PROJECT CERES: DIGITIZING AGRICULTURAL HISTORY

The Libraries strategic plan has for several years included the goal of providing access to resources, especially materials unique to Purdue and the state of Indiana. Increasingly our early print agriculture collections were being utilized as major events such as the sesquicentennial of the Morrill Act, the centennial of the Agricultural Extension Program and departmental anniversaries occurred. Digitizing Purdue's early history (pre-1923) would provide increased accessibility to a valuable, but increasingly fragile collection.

In 2013, Project Ceres, a partnership between the United States Agricultural Information Network (USAIN), the Agriculture Network Information Center (AgNIC) and the Center for Research Libraries (CRL), was created to support small projects that would preserve print materials essential to the study of the history and economics of agriculture through digitization and open access. Eligible collections included the serial publications of the state agricultural extension services, experiment station publications, trade and commercial serials and serials microfilmed as part of the Preserving the History of U.S. Agriculture and Rural Land Grant Projects. The available funding for amounts between $3,000 and $5,000 could be used for purchasing digital equipment, preservation quality materials for housing post-digitization and personnel salaries or wages.

Digitization of Purdue University Agricultural Extension Publications (1910-1922), the proposal submitted by Killion, Marianne Stowell Bracke and Sammie Morris was awarded $3,100 to digitize the director' annual report (13 volumes), the Bulletin (approximately 212 issues), and Leaflets (approximately 287 titles) in September 2013 through August 2014. Allen Bol and the digitization unit's student assistants completed the scanning, quality control and uploading of the records by the end of spring semester. Public access to the collection became available late summer with the updated version of CONTENTdm®. In addition to the openly accessible files, MARC records, ISSN assignment and holdings information — aka metadata — were created by Patty Glasson and her staff in Resource Services. Access is through the Purdue e-Archives and we will also contribute a digital copy to the National Agricultural Library Digital Collections.

Earlier this year, Killion’s proposal Digitization of Purdue University Agricultural Documents (1923-1988) was awarded matching funds of $3,400 for phase two of Project Ceres. In this phase, an estimated 12,000 items will be digitized. Bol and his student assistants have started where we left off with the annual reports, bulletins and leaflets. Title changes, ceased and merged publications have occurred over the years. There is no longer an annual report from the director's office; it became the Purdue Agriculture Reports before being absorbed into another publication — a wandering record trail Glasson will be following soon. The agriculture experiment station reports and other Purdue titles will also be digitized.

At the completion of phase two in August 2015, Purdue's and the state's agriculture history spanning the 1850s to the 21st century will be accessible through Purdue e-Archives and Purdue e-Pubs.

NEIL ARMSTRONG PAPERS AND ARTIFACTS DONATED TO PURDUE

Carol Armstrong, along with alumnus astronaut Eugene A. Cernan attended a private event on November 21 honoring the gifts made by the Armstrongs to the Purdue University Libraries’ Virginia Kelly Karnes Archives and Special Collections Research Center.

While Armstrong donated a portion of his artifacts and papers before his death in 2012, Mrs. Armstrong has since given the bulk of the collection to Purdue Libraries per his wishes. The papers span Armstrong’s lifetime and have undergone archival processing. The collection is now part of the Barron Hilton Flight and Space Exploration Archives and is open for scholarly research.

In celebration, the Division of Archives and Special Collections has mounted the exhibit “Steps to the Moon: Selections from the Neil A. Armstrong Papers and the Eugene C. Cernan Papers.” The exhibit in the Karnes Research Center, which is on the fourth floor of the Humanities, Social Science and Education Library in Stewart Center, will be on display through February 27. Open house events featuring the exhibit for parents and children are scheduled for December 6 and January 17 from 1-3:30 p.m. both days. Visitors will be able to tour the exhibit and participate in a space facts scavenger hunt. Parking in the Grant Street and Marstellar Street parking garages is free on Saturday. For information, contact Tracy Grimm, archivist for the Barron Hilton Flight and Space Exploration Archives, at grimm3@purdue.edu.

CELEBRATING RESEARCH

Celebrating Research & Scholarship, since 2008, has been a day to celebrate and share Libraries faculty and A/P staff research and scholarship. It is a time to come together to share new research ideas, research projects, research findings and impact in the academic community. The importance of this event is to inform our faculty and staff about what each of us is doing and accomplishing. In our Libraries distributed environment, this event provides a venue to truly showcase the incredible scholarly accomplishments of our colleagues throughout the Purdue University Libraries community.

On November 17 Libraries faculty and A/P staff met to listen to and share research and scholarship projects that they are actively involved in. There were 20 presentations covering a wide range of topics. Topics spread the continuum of curriculum development and research; information literacy; learning spaces; research data developments; informed policy; new historical perspectives; and e-books studies.

