Boston College Libraries Newsletter

In May, the Institute for Advanced Jesuit Studies released The Portal to Jesuit Studies, a new research resource that provides “free online access to the some of the richest content associated with the history, spirituality, educational heritage, and pedagogical approach of the Society of Jesus.”  The Libraries were very pleased to have provided collaborative assistance to the Institute in this endeavor, which drew upon both deep content knowledge and technical expertise in a way that typifies the generation of quality disciplinary research resources online.

The rich collections of Jesuit material in the BC Libraries, particularly the John J. Burns Library, were a basis for the research segment of the site, which includes searchable access to the Jesuit Online Library and the Jesuitica Directory. Digital Library programs teamed with Seth Meehan, an associate director at the Institute, to scan key volumes and image processing, enabling searchability and online access.  The Libraries started selection and imaging of Jesuitica in 2007 as part of the core, ongoing undertaking to capture distinctive BC content digitally. But with the development of the Portal, efforts focused and, in just spring of this year, over 21,533 pages of library materials were digitized, and digital access was provided to another 9,564 pages for a total of 31,097 pages across 43 volumes. In all, the Jesuit Online Library allows searching across nearly 100,000 pages in 700 volumes. Other library areas contributed expertise. Staff within the Systems office lent support, technical assistance, and advice that informed work with vendors and contributed to the ultimate website. Digital scholarship tools are being considered for future projects. As content in the site continues to grow, new materials will be made available and new technologies integrated.

“Libraries staff played indispensable roles in the development of the Portal,” states Meehan. “In short, without their time and expertise (and patience), the project would not have been possible. I am grateful to them and to you for the experience of working with them.”

Visit the portal at https://jesuitportal.bc.edu/. Twitter account @jesuitportal, hashtags #thePortal to #JesuitStudies.

That life has many challenges underscores the importance of formation, for our students and our librarians, and the entire BC Community. We see a BC education as instilling a sense of resiliency to the vicissitudes of the world, while nurturing a firm commitment to social justice and doing right. We applaud the new Core for taking complex problems and enduring questions to heart, and embrace the opportunity to facilitate the formative exploration of these challenges.

Confronting issues and assuming intellectual risk presents a challenge in itself, but doing so while at the same time reflecting on and pursuing the right path is laying out a difficult path indeed.  The adages regarding gain and pain; and risk and reward; are more relevant than ever, which is why the good libraries and universities in the world facilitate climates for creativity, collaboration, exploration, and the open and free exchange of ideas. But the great libraries and universities take it a step further by grounding their decisions in an unwavering commitment to doing good, not succumbing to trends and fads, and learning from all experiences. This remains core to the Boston College Mission and the formation of our students, and our library staff.

These values turn into action when developing our staff at the BC Libraries; intangible qualities as well as the skill sets required by the position figure in. We recruit staff who are collaborative and creative, who understand that libraries are about content, and who embrace change and Boston College’s Jesuit, Catholic Mission. We assume advancement involves risk, and risk is best managed through collaboration and creativity; in many cases, it is the difficult times that are the most formative, and “failures” are the signposts on the road to excellence. We seek to allow employees to explore different ideas and learn from all experiences, the good and the bad.  Yet we know that risk is not to be confused with recklessness, and our risks are calculated in accordance with our Mission.

Our library workforce has never been stronger and more prepared to add value to all areas of the Boston College community. We are eager to collaborate across all areas, we maintain superb collections, we are comfortable with exploring new and different approaches for research, teaching and learning, and we are risk tolerant. Sure, some ideas start as nonsense, yet we will not be judgmental but instead serve as facilitators in BC’s ecosystem of ideas.  The Libraries can be counted on to help the entire community in its quest of Ever to Excel across all horizons and to nurture all ideas, from the risky to the sublime, as part of our collective Formation.

The Boston College Libraries Mission

As intellectual and cultural centers and community spaces for Boston College, the Libraries acquire, preserve, and facilitate access to world-class collections, engage in collaborations that benefit scholarship, teaching, and learning, and support student formation and discernment in the Jesuit, Catholic tradition. We achieve this by being an agile organization, offering dynamic user spaces, providing excellent collections and services that anticipate the evolving needs of diverse academic communities, and partnering with faculty and students–from the discovery of relevant resources to the creation and dissemination of new knowledge.

Technology has significantly changed the field of K-12 education. With adaptive technology, open education resources, apps, and interactive whiteboards, teachers have more tools at their disposal to differentiate and personalize learning than ever before. The available technology expands beyond the printed page and offers new ways to engage students who learn in different ways. Educational technology can also add context to a teacher’s instruction or allow students to collaborate and create new knowledge.

The Lynch School of Education pre-practicum student teachers learn about content and classroom management,  now the big push is learning how to implement technology into lessons plans.  To help the pre-practicum students, the Educational Resource Center (ERC) partnered with the LSOE Mentoring, Induction, and Professional Development Office to provide educational technology instruction. Tiffeni Fontno, Senior Reference and Instruction Librarian for Education, collaborated with Ashana Hurd, Associate Director of Mentoring, Induction, and Professional Development in the Lynch School of Education  to provide information sessions on educational technology to the pre-practicum supervisors. These sessions assisted the supervisors in becoming more knowledgeable about the education technology tools available in the ERC and also demonstrated their use in instruction and the many resources available across different content areas and grade levels. Working initially with the pre-practicum supervisors benefits and strengthens the library liaison relationship by providing content knowledge and, as the supervisors work closely with the education students, they have an understanding of the educational technology availability and promote the use of the ERC resources and services.

Recently one of the supervisors wrote:

“Thank for the great Supervisor meeting on Wednesday. It was very informative.

