Florida Gulf Coast University - Library News Fall 2023

LIBRA RY NEWS

FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITY

A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

Our plans for library programs, events, exhibits and collections for this fall semester are some of the best we have ever offered. The library faculty and staff have been working diligently all summer to bring our students, faculty, staff and community members these exciting new events, resources and services.

It is our sincere hope that you will read this issue of Library News to learn about these plans and find out what interests you. We invite everyone, including community members throughout Southwest Florida, to not only participate in our programs but to utilize our resources and services. We are proud to be the only public university library serving our region. What makes us truly worthy of this distinction and responsibility is being a resource to everyone in the region no matter your affiliation with FGCU.

For instance, please join us for lunch as a few of our most celebrated faculty present their current research and scholarship in our Scholar Series held monthly throughout the fall semester. Visit the University Archives and Special Collections exhibit entitled They Were Children: Rescue as Resistánce. Access the scholarship of our faculty and graduate students in our online repository and research information system ScholarsCommons@FGCU. More details are provided on each of these resources and programs in this issue of Library News

Dr. Tracy Elliott Dean, University Library

Tracy Elliott

Data Visualization Wall

Last spring, the library added its newest feature to the technology-focused learning resources. The Data Visualization Wall, now “The Wall,” consists of 16 screens oriented in a 2x8 grid. This amounts to 144 square feet of screen real estate that can be used to display photos, videos and even live sources.

Located on the first floor of Library West, The Wall is now a space where students can gather to study together, practice presentations and screen academic videos. Faculty can also take advantage of this resource to showcase their own work or host study sessions for their students. The area surrounding The Wall is a great space for not only small groups, but outreach opportunities as well.

“The Wall offers the capability of displaying data at a scale larger than many in our community have ever experienced,” says Associate Dean Jeremy Brown. “We have all seen what a simple projector can do for slide shows, but this wall gives researchers the ability to dynamically display and overlay multiple images and video streams, paired with audio, which creates a truly immersive and captivating symposium space.”

One of the features that makes this resource so unique is the ability to reduce the opacity of one asset over another. This can be used to compare maps or other data for scalability. The Wall can currently be reserved for student use for up to two hours per day for the expected use of group study or presentation practice.

Authors and Artists Awards

Last November, the FGCU Library honored faculty and staff who contributed to the canon of scholarly or artistic work.

A reception was held, followed by an awards ceremony where FGCU President Mike Martin spoke about the importance of great minds coming together to spark creativity and innovation. Provost Mark Rieger presented the awards before Dr. Michael Von Cannon (Department of

Language and Literature) and Dr. Michael Barron (Bower School of Music) gave the keynote addresses.

This annual event highlights the creative and scholarly work being done on campus. Family and colleagues were invited, as well as members of the greater Southwest Florida community.

The annual reception was held on the evening of November 4, 2022.

Dr. Tracy Elliott welcomes the audience.

Dr. Melodie Eichbauer stands with Provost Mark Rieger and receives her awards.

Scholar Series

In collaboration with FGCU’s Office of Scholarly Innovation and Student Research, the library has had several successful semesters of hosting the Scholar Series. This is a monthly event where FGCU and Southwest Florida community members can come together to appreciate some of the amazing research being done by faculty.

Melodie Eichbauer, interim director for the Office of Scholarly Innovation and Student Research, along with Heather Snapp, the library’s outreach librarian, work hard to find the best research being conducted by our faculty. This ensures each event will include recent, diverse and impactful research.

The library now hosts this series in the new Data Visualization Wall area on the first floor of Library West, making it easier for students or passersby to pop in and see firsthand the amazing work being presented by FGCU faculty.

Join us on the last Wednesday of each month and enjoy this free event, lunch included. If you have any questions, please contact Heather Snapp at 239-745-4224.

Dr. Landon Frim speaks in January about a human frame for climate change.

Dr. Tom Cimarusti discusses new information about the Koreshans discovered in the FGCU Archives at the new Data Visualization Wall.

Fall 2023 Scholar Series Schedule:

August 30

Amir B. Ferreira Neto, assistant professor, Economics, director of the Regional Economic Research Institute

“Firm Mobility and Hurricanes: Evidence from Florida Gulf Coast University”

September 27

Rob Sillevis, assistant professor, Physical Therapy and Human Performance

“Unraveling the Mystery of Cervicogenic Headaches”

October 25

Hasan Aydin, professor, Multicultural Education in Leadership, Technology & Research

“When Your Scholarship Makes you an Enemy of the State: Research Under Totalitarian Regime”

November 29

Fernando Gonzalez, associate professor and chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering

“The Development of an Educational Software Tool to Support Learning Introductory Robotics”

Faculty Librarian Excellence Awards

At the close of the 2022-23 academic year, two librarians were chosen to receive the honor of the inaugural Faculty Librarian Excellence Awards. Victoria Jones, university archivist (below left), received the Junior Faculty Librarian Excellence Award and Rachel Cooke, arts and education librarian (below right), received the Senior Faculty Librarian Excellence Award. They are pictured here with FGCU President Mike Martin and Provost Mark Rieger. Major congratulations to both!

