Scholarship, joins BC from Emory University’s Center for Digital Scholarship in Atlanta, Georgia. Stephen Sturgeon is the new Senior Digital Scholarship Librarian and English Bibliographer and comes to BC from the University of Iowa Libraries. Joining the group from Wake Forest University Libraries is Chelcie Rowell, BC’s new Digital Scholarship Librarian and History Bibliographer .

The Digital Scholarship Group helps faculty and students reimagine their research and teaching to incorporate emerging technologies and innovative techniques. Faculty can partner with the team to build web exhibits, maps, and other digital projects. In addition to one-on-one consultations, the Digital Scholarship Group offers workshops and training opportunities throughout the semester, such as the Coffee & Code series that introduces participants to technologies and methodologies.

This semester, the group will offer workshops on making maps online, building digital exhibits, managing your research data, and more. All Coffee & Code sessions take place in the Digital Studio in O’Neill Library and are free and open to the public.

• The February Coffee & Code event will teach participants how to use data to make maps online. For participants interested in visualizing historical data for humanities or social science projects or classroom use, the workshop will introduce the basics of using geographic data to create a map with Carto, a web-based mapping and analysis tool. The workshop will be held on February 9 from 11-12:30 pm.
• If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to create digital exhibits, Anna Kijas will lead a workshop on Omeka in March. Omeka is a free software that allows users to upload, tag, and arrange items into collections and exhibits.
• April’s Coffee & Code will introduce participants to textual analysis using the free citation management software Zotero and the visualization plugin Paper Machines. By the end of the session, you’ll be able to recognize whether or not the text of a PDF can be read by computers, create visualizations of large collections of items in your Zotero library using Paper Machines, and frame a research question that visualizations created using Paper Machines could help to answer.

For more information about these and future workshops, please visit the Digital Scholarship Events page.

The Digital Scholarship Group looks forward to getting to know you! Subscribe to the digital scholarship newsletter to learn more about our projects, activities, and events.

Thanks to a recent Academic Technology Innovation Grant (ATIG) and invaluable assistance from Brian Zimmerman of the First-year Writing Program, the BC Libraries have created and launched a series of Library Core Skills videos that introduce students to the basics of research and citation management, along with short quizzes to test knowledge and skills. All eight videos, housed in YouTube, are available both through the library website and through Canvas Commons; any video or quiz can be added to a Canvas course with just a few clicks.

Teaching librarians developed the tutorials in response to a growing recognition that they weren’t consistently able to reach all students with short courses in core library skills. The majority of students receive at least one library session as part of their First-year Writing Seminars, but many students are exempted from FWS because of advanced placement scores or transfer credits. Other students also may wish to review skills on their own. Tutorials include an introduction to the libraries, using the catalog and databases, advanced searching techniques, focusing research, citation management, evaluating internet resources, and identifying primary and secondary sources.

Production of the “Introduction to BC Libraries” video actually predates the rest of the project by a year; it began in Spring 2015, when a talented group of students and an ITS Help intern collaborated on the concept, and then storyboarded and shot the project, with oversight and scripting assistance from librarians. Creating the bulk of instructional videos began during the 2015-16 academic year with careful planning of learning outcomes, taking into account library learning goals, FWS goals, prerequisite skills for learning advanced research for upper-level courses, and information literacy frameworks developed by the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL).

Beginning in summer 2016, the production team developed script ideas in collaboration with Brian Zimmerman, a senior instructor for FWS. Brian then drafted  scripts for each of the videos, which were in turn reviewed by the entire production team. Each script went through the same intensive iterative drafting process. Brian then created video by capturing screen content with Camtasia and other screen capture tools, and by creating and altering images in Powerpoint and Photoshop. For much of the summer, he was the heaviest user of Digital Studio equipment, staff, and resources. Steve Runge, meanwhile, recruited student employees in the libraries and other departments to create voice narration with the new sound room in the Digital Studio.

Though the whole team participated in the drafting process, each video was directed by a librarian who took responsibility for making sure each video focused on the learning goals; Brian patiently returned to redraft many script sections as the director and team refined the focus, meeting production targets and finishing 7 videos in just over two months.

To illustrate the ACRL Framework “Research as Inquiry,” which emphasizes the iterative nature of research, the “Focus Your Research” video describes the “research cycle,” in which a student moves back and forth between their search terms, research tools (like databases) and their research question. In a less direct way, the “Finding Books and Other Items in the Catalog” video walks a novice researcher through increasingly complex search techniques that reinforce that iterative process.

You can direct your students to the videos a variety of ways, all of which are described in a library guide about Adding Library Tutorials to Your Course. You could provide a link to the full page of videos for more self-directed students, or link to individual YouTube videos for content you would like to emphasize in an email or syllabus. To express a little more strongly that a video is course content, you could also embed the videos directly in your Canvas course, either by using the YouTube tool in Canvas or by importing from Canvas Commons. Finally, if you want students to self-assess their understanding of the videos you embed, you could import the corresponding quizzes from Canvas Commons. If you are interested in this adding this content to your Canvas course, you can find instructions on the BC Library website or contact your subject specialist for more information.