A MESSAGE FROM MICHAEL CRUMPTON, INTERIM DEAN
Starting the new year there is a lot of optimism in the air over many things. News stories are highlighting big concept ideas of better health, environmental change, and financial growth as reasons to be optimistic. Closer to home and from an individual perspective; travel, community, and family gatherings might be something each of us are optimistic and hope for in the new year. Either way, it is personal to each and every one of us who can see something better in the future.

Optimism brings change and an expectation that it will be a change for the good or betterment of our current situation and the downturns suffered in 2020. Expecting everything to suddenly be alright is not necessarily being optimistic but understanding that changes, when they occur can alter a current course of action(s) into something different providing the opportunity to develop new positive and productive actions that would be unlike the old expectation.

The University Libraries has endured a tough year during most of 2020, lots of actions wrapped around leadership transitions, COVID-19 risk mitigation activities, modification of services in order to uphold our value to our stakeholders and budget issues that might be ongoing. Expecting all of these issues to simply go away or fix themselves is not realistic but can provide an optimistic perspective as the new year is approached in different ways.
We learned a great deal in 2020, about ourselves, our students and faculty and about how we were able to provide services and resources in different venues and methods. It will be our intention to take what we learned and redirect our efforts into more efficient and innovative areas to continue to support the academic mission of the University and the libraries. That’s how we can be optimistic in 2021, making the kind of changes that will direct us into being better with added value for our stakeholders.

Michael Crumpton, MLIS, SHRM-SCP
Interim Dean and Associate Professor
JOIN THE UNCG FRIENDS & ALUMNI BOOK CLUB IN JANUARY
We are thrilled to start our reading of "You Are Awesome" by Neil Pasricha. This funny, inspiring book encourages the reader to develop a deeper sense of resilience in order to lead a more meaningful life. READ MORE.

Sponsored by UNCG Bryan School of Business and Economics, the UNCG Alumni Association, and UNCG University Libraries.
DOLLAR AND HINSHAW RECEIVE ARCHIVIST CERTIFICATION
UNC Greensboro’s University Libraries is home to more than 50,000 digitized primary source materials and other historical and archival resources — photos, books, programs, scrapbooks, yearbooks, letters, etc. — comprising more than 750,000 individual objects. You can view the collection online at https://go.uncg.edu/digitalcollections, which documents multiple projects like the history of UNCG, Greensboro, and the Triad, as well as the Women Veterans Historical Project and newer collections like PRIDE! of the Community and Well Crafted NC. This demanding work is performed by archivists, who evaluate, preserve, and arrange records and documents in public sector organizations, such as schools, museums, and libraries.
Depending on their specialization, archivists handle books, letters, old photographs, audio recordings, and other materials, storing them based on an organizational system that provides efficient retrieval. For Processing Archivist Patrick Dollar and Archivist Scott Hinshaw, making information within the archives more accessible to the public is an everyday occurrence. READ MORE.

Story by Hollie Stevenson-Parrish
Image courtesy of Patrick Dollar
Image courtesy of Scott Hinshaw
SCUA LAUNCHES QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER
UNC Greensboro's Special Collections and University Archives launched its new departmental quarterly newsletter, which includes collection news, recent acquisitions, instruction, conservation efforts, and much more! To be added to our listserv, please contact us at SCUA@uncg.edu.  

Story by Kathelene McCarty Smith
Image courtesy of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives
TRIAD COVID-19 COLLECTION INCLUDES 149 PIECES OF UNIQUE WEB CONTENT
As part of its ongoing work to document the history of UNCG, University Archives has been archiving campus websites since 2015. Following the University’s early announcements and response regarding the monitoring of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in March 2020, the University Archives began archiving the University’s COVID-19 related web content. READ MORE.

Story by Jessica Dame
Image courtesy of the Martha Blakeney Hodges Special Collections and University Archives
MCPETERS RECEIVES HEPHZIBAH ROSKELLY AWARD FOR PEDAGOGICAL INNOVATION HIGHLIGHTING THE WVHP
Congratulations to Cindy Damm McPeters (PhD Candidate) for receiving the 2020-2021 Hephzibah Roskelly Award for Pedagogical Innovation. This award honors beloved Hephzibah Roskelly, who retired from UNCG in 2016, and recognizes outstanding and inventive pedagogical practice in an undergraduate academic writing course. The award recognizes Cindy’s inventive efforts to teach research to first-year students through her partnership with the libraries and especially with the Women Veterans Historical Project. READ MORE.

Story by UNCG Department of English
THERE'S A 40-YEAR-OLD DOUGHNUT AT UNC GREENSBORO
We all keep stuff without a good reason. I have a T-shirt that I got from a bowling alley 30 years ago. I wear it once a year. I will never throw it out. So yes, I can understand why the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is hanging on to a 40-year-old doughnut. READ MORE.

