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Historical Newspapers Workshop

Historical Newspapers Workshop • Thursday, Februrary 20, 2020, 11:30am-12:20pm

This session will cover how to access and search historical newspapers of the United States that are available online, either freely available or through MTSU Library’s subscriptions.

Session topics:

  • Determining what historical newspapers are online
  • Search term tips (e.g., use of synonyms and terms in use during a historical period)
  • Search limits (publication date, front page only, letters to the editor, photo captions, etc.)
  • Searching across multiple historical newspapers
  • Finding copies of newspapers that are not available online.

 

Prerequisites:None

Presenter:  Walker Library’s Digital Initiatives Librarian, Ken Middleton

Location: Walker Library, LIB 272 (Instruction Classroom)

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NVivo Workshop

Introduction to NVivo Workshop

UPDATE 3/12/20: THIS WORKSHOP HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

Have you begun conducting qualitative research, but are finding it difficult to keep your data organized? Would you like a better way to manage data analysis? If so, come learn the basics of NVivo 12, a software tool designed for the collection and analysis of qualitative data sources. This overview will showcase some of NVivo’s functionality by using examples using NVivo’s preloaded sample dataset, as well as real-life data sets from Dr. Reed’s research.

Session topics:

  • Navigating the NVivo Workspace
  • Uploading and linking different data sources
  • Structuring of data to facilitate coding
  • Basic coding and analysis of text sources

 

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Prerequisites: Familiarity with qualitative research methodology.

Presenter:  Walker Library’s Education Librarian, Dr. Karen Reed

Location: Walker Library, LIB 272 (Instruction Classroom)

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Announcing the Final Projects for the Digital Seed Grants 2018-2019

The Digital Seed Grant (dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant) had an impressive amount of applications for its second year (award period 2018-2019), which initially launched in 2016 for the award period of 2017-2018. Due to the quantity and quality of proposals, the Digital Seed Grant Review Committee and Dean of Libraries decided to award two grants for the 2018-2019 academic year. The awardees were announced on the website at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant18-19. Below is a summary of the winning projects (in no particular order) and resulting outcomes. A PDF copy of this announcement is preservedin the institutional repository. Access the PDF by clicking view/open here.

 

3D Biology: Making Claims in the Midst of Natural Variation

Primary Investigator (PI):  Dr. Anna Strimaitis Grinath, Biology Department

PI’s Project Description: This project drew upon the 3D printing and laser cutting technology available in the Library Makerspace at MTSU to create 3D material to support cognitively demanding biology tasks in three undergraduate biology lecture courses: Exploring Life, General Biology II, and Biometry. We designed tasks to support students to develop quantitative and inferential reasoning around concepts of variation in populations and population sampling. Such reasoning is critical for students to make biological claims in the midst of the natural variation that is inherent to populations of organisms. However, such tasks are rare in biology education lecture settings, and when they do occur, students often are expected to investigate biological questions using 2D representation of organisms (e.g. paper cut outs), which limits the authenticity of the biological investigation and the opportunities students have to grapple with problems of measurement, variation, sampling, and drawing inferences about a population from a sample.

The two tasks we designed through this project asked students to investigate questions around two different focal organisms: marine sponge individuals and freshwater fish populations. We created a 3D scan of a real sponge, augmented the 3D scan file with a texture file to capture the form of the organism, and printed 30 replicate models of the sponge using 3D printing technology. Additionally, we used the laser cutter to create 20 populations of over 100 fish of varying sizes out of Baltic birch plywood. With the 3D materials created from this project, we have already successfully implanted the two “3D Biology” tasks in three different undergraduate biology lecture courses at MTSU and the materials and lessons will continue to be implemented in future courses. When enacting the tasks, we also collected multiple data sources to understand how the materials created in this project support student learning. Analysis and lesson plan development is ongoing. This Digital Seed Grant also helped strengthen the NSF proposal that is in preparation.

Resulting Research and Publications Produced:

Grinath, A.S., Jones, R.S., Whitworth, C., Google, A., Morphis, H. (presented 2019). 3D biology lessons: Designing across biology, data modeling, and argumentation. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Tennessee STEM Education Research Conference, Murfreesboro, TN. (Regional).

Jones, R.S., Grinath, A.S., Jia, Z., Czap, L., Google, A. (presented 2019). Leveraging student ideas about measurement and variation in biology. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Tennessee STEM Education Research Conference, Murfreesboro, TN. (Regional).

Whitworth, C. (presented 2019. Students’ ideas about sampling and measurement. Poster presented at the annual MTSU College of Education Scholars Day, Murfreesboro, TN. (Local).

Grinath, A.S., Jones, R.S., Whitworth, C., Google, A., Morphis, H. (2019). Data MAKER Biology Framework: Designing across biology, data modeling, and argumentation. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research, Minneapolis, MN. (National).

