PSET news

BY MICHAEL FOSMIRE

PILLAR: Learning and Scholarly Communication

New Faces
In this guest column, I would first like to welcome Michael Witt and Stewart Saunders to the Physical Science, Engineering and Technology Division (PSET). In an experiment in collaboration across Divisions and units, Witt and Saunders volunteered to devote a part of their effort to fill liaison vacancies in Computer Science and Mathematics and Statistics, respectively, and they have certainly hit the ground running.

Witt dedicated himself to mastering ‘regular librarian’ responsibilities like collection development and instruction, and was able to negotiate the first instruction session with the computer science department in my memory.

Saunders has embraced the new roles of our Division librarians, conducting data management plan (DMP) consultations, uncovering a potential technical report series to add to the Libraries institutional repository, and even collaborating on an National Science Foundation (NSF) instruction-related grant proposal with a member of the statistics department. All in all, they are settling in very well in their new roles, and the entire Division appreciates their efforts and insights.

Data Services
The Division is heavily involved in defining and actualizing the evolving e-science Libraries’ roles. Chris Miller has been doing this since he arrived on campus, building and consulting on infrastructure for projects with nice acronyms like VULCAN, ISEE, ISOMAP, and The Visible Past. His latest venture involves ‘geospatializing’ art history data and a trip to Paris!

Jeremy Garritano has been contributing to the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR) working group, helping shape the university’s data repository.

Amy Van Epps has consulted on several DMP’s, both in the planning and implementation phases.

Megan Sapp Nelson has been leading the Data Education Working Group, assessing professional development needs in the Libraries and developing ways to address those needs.

Sapp Nelson and Miller, as well as Jake Carlson, Marianne Stowell Bracke and I, have also been exploring the data information literacy needs of researchers through a funded Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant. And, Charlotte Erdmann is currently working with Carlson and Information Literacy Specialist Clarence Maybee to analyze the Mechanical Engineering curriculum for data information literacy instructional opportunities.

Alignment of Space
Frances Christman and Diane Deputy are on the front line of our new Informed Learning Studio (ILS, POTR 141), helping instructors use the room’s technology. With the weekly IMPACT cohort meetings now taking place there, several of the smaller IMPACT classes have expressed an interest in using the ILS. The Center for Instructional Excellence (CIE) will also begin hosting their regular seminar series in the ILS this fall. Still working to align space with our user needs, the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Library (EAS) (actually, Sandy Galloway, Terry Wade, Donna Slone and Becky Hunt) moved its older journals to our Chemistry Repository and lower-use books to the EAS library’s compact shelving, allowing us to add seating for student group work (hopefully by the end of Spring Break). The added capacity, especially for group-work, will be well appreciated by students. These small experiments we’ve been undertaking in the PSET libraries will help us understand how science and engineering students use library space to help inform in the development of the Boiler STEAM Commons.

PILLAR: Scholarly Communication

By the close of business Feb. 15 the Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research (JPUR) had received 85 proposals for articles, almost double the number received for the 2011 volume. The proposals show a much greater diversity in terms of discipline as well, with a number focused on the humanities and social sciences as well as STEAM fields.

The Faculty Advisory Board, which includes Professors Sharon Weiner and Catherine Riehle, will be making their final selection in late March. About ten proposals in total will be selected for development into full articles, but many more student authors will receive recognition through shorter “research snapshots” — a new innovation for 2012.

Professors Weiner and Riehle are engaged in several other initiatives connected with JPUR: Professor Weiner is working with a graduate assistant on assessing the learning outcomes of JPUR while Professor Riehle is running author training workshops with Laurie Pinkert, assistant director of the Online Writing Lab.

The 2012 edition of JPUR will be published in late August 2012.

PILLAR: Learning

Deborah Mole, a reference librarian at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Library, visited the Libraries on Feb. 23 while on a sabbatical leave. Her purpose was to discuss and learn about information literacy so that she can work with her library to plan for greater curriculum integration. She gave a presentation to the Libraries faculty about information literacy at her institution, which has a joint library with Alaska Pacific University. She shared insights she gained from visiting libraries at other colleges and universities recently, including UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, the University of Central Florida, Ave Maria University, Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of Chicago. These libraries encountered different information literacy challenges due to the size and missions of the institutions.

Mole visited the new Parrish Library and discussed learning spaces and involvement of libraries with campus initiatives with Tomalee Doan. She then met with librarians involved with IMPACT (Jeremy Garritano, Clarence Maybee, Larry Mykytiuk and Jane Yatcilla) to discuss information literacy and course redesign and with PSET librarians (Michael Fosmire, Jeremy Garritano, Megan Sapp Nelson and Amy Van Epps) to learn about other innovative information literacy projects. She also met with Director of Library Services for Ivy Tech Community College East Central Region and Vice President of the Academic Libraries of Indiana Susan Clark to discuss the “Hoosiers and Information Literacy” (HAIL) project.

Mole expressed that she was highly impressed with the efforts and accomplishments of our Libraries faculty in information literacy.

Libraries celebrate Women's History Month

A portrait of Dorothy Stratton, Purdue's first full-time dean of women who went on to become the first female commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, was unveiled at the Archives and Special Collections’ exhibit reception on Mar. 1.

The late Stratton in 1933 became dean of women, overseeing the construction of three campus women's residence halls and helping establish the Housemother Training School that gave intensive training to fraternity and sorority housemothers from across the United States. A scholarship named in her honor supports women's participation in Purdue's Naval ROTC program.

