Collins Library links: Focus on Data Management & Data Management Plans

Posted on March 21, 2016 by jmkyoung

2013_CollinsLibraryLink

Focus on Data Management & Data Management Plans
How Collins Can Help

What is Data Management?
Data management is the storage, access, and preservation of research data that is produced in the course of scholarly work. Throughout the lifecycle of a research project, there are specific moments during which data needs to be managed by the researcher, from initial planning to final deposition. Much of this management is second nature to experienced researchers, as data is collected, then assessed via a quality control process, documented whether formally or informally, processed for further analysis and use, possibly shared with others, and then finally archived in some fashion.

How can Collins Library assist with Data Management?
Liaison librarians are available to assist faculty with identifying areas where data management practices could be improved, or methods for incorporating data management best practices into teaching. Librarians can offer suggestions for discipline-appropriate best practices for sharing and archiving data, such as identifying subject-based data repositories and assisting with the process of depositing data. Librarians can also support one of the most common data management needs of faculty researchers, which is the creation of (and adherence to) a Data Management Plan.

What is a Data Management Plan?
A Data Management Plan (or DMP) is a document formally describing how researchers will manage, store, and make available the data that they collect or generate, both during the course of their research and after a given research project is completed. Typically, a DMP will address issues of long term storage, responsibility for ongoing maintenance of data, and the accessibility of the data for later reuse or access by other researchers. Specific details are included about how the data was generated, what file types are needed to store the data, what naming conventions or other organizational methods are in place, and how the data is being backed up or permanently archived.

Learn more about Data Management Plans at this guide hosted by Collins library which answers frequently asked questions, provides examples of completed DMPs, and links to useful tools for creating a DMP: http://research.pugetsound.edu/dmp

Interested in Learning More about Data Management or Data Management Plans?

Need Information? Don’t forget the Collins Memorial Library – Library Guides
Questions? Contact your liaison librarian
Comments: Contact Jane Carlin, library director
Remember – Your best search engine is a librarian!

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Behind the Archives Door: Monday, April 4, 4-5 p.m. – Washi Arts, Linda Marshall

Posted on March 15, 2016 by jmkyoung

CALLOUT_BTAD_Apr4-WashiArtsWashi Arts sole focus is Japanese papers, tools and supplies for creative artists and businesses, with papers in an incredibly wide range of fibers, colours, patterns, weights and sizes. Japan has a culture that honors excellence in craftsmanship and the 1,400 years of continuous paper-making meaning the quality is excellent and dependable. Japanese paper-makers traditional practices and methods are highly sustainable with the papers made from renewable fibres, in small communities and family businesses. Join us in learning more about washi paper.

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Music in the Library: Cellist Anna Schierbeek on Friday, April 1st, 2 p.m.

Posted on March 15, 2016 by jmkyoung

Cellist-Anna-SchierbeekPlease join us!

Cellist Anna Schierbeek
Friday, April 1st
2:00-2:30 p.m.
Reading Room, Collins Library

For more information contact: libref@pugetsound.edu

 

 

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SCI-HUB: Robin Hood or Nefarious Pirate?

Posted on March 15, 2016 by jmkyoung

CALLOUT_SciHubI’ll not mince words: subscriptions to academic journals can be quite pricey. And for students and scholars in the developing world, such subscriptions can be prohibitively expensive.

Some may argue that the free market should dictate journal costs, while others argue there is a moral imperative to include the widest range of scholars access to scholarly conversations by making scholarship freely available.

Still others have taken action into their own hands by sharing scholarly works in violation of terms of use and/or copyright. To some, these people are Robin Hood-like heroes, to others they are criminal pirates.

SCI-HUB is the most recent hub of activity for those interested in accessing pirated scholarly articles. It provides access to nearly 48 million academic papers. The site was established in 2011 by Alexandra Elbakyan, a twenty-something student from Kazakhstan who was inspired by her own inability to afford access to research articles for her own research.

How does one use SCI-HUB? Currently you navigate to https://sci-hub.io/ (sci-hub.org has been shut down due to a lawsuit from journal publisher Elsevier). Then provide the DOI of the article you’re seeking, and the site provides you with a PDF of the article you’re seeking.

Puget Sound students, faculty, and staff shouldn’t feel pressured to use a site like SCI-HUB, as Collins subscribes to a broad collection of scholarly journals, and can provide access to many more via interlibrary loan. However, many scholars are not so fortunate, and SCI-HUB provides a useful if illicit solution for them.

 By Ben Tucker

 

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“Unless the Indians are willing”: Flathead Resistance in the 1905 Journals of Abby Williams Hill

Posted on March 15, 2016 by jmkyoung

AbbyHill_PierceCountyREADSTuesday, April 5, 2016, 7:00 p.m.
Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound

Presenters:  Laura Edgar, Abby Williams Hill Scholar and Tiffany Aldrich MacBain, Associate Professor, English, University of Puget Sound

In 1905, Tacoma landscape painter Abby Williams Hill enjoyed a prolonged stay on the Flathead Reservation in Arlee, Montana. While her primary objective was to paint portraits of Native American subjects, Hill also recorded in journals and letters her impressions of the people and customs she encountered. As socially progressive as Hill was, her writing and art from the reservation are filtered through an Anglo-American perspective. Even so, we can read between the lines to discern what concerned her Flathead and Sioux acquaintances, and how Native peoples defined and defended their cultures at a time in which their way of life on the reservation was under threat.

Join former Hill Collection curator Laura Edgar and American literature scholar Tiffany Aldrich MacBain as they present their findings from the Abby Williams Hill Collection at the University of Puget Sound. Materials from the collection will be displayed, including Hill’s journals and correspondence, photographs, and Native American artifacts. A short gallery talk will follow for those interested in learning more about Hill’s Native American portraits, several of which are on display in the Collins Memorial Library.