The Purdue University Libraries Research Council is proud to host this event each year. The organizing committee for 2014 included Amy Barton, Ilana Stonebraker and Michael Witt. This year’s event held a “Trivia Bowl” activity that included a trophy for the winner. In up-coming years, the organizing committee will develop additional “competitions” and the trophy will be passed amongst the Libraries community as new winners arise. This year’s trophy winners, pictured left to right, are Sue Ward, J.P. Herubel, Beth McNeil, Tomalee Doan, Rebecca Richardson and Carly Dearborn.

“Although this team won the trophy for answering the ‘knowledge contest competition’ questions the quickest and 100% accurately about the presentations made during the Celebrating Research Colloquium, all those who presented their research and those in the audience were all winners through the sharing of research and through the learning about the diverse research coming from the Purdue Libraries faculty and staff,” Jim Mullins.

All slide decks and abstracts are available via the intranet at https://intranet.lib.purdue.edu/display/Councils/Celebrating+Research+2014

"WHY I LOVE PURDUE LIBRARIES" VIDEO CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

The 2014 “Why I Love Purdue Libraries” video contest recently ended. This year, as with last year, there was another fantastic group of student videos submitted. 

Our Undergraduate Student Libraries Advisory Council (USLAC) recently reviewed the video finalists and selected the winners. Dean Mullins met with the winners and presented them with their award certificates. Contest finalists' awards have been distributed through Purdue University Financial Aid Division.

Links to the winning videos are:

First Place: Zacharie David Riddle, sophomore, Exploratory Studies. http://youtu.be/3rM8XYbwEoE

Second Place: Tre’ Bennett, sophomore, CGT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lufll8TI_s&feature=youtu.be

Third Place: Andrew Fan, junior, Mechanical Engineering and Kristy Lau, professional 2nd Year, Pharmacy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QKdOlRnMV4&feature=youtu.be

Pictured: Jim Mullins, Zacharie David Riddle, Tre’ Bennett and Andrew Fan.

FLAVIA RENON VISITS LIBRARIES

Flavia Renon, reference/instruction librarian at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada visited Purdue on November 10. During her visit Renon gave a presentation on her work at Carleton in the area of active learning. In her research she examines lifelong learning skills and informal learning, in particular, examining how informed physical and virtual spaces, or third spaces, on campus can be used to provide students and teaching faculty with cross-disciplinary insight into who they are as learners and how they can best learn.

She also met with many Libraries faculty and staff to hear about our informed learning and information literacy initiatives and the Active Learning Center. Since returning home Renon reports that she has finished reading Integrating Information into the Engineering Design Process (Fosmire and Radcliffe, 2014, Purdue University Press) and is thinking about how she can apply the IRED model to her liaison areas, and that she came away from Purdue with a stronger sense of purpose and better understanding of information literacy and teaching practices. Thank to everyone who met with her during her visit.

HSSEB STAFF ATTEND WORKSHOP ABOUT WORKPLACE VIOLENCE

On November 21 the HSSEB division welcomed Lieutenant Keene Red Elk to speak about Workplace Violence. In this informative session, Lieutenant Red Elk discussed Purdue policies regarding workplace violence, gave historical campus anecdotes, promoted awareness and provided instruction on how to anticipate and protect yourself against violence in the workplace.

In an effort to dispel the idea that workplace violence doesn’t happen here at Purdue, Lieutenant Red Elk brought up some prudent Purdue University history and discussed the way things could have been handled differently to create a better outcome. Lieutenant Red Elk provided plenty of beneficial and timely information and tips as we go into a point in the semester that is high stress for all our faculty, patrons and staff.

If you are interested in scheduling a group program with the campus police, visit http://www.purdue.edu/ehps/police/programs/index.html.

Photo provided by RaeLynn Boes features Patrick Whalen and Lieutenant Red Elk.

HANDMADE ITEMS AVAILABLE AT STAFF RECOGNITION EVENT

For several years Libraries staff members have had the opportunity to display and sell their handmade items at the Annual Libraries Staff Recognition. Maureen Sharp will be a participant at this year's event.

“I really enjoy making new items from beautiful papers and fabrics, and have a huge collection of papers waiting for the ‘perfect’ project. I like to look for unusual structures to use for my books and journals, and have turned some of these structures into kits you can buy to make small books that are perfect for mini scrapbooking projects or to complete for a pretty, personalized gift. However, the most popular items from previous Staff Recognition events are the meeting notepads, which are available in two sizes and lots of colors.”

If you are interested in displaying or selling your handmade items at this year's event contact Dot Lanzalotto. Please plan to attend the event on Friday, December 12, 2:30-4 p.m. in Hicks B853.

MAKING WAY FOR THE ALC

Demolition is nearing completion for construction of the Active Learning Center. November 21, 2014.