With the Women's Reserve of the Coast Guard, she is credited with the acronym SPARS, which the Women's Reserve was called. In July 2010, first lady Michelle Obama christened the Coast Guard Cutter Dorothy C. Stratton to honor her accomplishments.

Stratton also served as the first director of personnel at the International Monetary Fund, was executive director of the Girl Scouts of the USA and was the United Nations' representative of the International Federation of University Women.

"Today is the first day of Women's History Month, a fitting time to celebrate the life and work of Dorothy Stratton, who paved the way for so many," Purdue President France A. Córdova said. "Preserving the history of women's contributions to Purdue and to the world provides living documentation for future generations."

President donates papers to Archives

The university's first female president and NASA's first female chief scientist, France A. Córdova, donated a selection of papers from her time as the university's leader.

"Today is the first day of Women's History Month, a fitting time to celebrate the life and work of Dorothy Stratton, who paved the way for so many," Córdova said. "Preserving the history of women's contributions to Purdue and to the world provides living documentation for future generations."

 "The women who have made up the historical fabric of Purdue - women like Dorothy Stratton - have broken barriers sometimes by the simple act of being the first to achieve something," Córdova said. "I have found dedicated, visionary and tenacious women at Purdue who can see the future and know how to make things happen; women who see a problem and fix it; women who break silent barriers every day without saying a word."

Córdova has her own place in Purdue history. In July 2007 she became the university's 11th president. She donated papers relating to the New Synergies strategic plan, decadal funding plan and a list, given to her by students, of "Top 20 Things to do at Purdue" to Libraries' Archives and Special Collections.

Sammie Morris, head of the Division of Archives and Special Collections, accepted Córdova's papers.

"I am so honored to receive these papers and to add them to our women's archives," Morris said. "In what have been historically male-dominated professions, Purdue women have succeeded. These papers will serve more than research purposes. They will be an inspiration for future Boilermakers who will create their own legacies."

Read the entire release: http://wp.me/pT6ms-wg

Libraries student worker receives a BTN LiveBIG Scholarship

PILLAR: Infrastructure

Earth and Atmospheric Sciences (EAS) student worker Tim Spano was awarded a LiveBIG Scholarship for outstanding service from the Big Ten Network (BTN). “I am so proud of him. He truly deserves this award,” said Terry Wade, Spano’s supervisor. Read Spano’s essay by clicking here

BTN LiveBIG debuted in the fall of 2010 to celebrate, promote and encourage community service. Hosted by former Michigan football standout Dhani Jones, the inspirational program highlights Big Ten alumni, students and supporters who exemplify what it means to "live big" through their service to others. Each Big Ten Conference school had one winner who received a $1,000 scholarship for his or her service to others.

To learn more about these inspirational stories and others visit BTNLiveBIG.com, the virtual hub for the program. Online, viewers can also discover ways they can act, serve and inspire through BTN LiveBIG's 25 partner service organizations.

Libraries Staff A-Z

LISA PURVIS
Director of Instruction and Digital Program Services
Libraries IT

Q. What do you enjoy most about your job and why?
A. I enjoy helping people get things done and master technology. I love showing someone how they can use software or equipment in a new way or how to use new technology. I love that look people get when they have mastered a piece of software or new device. I love to see other people get excited about technology. I also love tinkering with shiny new technology, learning how it works and what we can do with it. I like taking things apart and putting them back together again. Yeah, I know — I'm a geek.

Q. How long have you worked in the Libraries and at Purdue?
A. I started working as a student PC consultant for the Library Systems Department (LSD) in October of 1989. Miraculously, they weren't sick of me by 1994 when they offered me a full-time position as the Microcomputer Support Coordinator. So, in October, (ow, math is hard) I have been here for 23 years.

Q. What is one unforgettable experience that has happened to you or your coworkers while working in the library?
A. Wow, there have been so many over the years, like the time we discovered the room with the dirt floor in Stewart Center's basement (gone now, alas), or the time that the public computer image got corrupted and I had to go out and reimage every public computer by myself. I think the most moving experience for me was when the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library (HSSE) was renovated. The Information and Technology Department (ITD) set up sexy, new Dell computers with the first LCD screen monitors in the space with its sleek, new desks and new carpet. That "new carpet/new computer smell" filled the room. I sat down in the last pod, the room empty now because it was almost five o'clock on a Friday, and watched the computers come up with the Libraries new homepage. In that moment, I had never felt prouder to be a part of the Libraries and to be in IT. All of us (Auxiliary Services, HSSE Library faculty and staff, Libraries Administration, ITD and others) had worked so hard to bring that space together and it just shined like a new copper penny. I just sat there and looked at everything, so proud of our accomplishments.

Q. What’s your favorite book, website, movie or database?
A. Book(s): “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury and “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Website: Reddit. Movie(s): “Aliens,” “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” and “Saving Private Ryan.” Database: Internet Movie Database (IMDB)

Q. Coffee, tea, water or soft drink?
A. Sadly, I am a major Diet Cokaholic

Q. What do you like to do for fun?
A. I love to travel (especially to the Pacific Northwest), play video games (current game is Skyrim), listen to music, read, torture my cats with my latest technology purchases and write fiction.

Q. Feel free to include any information about yourself that you would like to share with the staff.
A. I am very interested in the business of electronic publishing and have attended several workshops (aimed at writers) over the past two years learning what independent publishers do and about the process of taking a printed work and turning it into an electronic version. I have extensive experience with Photoshop and other Adobe print design tools, so I'm really excited about this format. I'm also excited about e-book readers like the Kindle and Nook (and the iPad) and how books will evolve on these devices. Electronic publishing brings together my two favorite things: fiction writing and technology.