WVU Libraries

Participate in a twenty-four hour race to write, shoot, edit and post a video and win fabulous prizes! The contest will be held from Friday April 10, 2015 to Saturday, April 11, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. Teams of up to four undergraduate or graduate students will compete for two prizes of $400 in Amazon gift cards each—Judge’s Choice and People’s Choice.  Use equipment and software available at the Downtown Campus Library’s Multimedia Services Department in this race to create a 3 minute video.  Only the first 10 teams to sign up will be eligible.  The winning films will be selected at our video screening on April 12. For more information and to register, please visit: https://lib.wvu.edu/services/multimedia/insomnia/

The West Virginia University Libraries have redesigned their website to make it easier to use from wherever someone connects.

“More and more people are using mobile devices, and our mobile site was out of date,” said Tim Broadwater, web designer for the WVU Libraries. “We wanted to create something with responsive design so people can use our resources on whatever device they have.”

Responsive design involves creating one website that can adapt its layout to conform to the viewing environment.

“It doesn’t matter if users are on a desktop with 1,900 pixels of resolution, a tablet with 768 pixels, or an iPhone with 320 pixels, they’ll get a comparable experience that’s customized for that device,” Broadwater said. Read the rest of this entry »

WVU Today

Wikipedia is one of the most commonly referenced encyclopedias in the world – more than 450 million people visit the website each month. Unlike other encyclopedias, Wikipedia’s content is written by volunteer editors from around the world. However, the site faces a serious gender gap that can influence that content.

Some Wikipedia visitors may be surprised to learn that nearly 90 percent of the site’s volunteer editors are male. The editors also tend to be mostly white and college educated. As a result, users are more likely to find more information about men and male-related topics than they are about women and female-related topics.

On March 4-5, the West Virginia University Reed College of Media and the WVU Libraries will co-sponsor a panel discussion and faculty workshop addressing the gender gap. Read the rest of this entry »

The WVU Libraries will begin operating under extended hours this Sunday. The Downtown Campus and Evansdale libraries will remain open from 9 a.m. Sunday through 10 p.m. Friday, December 12. Both libraries will be open from 9 a.m.-9 p.m. December 13. They will then remain open from 9 a.m. December 14 through 8 p.m. December 17.

The Health Sciences Library will be open from 10 a.m.-1 a.m. December 7, 7:30 a.m.-1 a.m. December 8-11, 7:30 a.m.-8 p.m. December 12, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. December 13, 10 a.m.-1 a.m. December 14, and 7:30 a.m.-1 a.m. December 15-17.

Semester Break hours are available on the Libraries’ website: www.libraries.wvu.edu.

Sharing their thoughts paid off for two students. Holly Hunsberger, a graduate teaching assistant in psychology, and Chris McBride, a secondary education graduate student, eachabout the general usability of the WVU Libraries’ website.

They were selected in a random drawing of participants. The Libraries are using the comments from the survey as they redesign their website.

McBride

Hunsberger

The West Virginia Libraries will make a few changes in operations for the football game versus Kansas State on November 20.

The Downtown Campus Library will close at 10 p.m.

The Evansdale Library will remain open, but users will be required to have their ID cards after 10 p.m.

The Health Sciences Library will remain open, but staff will not be available to assist users after 5 p.m. Users will be required to swipe their ID cards after 5 p.m.

West Virginia University’s Downtown Campus Library will host activities for International Games Day on Saturday, November 15, from noon to 5 p.m.

The WVU Libraries and the Morgantown Public Library will join hundreds of libraries across the country in celebrating the popularity and educational, recreational and social value of games.

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By Marissa Sura
University Relations/News

It began with a fight. A fight for a school bus, then a small library, a park and a baseball team.

Over two years, they didn’t win a single game.

But it didn’t matter to him or to the people of that small coal mining community in southern West Virginia. What mattered was the opening of opportunities for the people, the sense that they mattered and the feeling that they counted.

As U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV remembered his first experience in public service in West Virginia – an experience that would change his life forever – he described how everything he has done since has been grounded in his time in Emmons, located on the Boone and Kanawha County line. In those families. In those children. In the people that fed him in their homes and helped him fight to restore their community.