Hours: www.pugetsound.edu/libraryhours
Information: libref@pugetsound.edu
Puget Sound is committed to being accessible to all people. If you have questions about event accessibility, please contact 253.879.3236, accessibility@pugetsound.edu, or pugetsound.edu/accessibility.

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Acclaimed photographer Sally Mann’s memoir Hold Still in the Popular Collection

Posted on March 11, 2016 by jmkyoung

HoldStillSally Mann’s stunning memoir uses both word and image to cover topics such as family, race, mortality, and the unique landscape of the American South.

As she journeys through boxes of family documents she finds more than she intended from domestic abuse to disputed family land to hidden affairs. In a product of pure originality Mann takes readers through the page-turning drama that has been written into her DNA, a family history with a life of its own.

Check out this National Book Award Finalist and other finalists or winners in the Popular Collection.

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From the Archives & Special Collections: Proper Parrot Tweetment

Posted on March 9, 2016 by jmkyoung

ParrotsDo you like birds? Did The Birds of North America (see previous post) leave you wanting more? Well, you may be surprised to learn that the Archives & Special Collections is actually full of avian-related literature! The Speaking Parrots: A Scientific Manual by Dr. Karl Russ is a riveting text full of every parrot-related concern imaginable. From purchase, to food, to taming, training, health, and disease, this book has everything a parrot owner or bird enthusiast needs to know. With an emphasis on companionship and enchanting parrot linguistics, Dr. Russ’ scientific manual goes in-depth, highlighting the typical behavior, appearance, special diets, treatment of illness, etc. of over 100 different parrot species (and the illustrations are gorgeous). He makes it difficult not to fall in love with these beautiful creatures, as he so clearly has!

Sneak Peek:

“No other bird kept alone as a speaker will take in a higher degree the position of friend and companion to man than a parrot.”

“In captivity [macaws] are exceedingly healthy and hardy, and, at the same time, good-tempered and affectionate; but, on the other hand, a macaw, when vicious, is extremely dangerous… [A macaw], where it is sometimes wrongly treated by attendants and very frequently teased by the public, may become an incorrigible screamer and a really vicious bird. The macaws learn to say many words, often whole sentences, with a loud, powerful, but usually an indistinct utterance. In capacity for speech they are, on the whole, a long way behind the Grey Parrots and Amazons, as well as the Alexandrine Parrakeet, which is more nearly related to them; although otherwise they are indeed very intelligent birds.”

The Archives & Special Collections is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 1:00-3:00 p.m. or by appointment.

By Monica Patterson

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Tacoma Reads 2016: Station Eleven – Book discussion in Library Room 020, Wed., March 23, 6:00pm

Posted on March 7, 2016 by jmkyoung

StationElevenGreetings, Loggers! Are you looking for a bit of literary entertainment on your way to Spring Break? Join Collins Library and the Tacoma Public Library for Tacoma Reads 2016!

This year’s selection is Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. Mandel describes her fourth novel as a story “about a traveling Shakespearean theatre company in a post-apocalyptic North America. It’s also about friendship, memory, love, celebrity, our obsession with objects, oppressive dinner parties, comic books, and knife-throwing.”

Collins Memorial Library will host a book discussion “Let’s Talk Station Eleven” in the Presentation Room (020) on Wednesday, March 23 from 6:00PM – 7:30PM. This program stems from Puget Sound students’ work in English 220: Introduction to English Studies. Our student presenters will talk briefly about major themes they researched in relation to Station Eleven, including the novel’s representations of cults, the blending of popular and literary culture, the repression of traumatic memory, and the role of museums and preservation in the narrative. Each student will talk for a few moments about a special topic in the novel before we open up the conversation for a community discussion.

Meet Emily St. John Mandel in a free book talk and signing at 7:00PM on Thursday, March 24 at Urban Grace Church in downtown Tacoma. And don’t forget to check out the rest of the events (more than 30!) at the Tacoma Public Library this month.

By Katy Curtis, Humanities Librarian

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The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Posted on March 4, 2016 by jmkyoung

GirlontheTrainPaula Hawkins’ debut psychological thriller follows a girl named Rachel. Every morning, Rachel boards the same commuter train, stops at the same signal, and observes the same couple as they eat breakfast on their patio. She’s named them Jess and Jason and as far as Rachel is concerned they live a perfect life, a life she has recently lost. But one day, Rachel sees something that will change everything. She decides to tell the police and consequently becomes entangled in the entire event and the lives of those involved.

Find out if Rachel has done more harm than good in the most wildly addictive and unpredictable novel since Gone Girl. Check out The Girl on the Train today.

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From the Archives & Special Collections: Bosch

Posted on March 2, 2016 by jmkyoung

NewBosch_3imagesSometime last month, an interactive version of Hieronymous Bosch’s “Garden of Earthly Delights” was released as its own website as part of a documentary. Now, I remembered that I’d spent a while staring at a book about this painting before and wondering what it all meant, so I had to go hunt it down again. Our copy was put together by Jacqueline and Maurice Guillaud, along with Isabel Mateo Gómez. This copy of Hieronymous Bosch: the Garden of Earthly Delights was published in 1989, with a preface of a historical explanation of the work. The rest of the book is comprised of close-ups printed on onionskin, interspersed with poetry. The onionskin gives the artwork a matte texture, and my personal favorite section with this effect is the outer panels of the triptych, which feature the planet in a sphere – which has been postulated to be the creation of the Earth on the third day, before the sun and moon were created. I recommend both the book and the website, since both contain different contextual information, and nothing really compares to being able to flip through a book.

The Archives & Special Collections is open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 1:00-3:00 p.m. or by appointment.

By: Morgan Ford

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