Tiffeni Fontno also came and spoke with my student teachers yesterday. They loved her presentation.  One of my students indicated that prior to Tiffeni’s presentation she was just going to show a video. After hearing Tiffeni she is now going to drag out the smart board her Supervising Practitioner has not been using and try to set it up so she can use it when I come to observe her.

Tiffeni encouraged the students to try different technology tools now while they are students and not wait until they are a new teacher. I think my students were aware of many of the tools but Tiffeni helped them see how to use these tools during the different parts of a lesson.  Tiffeni was wonderful!

Thank you again for having Tiffeni speak with the supervisors. I think it would be great if every student teacher heard Tiffeni’s presentation.”

The educational technology training was also provided for the Donovon Scholar Urban Teaching Program.  ERC educational technology instruction continues to evolve to further support pre-practicum students and prepares them to enter today’s classrooms.

The ERC provides a variety of the latest technology for students to practice with and take into the classroom. To see what available, check here: Educational Resource Center: Digital Equipment

This fall, the Digital Scholarship Group will host its first Digital Scholarship Incubator, a seven-week series that aims to introduce major tools, methodologies, and questions in digital scholarship. An Incubator is an opportunity to develop a digital research or pedagogy project within a cohort of digital scholarship practitioners. Participants were selected by application and were assessed on their interest in digital scholarship and proposed projects. We were inspired to create the program after speaking with faculty and students across campus who wanted to learn more about digital scholarship but didn’t know where to start. A cohort approach allows participants to learn together—and from each other—in a welcoming environment.

Each week, the sessions will focus on a different topic. The curriculum includes text analysis, digital archives and critical editions, data cleanup, and pattern finding. By the conclusion of the sessions, participants will develop a digital scholarship or pedagogy project plan. In addition to an overview of digital tools and methodologies, participants will learn how to:

• Evaluate how these methods facilitate answering research questions
• Assess digital scholarship project needs and requirements (including technical expertise, software applications, and programming languages) that correspond to their research questions or scholarly ideas
• Identify potential partners and form a team of people with diverse expertise

This fall’s cohort includes faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates from CSOM, English, History, Theology, Philosophy, Romance Languages and Literature, and other departments. We look forward to seeing projects develop and new ideas emerge!

If you weren’t able to apply for the Incubator, no need to worry—the Digital Scholarship Group will be hosting workshops as part of its Coffee & Code series. Past Coffee & Code events have included workshops on building digital exhibits, visualizing data with online map-making tools, performing textual analysis on large bodies of work, and other current topics in digital scholarship. The fall will also see the return of our popular Open House, a chance to learn about digital scholarship activity across the university and meet others interested in these tools and methodologies. The Coffee & Code schedule is forthcoming, but you can find more information about all our offerings on the Digital Scholarship Group’s events page.

If you have a request for a workshop or want to learn how you can incorporate digital scholarship tools and methodologies into your work, drop us a line!

The Libraries celebrated their first year as host institution for the Association of Research Libraries (ARL)/Society of American Archivists (SAA) Mosaic Program at the end of the spring semester.  Mosaic fellow Ayoola White, a student at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons College, worked with the BCL staff throughout the academic year to expand her knowledge of research libraries and special collections in general, and to focus on particular learning objectives within archives and digital initiatives.

The Mosaic Program is designed to promote diversification in the archives and special collections professional workforce, and “provides financial support, career placement assistance, and leadership development, in addition to the practical work experience and mentoring offered by the host institution, to emerging professionals from traditionally underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups”.  We were thrilled to be invited to be a host institution for Ayoola’s fellowship.  On a broad level, we were keen to contribute to the aims of the Mosaic program supporting diversity in the profession, and locally, we benefitted from working together across the libraries to design an experience that would introduce the numerous functions and issues that can be expected in a career in libraries and archives.

Because Ayoola’s interests centered upon archives management combined with digital methods, we teamed up across departments to design a program focused on those areas, but which also offered an introduction to the overall functions of academic libraries. Over the course of the academic year Ayoola worked in the Archives Department, the Digital Libraries Program,  Assessment & Outreach, and Digital Scholarship.

At the John J. Burns Library, Ayoola acted as part of the archives team. She learned to arrange and describe manuscript collections, providing her with the opportunity to move clearly stated library school theory into real life experience replete with complexity. Ayoola rehoused materials for preservation, researched the history and biography of records-creators, applied archival metadata standards, and learned to write comprehensive-but-neutral contextual information. In total Ayoola’s work improved the physical and descriptive state of thirteen archival collections, and she advanced from providing assistance in September to working autonomously by spring.

Her work with the Digital Scholarship Team, and the Assessment & Outreach department, included selecting and assembling digitized material for online and digital displays, capturing and reformatting metadata, working with XML, and conducting user testing. Using digital collections, Ayoola curated displays for the Libraries’ touch tables, and worked with Digital Scholarship team members to create and standardize metadata for digital exhibits. She was given practical exposure to other essential work, including reference, hiring, and professional development.

On April 28th, Ayoola’s final day, a luncheon was held to collectively bid her farewell and good luck, and to share the outcomes of the program with libraries staff and campus community members. Ayoola delivered a presentation describing the projects and activities she contributed to over the academic year, followed by her paper “Early Recruitment of Students from Underrepresented Backgrounds to the Archives Profession” (initially delivered at Diversity, Equity, Race, Accessibility, and Identity in LIS (DERAIL) Forum at Simmons College, March 4-5, 2017).

Through participation in the Mosaic Program, the BC Libraries demonstrated their commitment to developing the expertise and knowledge of the next generation of library professionals, while improving the career prospects of a more diverse pool of professionals for the archives and library fields.

We thank Ayoola White for her contributions to the BC Libraries and wish her all the best in her career.