Story by Jeremy Markovich, Our State Magazine
Image courtesy of Martin Kane
NEW BOOK FEATURES ARTICLES BY UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES' FACULTY AND STAFF
"Emerging Human Resource Trends in Academic Libraries," edited by Interim Dean of University Libraries and Associate Professor Michael Crumpton and Director of Graduate Studies in the Library and Information Science Department and Associate Professor Nora Bird, presents the collective wisdom of human resource librarians and administrators who have been in the forefront of applying human resource principles in academic libraries.

The chapters within the book represent the emerging trends that impact how librarians are educated, mentored and given the ability to obtain professional development training. The book features chapters from University Libraries' faculty and staff, including Steve Cramer, Michael Crumpton, Christine Fischer, Gerald Holmes, Karlene Jennings, Suzanne Sawyer, and Juanita Thacker.

Image courtesy of Roman & Littlefield
SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY BY UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES' CRAFT, CRAMER, AND MURPHY
University Libraries' Coordinator of Metadata Services and Associate Professor Anna Craft recently published, "Remote Work in Library Technical Servcies: Connecting Historical Perspectives to Realities of the Developing COVID-19 Pandemic" in Serials Review.

"This column was developed in the spring of 2020, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. The pandemic continues to affect lives, communities, and organizations across the country and around the world. Libraries have seen the significant and ongoing impact on services, spaces, and many other aspects of the profession, with many libraries providing services entirely online and many personnel working remotely."

Excerpt provided by Serials Review
Image courtesy of Anna Craft
University Libraries' Business and Entrepreneurship Librarian and Associate Professor Steve Cramer recently published, "Adding Purpose and Value to Organizational Memberships: A Case Study of Business Librarianship in North Carolina (BLINC)" in the Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship along with B. Garrison and S. Krstevska.

"The authors have a long history of engagement and service with library professional organizations. But like many other librarians, we have grown concerned with declining memberships in some national and state-level organizations. Why has membership been declining? Or we could ask, why might library organizations be getting less useful and relevant to their members? In the summer of 2019, we surveyed business librarians to ask what they expect from professional associations (Garrison & Cramer, 2020)."

Excerpt provided by the Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship
Image courtesy of Steve Cramer
University Libraries' Visual Art and Humanities Librarian and Assistant Professor Maggie Murphy has published a new peer-reviewed paper, "Closed Stacks: Image Resources and the Future of Artistic Research Practice During the Covid-19 Pandemic" in the Visual Research Association Bulletin.

"At the present moment, it is difficult to tell what the long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will be on just about anything, least of all the research practices of studio art and design students and faculty. Writing now, at the end of the fall 2020 semester, amid a new surge in case numbers, and as initial vaccine plans are going through approvals, it is not clear when – or even if – operations for academic and fine arts libraries, art and design school libraries, or visual resource centers will return to whatever “normal” was, pre-pandemic."

Excerpt provided by Visual Research Association Bulletin
Image courtesy of Maggie Murphy
NEA BIG READ: GREENSBORO BLACK FATHERHOOD FEBRUARY 9, 2021
Join us for the next community conversation of the NEA Big Read Greensboro's "Silver Sparrow" by Tayari Jones on February 9, 2021 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. The event will be moderated by University Libraries' Diversity Coordinator and Associate Professor Gerald Holmes, and will include the following panelists: Poet, Activist, Father, and Lecturer in UNCG's African American and African Diaspora Studies Program D. Noble, Associate Professor Dr. Tyreasa Washington in UNCG's Department of Social Work, and Entrepreneur and Co-Owner J. Reginald Douge, Jr., of Black Greek Life, LLC. Tayari Jones' "Silver Sparrow" points to the challenges of fatherhood, including the decisions fathers make and how those decisions have a lasting emotional impact on their partners and children. Inspired by the novel, panelists will discuss the role of Black fathers in supporting their children in 2021. REGISTER NOW.

NEA Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. 
Image courtesy of Algonquin Books
DIGITAL MEDIA COMMONS HOSTS SPRING MULTIMEDIA WORKSHOPS ON JANUARY 27
The Digital Media Commons' multimedia workshops are open to all UNCG students, faculty, and staff. While introductory, they are intended to provide participants with basic tools to effectively create multimedia and digital projects and to support campus curriculum multimedia literacy. Take a look at what is being offered this semester and register today!
WEB DEVELOPMENT SERIES BEGINS ON FEBRUARY 11
The Digital Media Commons will host a virtual 10-week Web Development Series on Thursdays beginning Februrary 11 through April 22, 2021 from 2-3 p.m. Are you interested in coding websites? This workshop series will walk you through HTML and CSS. Part self-guided, part directed learning with weekly coding hours.
Find your information here.
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