Project News:

‘Population Variation’.’ Listen to July 17 2018 ‘MTSU on the Record” with host Gina Logue and guest Dr. Anna Grinath at https://mtsunews.com/grinath-3d-biology-july2018/

Professor Uses New Grant To Explore Biology Under the Sea in 3D on ‘MTSU on the Record’. Host Gina Logue interviews Dr. Anna Grinath on the library Digital Seed Grant Award and resulting project. https://mtsunews.com/grinath-on-the-record-july2018/

 

The Geography of Suffering: Enhancing Historical Interpretation at Stones River National Cemetery

Primary Investigator (PI):  Dr. Derek W. Frisby, Global Studies and Human Geography Department

PI’s Project Description: “The Geography of Suffering: Enhancing Historical Interpretation at Stones River National Cemetery’s” objective sought to enhance the historical interpretation of the Stones River National Cemetery by digitizing the cemetery’s records and integrating GIS/GPS interpretive capabilities for park staff, researchers, and visitors. Additionally, the project explored methods to incorporate Volunteer Geographic Information (VGI) for the cemetery to broaden the interpretive experience at the park beyond the park’s boundaries. This project would have been impossible without assistance from MTSU Walker Library’s Digital Initiative Seed Grant funds. The student training and research hours sponsored by the grant proved invaluable. It allowed me to delegate tasks and get the enormous amount of data organized and ready for integration into the geospatial model. In return, I believe they received a wonderful experiential learning experience in historical GIS projects. 

Project News:

‘The Search at Stones River.’ Listen to July 5 2018 ‘MTSU on the Record” with host Gina Logue and guest Dr. Derek Frisby at https://mtsunews.com/frisby-stones-river-july2018/

‘MTSU On the Record’ Follows Military Expert’s Searches for Answers at Stones River National Cemetery. Host Gina Logue interviews Dr. Derek Frisby of the library Digital Seed Grant Award and resulting project. https://mtsunews.com/frisby-on-the-record-july2018/

 

Funding and Support

The Digital Seed Grant is made possible by generous funding and support from the Dean of Libraries and the Digital Scholarship Initiatives project team. For many, this is a starter grant, which can lead to national grant opportunities in the future and Walker Library wants to encourage and support such creativity activity.

As a competitive grant, evaluation of applications and assessment of digital lifecycles of selected projects takes time. The Digital Seed Grant is indebted to the time of the Review Committee, comprised of digital project experts from Walker Library and the Digital Partners (a rotating member from the Department of History, Center for Historic Preservation, Center for Popular Music, Albert Gore Research Center and the University Archives). The Walker Library also thanks those that help promote the grant and encourage participation.

 

The 2019-2020 call for proposals closed; and those projects will continue until June 30, 2020. As those projects are completed, the following website will be updated: https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant19-20.   

The 2020-2021 call for proposals will open March 1, 2020 and the application deadline is April 10, 2020. For more information on the Digital Seed Grant and access the application, visit https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant.

Scholarly Publishing and Open Access Workshop

Scholarly Publishing and Open Access Workshop • Tuesday, March 3, 2020, 11:30am-12:20pm

Do you need to produce a peer-reviewed journal article? Come jump-start your scholarly writing with this presentation emphasizing the Open Access movement. Participants will receive instruction on the evolution of the scholarly publishing model as well as an overview of author publishing concerns. In addition to lecture time, the session will include hands-on activities in which participants will create an individualized, multistep action plan for turning one’s research into a submitted article.

Session topics:

  • Overview of scholarly communication
  • Introduction to the Open Access movement       
  • Using library resources to locate possible journals in one’s field
  • Understanding author publishing agreements
  • Production of an individual action plan

 

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Prerequisites: Familiarity with one’s research interests/agenda

Presenter: Walker Library’s Education Librarian, Dr. Karen Reed

Location: Walker Library, LIB 272 (Instruction Classroom)

REGISTRATION RECOMMENDED

CFP Now Open: Digital Seed Grants 2019-2020

Announcing the call for Digital Seed Grant Awards

The Digital Seed Grant competition for 2019-2020 is now open. Walker Library Digital Scholarship Initiatives invites proposals for seed grants to support individual or collaborative digital scholarship projects in research, teaching, or public outreach from any discipline or area at MTSU.

The call for proposals (CFP) is open to MTSU faculty, staff, researchers and graduate students pursing digital scholarship projects (from the arts to sciences and everything in between). See the call for proposals at https://dsi.mtsu.edu/dsgrant. Examples of digital projects, past winners, and application guidelines are available at that website. Applications for the 2019-2020 cycle are due April 15, 2018. Projects run from July 1 to June 30.

Seed Grants (up to $2,000)

The number of grants available each year will vary, with each at a maximum of $2,000. Applications for 2019 are now open. A list of the awarded projects are available by year: 2018-2019 and 2017-2018. The 2019 cycle will open April 1-15.

Journal for Economic Educators now hosted at MTSU Walker Library

During summer 2019, the Journal for Economic Educators (JFEE) migrated publishing platforms. It's new online home is the journal hosting service provided at MTSU Walker Library, which uses the Open Journal Systems (OJS) open access platform.