His story is forever intertwined with the stories of the people of West Virginia. And those stories will continue at West Virginia University, thanks to a historic gift.

Rockefeller and WVU today (Nov. 8) announced the naming of the John D. Rockefeller IV School of Policy and Politics at WVU. In addition to the landmark announcement, Rockefeller and WVU designated the WVU Libraries as the permanent home of the John D. Rockefeller IV Senatorial Archives and dedicated the John D. Rockefeller IV Gallery in the WVU Downtown Library in honor of the Democratic senator’s nearly 50 years of public service to the citizens of West Virginia.

“West Virginia is where I found my life’s purpose, my spiritual calling,” Rockefeller said. “My life’s journey led me to West Virginia, and it is in West Virginia that I hope my legacy will be remembered, and my journey as a public servant understood.”

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By Marissa Sura
University Relations/News

On his final official trip as a U.S. Senator, John D. Rockefeller IV is headed to Morgantown to donate his Senate papers to West Virginia University, the flagship research university of the state he has served for 50 years.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV

The public event will be held on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 1 p.m. in the Milano Reading Room at the Downtown Library. The following speakers will participate in the event.

• President Gordon Gee
• Scott Crichlow, chair of the department of political science
• Jon Cawthorne, dean of libraries
• Gillian Beach, political science graduate student
• Senator Rockefeller

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A space suit used by an astronaut who spent six months at the International Space Station is on exhibit at the Evansdale Library.

Astronaut Edward Tsang Lu flew on three space missions, logged more than 206 days in space, and carried out a six-hour spacewalk to perform construction work on the ISS.

On display is the Soviet Sokol space suit Lu worn while traveling to and from the ISS.

Astronaut Edward T. Lu, Expedition Seven NASA ISS science officer and flight engineer, wearing his Russian Sokol suit, gives a thumbs-up as he waits for a leak check, Soyuz inspection and seat liner check in the Soyuz Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Photo credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.

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By Marissa Sura
University Relations/News

Decades ago, on the southern end of Pocahontas County in the limestone valley known as “Little Levels,” a young girl sat on a bench reading Charles Dickens and sampling grapes from the vine-covered portico of her family home. She was inspired by the panorama of the Appalachian Mountains and now the manuscripts that she penned as an adult have found a new home, waiting to inspire a new generation.

West Virginia University, West Virginia Wesleyan College and the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation today (Oct. 30) announced that the three institutions would form a partnership to preserve and disseminate the legacy of Pearl S. Buck. As part of that agreement, a priceless collection of literary manuscripts by Buck will be coming to the WVU Libraries.

Born in Hillsboro to missionary parents, Buck became one of 13 Americans to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and the first of only two American women to do so. She was also the first American woman to win both the Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize in Literature. (Toni Morrison is the other in both instances.)

“As one of the two West Virginia Nobel laureates – 1994 economics Nobel laureate John Nash of Bluefield being the other – Pearl S. Buck occupies a special place in the history of the state and is a source of great pride for all West Virginians,” WVU President Gordon Gee said. “Today three historic West Virginia institutions have come together to honor one of our own and share her unique point of view with the world.”

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By Marissa Sura
University Relations/News

West Virginia University is gearing up to announce a partnership with West Virginia Wesleyan College and the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation that will honor and celebrate the collection of works of Pulitzer Prize winning author and Nobel Laureate Pearl S. Buck.

During Mountaineer Week – a weeklong celebration of the heritage and culture of West Virginia – WVU, Wesleyan and the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace Foundation will host a public event to dedicate the collection of this prolific author, humanitarian and native West Virginian.

The event is on Thursday, Oct. 30, at 10 a.m. in the Robinson Reading Room at the Downtown Campus Library.

Read the rest of this entry »

As part of International Open Access Week, Oct. 20-26, the West Virginia University Libraries are promoting the benefits of Open Access publishing.

Open Access refers to free online access to digital full-text scientific and scholarly material, primarily research articles published in peer-reviewed journals.

Making work available in open access journals, or through the University’s Institutional Repository, increases citations of your work, promotes public access to federally funded research, and shares your work with scholars in developing nations who may not be able to afford high journal subscription fees.