Dr. Phil Allman explains the life cycle and migration patterns of sea turtles.

ScholarsCommons

The Library’s ScholarsCommons, an online research information management system, is a portal that highlights the expertise of FGCU’s community of scholars. It provides public access to their collective research activities and allows anyone to view works including articles, book chapters, creative works, theses, dissertations and more. Works can be browsed or searched by subject, author or resource type.

Anyone from graduate students to adjuncts to full professors are able to contribute their content to the ScholarsCommons. “A lot of times, instructors and adjuncts can get lost in the sauce.

They don’t get the same amount of attention,” said Kaleena Rivera, the research systems and applications librarian. The ScholarsCommons helps new researchers become part of a larger scholarly conversation.

To date, there are more than 6,000 total works in the database with more than 1,800 downloads throughout the world and 17,000 research output views. This proves how influential FGCU’s scholarly research has been to viewers worldwide.

The repository is easily accessible by scrolling to the bottom of the library’s homepage (library.fgcu.edu) and clicking the ScholarsCommons link. From there, users can choose between searching for any of the materials in the system or scrolling through the open access site.

Interlibrary Loan Reimagined

FGCU’s interlibrary loan gives students, faculty and staff the ability to request books, book chapters, articles and other media from libraries across the state and nation if they are not available in-house.

The University Library has streamlined its interlibrary loan process by switching over to a new integrated system in April. Previously librarians went through each individual loan request to get students and faculty their desired content in a timely manner. Now, requests are processed more rapidly through a new online database, and physical books arrive faster via FedEx.

Students, faculty and staff are now able to receive their requests from other libraries and universities within seven days for physical items and 24 hours for digital chapters and articles. To start this process, simply log in to the library website and search for your desired content. If the required book or article is not available at FGCU, it can easily be requested from any of the libraries in the state or across the country that belong to the system.

One of the most celebrated new features offered after switching to this new system is how quickly books, book chapters and articles are able to be received. Not only this, but books requested through the interlibrary loan system can be delivered to any South Village or North Lake residence hall or directly to faculty mailboxes using Library Express Delivery.

With one click, borrowers can access a country-wide pool of resources that can be delivered faster than ever before.

Archives Internships: A “Second Home” for Students

Nearly 90 interns have contributed over 12,000 hours in the 10 years since the internship program at the University Archives and Special Collections began. The program was initiated with the desire to educate students in archival work, provide real-world experience and spark curiosity about - well, everything.

“When I first came to FGCU, I was completely lost. I knew that I wanted to do something with books, but other than that I had absolutely no direction. When I learned that the archives was home to rare books… it changed the course of my life.”

- Ariel Bates 2017 (Ph.D. student at the University of Pennsylvania)

It is the variety of subject matter and work that provides students with a multifaceted and immersive experience that benefits them as students, researchers and citizens. Many students reflect on how their time in the archives allowed them to go beyond the role of passive observer, instead encouraging them to interact with and understand primary resources in an engaging environment.

Interns in 2018, L to R: Ariel Bates, Natalie Schneider and Kinsey Brown in the Archives.

Intern in 2022, Katherine MavridouHernandez reads through journals.

“All of us who have passed through the FGCU archives have gone on to be more empathetic, more civicallyminded and engaged, more knowledgeable, more confident in our ability to effect change in our communities.”

- Adrian Sanchez 2018 (international coordinator, New College of Florida)

While many tasks appear straightforward, students frequently mention how their perceptions change over the course of the semester. What was once a simple data set quickly becomes part of a larger story. Through direct interaction with primary sources, students start to see metadata, text and artifacts as pieces of a larger, living history, one they are actively preserving for future generations.

For many students, the internship program serves as a launching pad for future careers and graduate studies. Letters of recommendation have been written to Harvard, University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign, Durham and Oxford, to name a few, for interns seeking advanced degrees. The archives and its people provide a sense of community that not only draws students in for initial internships, but retains them as employees. You will struggle to find a student who doesn’t mention how their internship experience allowed them to grow and challenge themselves, while also providing them with a “second home” where they felt encouraged and supported.

Intern in 2021, Emily Murray inspects environmental cartoons.

Interns in 2019, L to R: Jordan Curtis, Abigail Winslow and Adrian Sanchez examine documents.