Visit JFEE at https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jfee.

Vol 19 No 1 (2019)  is now available online, as well as its full issue backlog. The journal is edited by Dr. Michael Roach (Middle Tennessee State University) and is published twice annually. Read more about the journal's scope, focus, and policies here.Image removed.

Walker Library offers free journal hosting services to members of the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) community. All of the journals we service are digital and open access (free to read online). Walker Library established this journal hosting program to meet the needs and support the mission, values and vision of the university. See more journals published at MTSU here

Presenting the Digital Collection - Historic Clothing Collection

Historic Clothing Collection

Since the inception of the Historic Clothing Collection, the primary method of locating or researching items has been a physical search utilizing hard copy descriptions of items, in three ring binders.  The 2017-2018 Digital Seed Grant (and library expertise) enabled the collection’s digital development through photography, garment metadata, digital inventory and a permanent website for the collection’s continued growth. This effort allows visual identification and study of the collection by the current MTSU community, community partners, and the public at large.

The Historic Clothing Collection (1790-1990) provides tremendous growth in learning opportunities for anyone studying historic clothing and accessories.  Several TXMD student assistants also worked on this project, which adds to their own digital learning. Additonally advantageous is the project’s contribution to the long-term preservation of the items in the MTSU collection, since garments can now be previewed before being removed from storage.

Collection available at http://dsi.mtsu.edu/clothing

Read more about the collection via the MTSU News article published October 2, 2018, the MTSU Sidelines news article publishing December 2018, or the one-page collection summary (PDF) available here.

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Features

Features include photo zoom, viewing size (fits to browser, window or width), rotate, and download options. Enhanced features include the Side-by-Side View, linked metadata fields, and collection indexing for discoverabilty through search engines and databases.

 

Collection Staff

Grant Primary Investigator: Dr. Teresa King, TXMD Director, Dept. of Human Sciences, Middle Tennessee State University

Photographer: Rachael Krasnow, TXMD

Digital Curator (database, web design): Digital Scholarship Initaitives, Walker Library

MT Engage Week: Play LibGO

During MT Engage Week, be sure to visit the library on Wednesday, September 26th to play LibGO! Snacks and prizes are available to the first 100 participants that play LibGO in room LIB 264A from 10:30am to 1:30pm on Wednesday!

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A Quick and Fun Introduction to Walker Library with LibGO!

 

Co-sponored by MT Engage and Walker Library

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Wednesday, September 26

10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

Walker Library, Room 264A

Students who want a quick, interactive library game orientation (LibGO) experience will participate in an online *educational* challenge which will take them on a tour of the building and its resources. Students will learn how the library can help with academic success. Snacks and prizes will be available. The first 100 participants to play LibGO receive a grab bag of prizes: drawstring bag, water bottle, Frisbee, stress ball, carabineer, pen, and more! (must be present to win).

 

Still not sure you want to play?

You decide what paths to take and earn or lose points along the way. There are characters for all: undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and community members. Staff can benefit too by playing faculty or community characters! You can even play characters you don’t identify with and learn even more about how the library can help you succeed. Will you get a high score? Try it out by playing LibGO in the library on Wednesday, Sept. 26! 

LibGO (PDF)

 

Spring 2019 Digital Workshop Series

The Spring 2019 Digital Workshops Series schedule is now available. Mark your calendar for the following topics.

*All workshops are in LIB 264A or LIB 272. Register to get a reminder email before the workshop and to help with program planning*

Workshop Schedules below:

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  • Scholarly Publishing Workshop Part 1: Intro to the Open Access Movement, Monday, February 18, 2019, 11:30am-12:30pm, Update 2/14/19: CANCELLED
  • Scholarly Publishing Workshop Part 2: Jump Start Your Scholarly Writing, Wednesday, February 27, 2019, 11:30am-12:30pm, Update 2/14/19: CANCELLED

 

For a PDF copy of the spring 2019 schedule (with class descriptions), click here.

Scholarly Publishing Workshop Part 1: Intro to the Open Access Movement

Scholarly Publishing Workshop Part 1: Intro to the Open Access Movement

Monday, February 18, 2019, 11:30am-12:30pm

This session will provide an overview of the scholarly publishing model with an emphasis on its evolution to the open access movement. Discussion will emphasize the pros and cons of the open access movement as it pertains to authors of scholarly content. A hands-on activity will help participants discern between the different types of publisher agreements available to authors, and will give tips as to selecting preferable conditions for publication.

Audience: Most interesting for graduate students, early-career faculty, and those interested in scholarly publishing. Part 2 will be presented later on Feb. 27.

 

Prerequisites: Familiarity with one’s research interests/agenda

Presenter: Walker Library’s Education Librarian, Dr. Karen Reed

Location: Walker Library, LIB 264A (Instruction Classroom)

REGISTRATION RECOMMENDED

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