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The West Virginia University Libraries will host a presentation by Association of Research Libraries (ARL) Executive Director Dr. Elliott Shore on October 15 from 1-2:30 p.m. in the Gluck Theater.

In his talk, “Nineteenth-Century Origins Collide with the Twenty-First Century: The Research Library Conundrum,” Shore will share insights gained from visits to some of the top research libraries across the nation and inspire new thinking about the future role of research libraries.

Shore recently finished a tour of several institutions his organization represents. ARL is a nonprofit membership organization comprising 125 research libraries that include academic libraries, public libraries, national libraries, and special libraries in the US and Canada.

Before becoming ARL president in 2013, Shore served as the Constance A. Jones director of libraries, chief information officer (CIO), and professor of history at Bryn Mawr College. As libraries director, he modernized and streamlined operations by combining departments, realigning collections appropriations, and adding new areas of collection development. As CIO, he reorganized the college’s library and computing operations into a single Information Services unit.

The WVU community is invited to attend a grand re-opening reception for the Evansdale Library on October 13 from 3-4:30 p.m. Remarks by Provost Joyce McConnell and Vice Provost Russell Dean will begin at 3:30 p.m.

At the start of the fall semester, the Libraries wrapped up an extensive two-phase renovation project that added a café, study rooms, study carrels, a quiet-study room that seats 46 people, and multiple comfortable seating areas.

The reception will follow a presentation by Dr. Michael Stephens, a professor in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University, on the role of libraries concerning massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Stephens’ presentation runs from 2-3 p.m.

Derek Krissoff, Editor in Chief of the University of Nebraska Press, has been named the new Director of the West Virginia University Press.

“We are excited for Derek Krissoff to lead the award-winning WVU Press,” Dean of Libraries Jon E. Cawthorne said. “Derek brings expertise and vision that will help the WVU Libraries and Press to identify new opportunities and ventures in publishing that define success of university presses.”

Krissoff

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Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, spark questions even for those familiar with the new concept in distance education.

The West Virginia University Libraries are working to determine their place in the equation. Dr. Michael Stephens, a professor in the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University, will delve into the role of libraries concerning MOOCs during his presentation on Oct. 13 from 2-3 p.m. at the Evansdale Library. A reception will follow.

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The West Virginia University Libraries want to know what students, faculty and staff think about their website.

A current survey provides an opportunity to tell WVU about your experience with the Libraries’ website. The survey focuses on the site’s general usability, not specific digital resources.

Your thoughts could be worth something in return. Participants who include their email addresses will be in the running for two random prize drawings for $500 tablets of the winner’s choice – Android, Apple or Windows. Not providing an email address negates participation. The contest is open until October 16, and the winners will be announced by October 31.

For more information, contact Tim Broadwater at twbroadwater@mail.wvu.edu.

Event organizers are seeking participates for a read-in in observance of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer History Month.

The West Virginia University Libraries, in collaboration with the Commission for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Equity, and the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies, will host a read-in and discussion on Oct. 8 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Downtown Campus Library, room 2036.

“This event will provide an opportunity for Mountaineer students, staff, and faculty to gather with a common goal of community, support, and providing voice and visibility to members of the LGBTQ community and their allies,” said Brian Jara, co-chair of the Commission for LBGTQ Equity. “I expect it to be engaging, touching and valuable for all who attend.”

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Three candidates for West Virginia University Press Director will visit campus this month.

“We have three extraordinary individuals as finalist in our search for a director of the WVU Press,” said James Harms, WVU professor of English and chair of the press director search committee. “Each would bring a wealth of experience and knowledge. I encourage everyone to attend the upcoming forums to learn about and meet the candidates.”

Candidates will be meeting with University and college administrators as well as library faculty and staff at the public sessions.

Candidates include: Henry Carrigan, Assistant Director & Senior Editor, Northwestern University Press, will be on campus Sept. 15; Joyce Harrison, Acquiring Editor, Kent State University Press, Sept. 17; and Derek Krissoff, Editor in Chief, University of Nebraska Press, Sept. 16. All forums will be held form 1-2 p.m. in room 104 of the Downtown Campus Library.