-- Written collectively by former interns

They Were Children: Rescue as Resistánce

In April 2023, the staff of the University Archives and Special Collections traveled to France to conduct research in preparation for the 2023-2024 exhibition They Were Children: Rescue as Resistánce. The exhibition centers on the efforts of the Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants (OSE) to rescue Jewish children during World War II.

The OSE developed complex networks of ordinary French citizens, often only 19-22 years of age, who accomplished the extraordinary work of smuggling Jewish children across the border to Switzerland. It is estimated the OSE and similar organizations rescued nearly 10,000 children from deportation to concentration camps from 1942-1945.

Olivia Bechdel views the exhibit at Memorial of the Shoah in Paris, France.

Identification cards (Memorial of the Shoah in Paris, France).

Gifts to the FGCU University Library

The research team, led by Head of University Archives and Special Collections Melissa Minds VandeBurgt, included Archives Coordinator Bailey Rodgers, Library Projects Coordinator

Emily Murray and Archival Assistants

Jonathan Farquhar and Olivia Bechdel. They began the trip in Paris at the Archives de l’OSE and Mémorial de la Shoah before taking the train down to the heart of the French Resistance— Lyon. From Lyon, they headed east, following in the footsteps of the “passuers” and children as they would have moved toward the Swiss border (Annecy, then Annemasse, Chamonix and across Lake Geneva to Lausanne).

The trip was the culmination of months of research and collaboration with historians, archivists and museum professionals throughout France. Over the next few months, the team will continue to partner with the Archives de l’OSE and the Memorial of the Shoah to secure the loan of artifacts from Paris to Fort Myers. It will be the first time these photographs, letters, artifacts and children’s drawings will be exhibited in the United States. Artifacts from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the Naples Holocaust Museum will also be on display.

The stories of tremendous bravery shared serve to spark conversations about what it means to find courage and what it means to embrace fear alongside the immutable need to take action against injustice. Under threat of extermination, the survival of the children was the ultimate form of resistance against the oppressive force that sought to eliminate them. Sharing these stories allows for students, visitors and the local community to pay witness to their bravery and showcases the indelible strength of the human spirit. The new exhibition, They Were Children: Rescue as Resistánce, opens in October 2023.

L to R: Emily Murray, Olivia Bechdel, Jonathan Farquhar, Bailey Rodgers

“The stories of tremendous bravery shared serve to spark conversations about what it means to find courage...”

Media Production Studio

The Library’s Media Production Studio, previously a single space, has split into two separate entities. We now have an Audio Production Studio (room 144) and a Video Production Studio (room 142), located in Library East behind the computer lab. The transition has allowed more groups to efficiently create high quality audio and visual content without sharing all the equipment in one room.

Both studios are in larger rooms with top-notch equipment that allows FGCU students and employees to record podcasts, conduct interviews, narrate radio shows or record presentations, lectures or vlogs.

The Audio Production Studio is loaded with professional quality recording equipment including microphones, an audio mixer and digital recording software. The walls are covered in acoustic foam to control echo and dampen unwanted sound.

The Video Production Studio has professional cameras, large format backdrops and an assortment of microphones. The studio also includes a video capturing and editing computer loaded with Adobe Creative Suite.

FGCU students, faculty and staff can reserve the studios online after completing an orientation.

Complete with green screen and high-end equipment, the new Video Production Studio is already used by Eagle News TV.

The new Audio Production Studio is equipped to record podcasts, interviews, lectures and presentations.

Gifts to the University Library

We have ambitious priorities to support new modes of teaching, learning and empowering our students to succeed in an increasingly digital world. Your support will help create exciting growth opportunities at FGCU.

GIVING TO THE UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY FUND is one of the most important ways to support the FGCU University Library. These dedicated funds can be used quickly to provide new equipment and other services.

CREATIVE COMMONS — an interdisciplinary, experiential learning space. This is a facility where students create tangible versions of their ideas with a variety of technology and equipment including 3D printers, scanners, electronics kits and laser cutters. Students create audiovisual productions utilizing industry-standard software and hardware, an augmented reality/ virtual reality laboratory for research in gaming, 3D video and more in accessible, co-working spaces for small group work.

Please consider making your gift today to support our efforts. Visit library.fgcu.edu/giving or please contact:

Melissa Minds VandeBurgt

mvandeburgt@fgcu.edu

239.590.7658

Dr. Tracy Elliott

telliott@fgcu.edu

239.590.7602

RESEARCH COMMONS — a collaborative space for research and instruction librarians to engage faculty and students to produce and showcase exciting research, scholarship and innovation. Services include: research support, funding search tools, publication assistance and next steps to establishing a scholarly identity.

UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS –support the preservation and promotion of collections especially relevant to Southwest Florida. Unique opportunities exist for exhibitions, collection acquisitions, gallery and reading room lighting and vault expansion.

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